Unlike elsewhere in the country, no historical evidence is found of a state on the Nilgiris or that it was part of any ancient kingdom or empire. It seems always to have been a tribal land. The Toda had small hamlets (mund) across most of the plateau. The Kota lived in seven dispersed villages (kokal). The Toda had only a few hamlets on the lower Wynaad plateau and in the nearby Biligiriranga hills.