Yadavamma was the daughter of a king. One day she went outside the fort to gather jasmine flowers. She happened to look up at the Sun and thought then that she wanted a husband. In doing so she became pregnant. After sometime, when her father came to understand she was pregnant, he sent her off to the forest and locked her in a fort there. The fort had no windows, except an opening to the sky. For nourishment her father provided her with a cow to give her milk. The cow would look up at the moon during the night and it, too, became pregnant. After sometime, both the cow and Yadavamma gave birth to sons. Yadavamma fed both of them from her breast and raised them. Yadavamma's son was named Chittamutti and the cow's son was named Chandamutti. The Chittamuttinavaru and the Chandamuttinavaru are descended from them.

Siriyajji tells a story of the origin of the Ramagouda clan [see also in Shankaranarayana 1984, 122-124]:

Chittamutti and Chandamutti were imprisoned by a king. Each had 7 beautiful daughters who used to bring them food every day. The daughters were overheard by 2 barber brothers, (H)areraama and Mererama, to say that they would marry any one who would get their fathers out of prison. The barbers went to the palace and when the king was asleep, they shaved him with the blades of ra@gi (millet) and jo@l@a (sorghum) grass. They also manicured his nails. When the king awoke he was surprised to see what a marvelous work had been done. He asked who had done it the barber brothers came forward and were given the opportunity to ask a wish. They asked that Chittamutti and Chandamutti be released. Then they each married 7 daughters. The children of these marriages were given a kula among the Gollas and are now the bed@egu called Ramegaudanavaru. They can marry other Gollas, but not amongst themselves, since they are descendants of brothers.

In Bestarapalli Gollarahatti they tell this story of the origin of the Helava caste.

A Muslim ruler wanted to marry a Golla girl. The Gollas fled across a river. By mistake a small child was left behind. The angry Muslim threw the child in the air intending that it should be impaled on his sword. But the mother prayed that it should be brought across the river to her. Miraculously, instead of falling straight down on the sword, it flew across the river to its mother. But remembering that it had been defiled by the Muslim's touch, she let it fall to the ground. It became crippled and its descendants are the Heluwas, and given the job of maintaining the genealogical relations and stories of Golla bed@agus.

From H. V. Nanjundayya and Ananthakrishnan Iyer, 1930, The Mysore Tribes and castes vol. III p. 310), quoted in Pawar, 1993:

"An Okkaliga had seven sons of whom the youngest was a born cripple. The elder brothers became envious of him on the score of their mother showing undue partiality at their expense. They tried to get rid of him in various ways, but he was always rescued by a favorite bull reared in the family. At last, they hit on the expedient of sending him away with a share of the family property to shift for himself. This he could not do, and God Siva, observing his helpless condition, brought about a reconciliation between the brothers, giving all the patrimony to them, and directing that they should give him alms whenever he went to be sitting on his friendly bull, ringing a bell to appraise others of his calling. His descendants are known by the name of Helavas, and the practice of begging in the manner originally enjoined has stuck to them. They go about among Okkaligas reciting fanciful tales of the gotrams and genealogy of their patrons."

Pawar also gives two other stories of their origin:

1. Their ancestor refused to worship Paravati. She cursed him to be crippled and sucked up his flesh and blood so that he was as thin as a skeleton (ie. ugly). She made him to exist between Heaven and Earth. Hence the name Bringi, a kind of fly. Siva takes pity and gave him his trisula as a crutch and gave him the job of keeping genealogies for other castes.



2. There were 5 sons of a Gauda. One was crippled and so the others teased him. He could do nothing. Never married. So he went to Basavanna, who took him as one of the 63 sravanas (occupations). He was given a bell and the job of going to each of the homes of the other 63 sravanas to report back to Basavanna. As the families of the 63 dispersed, the Helava also had to travel and visit them. So, too, his descendants.

This story is representative of the many legends of Kadu Golla clan origins. It is told at Bestarapalli, the kat@t@emane of the Egadnavaru bed@agu.

The Egada Gollas had seven sons. The youngest one was called Siimala ('snot') Iranna. He looked disgusting (with the snot always running from his nose). The other six would not associate with him, thinking that other Gollas wouldn't give their daughters to them (if they knew Iranna was their brother). So they shouted at him and beat him and drove him out.

Iranna went to the place of Barama Reddi (a Okkaliga).⁽¹⁾ Barama Reddi had a bull (wori) and two cows (a@kala). Barama Reddi invited Iranna to stay and they would feed and cloth him and give him a salary in return for watching after the cattle. But Iranna asked only to be given a kambli and food. So Barama Reddi gave him a kambli ('blanket') and fed him and he stayed there until he was seven years old.

At that time the Maranavaru would not give their daughters [to the Egada Gollas because they were always quarreling and going to war. "Who will care for our daughters if their husbands are dead?" So they tied [bunches of] lemons and bananas at the top of a sigemara tree (or tugli mara a tree held sacred by the Kadu Gollas) and challenged (juja, a contest, match, bet, challenge) the Egadanavaru to shoot them down with their arrows, letting it be known, "If you can do that, we will give you our daughters." They gave the Egadanavaru brothers five days to accomplish the feat.

After three days, the brothers were unable to shoot down the fruit. From inside the hat@t@i the Maranavaru teased the Egadnavaru and laughed at them. On the fourth day they brought Iranna. Earlier, he had asked if he could join them, but they had rejected him, saying, "If you come they will never give their daughters. Don't try to follow us." They had buried him in an old grain-pit (hagewu) before they left. On that fourth day even an old Maranavaru woman had asked the brothers why they had come for the fourth time [when they had not succeed in three previous days. She had advised them to bring Iranna, saying, "Only he can win the challenge." Heeding her words, they had returned to get him. They removed the soil from the grain-pit and there was Simala Iranna, shining! They grew afraid of him. They bathed him and gave him new clothes and brought him along with them.

He said he wanted to go first to his grandfather, Ettaiah [this is the father of his mother: ennata@ta]. The 6 other brothers went with him. They went to the place called Ettaiah Betta (hill), where they saw many kinds of arrows (billu). The brothers were happy with everything they saw and encouraged him to take various ones. Iranna, however, prayed to Ettaiah and held his arms open. An arrow rose and came to him. He took it, saying, "Grandfather, I will win the challenge. Bless, me, Tata, and stand with me." He then took the arrow, and went to the foot of a coconut palm, scooped out sand [until he came to water], and did Gangapuja to it.

The bundle of lemons and bananas were 7 matta (35 feet) up. Iranna aimed and shot his arrow. He split the lemons and bananas. His brothers and the Maranavaru were delighted. They came running and lifted him up. The Maranavaru asked the six brothers to choose whichever girls they wanted. They matched them by age, six girls for the six brothers. But there was no girl for Iranna except a seven-month old girl in a cradle, by the name of Bannakka Badachitti. ⁽²⁾ They sent someone to get the child. That woman saw that there was a piece of the lemon and banana that Iranna had shot lying on the forehead of the girl. All were surprised, and knew that this was the girl Iranna had already chosen. So they brought the girl to the place outside the hatti where the contest was held. Iranna smiled.

The seven marriages were held then and there. As is the custom, the Maranavaru brought the boys into the hat@t@i and fed them rice cooked with ghee and milk. The fathers of the 7 girls gave their sons-in-law 7 bulls and 7 cows. After some time the other brothers completed their marriage and brought their wives back to their hatti. But Iranna could not complete his marriage to a 7 month old girl, so he decides to only take the cattle and go to the pasture lands. His mother thinks that he is too young to go there alone and tells his brothers to go with him, but they refuse, saying the cattle are his alone. So Iranna dresses and bathes and packs food in a sachel (sikka: a sachel made of coconut fibre). He takes an ax (chippa kod@ali, a small bladed axe used for cutting limbs from trees to feed leaves to animals) and a kambli (black woolen blanket) and wears a turban (rumala) and knickers (salda) and sets off before the cocks crow. He took the arrows of Ettaiah.

He followed the cattle wherever they grazed. One year he stayed at NiDagaLLu ka@wulu (high grassland); next he went to Sinna Guppe ka@wulu. He sat on the three huge bolders on the top of hill while the cattle grazed. Though they wandered one gaw (12 miles) he could still see them. He drank milk and slept on the rocks. One day he bathed in the well (a natural well, or spring: kallakat@t@la ba@vi). The length of his hair is 7 ba@ru (arm's length). As he slapped it dry a strand of it went into the well and was eaten by a fish. Thereafter the fish shimmered and shone like a star. The maids of the Be@d@ati (a Nayak woman, relative of the regional lord) saw the shimmering fish and told their mistress, "We never saw such a fish! It shines like the moon and the stars!"

The Bedati called for a fisherman (mi@naga@r) and directs him to go to the well and catch the fish, promising to give him money (wara) if he does. The fisherman went and threw his net (bale) and caught the fish. Although the fisherman, when he saw the fish, thought of eating it himself, he decided to bring it back to the Bedati. She directed him to clean the fish and open its stomach to see what was making it shine. When he did this he found the 7-ba@ru strand of hair. The Bedati was surprised when she saw it and wondered whether it was the hair of man or beast. She asked the fisherman to go and find out whose hair it was, promising him more money if he did.

He returned saying, "there is no one there except a Golla Gauda. Only he can walk in such a place. He sleeps on the rock and lets the cattle graze 12 miles around. This hair must belong to him."

The Bedati climbed upstairs (to the roof top?) to look out and see him. She was able to see Iranna on top of the mountain, drying his hair and so came to know the hair belonged to him. She vowed, "He will be my husband. I will not let him go." She came down and paid the fisherman and then climbed back up to observe Iranna. He was drying his hair in the sun. She thought, "I have never seen such a man as this."

She prepared a dish of milk and ghee (a@lu tupad@ige) and packed it in a bundle to take to him. She had two parrots. She called to them and told them she was going to see the Golla Gauda. She gave them fruit. The parrots wept, "You will not return. It is not your fate to go to the the cattle pens (ettina gud@u). You should not go." They refused to eat, but she opened their mouths and forced them. They followed her screaming and weeping. "Sister, it is not your fate (vidi) to marry a Golla! If you go you will destroy your life. Why do you leave your house and swing and us for a live in the forest? You will spoil your life. Please listen!"

The Bedati came to Iranna's cattle pen. She reached there before dusk. Iranna sees her, and asks who she is, warning her, "Don't come near. You'll frighten the cattle."

"I had gone to Gutti to sell pearls. Now it's getting dark. Let me in, Golla Gauda."

"After dark you can not come near the cattle. You must go."

"I went to Guway Sime to sell flowers. Please let me in."

"After sunset no woman can stay here. Go to your own palace." Iranna had seen the Bedati as she was watching him dry his hair and knew who she was and why she had come.

The Bedati remained outside the cattle pen. Iranna told her, "Kambaduru is our hatti; our town is Bestaralli; we graze our cattle at Bikkere Tippe. My hearth is at Bestarapalli.

The Bedati doesn't listen. "Even though all you say may be true, you must bring me near. I don't care where you come from, I came to you. You must bring me near.

"You are Buttugallavaru, so you are sister to me."

"Bedas are cooking with kad@u nelli-soppu and roasting on an ansu (an iron pan for cooking over a high flame).⁽³⁾ Give me your shoulder as a pillow. We roast utta nalli-soppu and eat it; we are Kadu Bedas.⁽⁴⁾ Give me your cloth belt (ka@sidat@t@i)."

"I am giving dat@t@i only to she who would be my wife. Go. You are neither my elder sister nor my younger sister. I cannot give you my dat@t@i. What will we say to others what our relation is? Go to your own place. You are not my elder sister: I cannot give you my shoulder to sleep on.

"Why do you raise all these questions of relationships? We are all alone. Let us enjoy ourselves!"

"Don't talk so!" Iranna called his bull, Budanna and tells it, "Give her a warning. Frighten her, but don't hurt her." The bull paws the ground and roars. The Bedati runs for cover in the thorny bushes and the bull chases after her.

The Bedati's clothes stick to the thorns. "Oh, Golla Gauda, call off your bull. Thorns have stuck to my best jacket. Call back your bull."

"I cannot. It doesn't heed my commands. If you go along home, it will come back to me."

"I wore my best silk sari and now thorns have stuck in all the threads. Call back your bull."

"It will not come if I call. It is a wild one. If you go home it will go to the pen by itslef."

The Bedati started to play a kineri and when the cattle heard the music they began to calm down. Playing, she slowly walked toward Iranna.

"Stop! If you go near the cattle pens the cattle will become impure (satya ket@t@itu). Go to your fort (durga). If you come near, the cattle will die."

"She stopped and picked up neem leaves (gersoppu) and branches of a yellow-flowered plant (tangad@i) and made a bed and slept on it. In the morning, when Iranna woke up and went to milk the cows, she grabbed him by the waist-belt (dat@t@I) and stopped him.

"I won't let you go! Give me your dat@t@i and shoulder to sleep on."

He refused, saying, "I will never give you these. Go."

Back in the palace, the Bedati's brothers notice that she is missing and guess that she has gone to Iranna. They send her a letter. In reply she writes, "This Golla Gauda is very strong: you had better send an army! He can kill 10 men with a single shot, and knock down 100 more."

The next night, too, the Bedati gathers bedding to sleep near the corral. Iranna again warns her, "Don't sleep near the cattle pen. It is prohibited (tappu banda). It will cause friction between our two communities. Go home."

Since the Bedati refused to leave that place, Iranna brought the cattle to Mallapura. But the Bedati's brothers plan still to kill ham. That night Iranna dreamt that of a sword made of neem leaves. On the sword there were the letters of the name Battana Emba Salagatta. He dreamt of a knife with the letters of the name Buddana Salagatta. He wondered about the meaning of this. He went back to the place where the three great boulders jut out from the top of the mountain.

The Beda brothers see him and call out, "Hey, Golla Gauda! We hear you are famous at playing pagad@e. Come and play with us!"

Iranna replies, "I know nothing of playing games. I cannot leave the cows. We are forest (adivi) Gollas. I don't know such things."

"Pay attention!" they shout and show their swords. "You think you are so brave you don't need to listen. We will kill you! You drink unboiled milk. Then you drink boiled milk and become head-strong (a@rava)."

All of the Bedas gathered together. Iranna was sleeping on a rock near the cattle pen. The Bedas came and hid in the thicket of milk trees (kalli banda). They threw a spear (bana) into his side. He leapt up. [And it is said that one can still see in the rock at that place at Mallapura, his footprints, along with the mark his stick left.] He took his intestines in his hand and pushed them back inside and bound himself with his dat@t@i and went off with his cattle saying, "If I die at Sinnaguppe I will have no fame." He went the 6 gawu to Ettappa Gutti. The Bedati followed him.

Iranna spoke to (his ancestor) Ettappa: "The same thing that happened to you has happened to me." [Ettappa, too, was killed by Bedas after they suspected him of having relations with one of their women.]

Ettappa replies, "Son, if you stay here you will have no name, since it is already a place in which I am famous. You stay at my right side." Ettappa then picked up a stone and threw it. The place where it landed is known as Bikkala Tippe (near Taluku, in Chellekere Taluk, Karnataka). "You go and stay there."

Iranna took his cattle and went to Bikkala Tippe. He spread his blank kambli on the ground and sat on it. He called his bull, Budanna, and tells it, "Go to Bannakka Banachitti and tell her about me." He gave the bull flowers and a ring to show to her.

The bull ran, throwing up a cloud of dust into the sky and reached the place. Bannakka Banachitti was playing with a winnowing tray along with other children outside the hatti. When they saw the bull coming, all the children except Bannakka Banachitti ran away with fear. The bull dropped the flowers and the ring in the winnowing tray Bannakka Banachitti was holding. Though she is but 7 years old, she realized something had happened to her husband and pledges never again to enter the hatti. She took the flowers and the ring and ran off with the bull.

Her mother and father came out looking for her, but by that time she had already disappeared. Her brother, Dodda Chittappa, climbed the rock called Chikkanagarakallu to see if he could spot her. He could see her in the distance, and called out for her to return, "Stop! I will give you money (wara)."

"Your money is burnt. I don't want it," she replied. "A leader of the hatti (hat@t@i ha@lora maga) is dying. Before he dies, I want permission (wara) go before him [ie. to commit sati].

Her brother watched her from the rock until she disappeared from sight and then runs after her. He again calls out to her, "Stop! I will give you 6 pieces of gold (wara)."

"Give me permission to go with the cow-herd boy. Give me permission to die with the "Leader of the Cattle" (a@wu ha@lora maga)."

She again runs off following the bull and Dodda Chittappa returned to the hat@t@i. When she reached the cattle pen, all of the cattle were sad and gave way to her. She saw the Bedati there, standing at a distance. When the Bedati saw Bannakka Banachitti she said, "Why have you come? You share nothing with Iranna. Go back to your place, Bannakka Banachitti.

To this Bannakka Banachitti replied, "You come to him only for love (passion) and you have killed him because of it. Don't you talk!"

Iranna called to Bannakka Banachitti, "Why do you talk with her? Come to me."

It was a Monday [the day on which Egadnavaru, Iranna's clan (wombu) now do weekly pu@ja in commemoration of Iranna.] Bannakka Banachitti went to Iranna. Iranna kept Bannakka Banachitti at his left side. Iranna, Bannakka Banachitti and the cattle were all together there that afternoon.

The Bedati asks, "Swami, I came to you. What can I do now? Where will I go?"

Iranna threw a stone and said, "You stay at that place. People will also do pu@ja for you, but with only a single drum [urumu, played by the Malas] and offer a coconut without fiber [a lesser offering] with their prayers."

1. Patronage [or even fostorage] by named persons of another caste is a very common feature of Kadu Golla stories. Boyar (Beda) is more common than Okkaliga and usually it is implied (as with the term Reddi) that the person is someone of financial and political means, a territorial headman.

The title Reddi is usually in association with a Telugu caste. Okkaligas usually have the term Gauda.

2. Bad@achitti implies a girl who is neglected or impoverished, meaning "poor" Chitti. Iranna's mother's name was also Chittamma. His father's name was Bommaiah. The grandmother (Ie. FaFaSi) of Junjappa, of the Golla's greatest culture-heroes, was also named Bad@achittamma and he had a miraculous bull called "Bad@amaila." Both, in the course of the legend, are deified.

3. The first identification he gave -- territorial -- had apparently to do with political domains, through which he conveyed that he was under her people's rule. This reference is one of kinship, which is presumably 'fictive kinship' since they are of different castes. It would seem that the Gollas and the Beda have some sort of alliance with one another which somehow parallels the kinship structure within each community.

4. Presumably eating utta nelli-soppu is a characteristic which distinguishes Kadu Bedas from Uru Bedas (Myes Bedas) and whatever 'fictive' kin alliance Gollas may have with clans of the Uru Gollas do not apply.