Devanga

Hindu caste of South India

Devanga (also known as Lingayat Devanga, Devanga Shetty, Devanga Chettiar) is a Hindu caste from South India that traditionally followed the occupation of textile merchandise, weaving and farming mostly found in the Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. They originated from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and during the reign of the Vijayanagara Empire they migrated to Tamil Nadu. They are of Shudra status in the Hindu caste system. However, they use the Devanga Purana, a text sacred to the Devangas, to claim Brahmin status, despite having a non Brahmin profession. They replaced their native local gotras with Sanskritic gotras. Devanga is a Sanskrit word that means "Body of the God".

There is a theory that the Devanga and Padmashali communities were once a single entity, with a split arising when the Devanga element took up Shaivite Lingayatism or Veerashaivism while the Padmashalis were Vaishnavs. While some Devangas wear the yagnopaveetam or janivara, others consider the Viramustis as their traditional preceptors, from whom they take precepts and wear lingam.

Around 1532, Devangas of the Godavari requested the Telugu poet Bhadralinga Kavi to write their kulapuranam, or mythological history. He composed the Devanga Purana in the dasimatra dvipadi style. The Godavari Devangas also helped to Sanskrtize Devangas from eastern Andhra. T. Nagar is a locality in Chennai which is named after him.

In 2004, the Devanga leaders of a small village in Belagur, Chitradurga district, Karnataka, fined and socially excluded ten families from the community for marrying people outside the caste. The decision was criticised and alleged to be unconstitutional but a similar thing happened to five families in Shivani village, Ajjampura, Chikmagalur district in 2011.