Kuruba
Hindu caste native to the Indian state of Karnataka, where it is the third largest caste group
Kuruba (IPA: [kurubɐ]) is a Hindu caste native to the Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They are the third-largest caste group in Karnataka. Traditionally, these are shepherds who used to do the work of sheep/goat and animal husbandry and agriculture, in which they especially raised mixed herds of sheep and goats and cattle.
Etymology
The term kuruba, meaning shepherd, is derived from kuri, meaning sheep in Kannada. Shepherding was traditionally their primary occupation and still is for many, who lead a nomadic lifestyle.
History
Oral traditions of the Kurubas or Kuruma indicate their descent from Neolithic farming villages in South India which also kept cattle. Oral traditions indicate some of these original cattle-keeping agriculturalists branched off into new habitats and quickly came to rely on sheep pastoralism, absorbing Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Rituals associated with hunting presumably came from the integration of these hunter-gatherers into the Neolithic pastoralists. These pastoralists later became almost totally separated from their villager antecedents and interacted with them only based on initial conflict and acculturation. For pastoralists such as the Kurubas, the horse became an important pack animal after the Iron Age and an animal for fighting.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q185370. The Library of Congress control number is sh85073493. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kuruba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.