The Biruvas

The Biruvas (Billavas) were numerically the largest community in Tuḷu-nāḍu, at any rate, in the district of South Canara. Tuḷuva, they are called the Haḷepaikas. The term Biruva seems essentially a generic term and it simply means, a bow-man or a hunter. It is really difficult, in the present state of our knowledge, to decide whether these Biruvas represent the hunting stage of civilization, because there appears to have been much blood inter-mixture. Based on their chief occupation of distillation until very recently, they have been mostly taken to be the same as the Tiyas of Malabar, who in popular view, were said to have been the immigrants from Ceylon who were responsible for introducing the cultivation of coconut into South India. But similarity of occupation need not support the common origin of both.

Thurston, in his work Castes and Tribes of Southern India, has perhaps rightly remarked: “It is worthy of note that the Billayas differ from the Tiyans in one very important physical character – the cranial type, for, while the Tiyans are doli-chocephalic, the Biruvas are like other Tuḷu classes, sub-brachycephalic”. Baidya and pūjāri are the surnames employed by the Biruvas. The surname pūjāri is most fitting to this community, because the entire bhūta worship (devil-worship) appears to be dependent on them. In any celebration of the bhūta (devil or daiva), the presence of a Biruva (pūjāri) is essential. He plays the role of a pātri (one who gets possessed of the bhūta, along with the devil-dancer). It may even be said that a good part of the practice of devil-worship may be traced to this community. It was the two Biruvas, Kōṭi-baidya and Chennayya-baidya who, after their heroic end, were deified and these have been enshrined throughout the Tuḷu country in the sthānas known as Baidarkaḷa-garadi (Shrine where the Baidyas are worshipped). Amongst the principal daivas of Tuḷu-nāḍu, Kōṭi and Chennayya have had a most marked recognition. The story of these heroes may be taken roughly to five hundred years back, since reference to Ballālas is made in the paddana.

Baidya is a popular surname amongst the Billavas and this may be because they have had tradition of being vaidyas or physicians (there is no meaning in interpreting the term baidya as one who is a new-comer). “Vaidyan or baidya, meaning physician or medicine-man, occurs as a title of Kshaurakas, Billavas and Pulluvans at times of Census and has been returned as an occupational sub-division of Paraiyanse”. The term haḷepaila employed in the northern portion of Tuḷuva, to these people is suggestive of their antiquity, for by the name halepaika (which also is used in the upghat regions of Mysore), it could mean an old (ancient) man of Paśuka or Haiga, which was the territory surrounding Honnāvara.

In spite of the numerical strength of this community, epigraphs of Tuḷuva are few and far between in referring to them. This may be because of their inferior position in society. It is quite possible that they constituted the chief ground for the recruitment of āļus for fighting. Only two inscriptions make a mere reference to the Billavas. The Hērūru epigraph of A.D.1444 mentions billa-biruva, which means the Billava whose chief work is with the bow. Another inscription comes from Chokkādi, Udupi taluk, South Kanara, which refers to the work of Billavaru and also mentions Billa-guḍḍe.

It is not possible to decide whether Pāṇdya-villarasa of the Udayāvarainscription of the eighth century A.D. has anything to do with the Billavas’. How this community came to be associated with the work of distillation and how they became untouchables are not yet known on historic basis. (distillation is one of the occupations which is stigmatised in the śāstras cf. the Manu-Dharma-śāstra). In regard to their community organisation, the Billava caste has a head-man called gurikāra whose office is hereditary and passes to the aliya (sister’s son). Affairs, which affect the community as a whole are discussed at a meeting held at the bhūta-sthāna or garadi.