Vintage photo of the Irula women of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu, India, 1871,
Vintage photo of the Irula women of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu, India, 1871, Irulas Tribe: Irula tribe is a Dravidian ethnic group settling in the state of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. In the Tamil language, the Irula means "people of darkness." This could refer to their dark-coloured skin or since all important events of the tribe traditionally took place in the darkness/night. A study conducted by Yelmen et al (2019) found that the Irula people were the closest likely proxy for the indigenous Ancient Ancestral South Indian, one of the presumed founder and autochthonous original Indian populations. The DNA analysis (2018) of a skeleton from the Indus Valley Civilisation found in Rakhigarhi showed a greater association with the Irula people than any other modern ethnic group in India. According to the Census 2011, the tribe population is around 200,000; 189,621 in Tamil Nadu 23,721 in Kerala 10,259 in Karnataka. The people of the Irula tribe are called Irular and th...