(An earliest Muslim community of India)
Quick Introduction
The Beary is a significant Muslim community of Dakshina Kannada (aka South Kanara) district of Indian state, Karnataka. It is one of the early linguistic ethnic groups of the Tulunadu; and traces of its existence can be found in the history of the region which dates as back as 14 centuries at least. This vibrant Muslim community has maintained unique traditions and distinct cultural identity in the region throughout its existence. This community distinguishes itself from other Muslim communities of the region like Nawayaths of North Kanara (mainly concentrated in Bhatkal) district, Mapillas (aka Moplahs) of Malabar Coast and Labbay (aka Labbabeen) of Coromandel Coast in Tamil Nadu state.
The word Beary (sometimes written as Byari) is a proper noun, and plural form can be either Bearys or Byaris. The local Tuluva community calls them Byarlu and Kannada speaking folk name them as Bearygalu. In Beary Palaka or Nakk-Nikk (the dialect of Bearys) the plural is Bearynga or Bearymaar.
The Byaris practice a rich and diverse culture which is a culmination of Arab, Islamic, Tuluva and Mipilla cultures and practices. They follow Islam and belong to Shf’ee Fiqh of Islamic jurisprudence.
The Bearys constitute the bulk of Muslim community of the South Kanara and hence the local people erringly refer to all the Muslims as Bearys. It has to be kept in mind that the Bearys neither speak Dakhani nor Malayalam at home. Only the ethnic group engendered in Tulunadu and speaks Beary Palaka (aka Beary baashe or Nikk-Nikk) as their mother-tongue can be referred to as Beary community of Tulunadu. Rest of the Muslim communities and ethnic groups who are inhabitants of the districts of Udupi, South Kanara and North Kanara and speak Dakhani, Nawayathi or some of the offshoots of Malayalam language would not come under the Beary Community of Tulunadu.
The Beary community is considered as one among the earliest Muslim inhabitants of India with a clear history of 14 centuries (Ref 1). Records do show that a Mosque built by Habeeb bin Malik in Bunder area of Mangalore (Maikala) in the year 644 A.D (Ref 2, 3, 4). Habeeb bin Malik was an Arab Da’ee and a merchant who reached Western coast of South India in the very early days of Islamic history.
A scrupulous research into the origin, history and the lifestyle of Beary Community is important for a number of reasons. It will also provide vital material for those who would like to conduct a research on the earliest Muslim communities of the world who embraced Islam next to the Arabs.
Etymology
Etymologically speaking, the name of the community, Beary, is believed to be derived from the local Tulu language word ‘Byara’. In Tulu language Byara means trade or commercial activities. There are at least 3 plausible theories that discuss the origin of the name Beary.
Theory 1: Beary is derived from the Tulu language word Byara which refers to commerce, trade or business activities. Since the majority of this community was involved in business activities, the local Tulu speaking people have called them as Beary community meaning the community that does business. (Ref 5)
According to the census of 1891 Dakshina Kannada district (undivided DK district that includes today’s Udupi district) had 92,449 Muslim traders out of which 90,345 belonged to Beary community and 2,104 belonged to Nawayat which is also a Muslim community of Bhatkal origin. As per this census only 2,551 merchants were from other communities. Records do clearly confirm that towards the close of 19th century the percentage of Muslim traders in the district was as high as 97.3 and hence the local Tuluvas has rightly named this community as Bearys. (Ref 6)
Theory 2: Another theory is that the word Beary comes from Arabic word Bahar (Arabic: بحر) which means ocean and Bahri (Arabic: بحري ) could be referred to sailor or navigator. It is said that in the olden days Beary community had direct trade relationship with Arab traders who have travelled to the coastal South India, especially to the coastlines of Tulunadu and Malabar. Inscriptions are found in Barkur (a place in North Kanara District) that proves the Arab trade links with the people Tulunadu during ancient times. Those who have engaged themselves in maritime trade later came to be known as Bearys.
Theory 3: This theory says that the word Beary is derived from the root word ‘Malabari’ meaning the Muslim community of Malabar area. The great Islamic Da’ee, Malik bin Dinar had arrived on the coast of Malabar during the 6th century A.D. with a group of Arab traders who were also Da’ees or propagators of Islam. A member from his group, Habeeb bin Malik travelled through Tulunadu area and preached Islam to the local Tuluva population. He had also built mosques in Kasaragod, Mangalore and Barkur (Ref 7). It is also noteworthy to mention that until very recent times the Beary community was totally depended upon Malabari religious scholars for the imperative religious education of their children. Every mosque had a Madrasa and Madrasa had at least one resident Moilar (religious scholar) from Malabar area, appointed by the community to provide basic religious education of Beary children.
Although these theories surrounding the etymology of Beary, the most popular and plausible one is that the term Beary came into being from the Tulu root word Byara which means trade or commercial activities.
Demography and geographic distribution
The Beary community makes up approximately 80 percent of the Dakshina Kannada Muslim population. Rest of the Bearys spread across neighboring districts of Chikmagalur, Shimoga, Kodagu, Hassan and Uttara Kannada. Cities like Mumbai, Goa and Bangalore also has a considerable population of Beary immigrants. Also, a significant number of Beary people are living in the Persian Gulf countries of the Middle East doing a variety of jobs. It has been estimated in 2007 that the total population of this community could be approximately 1.5 million. (Ref 8)
Social and Cultural History
The exact time of the origin of the Beary community is not so well known but the history reveals that there existed many affluent local merchants in the regions of coastal Tulunadu who were engaged in trade activities with Middle Eastern Arab traders through the sea routs of Arabian Sea which connects Indian west coast with the shores of Arabia. Arab merchants have been visiting the coast of Tulunadu for business purposes even before the advent of Islam in Arabian Peninsula. The trading activities had put the people of Tulunadu in direct contact with Arab merchants. Some Arab merchants had also married the Tulu speaking women and settled in the region. Their children who grew up assimilating the elements from the cultures of their parents engendered a third culture which is an offshoot of Arab and Tulu cultures – the Beary Culture. Thus the Beary culture is a culmination of Arab and Tulu cultures and hence it is natural to find traces of Arab and Tulu cultures even today in the day to day life of Bearys.
Following the advent of Islam in Arabia, the polytheistic and pagan Arabs who had already established trade links with Tulunadu, were now attracted to the teachings of Islam and became Muslims. The ethical values that Prophet Muhammad preached covered every walk of life including trade and business activities. As the true followers of Islam the Arabs adopted and practiced honesty in their commercial activities. These Arabs who are the earliest Muslims preached their new faith wherever they went, including the Tulunadu and Malabar coasts. Alongside business they had also taken Da’wah (propagating the message of Islam) very seriously as a religious obligation. The Daw’ah helped tremendously in spreading the teachings of Islam. Thus matrimonial alliances and Da’wah of Arab merchants originated a new ethnic group with a distinct culture – the Bearys of Tulunadu.
The Beary culture has a history of at least 1350 years.
The spread of Islam in Tulunadu through Da’wah
The Bearys are the followers of Islam. It is largely through Da’wah of early Arab Muslims the Bearys have come into the fold of Islam.
Da’wah simply means calling or inviting the non-Muslims to Islam through preaching and dialogue, to make the people understand that only the Creator of the universe is true God and He alone is worthy of worship. Da’wah is a method used by the prophet of Islam to convey the message of Islam to the then people around him. The one who perform Da’wah or invites people to Islam is known as Da’ee.
The preaching and propagating the principles of Islam has helped the local people understand Islamic ideologies and philosophy. The Arab traders have always been great Da’ees (propagators) of their faith and ideology. It is because of the Da’wah activities of the early preachers of Islam – the Arabs – the local Tulu speaking people got attracted to the new faith that had come from the Arabia called Islam. The people belonging to the lower castes, including the fishermen were the first people to accept Islam because it had upheld lofty values like human dignity and equality of mankind, ethics based commerce, etc. It is also said that the Arab sailors and traders have originated communities of Islamic faith in the different parts of India as they did in other parts of the world.
The history also reveals that Arab traders who traveled to Tulunadu coast and stayed there for the convenience of maritime trade had also married the women from Tulunadu and had integrated themselves with the local community. The families of these Arabs have followed Islam.
The first major Da’ee (preacher or propagator) of Arab origin is Malik bin Dinar. He visited Malabar Coast along with his team and while engaged in business activities he was preaching Islamic monotheism to the people along the coast. During his stay a large number of people got attracted to the teachings of Islam and embraced it. This team also took up the task of building mosques for the convenience of the new converts.
This team is said to have landed in northern Malabar Coast, in Manjeshwar, which shares borders with Tulunadu. This team had taken up task of constructing a few mosques in the region for the purpose of offering congregational prayers. The Cheraman Perumal Mosque, built in Kodungallur by them, has the honor of India’s first mosque. They have built several mosques along the coastline of Malabar and Tulunadu. Malik bin Dinar mosque of Thalangara (Kasaragod district) and Masjid Zeenat Baksh in Mangalore (Maikala) are among them.
Beary – among earliest Muslim Communities of India
Revisiting the history of costal Tulunadu reveals an interesting fact that Beary community is among the earliest Muslim communities of India. Elliot and Dowson the authors of The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians – The Muhammadan Period, mention the earliest ship carrying Muslims sailors was cited in the coast of India was in 630 A.D. That means, this area came into contact with Islam and Muslims while Muhammad, the prophet of Islam was still living in Madina.
Ahmed Noori, who conducted a research into the history the Beary community during later 1950’s claims that Muslim settlers in the Tulunadu were found much before Muslim invaders came to the north India.
Another famous research scholar, Dr. Susheela P. Upadhyaya, who made a research into the language and folklore of Beary people, maintains that Indian west coast came under the influence of Islam long before any other part of India was influenced by Muslims.
The very presence of Zeenat Baksh Juma Masjid in the Bunder suburb of today’s Mangalore (aka Maikala in Nakk-nikk) which is believed to be built in the year 644 A.D. is a profound tangible evidence that there existed Beary Muslims in a period which was very closed to the period of Prophet Muhammad. Being built only 12 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad (s), the Zeenat Baksh Juma Masjid naturally has semblances of ancient Indian architectural pattern.
Beary – among earliest Muslim Communities of the World
It is very interesting to observe that the Bearys are among those people who received the message of Islam directly from its earliest propagators, the Arabs, and embraced it in the very early period.
According to the historians, unanimously, Prophet Muhammad, may Allah shower blessings on him, was born in the year 570 A.D. and entered into the prophethood when he reached the age of 40. The historians are also of the opinion that Prophet Muhammed died in the year 632 A.D. During the lifetime of Prophet Muhammed most of the Arabian Peninsula came under the fold of Islam. Arabs not only practiced Islam but became the torchbearers of new monotheistic faith and spread it wherever they went.
According to The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians – The Muhammadan Period, (written by Sir Henry Mires Elliot [aka H. M. Elliot] and edited by Dowson [aka John Dowson], published in London), the first ship bearing Muslim travelers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 A.D. This is a reliable and profound evidence that the Muslim sailors were visiting this part of land while the prophet of Islam was still living.
Another notable book on Indian history, Ancient and Medieval History of India (ISBN: 8186050795) by H.G. Rawlinson, maintains that the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD.
Another vital evidence that proves how old is the Indian Muslim community is the Cheraman Juma Masjid of Kodungallur, on the Malabar coast, believed to be built in 7th century A.D. by Malik bin Dinar. It is said to be the first mosque on India and second oldest mosque in the world to offer Jumu’ah prayers and constructed during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. Since Malabar Coast and Tulunadu coast had direct relations the Muslims of Malabar and the Bearys of Tulunadu are the earliest people to accept Islam.
Maikala – the cultural headquarters of Bearys
Maikala is the cultural and commercial capital of Bearys. In old times they used to call south of Mangalore city (consisted of Bunder and Kudroli area where Bearys are still dominating in number) as Maikala or Maikal. But today Maikala stands for the whole of Mangalore city or the area that comes under City Corporation of Mangalore.
According to historian B. A. Saletore, Maikala was an area in the southern part of Mangalore. It got its name through the Kadri Manjunath Temple, which used to be a Buddhist temple earlier. The Buddhist goddess Tara Bhagavathi was also known as Mayadevi. In course of time it came to be called as Maikala, or Maikal. Historians are of the opinion that Maikala is one of the ancient names of Mangalore. (Ref 9)
It is interesting to note that the inhabitants of Maikala who speak different languages have different names for the city. The Tulu people call it Kudla, the Konkanis call it Kodial, the Kannada speaking folk call the city Mangaluru (which is now made official) and Malayalam speaking inhabitants call is Mangalapuram. Mangalore is the popular usage right from the age of British rule when the city was under Madras province.
Religious Education – the Madrasah System
The Beary community did not fell for the western education system which was brought by the British rulers to the then India. Though the city of Mangalore or Maikala enjoyed a number of educational institutes and the convent schools run by Christian missionaries, the Bearys, in the beginning did not recognize them to be compatible with culture and values they respected and upheld. It is true that this community remained a bit backward in modern education. But amazingly, the community had achieved 100% literacy due to the Madrasah system.
The Madrasah education is a system introduced to teach religious education to the boys and girls of the community. Even in the places where Madrasah did not have independent building, the local mosques served the purpose. All the Beary children, irrespective of their social and economic background, are compulsorily sent to Madrasahs that imparts the religious education. These Madrasahs are managed and run by the of community leaders and considered as a collective responsibility of the community. The teachers in these Madrasahs are usually hired from adjacent Kearala and hence the medium of instruction used to be Malayalam. But presently all such Madrasahs have teachers known as Ustad from Beary community who speak Beary and the medium of instruction has shifted to Kannada from Malayalam. Even though Malayalam was the language of instruction, Malayalam script was never taught in Madrasahs, instead a special script was introduced called Arabi-Maliyala which uses Arabic script and has Malayalam phonetics.
In present days most of such Madrasahs are affiliated to Samastha Board which conducts well organized public examination for 5th, 7th and 10 grade students. Visiting inspectors called Mufattish are appointed to inspect the quality of education in Madrasahs. For administrative purposes the area has been divided as range, area, taluq and district. The teachers who are qualified in Arabic language and religious education are known as Mu’allim and students are known as Muta’allim. A centralized syllabus prepared by the Samstha Board is taught in all Madrasahs of the region.
In olden day Madrasah uniform for boys used to be Mundu, Chatte and a Toppi where as girls did wear a long gown with a head-dress known as yalasara. But today this traditional dress pattern has vanished. Boys are now wearing shirt – trousers and girls are adopting Churdar sets.
Apart from Samstha Board many other religious educational bodies also have been surfaced lately. The Salafi group has established their own Madrasahs throughout Dakshina Kannada district. Salafis also have started separate religious schools exclusively for girls in Ullal. Jamat-e-Islami has also established Madrasahs with their own syllabus in some places of Dakshina Kannada.
Beay Palaka OR Nakk Nikk – the language of Bearys
The dialect used by the Beary people in known as Beary Palaka. Other names include Nakk Nikk, Beary Bashe, Beary Baase or sometimes just as “Beary” which can also be spelled as “Byari.” The Beary Palaka has absorbed the grammatical structure and phonology of Tulu language and enriched itself with the loanwords from Tulu, Tamil, Arabic and Malayalam. This is one of the Indian languages that has substantial influence of Arabic language. One can clearly distinguish the use of Arabic loanwords in Beary Palaka used abundantly. Approximately 30% of Beary Palaka or Nakk Nikk can be understood by Malayalam knowing people where as those who speak Tamil may understand at least 40 – 50% of Beary.
Misconception about Beary Palaka (Nakk Nikk) as an offshoot of Malayalam
Some people wrongly infer that Beary Palaka is an offshoot of Malayalam language which is widely spoken in Kerala including the Muslims of Kerala. There is no doubt that Beary Palaka has borrowed significantly from colloquial Malayalam like it has loanwords from Tamil, Tulu and even from Arabic! Simply for the reason of borrowing few words from Malayalam, the Beary Palaka cannot become its offshoot. Moreover, to be an offshoot of Malayalam it has to use the grammatical pattern of Malayalam language. But the grammatical structure of Beary Palaka is more similar to that of the grammar of Tulu language. Hence it is a profound mistake to say to conclude that Beary Palaka is offshoot of Malayalam, without doing a scientific research.
Those who consider that Beary Palaka has stemmed from Malayalam, erringly do so because they incorrectly identify another dialect of Muslims – the Malaame – as Beary Palaka. Mostly those researchers who themselves are not Bearys did this mistake. In a proper research methodology, it becomes imperative to clearly identify what exactly is referred to as Beary Palaka by Bearys themselves, then continue with the research work. The researchers who are not familiar with Beary Palaka ended up with ensuing incorrect theory when they mistakenly included Malaame into Beary Palaka. In Malame, both the style and the pronunciation pattern are more inclined towards Malayalam where as in Beary Palaka the style and pronunciation pattern is more similar to Tulu language. Similarly, the language being spoken in places like Uppala, Manjeshwara, Puttur, Sullia is also not Beary Palaka, instead it is known as Mapilla Malayalam. Though the Bearys will not have difficulties in understanding the accent of these areas but they definitely have difficulties in pronunciation and style of speech. Hence we would conclude that Beary Palaka is not an offshoot of Malayalam.
Arabic influence in Beary language
Beary Palaka is robustly influenced by the Arabic language and hence obviously a lot of Arabic loanwords are bearified and used by the Bearys in their daily transaction. Saan, Pinhaana, Gubboosu, Dabboosu, Pattir, Rakkasi, Seintaan, are a few words to note here that have Arabic roots but clearly bearified in accordance with Beary phonetics. The following table would give the Arabic roots and equivalents for each word:
| Beary word |
Arabic root |
العربية |
English meaning |
| Saan |
Sahan |
صحن |
Plate |
| Pinjhana |
Finjan |
فنجان |
Bowl |
| Baade |
Baadiyyah |
باديه |
Earthen bowl |
| Kayeen |
Nikah |
نكاح |
Nuptial |
| Seintaan |
Shaitan |
شيطان |
Evil spirit |
| Patteer |
Fateerah |
فطيرة |
A variety of bread/roti |
| Kalbu |
Qalb |
قلب |
Heart |
| Rabbu |
Rab |
رب |
God |
| Supra |
Sufra |
سفرة |
Dining mat |
| Gubboosu |
Khubz |
خبز |
Bread |
| Daboosu |
Dabboos |
دبوس |
Needle |
| Sukulu |
Shughl |
شُغْل |
occupation |
| ijaar |
izaar |
اِزَار |
Pants |
| kasbu |
kasb |
كَسْب |
earnings |
Iqbal Soofi 