Kotas, also Kothar or Kov by self-designation, are an ethnic group who are indigenous to the Nilgiri Mountains range in Tamil Nadu, India.

[1] They have maintained a lifestyle as jacks-of-all-trades such as potters, agriculturalist, leather workers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, and as musicians for other groups.

Their social institutions were distinct from mainstream Indian cultural norms and had some slight similarities to Todas and other tribal peoples in neighbouring Kerala and the prominent Nair caste.

Since the 1940s, many mainstream Hindu deities also have been adopted into the Kota pantheon and temples of Tamil style have been built to accommodate their worship.

[citation needed] The Indian government classifies the Kota as a scheduled tribe (ST), a designation reserved for indigenous tribal communities throughout India that are usually at a lower socio-economic status than mainstream society.

[3] The Kotas are a relatively successful group that makes its living in varied roles, such as agriculturalists, doctors, bankers and postmasters, for example; they are in both government- and private-sector employment.

[2] A few anthropologists and some members of other local communities consider them to be a service caste placed in the Nilgiris for that purpose; Kotas themselves do not believe this.

They consider themselves to be original inhabitants of the region, whose provision of traditional artisan skills to other Nilgiri tribes was mutually beneficial and non-servile.

What linguists and anthropologists agree is that ancestors of both Kotas and Todas may have entered the Nilgiris massif from what is today Kerala or Karnataka in centuries BCE and developed in isolation from the rest of the society.

[7] According to Friedrich Metz,[8] a missionary, Kotas had a tradition that alluded to them coming over from a place called Kollimale in Karnatakas.

According to Metz,[17] as the original settlers of the highland, Kurumbars were subject to continuous violence including occasional massacres by the Todas and Badagas.

[8] Each village had three 'kerr' (street) and people from same kerr are not supposed to intermarry, in order to avoid parallel cousin marriage.

[18] Women had a greater say in choosing their marriage partners than in any mainstream Indian villages and also participated in many economic activities.

[21] Unlike Todas, Kotas ate meat and were in good physical condition when met by early anthropologists.

[15] Their traditional food is Italian millet, a grain important throughout arid regions of India, known in the Kota language as vatamk.

Beef is seldom eaten but eggs, chicken and mutton are consumed, when available, along with locally grown vegetables and beans.

[24][25] Their major deities are A-yno-r also divided into big or Doda-ynor or small or kuna-yno-r, a father god and Amno-r or mother goddess.

[28] Historians Joyti Sahi and Louis Dumont note these deities may have roots in proto-Shaivism and proto-Shaktism[29][30][31] Pre-colonial contact, Kotas had a number of religious festivals which continued into the immediate post-colonial-contact period.

During the seed sowing ceremony, they used to build a forge and a furnace within the main temple and smiths would make votive item like axes or gold ornaments to the deity.

[32] The head priest mundika-no-n and headmen gotga-rn usually belong to the particular family (kuyt) and it was passed from father to son.