When there is no written history about a region or country as to what people originally inhabited or continue to inhabit that region or country, historians look at the place names of that region or country. The place names of a region or country are used by historians to ascertain who the native people of that region or country were or are. Therefore, place names speak of the history of a region or country conclusively. The approximately 6000 Badugu place names on Nī Āla Giri, the Hills of the Setting Sun, or the Nilgiris speak of the long history of Baḍugaru, the Baḍuga people. It is astonishing that a region like the Nilgiris should have so many names purely based on the physical features of the land. The Baḍuga people knew the lie of the land so well that they could divide the region into four sub-regions and named them as Tō Ada Nāḍu, Mēku Nāḍu, Pore Hanggu Kāḍu and Ku Andda Ē. Nowhere in the world could the native people of a region have named the places so appropriately based on the geography of that region as the Baḍuga people have named the places on the Nilgiris. It is still a wonder for many as to how the Baduga people came to name so many places on the Nilgiris. But one thing is certain that the Baduga people must have lived on the Nilgiris for more than 2000 years now to give so many names to the places and that they must have had a very rich vocabulary at their disposal to do so. The foregoing points to the fact that the Baduga people of the Nilgiris are a primitive tribe and the Badugu language spoken by them is a primitive language!

No comments have been posted yet.

Sign in to leave your comment