Helavaru tribals archive local family genealogy

Ballari: They may look like members of yet another nomadic tribe moving from one place to the other. The big difference is that people in certain parts of the State look upon their arrival eagerly, as the bundles that they carry contain documented information dating back centuries.

Helavaru means narrator, they narrate history of a family. Helavas, traditional archivists, have documents containing the genealogy of almost all families in every village and town in Belagavi, Dharwad, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Haveri, Gadag, Ballari, Uttara Kannada, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts.

In the winter season they wander from village to village and visit every household in different groups, read out the genealogy, and add on details of new members of the family.

They always move along with a pink colourd shawl, wrapping records containing books in it. Of late, Helavas collect photographas of family members and add them along with their details in order make genealogy more accurate. Probably, it is the only community in India that has made archiving a source of livelihood. Families offer them money, gold and silver articles and food grains in return. Their inherited skills of archiving can leave modern archivists awestruck.

Mr Srinivas Rao, an advocate in Ballari said he got details of nearly 10 generations of his family from them. “The oldest details are in copper plates which appear to be reliable. The names of ancestors of three to four generations in the Helava records are accurate. They have legal sanctity and courts have termed them valid documents in some partition-related suits,” he said.

Fakirappa, a Helava head from Manvi said, earlier, people would give donations in kind. “But today, most of the families pay in cash. We earn enough for our subsistence,” he said adding that they have some ancient records written on copper plates and palm leaves too. Their lifestyle too has not changed over the years. During their tour, they stay in tents and use bullock carts to commute. They complain that governments have done very little to improve their living condition, since many of them do not even have ration cards and other benefits from the government as the community is not included under the Scheduled Tribes category though it has been nomadic for centuries.