Mala.—A low Telugu caste of labourers and cotton-weavers. They numbered nearly 14,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, belonging mainly to the Chānda, Nāgpur, Jubbulpore, and Yeotmāl Districts, and the Bastar State. The Marāthas commonly call them Telugu Dhers, but they themselves prefer to be known as ‘Telangi Sadar Bhoi,’ which sounds a more respectable designation. They are also known as Mannepuwār and Netkāni. They are the Pariahs of the Telugu country, and are regarded as impure and degraded. They may be distinguished by their manner of tying the head-cloth more or less in a square shape, and by their loin-cloths, which are worn very loose and not knotted. Those who worship Narsinghswāmi, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, are called Namaddār, while the followers of Mahādeo are known as Lingadārs. The former paint their foreheads with vertical lines of sandal-paste, and the latter with horizontal ones. The Mālas were formerly zealous partisans of the right-handed sect in Madras, and the description of this curious system of faction given by the AbbÉ Dubois more than a century ago may be reproduced:1

“Most castes belong either to the left-hand or right-hand faction. The former comprises the Vaishyas or trading classes, the Panchālas or artisan classes and some of the low Sūdra castes. It also contains the lowest caste, viz. the Chaklas or leather-workers, who are looked upon as its chief support. To the right-hand faction belong most of the higher castes of Sūdras. The Pariahs (Mālas) are also its great support, as a proof of which they glory in the title of Valangai Maugattar or Friends of the Right Hand. In the disputes and conflicts which so often take place between the two factions it is always the Pariahs who make the most disturbance and do the most damage. The Brāhmans, Rājas and several classes of Sūdras are content to remain neutral and take no part in these quarrels. The opposition between the two factions arises from certain exclusive privileges to which both lay claim. But as these alleged privileges are nowhere clearly defined and recognised, they result in confusion and uncertainty, and are with difficulty capable of settlement. When one faction trespasses on the so-called right of the other, tumults arise which spread gradually over large tracts of territory, afford opportunity for excesses of all kinds, and generally end in bloody conflicts. The Hindu, ordinarily so timid and gentle in all other circumstances of life, seems to change his nature completely on occasions like these. There is no danger that he will not brave in maintaining what he calls his rights, and rather than sacrifice a little of them he will expose himself without fear to the risk of losing his life. The rights and privileges for which the Hindus are ready to fight such sanguinary battles appear highly ridiculous, especially to a European. Perhaps the sole cause of the contest is the right to wear slippers or to ride through the streets in a palanquin or on horseback during marriage festivals. Sometimes it is the privilege of being escorted on certain occasions by armed retainers, sometimes that of having a trumpet sounded in front of a procession, or of being accompanied by native musicians at public ceremonies.” The writer of the Madras Census Report of 1871 states:2 “It is curious that the females of two of the inferior castes should take different sides to their husbands in these disputes. The wives of the agricultural labourers side with the left hand, while their husbands help in fighting the battles of the right, and the shoemakers’ wives also take the side opposed to their husbands. During these festival disturbances, the ladies who hold political views opposed to those of their husbands deny to the latter all the privileges of the connubial state.” The same writer states that the right-hand castes claimed the prerogative of riding on horseback in processions, of appearing with standards bearing certain devices, and of erecting twelve pillars to sustain their marriage booths; while the left-hand castes might not have more than eleven pillars, nor use the same standards as the right. The quarrels arising out of these small differences of opinion were so frequent and serious in the seventeenth century that in the town of Madras it was found necessary to mark the respective boundaries of the right- and left-hand castes, and to forbid the right-hand castes in their processions from occupying the streets of the left hand and vice versa. These disturbances have gradually tended to disappear under the influence of education and good government, and no instance of them is known to have occurred in the Central Provinces. The division appears to have originated among the members of the Sākta sect or the worshippers of Sakti as the female principle of life in nature. Dr. L. D. Barnett writes:3—“The followers of the sect are of two schools. The ‘Walkers in the Right Way’ (Dakshināchāri) pay a service of devotion to the deity in both male and female aspects, and except in their more pronounced tendency to dwell upon the horrific aspects of the deity (as Kāli, Durga, etc.), they differ little from ordinary Saivas and Vaishnavas. The ‘Walkers in the Left Way’ (Vāmachāri), on the other hand, concentrate their thought upon the godhead in its sexually maternal aspect, and follow rites of senseless magic and—theoretically at least—promiscuous debauchery.” As has been seen, the religious differences subsequently gave rise to political factions.