Origins & History
The Kuruba people live in this region of India (north, south, east, or west)?
South India
The Kuruba people traditionally herd this animal, whose wool they also use to weave blankets.
What is sheep?
This woven woolen blanket is the Kuruba's signature textile art form used in everyday life, weddings, and festivals.
What is the Kambali?
During this Hindu festival celebrated by the Kuruba, colored powders are thrown to celebrate the arrival of spring.
What is Holi?
Name one reason why learning about older, traditional ways of living, like the Kuruba's pastoral lifestyle, is still valuable today.
Possible answers:
1. preserves cultural diversity
2. teaches sustainable living
3. honors marginalized histories
4. challenges what we see as progress
5. connects us to human roots.
This word, meaning 'shepherd,' is where the Kuruba people get their name.
What is Kuruba?
This dense steamed ball made from finger millet flour, served with lentil stew, is a staple Kuruba food.
What is Ragi Mudde?
This Kuruba drum dance is performed by 12 to 16 dancers moving in a circle around a central element like a fire.
What is Dollu Kunitha?
The Kuruba people celebrate this Hindu festival of lights by decorating their homes. This holiday is called ____.
What is Diwali
The Kuruba people's Kambali blanket is said to carry the 'memory of their nomadic routes.' What does this suggest about the relationship between objects and identity?
Objects can hold cultural memory, connect generations, and represent a community's history and values identity is carried through tradition.
Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, who were from the Kuruba tribe, founded this powerful South Indian empire in the 14th century.
The Vijayanagara Empire?
This traditional Kuruba flatbread, similar to naan, is made from jowar flour and paired with stews and chutneys.
What is Rotti?
This customizable string instrument used by Kuruba musicians is often adapted to match the individual player's personal style.
What is the Taboori?
Starting in the 1970s, many Jenu Kuruba families were forcibly removed from their forests when their ancestral land was declared this type of protected zone.
What is a tiger reserve?
In what ways might the forced relocation of the Jenu Kuruba from their forests be considered a form of cultural erasure?
It severed connections to sacred land, disrupted spiritual practices, broke community structure, and cut people off from the foundation of their identity and way of life. (Similar responses accepted)
This Kuruba warrior fought against British colonial rule and served as Army Chief of the Kingdom of Kittur in the 18th century.
Sangolli Rayanna
This title belongs to the secular leader of a Kuruba community, who handles social and administrative matters.
Who is the Yajamana?
This most elaborate Kuruba ritual dance is performed in woolen costumes and masks, with howling sounds honoring nature's wild life force, and is devoted to Lord Shiva.
What is the Goravara Kunitha?
During this Hindu festival, the Kuruba people honor their most important deity, Shiva, through fasting and night-long prayers.
What is Maha Shivaratri?
How does the Kuruba example challenge the idea that modernization and progress are always positive forces?
Modernization pushed Kuruba people into poverty, erased pastoral traditions, stripped land rights, and replaced a self-sufficient community with bond labor.
(Answer must show or mention an example of the damage done to the Kuruba people in their modern situation)
In 1857, many Kuruba community members participated in this major uprising against British colonial rule and were later executed in Haryana.
What is the Indian Rebellion of 1857?
This type of farming where food is grown mainly to feed your own family with little left over to sell describes how most Kuruba people get their food.
What subsistence farming / subsistence agriculture
This oral scripture and song tradition is the core musical heritage of the Kuruba people, rooted in folk ballads, rituals, and the Janapada Geete folk song tradition.
What is the Halumatha Purana?
Despite making up 9.3% of Karnataka's population, the Kuruba people were stripped of this government classification in 1977, causing large community protests.
What is Scheduled Tribe status?
Reflect: Before this lesson, what did you know about South Asian indigenous communities? What assumption or belief has this lesson challenged or changed for you?
500 pts for every team that responds