Life Songs of Nedunkunrucheri Kadar Tribes

Abstract

Kadar are one of the tribes living in the Anamalai region of Tamil Nadu. In the Valparai circle located in the Anamalai Hills, various tribes like Muduvan, Malaimalaisar, Paliyar, and Kadar are extant. Although in Kadar’s lives, education, educational related work, and the crisis of the regime have witnessed changes in many stages, it could still be seen that they have not completely changed their basic habits. In a situation, where stories, dances, and songs that are mixed with pleasures and pains of everyday life, are constantly being recorded, this article seeks to high spot the different emotions that they express through songs, such as their failure to progress while they try to bring an evolvement in others’ lives, their belief in natural phenomena, their cohesiveness, their unity among children, the loss caused by the death of their husbands, and their adaptation to modern life. The elders there can be seen lamenting the fact that their lives, which in the early days were almost all about dancing, singing, and storytelling, are now changing. Yet, their endangered dance song story and storytelling are being documented to preserve the remnants of an ancient ethnic group. Hence, this article tends to highlight the magnificent importance that songs have received in the lives of the Kadar.