Tip | Stories well told and images worth viewing: India’s tribal customs portrayed on fountainink.in

To read this and other stories, and also to view more photographs, click here >>

Murali Maash went to the remote forests of Edamalakkudy as a teacher. He’s still there today, a living legend among the Muthuvan tribals. […]

A cluster of 28 tribal settlements (two of which are uninhabited) scattered in the 106.19 sq km reserve forest area between Pettimudi in Munnar, Kerala, and Nallamudi in Valparai, Tamil Nadu, Edamalakkudy comes under the Munnar Division of the Kerala Forest Department. The settlements are inhabited exclusively by Muthuvans, a reclusive tribe zealously loyal to their ancient codes and customs. In 2010, Edamalakkudy became Kerala’s first tribal gram panchayat. It is also the panchayat with the least number of voters in Kerala. […]

We are not asking for a situation where everyone can come to the forest, mess with our culture and loot the resources of our forest. What we want is a jeep track where entry is strictly restricted,” says Ramani. […]

For the last few years, Muraleedharan has been working relentlessly on his other big dream: to develop a script for Muthuvan language. At present, Malayalam or Tamil is used, but neither, according to him, is sufficient to capture the peculiar nuances of the language.

“The language is not Malayalam or Tamil, but a mix of the two with a lot of unique characteristics of its own. It needs its own script. Otherwise, the language too might die.”

After years of research on languages and their scripts, he has succeeded in drafting a rudimentary version which he hopes to fine tune.  […]

Source: Writing his own script
Address : http://fountainink.in/?p=5467&all=1
Date Visited: Thu Jun 05 2014 22:21:51 GMT+0200 (CEST)

Related posts