About Havyakas

Havyka is a section of brahmin community mainly found in the North Canara, South Canara and Shimoga districts of Karnataka state in India. Some researches done in past to trace the roots of havyaka community suggest that our ancestors might have migrated from the current UP region.

Havyka are a soft spoken, nature loving community mainly involved with agriculture, farming and "archaka" profession. Paddy, bettlenut, pepper, cachew nuts, "elkki" are the main crops in the region.

Till 70's agriculture used to be the major profession of Havyakas. Lack of opportinity, ambition made them to slowly migrate to other areas and profession. With the establishments of more and more educational institutions, havyakas grabbed this opportunity to get educated. It resulted them getting into into "white collar jobs". With major industry and jobs being offered in Bombay, it used to be the hot destination for many years.

With prices of bettlenut reaching its peak in the late '80s, havyakas could also equip themselves and their home with modern facilities. It slowly changed the face of the villages with every home getting a motor bike, tv, mixer etc. With liberalization and markets opening to new arenas, havyakas did not lag behind in the race to the most lucrative jobs in the market. It encouraged many youngsters to get into professional colleges and medicine. At the same time, falling price of bettlnut, the life line of havyaka community, resulted them seeking opportunity in some other profession. With Bangalore being the Software hub in India, virtually every other havyaka youngster is a software professional.

Of late, in their attempts to shift to other crops, havyakas have successfully experimented with "vanilla". The results have been a lot encouraging with the vast market available for the product. With weather conditions favouring the product, havyakas see a lot of hope and future with "Vanilla".

Today, Havyakas are truly a global community spread across different places in and around the world. The contributions of the community can be seen in every field under the sun be it arts, music, medicines, politics, engineering giving it the name "community of intellectuals". 

This website is a an attempt to showcase glimpses of lifestyle, culture, contributions of the community to society.