14 4
(It’s everything mixed up, all of it. It includes river forests, valley forests, ridges,
hill forest s , tho:pu forests,^3 arre forests, these are all inside the male ka:ḍu .)
na:ḍu ka:ḍu ondu buṭṭu. Matte kutarega:ḍu buṭṭu, ellanue se:rutte.
(Except for na:ḍu ka:ḍu. And kutarega:ḍu. Apart from these, it’s a combi-
nation of all the rest.)
(AS) Pra:ṇigaḷu?
(Animals?)
(JS) Ã, male ka:ḍalli ja:sti pra:ṇigaḷu irutte.
(Yes, there are a lot of animals in the male ka:ḍu )
(AS) Matte caḷi?
(And is it cold?)
(JS) Illa, illa, caḷi matte bisilu eraḍue: irutte... ella pra:ṇi irutte alli.
(No, no, it can be both cold and hot... all the animals live there.)
The word ‘ na:ḍu ’, which can be glossed as ‘district’ or ‘province’ (as opposed
to ‘urban centre’) in Kannada , is often used by the Solega to convey a sense of
otherness. Thus, non-Solega (and hence Kannada-speaking plains people) are
called na:ḍavaru , - avaru being a suffi x derived from the third person plural pro-
noun, and meaning ‘people associated with a particular feature, place or occupa-
tion’. In the following variant of the many goruka ‘spider’ songs that the Solega
sing at festivals , the separation of Solega and non-Solega identity is stated quite
unambiguously, through the use of na:ḍu.
ka:raĩyana makka ka:ḍella uwe, ka:raĩyana makkaelo ka:ḍallaelo,
ni:nu billaĩyana makka na:ḍellaelo, billaĩyana makka:ga na:ḍellaelo
ni:nu na:ḍu de:shella ninna:daiyo, na:ḍu de:shellawe ninna:delo
ka:ḍu go:ḍu ella namma:delo, ka:ḍu go:ḍu ellaelo namma:delo
The children of Ka:raĩya are all (of) the forest (REPEAT),
You children of Billaĩya are all (of) the na:ḍu (REP.),
The whole of the na:ḍu country is yours (REP.),
The whole of the forest is ours (REP.).
Finally, when being asked to identify plants and animals from pictures in fi eld
guides, consultants would often indicate that they had never seen a particular
organism by replying that it was from the na:ḍu ka:ḍu.
Gottilla, na:ḍu ka:ḍina adu
(I don’t know, it’s a na:ḍu ka:ḍu (bird).)
The above examples show that male and na:ḍu are labels for two contrasting
macrohabitats. However, these labels are used not only in the biological domain,
but also to mark an important social and cultural divide between Solega and non-
Solega. In the following extract, recorded during a bird name elicitation session,
BG and MRM refer to the male ka:ḍu using the possessive pronoun namma
‘our’, demonstrating a strong sense of affi nity with the hill forest s.
(^3) To be described below.
5 Landscape Terms in Solega