21The name of the wildlife sanctuary derives from the presence of an ancient tem-
ple to the god Rangaswamy or Ranganatha (alternate names for Venkateshwara, or
Vishnu) on top of a bare granite hilltop ( biḷi giri means ‘white hill’). While the
Solega do not worship Biligiri Rangaswamy , they show him a certain amount of
respect, and claim kinship with him, as told by one of their myths. BRT is also home
to the Vivekananda Girijana Kalyan Kendra (VGKK; ‘Vivekananda Mountain-
Dweller Welfare Centre’), a non-profi t organisation that was fi rst set up by Dr.
Sudarshan, a physician from Bangalore, in 1981. Over the years, the organisation
has grown, and radically improved the living conditions of numerous Solega fami-
lies, particularly those living in the settlements surrounding VGKK. It now provides
a free school (which includes a free afternoon meal) and basic health services
through its clinic, and also takes part in various community development programs
in collaboration with ATREE. For his decades of work with the Solega community,
Dr. Sudarshan was presented with the Right Livelihood Award in 1994. More
recently, he was runner-up for the 2009 Inaugural BMJ (British Medical Journal)
Group Lifetime Achievement Award [ 85 ].
Some researchers of ATREE, who have carried out either biological fi eldwork or
community development projects in the B. R. Hills , have been in contact with the
Solega for a few decades. ATREE employs a number of young Solega men to work
as fi eld assistants and drivers for researchers visiting the fi eld station. They were the
fi rst Solega that I came in contact with, and soon proved to be knowledgeable and
enthusiastic consultants for my own work. These consultants frequently introduced
me to other, often senior, members of the community, who they said were either
well-versed in particular domains of folklore , or were more fl uent in ‘pure’ Solega.
In this manner, they greatly facilitated my efforts aimed at documenting both their
language and their traditional knowledge.
Data collection was carried out through open-ended interviews, with Kannada as
the contact language, or through focussed question-and-answer sessions (primarily
to elicit plant and animal names) during forest walks or visits to villages.
1.7 Ethnographic Sketch
1.7.1 The Community: Name and Identity
It was initially diffi cult for me to fi nd any published material on the Solega due the
range of orthographic renditions used by various authors for the name of this group.
Variants include ‘Solaga’, ‘Sholagar’, ‘Sholaga’ (this is the spelling used in
Ethnologue; ISO code: sle), ‘Sholiga’ and ‘Soliga/Soligaru’. The latter spelling is
the one currently preferred by the Indian media and by Kannada speakers—this
applies to both English and Kannada orthography (in the Kannada script, this would
be rendered as ‘ soliga ’). I have used the spelling ‘Solega’ in this book, as I
have been told quite unambiguously that ‘ we are called Solega. Soliga —that’s what
outsiders call us!”
1.7 Ethnographic Sketch