Ahukuntika clan is a gypsy community in Srilanka. They are mostly visible in the districts of Anuradhapura, Puttlan and in Colombo. There are around 410 families of this gypsy community. Their occupations include snake charming and their women are engaged in fortune telling/palm reading, ’saasthare’. For the last 15 years or so, this nomadic community is gradually becoming a sedentary community.
The only online reference available regarding this community online is Gypsy touch to combat snake-bite.
Chamarti Muralidhar, a News Today (Eenadu) reporter, reports that the Ahukuntika gypsy community is from Telugu speaking areas.
Some of his findings are..
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Ahukuntikas have migrated to Srilanka more than 400 years back.
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Ahukuntikas don’t know that there is a script for the language they speak.
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Ahukuntikas don’t know that there are 80 million more people who share their language.
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Some of the Ahukuntikas are still nomads, they barely stay each place for more than a week.
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Ahukuntikas are gradually getting settled into sedentary lifestyle.
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Ahukuntikas are venturing into new field like agriculture, business and fisheries.
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Ahukuntikas speak mostly rugged telugu but some of the families speak rugged tamil.
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Ahukuntikas are slowly drifting away from their culture, language and religion.
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Ahukuntikas belong mostly to kurava, vaddera and Yerukala castes.
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Ahukuntikas would like to come back to their roots/their country.
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Ahukuntikas as a race are in the last stages of extermination.
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Some of their images..
