Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/485

country they are called Yerukalavāndlu or Korachavāndlu, but they always speak of themselves as Kurru, and there is not the slightest room for the doubt that has been expressed regarding the identity of the Koravas and Yerukalas. Several derivations of Yerukala have been proposed by Wilson and others. It has been suggested, for example, that yeru is connected with erra, meaning red. In Telugu Yerukalavāndlu would mean fortune-tellers, and Dr. Oppert suggests that this is the origin of the name Yerukala, He says*^[1] "it is highly probable that the name and the occupation of the fortune-telling Kuruvāndlu or Kuluvandlu induced the Telugu people to call this tribe Yerukulavāndlu. Dr.Oppert further connects Kurru with the root ku, a mountain; and, in a Tamil work of the ninth century, †^[2]Kurru or Kura (Kuramagal) is given as the name of a hill tribe." A strong argument in favour of the caste name being connected with the profession of fortune-telling is afforded by the fact that women go about the streets, calling out " Yeruko, amma, yeruku," i.e. prophecies, mother, prophecies. The Kuravas are, Mr.Francis writes,‡^[3] " a gipsy tribe found all over the Tamil country, but chiefly in Kurnool, Salem, Coimbatore and South Arcot. Kuravas have usually been treated as being the same as the Yerukalas. Both castes are wandering gipsies, both live by basket-making and fortune-telling, both speak a corrupt Tamil, and both may have sprung from one original stock. It is noteworthy in this connection that the Yerukalas are said to call one another Kurru or Kura. But their names are not used as interchangeable in the districts where each is found, and there seem to be no real differences between

1. • Madras Journ. Lit: and Science, 1888-89.
2. † Tirumurukairuppadai.
3. ‡ Madras Census Report, 1901.