The Mendan
(Mendon) is one of the bari lineages
or surnames commonly found in Tulu communities of the Tulunadu/West Coast.
Though the “Mendon” bari lineage is mainly
distributed among Mogaveer and Sapaliga communities, other sister communities
have allied bari names, such as “Menda” in Bunts. Infact the word Menda+an (≥ Mendon) is equivalent of the
word Menda, since suffix –an is
added in Old Tulu /Old Kannada to indicate a male person.
However,
the Menda or Mendan surname/subcaste is not exclusive to Tulunadu. We find the Menda
subcaste among Telugu speaking Velama Kshatriyas of Andha Pradesh/Telangana.
Menda villages in India
Once
upon a time the Menda appear to have been distributed in many parts of the country
as we can see in the distribution of some 27 village names that begin with
Menda in different state such as Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharshtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttara Khand. The
Menda village names include Menda, Mendal Mendadi, Mendaki, Mendara, Mendaraka,
Mendamal, Mendauli, Mendawali, Mendadi-konda, Mendan-kallur, Mendakwas, Mendarbahar,
Menda-kheda, Mendangi, Mendabeda
and Mendapalle etc.
Totem Menda
It
appears the Menda was an ancient tribal totem to begin with. The Menda in Pali/
Prakrit langauge means a ram.
In
early cultures the ram appears to be a specially respected animal. As we find
that the ram is the symbol of zodiac month of Aries
or Mesha. Further the ram is considered
an astral symbol of rulership. Aries is
the first sign of the Zodiac, which signifies the ram-like attributes of
leadership, authority, and other forefather-type characteristics.
Menda (Pali) =ram (intact male sheep). Menda/ Mendan:
Totem of ram
Rams are male bighorn sheep, animals
that live in the mountains and often settle arguments with fights that include
ramming their heads into others. Not to be confused with mountain goats, rams
can be identified by their long, curved horns; long fur; and split hooves.
The sheep (Ovis
aries) is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept and reared as
livestock. An adult male sheep is called a ram and an adult female sheep is a ewe.
Rams are intact male sheep used to breed ewes. Rams are often bigger, more
muscular and have larger horns than ewes.
Genetic significance
It is interesting that two versions of the bari lineage namely the Menda (among Bunts)
and Mendan (among Mogaveers) exist in Tulunadu side by side. Since the ancient
tribes were known to migrate from place to place in search of better pasture
and living conditions, we can presume the two versions suggest two separate
episodes of immigration into Tulunadu. There is a distinct possibility that the
soldiers (kshatriya) from Tulunadu
might have migrated to Telugu areas and settled or vice versa.
The retention of the Prakrit Pali name Menda probably
also reflects the period of immigration of these tribes into Tulunadu. In
Karnataka and Tulunadu it has been deduced that the Prakrit/Pali was the
administraative language of the region in the early centuries of the Common Era
probably upto 300 or 400 CE. The –an
suffix in “Mendan” is a chacteristic of the
Old Tulu/Old Kannada/Dravidian languages prevailing during the early centuries of
the Common Era. These inferences may be useful in deducing the period of
immigrantion of the tribes which can be fine tuned further based on other corroborative
evidences.
African source of origin?
Geneological studies trace most of the tribes to an origin
of ancient African homeland. It is interesting to
note that ethnic groups named as Mende can be found among Mande tribes of
African countries like Sierra Leone and Southern Province. One of the reference
sources suggest that the African meaning of the term Mende is a warrior. Incidentally,
it has certain parallelism with the term Pali term Menda which represents a ram
an animal of warrior attitude.
R
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