MADIGA

One of the largest scheduled caste grouping in Andhra Pradesh. The Madigas have a very ancient presence . They are today mainly poor leather workers and agricultural labourers, although there are references in ancient literature and stories which allude to their important role. The Madigas in medieval times and recently too were very low down in the social scale, in ancient times, they were a large hunting food gathering tribe. The tribal deity of a section of the Madigas, became one of the aspects of the greater goddess of .

Madigas seem to be a far-flung tribe with similar sounding names like Mandinga noticed in Africa and Southeast asia tooThe Madigas are mentioned in very old indian books so they've been in these parts from a long time. The Madigas have a very old tradition of dedicating a couple of girls to a deity, the girls are then called yogin or basavi. While the origin seems to be a ceremony of initiation of female priests (priestesses) and a reflection of matriarchial society, it degenerated by late buddhist and hindu times into nothing more than dancing girls and worse, prostitution.

In recent times several young people of Madiga origin have taken enthusiastically to computers and machines, which don't care about "social status". All the same the perceptive members of the madiga are particular about retaining their traditional histories and legends, of which only a fraction have ever been written. For instance there is some evidence linking the Madigas to the fabled Indus valley civilisation. There is a wealth of oral tradition which is only now being written down. I'll shortly post more of these interesting stories which throw light on the ancient history.