Yanadi

Clans and Kinship

Thurston records that Yanadi families were known by house names, each an exogamous sept, and lists those of Manchi and Challa Yanadi families of Nellore, Sriharikota, Tada and Kambakam; many of the names came from villages, or from people of other communities on whose land the families lived. The Reddi, Manchi, Challa and Adavi Yanadis and other divisions, set apart by place, work and diet, did not all intermarry. Each settlement (guddem) of about twenty huts had a headman, the Kulampedda or Pedda Yanadi, who settled disputes alone or with a council.

House names from Thurston's lists (vol. 7, 1909, 'Yanadi'), Manchi Yanadi first, then Challa Yanadi, with his glosses; two names that are unclear in the scanned text are left out. Thurston notes that the names were known only to the old and that many were probably adopted from villages or landlords in place of older ones.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

  Listed as: Yenadis

  The Census 2011 entry for undivided Andhra Pradesh reads 'Yenadis, Chella Yenadi, Kappala Yenadi, Manchi Yenadi, Reddi Yenadi'.

Census 2011 counted the Yanadi of undivided Andhra Pradesh, which then included Telangana, together. Checked against the census table and Wikipedia's compilation of the order. The Yanadi are not a PVTG.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

Thurston (1909) gives several derivations of the name and prefers the Sanskrit anadi, 'those whose origin cannot be traced'. Some Yanadis said they were the first people of the country round Pulicat lake, where they hunted and fished freely until the Reddis made them work for them; others said that the Reddi or Manchi Yanadis were once Chenchus who fled from the western hills. A Mackenzie manuscript, quoted by Thurston, tells of sixty families brought to Sriharikota by one Raghava, and of a sage from Benares, Ambikesvara, who taught them charms against a great serpent.

History

The island of Sriharikota in Nellore district was the main home of the Yanadis in Thurston's day, and the tribe had long been led by a hereditary headman there. When the island came into the government's hands in 1835, the authorities supplied grain, clothing and money in return for the forest produce the Yanadis collected; a school teaching Telugu, with lessons in basket-making and the growing of chay-root for red dye, ran from 1858 to 1877 (Thurston). The census of 1891 counted about 85,000 Yanadis and recorded 89 sub-divisions.

Faith and Worship

Thurston records that each Yanadi centre had a house of the gods (devara indlu) rather than a temple. Chenchu Devudu was always the household god, a village goddess such as Poleramma or Ankamma watched over the locality, and gods of wider fame such as Subbarayudu, Venkateswara and Narasimha were also worshipped. The Yanadis are their own priests; Chenchu Devudu takes no animal offerings, while the goddess does. Some Yanadis are Christian.

Deities named in the sources: Chenchu Devudu, Poleramma, Ankamma

Customs

In Thurston's day the Reddi Yanadis always held a wedding ceremony while others often did without; marriage was usually after maturity, and the flower of the tangedu shrub (Cassia auriculata) once served as the tali, later replaced by a turmeric-dyed thread. Houses were low conical huts of bamboo and palmyra leaf or grass with a small entrance. The Yanadis knew the forest plants and birds well, and made fire by twirling one stick in a hollow cut in another.