The term Kadu Kuruba has got an etymological importance. If one dissects the term , one can find that in the Kannada language , Kadu signifies forest and Kuruba stands for tribal community. Thus Kadu Kuruba constitutes of the people residing in forest areas, as a whole. These Kadu Kuruba tribes are one of the sub castes of the famous Kuruba tribal community. Cultural excellence is widely being depicted in all its aspects like dance, language, religion, festival etc.

Just like many of the tribal communities of the whole of the Indian subcontinent, these Kadu Kuruba tribes also are the ardent followers of Hinduism. To top of it, these kadu Kuruba tribes practice Halumatha, also known as palamatha by many people of the Indian Territory. The peculiar ritual of this Kadu Kuruba tribal community is that they revere `Almighty Source` in a stone, which has been identified as Linga.

According to the beliefs of these Kadu Kuruba tribes , stone is the source for the soil, which in turn nourishes all the plants . Obviously as every one knows, plants provide basic sustenance for all the creatures of the animal kingdom. Regarding the religious practices of these Kadu Kuruba tribes , another important information has been narrated by all the anthropologists who have carried on surveys on their culture and lifestyle. Through all these years, this culture of the stone worshipping has developed the trend amongst this Kadu Kururba tribal community of revering several images of Lord Shiva, better known as Pashupati. These are namely Mailara Linga, Beeralingeswara, Khandoba, Mahadeshwara, Nanjundeswara, Mallappa, Mallara, Mallikarjuna, Junjappa etc. Some anthropologist even go to the extent of saying that the worship of the power, Shakti ,as it is called , in various forms of deities like Yellamma, Renuka, Chowdamma, Kariyamma, Chamundi, Bhanashankari, Gullamma etc. have also originated from the tradition of Kadu Kuruba tribal community. However ancestral worship too has been incorporated in the religion of the Kadu Kuruba tribal community. This tradition is prevalent both in the primitive times as well as in the current times also. The reverence of ancestors, namely, Rama, Revanasidda, Hanuman, Krishna,Keshava, Ranganatha, Eera Thimmanna, Tirupati Thimmappa, Venkateswara, Kalidasa, Siddarama, Kanakadasa etc. as Devaru very much present in Kuruba culture and tradition.

Over the years, this Kadu Kuruba tribal community have adapted to diverse occupational activities. The common practice is that in all the famous temples like Beeralingeshwara and Milaralingeshwara ,all the priests that are being duly appointed belong to this Kadu Kuruba tribal community. If one can go back to the golden pages of the history of the Indian subcontinent, one can find the names of these Kadu Kuruba tribes over there also.

Maximum of these Kuruba tribes had proved their excellence as great soldiers and had even flourished many primeval kingdoms such as the Hoysala kingdom in Karnataka and Pallava kingdom of Tamil Nadu. In fact all these Kadu Kuruba tribal community reached their pinnacle of affluence between the time period of AD.1300 to AD.1600 under the impact of the famous Vijayanagara Empire. In the beginning of the 1970s, when this Kadu Kuruba tribal community was evicted from their original homeland of the forests, they were enforced to reside on the wayside or plantations on the border. These indigenous people are devoid of land rights and stay marginalized even today.