The Kodava, a Martial People of the Coorg Hills

High in the forested hills of the Western Ghats, in the Karnataka district of Kodagu, lives one of India’s most distinctive small communities: the Kodava, or Coorgs. A martial people of coffee planters and soldiers, they possess their own language, their own clan houses, and a way of life bound to the land and to the sacred River Kaveri that rises among their hills.

Though numbering only in the hundreds of thousands, the Kodava have long held a prominence in Indian public and military life far beyond their size. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the coffee estates and warrior heritage that continue to define them today.