गनिगा (गान्दला), कर्णाटक की प्रमुख वैश्य जाति

Ganiga

Ganiga or Gandla is the name given to oil pressers in the [[India] From ancient time in India, vegetable oils were obtained by crushing oilseeds in village , using an oil-press - or ghana. A ganiga is a person who extracts oil using a ghana. This is a prominent vaishya community of karnatak, & south India.

In Sanskrit literature of about 500 BC there is a specific reference to an oil-press, or Ghanis , although it was never described (by Monier-Williams, M. 1899. A Sanskrit-English dictionary, Delhi, India, Motilal Banarsidass. Reprinted 1963).]n Mysore district Ganiga People speak Kannada,, Tulu, or Telugu as their mother tongue.

Ganiga people mainly live in different parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In South Karnataka Ganiga people mainly speak Tulu. Ganiga people are living the following districts of Karnataka, India - Bijapur, BagalkotBelgaum, Bangalore, Bhadravati,Chikamaglur,Chintamani, Gulbarga, Hassan, Haveri, KGF, Kolar, Mulbagal, Mandya, Mysore, Shimoga, Tumkur, Tiptur Udupi, Uttara Kannada.

Besides Karnataka, Ganiga community settled in some parts of Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi,Goa, Hyderabad and many other cities in India.

In oveseas countries members of Ganiga Community have settled in the USA, Canada and UAE.

A majority of Ganiga community continue to remain backward economically due to mechanisation of oil crushing which slowly took away their livelihood in the 1950s. Deprived of this age old profession continued for generations, Ganiga community found their way in business such as setting up of shops, hotels etc. Enterprising Ganiga entrepreneurs set up many Udupi Hotels in Bangalore and other promiment cities in Karnataka. Others took up odd jobs to meet both the ends. Having been remained econmically backward even after 60 years of independence due represenations were made from time to time to the successive Governments.