Hubballi-Dharwad

The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. XXII (Dharwar, 1884) gives the fullest colonial account of Komatis in northern Karnataka: 'Komtis or Vaishyas are returned as numbering 8238, and found chiefly in Gadag and Navalgund. They are said to have come to Dharwar about 850 years ago from Bellari and Kadapa in Madras. They used to speak Telugu, but they now speak Kanarese both at home and abroad. In 1818 some Komtis came from Madras with the British army and settled at Dharwar. The home speech of these lately come Komtis is still Telugu. The old and the new settlers eat and marry with one another... They are said to have about one hundred and two family-stocks and members of the same stock do not intermarry. Their chief deity is Nagareshvar.' GENEALOGICALLY IMPORTANT: this documents two distinct migration waves into Dharwar - a medieval one from Bellary and Kadapa, and an 1818 wave of army camp-followers from Madras - records that the two waves intermarried, and puts the number of exogamous family-stocks (gotras) at about 102. On banking the same gazetteer states: 'Hubli is the only place where banking operations are carried on to any large extent. The bankers are moneylenders, chiefly Lingayats, Jains, Brahmans, and Komtis by caste', with the Bank of Bombay branch opening at Hubli in 1870. It also lists Komtis among the district's carriers and among the chief moneylending classes, and notes that 'Brahmans, Lingayats, Komtis, and Marathas' were among those taking to school education.