Kodavas contributed little to fine arts, music, painting or sculpture. Because of their isolation, and the wild life around them, they became adept at hunting and self-defense. Disease and death due to poor access to health care and deadly malaria had decimated their population for many centuries. Only in the last century or so the population of Kodavas reached 100,000. Their population had been further trimmed by Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan, yet the Kodavas refused to be ruled by the foreigners and held the Muslims at bay. Tens of thousands of Kodavas had been killed by the invaders. They had not been dominated by anyone else until the British took over rule in the year 1834 by trickery.