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Home | Ethnic Group | Bunt (community)
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The earliest available epigraphic evidence indicating Bunt presence in Tulu Nadu are the Chokipali inscriptions from 9 century C.E. found in the village of Chokkadi near Udupi,wherein the Bunt warriors are described along with the Shivalli Brahmins.British museologist and Ethnographer Edgar Thurston who worked in colonial Southern India describes the Bunts as follows: |}. As a military class, the Bunts established various kingdoms and independent feudatory states.The earliest one being the Kingdom of Alva Kheda whose territory comprised the coastal region stretching from Kasaragod in Kerala to Gokarna in Karnataka.The Kingdom existed for nearly thousand years (450 C.E. -1450 C.E.) and the bunt dynasty who ruled this kingdom were known as Alupas..> There is also a theory that perhaps the Kadamba kings who ruled from Banavasi around the same period as the early alupas were also Bunts, because an inscription describes the Kadambas as belonging to the same Naga or Serpent Lineage to which bunts also belong and many bunt families use surnames like ‘’Kadamba’’ and ‘’Varma’’ . which were the titles of the kadamabas.though other theories suggest that the Kadambas were Brahmins who took to arms and were accepted into the Kshatriya (warrior) fold. Nevertheless the Bunts perhaps attained their greatest military success during the rule of Vijayanagara Emperors belonging to the Tuluva Dynasty.The Tuluva Dynasty ‘s founder was a Bunt chieftain called Tuluva Narasa Nayaka. . After the fall of the dynasty the Bunts remained confined to Tulu Nadu where they took to took to large scale agriculture in the vast area of land they still possessed and also served as administrators and served and commanded the armies of the various feudatory states that were established and ruled by some prominent Bunt clans. These feudatory states of the bunts were at their peak during 15 � 18 century C.E.Some notable bunts clans who were sovereign of these states are the Samantha Rajas of Mulki. Bhair Arasas of Karkala, Domba Hegdes of Vitla,Arasas of Kumbla, Ajilas of Venur,Tolaharas of Suralu near Udupi, Chowtas of Ullal/Moodabidri and the Bangas of Bangadi among others. The feudal life and society of Bunts began to disintegrate in the succeeding colonial British Raj period and the Bunts today are a largely urbanized community. |
