Rapole Ramkumar Bharadwaj is a young man with a lot of interest on the family history of yellapus.He tried to give me a lot of inputs relating to caste history.Basing on that this article is written. His introduction in his own words is as below
" Rapole Ram kumar Bharadwaj" Son of Sri Rapole Hanmantha Rao of Vemnoor. My grand father Late Sri Vital Rao of Vemnoor. In telugu " Vema" means great or royal. And I want to write regarding village of Rapole. Now it is in Parigi Mandal, District Rangareddy(Rangareddy district is divided from Hyderabad). it means Rapole families migrated from hyderabad to karimanagar and Rayalaseema.”
Here what I comment is that Yellapus, especially Rapole families migrated from the Rayalaseema area to karimnagar district via Hyderabad.After a sevior famine in the Bonagiri village many families migrated from there.Yellapus migrated via Hyderabad to karimnagar.
He also provided the information on the villages of Hyderabad existing in the lower maner dam as follows: Another villages "Madhapur and Kondapur of Rangareddy district(Hitech city area)", Same name villages in behind " Lower Maner Dam". Thota families and other families are natives of these villages. Puppalaguda village: Puppla families may migrated from old Hyderabad. This also support our community lived in deccan area. Puppalaguda village is in Rajendranagar Mandal, near manikonda,Rangareddy district, andhra pradesh.
He has also thrown light on on the Rapole villages as follows: 1)Raipole village - Ibrahimpatnam mandal- Rangareddy District. 2)Rapole village - Parigi mandal - Rangareddy District. 3)Raipole/Rayapole village - Daultabad mandal - Medak District. It reveals two or three things. One, the migratory route from Bongir to Karimnagar is from Hyederabad and medak district. Even now there is presence of yellapus in medak district.Two, the yellapus were present in Hyderabad long ago. In the recent past, Hazaris of Golkonda has come in to contact with me.
His greatest contribution for the yellapu community than what his elder rapole family members contributed is Identiying a plant name on yellapu community as follows: Vellapula” plant is a shrub. Edible fruit & medicinal plant using by tribal’s of Anamalai hills, western Ghats, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. Scientific name: Euphorbiaceae Securinega virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.).Its collecting season is summer.
Later I have searched on the similar lines and found two more plants on our family name.
1.Plant-Altternanthera Tenella(L) colla
Family-Amaranthaceae
Local name-Vellaponnankanni
Habit-Herb
Collecting season-Rainy
Meaning of this plant is the precious plant for maidens found by vellapu community.It has proved that anti viral and anti microbial properties.Such plant is definitely very much useful to fight against many unknown viral and microbial born ailments.It is not out of place to mention that many tribals die due to such ailments.
2.Plant-Cleome monophylla L
Family- Capparidaceae
Local name-Vellai
Habit-Herb
Collecting season-Rainy
3.Plant-Rugosa Lam
Family-Rhamnaceae
Local name-kottai
Habit-Shrub
Collecting season-Rainy
Kottai or kotte is a famous surname in yellapu community. It again proves that plant is existing on the surname also, as is in the case of villages existing both on family names and caste names.
The following things can be deducted from the above plant names on the Yellapu community as follows:
- Yellapus were very frequently using these plants or propogated the use of them among the tribal locals during their stay in that area.
- Once again it proved that Yellapus were there in Tamilnadu area. It proves that yellapu ancestors were experts in using the herbs and ayurvedic scientists. It has percolated to the the generation of my Grand father also.later it was neglected.
- It also reveals their tribal relations even in the new areas where migrated newly in the areas like Tamilnadu.In this connection it is pertinent to mention that yellapus had close relations with tribals like koyas, lambadas,etc.
- There are Ayurvedic plant names on villages, cities, hills,etc.Aurvedic pplant on the name of a community is seen for the first time in my experience.
- There are villages, hills,etc are existing on the caste name of yellapus or family names,but it revealed a plant names on community.
- An interesting person can identify many new things and contribute to the history of community.
Hence, I thank Sri.Rapole Ramkumar Bharadwaj for identifying the new things and feeling community proud.
