dations committed in the lower Carnatic. They were also frequently employed with success against the Poligars (feudal chiefs), whose followers were of a similar description." In the Gazetteer of the Anantapur district it is noted that "the Bōyas are the old fighting caste of this part of the country, whose exploits are so often recounted in the history books. The Poligars' forces, and Haidar Ali's famous troops were largely recruited from these people, and they still retain a keen interest in sport and manly exercises."
In his notes on the Boyas, which Mr. N. E. Q. Mainwaring has kindly placed at my disposal, he writes as follows. "Although, until quite recently, many a Boya served in the ranks of our Native army, being entered in the records thereof either under his caste title of Naidu, or under the heading of Gentu, *[1] which was largely used in old day military records, yet this congenial method of earning a livelihood has now been swept away by a Government order, which directs that in future no Telegas shall be enlisted into the Indian army. That the Boyas were much prized as fighting men in the stirring times of the eighteenth century is spoken to in the contemporaneous history of Colonel Wilks.†[2] He speaks of the brave armies of the Poligars of Chitteldroog, who belonged to the Beder or Boya race in the year 1755. Earlier, in 1750, Hyder Ali, who was then only a Naik in the service of the Mysore Raja, used with great effect his select corps of Beder peons at the battle of Ginjee. Five years after this
- ↑ * Gentu or Gentoo is "a corruption of the Portuguese Gentio, gentile or heathen, which they applied to the Hindus in contradistinction to the Moros or Moors, i.e., Mahommedans. It is applied to the Telugu-speaking Hindus specially, and to their language." Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson.
- ↑ † Historical Sketches of the South of India : Mysore, 1810—17.
