The thing you should know about Bunts Community.
The word Bunt is derived from the Sanskrit word "Bhata" meaning powerful man or powerful warrior (soldier). The Tulu equivalent is 'Bunte' or Bunter plural.
Bunts speak the Tulu language and some of them even speak the Kannada language.
Bunts came to Tulunadu region about 2000 years ago from the north of India. Bunts claim that they are Kshatriyas from Nagavanshi lineage. The Bunts who speak Kannada are known as Nadava.
After Bunts came to Tulunadu they started to settle in there and were involved in constant skirmishes between themselves. And they were ruling that place with different clans like Chowtas, Alupas etc..... they formed an own kingdom known as Alupa kingdom.
And later on they served as chieftains under various Kannada empires, and during this time many bunts adopted Jainism as the Kannada kings gave royal patronage to Jainism. And then the great Vijayanagara empire came up, and the Tuluva Dynasty was an important ruling clan of this great empire. The great Shri Krishnadevaraya was a bunt from his father's side.
And then many Bunts Became feudal lords of Tulunadu. And during this period a famous Bunt queen called as Abbaka Rani Chowta fought successful battles against the Portuguese and defended her small kingdom.
The bunts continued as feudal lords until the 1960 s, at that time Karnataka govt introduced strict land reform laws Bunts lost all their lands and we had to migrate to big cities like Mumbai and Bangalore. They worked hard and found themselves involved in various fields of the profession from banking to Bollywood.
And bunts were involved in the infamous Mumbai Underworld. Some gangsters or dons who were bunts are Sadhu Shetty, Sharad Shetty, Ashok Shetty and Vicky Shetty ( currently active). And even a famous name in Bangalore underworld Mutthapa rai is a Bunt, he is reformed now and runs an NGO.
Coming to Bollywood the former miss world Aishwariya rai is a bunt. and some prominent ones are Rohit shetty, Suniel shetty , Shilpa Shetty, Pooja Hegde, etc....
And in South Indian film industry (Coastalwwod, Tollywood, Sandalwood, Kollywood, Mollywood) actors and directors like Anuska Shetty, Praksh Rai, K Sooraj Shetty, Mayur R Shetty, Manju Rai, Rakshit shetty, Anup and Nirup bhandary , Avanthika Shetty, Sheethal Shetty, Rishab Shetty etc and the music director Gurukiran are all bunts . Not even the film industry, Bunts people succeed almost all field.
And one prominent bunt custom is:
So in short our ancestors were Kings , chieftains , warriors and feudal lords . And there is also a stereotype for us in tulunadu !!! It is that we are arrogant , proud , short tempered , rich, care free etc........ But these stereotypes can be true in some cases ;)
The word Bunt is derived from the Sanskrit word "Bhata" meaning powerful man or powerful warrior (soldier). The Tulu equivalent is 'Bunte' or Bunter plural.
Bunts speak the Tulu language and some of them even speak the Kannada language.
Bunts came to Tulunadu region about 2000 years ago from the north of India. Bunts claim that they are Kshatriyas from Nagavanshi lineage. The Bunts who speak Kannada are known as Nadava.
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| Tulunad Map |
After Bunts came to Tulunadu they started to settle in there and were involved in constant skirmishes between themselves. And they were ruling that place with different clans like Chowtas, Alupas etc..... they formed an own kingdom known as Alupa kingdom.
And later on they served as chieftains under various Kannada empires, and during this time many bunts adopted Jainism as the Kannada kings gave royal patronage to Jainism. And then the great Vijayanagara empire came up, and the Tuluva Dynasty was an important ruling clan of this great empire. The great Shri Krishnadevaraya was a bunt from his father's side.
And then many Bunts Became feudal lords of Tulunadu. And during this period a famous Bunt queen called as Abbaka Rani Chowta fought successful battles against the Portuguese and defended her small kingdom.
 |
| This was the extent of that kingdom |
The bunts continued as feudal lords until the 1960 s, at that time Karnataka govt introduced strict land reform laws Bunts lost all their lands and we had to migrate to big cities like Mumbai and Bangalore. They worked hard and found themselves involved in various fields of the profession from banking to Bollywood.
And bunts were involved in the infamous Mumbai Underworld. Some gangsters or dons who were bunts are Sadhu Shetty, Sharad Shetty, Ashok Shetty and Vicky Shetty ( currently active). And even a famous name in Bangalore underworld Mutthapa rai is a Bunt, he is reformed now and runs an NGO.
Coming to Bollywood the former miss world Aishwariya rai is a bunt. and some prominent ones are Rohit shetty, Suniel shetty , Shilpa Shetty, Pooja Hegde, etc....
And in South Indian film industry (Coastalwwod, Tollywood, Sandalwood, Kollywood, Mollywood) actors and directors like Anuska Shetty, Praksh Rai, K Sooraj Shetty, Mayur R Shetty, Manju Rai, Rakshit shetty, Anup and Nirup bhandary , Avanthika Shetty, Sheethal Shetty, Rishab Shetty etc and the music director Gurukiran are all bunts . Not even the film industry, Bunts people succeed almost all field.
And one prominent bunt custom is:
- Aliya Santana or Matrilineal Inheritance - In other parts of India it is followed that a child inherits the lineage and family form his dads side but for Bunts, it was from the mothers side . And women inherited equal property from their parents unlike other Indians and they had the right to re marry and divorce as per their choice so this is really cool because the respect for women is too damn high in our community.
So in short our ancestors were Kings , chieftains , warriors and feudal lords . And there is also a stereotype for us in tulunadu !!! It is that we are arrogant , proud , short tempered , rich, care free etc........ But these stereotypes can be true in some cases ;)