Sankethi Heritage
By Dr. K. Krishnamurthy, Mysore
The Sankethi is the name of a very small community within the larger group of brahmins of old Mysore State, with their ancestral home,located in tiny villages mainly in Hassan, Mysore and Shimoga districts. They speak a mixed ‘sankethi’ dialect of tamil though residing in the heart-land of Karnataka. Till the other day, the women had their own style of wearing the saree. Young ‘Balabrahmacharis’ with their distinct forehead mark (Gooti Nama) were a common sight in their villages, some fifty years back.
Up to the beginning of this century, this community as a whole – may be a thousand families including the branches termed ‘Kowshika’ ‘Bettadapura’ and ‘Malanadu’ was generally averse to take up any kind of servitude either in Government or in private sectors, because of its extraordinary passion for leading an independent life. It was allergic to modern education too. Perhaps their strong liking for an independent and self-sufficient way of life lead to their choosing the agriculture profession involving tough physical labor. Thus, in those days every sankethi had a cultivated areca garden, besides other lands.