Edgar Thurston

Sachchari.—A synonym of Relli. Another form of the word Chachchadi.

Sadaru.—A sub-division of Lingayats, found mainly in the Bellary and Anantapur districts, where they are largely engaged in cultivation. Some Bedars or Boyas, who live amidst these Lingayats, call themselves Sadaru. It is noted in the Mysore Census Reports that the Sadas are “cultivators and traders in grain. A section of these Sadas has embraced Lingayatism, while the others are still within the pale of Hinduism.”

Saddikudu (cold rice or food).—An exogamous sept of Golla.

Sadhana Surulu.—Sadhanasura is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Samayamuvadu. In a note on this class of itinerant mendicants, Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao states that, unlike the Samayamuvaru, they are attached only to the Padma Sale section of the Sale caste. “They say,” he writes, “that their name is an abbreviated form of Renuka Sakthini Sadhinchinavaru, i.e., those who conquered Renuka Sakthi. According to tradition, Renuka was the mother of Parasurama, one of the avatars of Vishnu, and is identified with the goddess Yellamma, whom the Padma Sales revere. The Sadhana Surulu are her votaries. Ages ago, it is said, they prayed to her on behalf of the Padma Sales, and made her grant boons to them. Since that time they have been treated with marked respect by the Padma Sales, who pay them annually four annas, and see to their marriages.”

Sadhu (meek or quiet).—A sub-division or exogamous sept of Ganiga and Padma Sale. The equivalent Sadhumatam has been recorded, at times of census, by Janappans. The name Sadhu is applied to ascetics or Bairagis.

Sagarakula.—A synonym of the Upparas, who claim descent from a king Sagara Chakravarthi of the Mahabharata.

Sahavasi.—The Sahavasis are described, in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, as “immigrants like the Chitpavanas. Sahavasi means co-tenant or associate, and the name is said to have been earned by the community in the following manner. In remote times a certain Brahman came upon hidden treasure, but, to his amazement, the contents appeared in his eye to be all live scorpions. Out of curiosity, he hung one of them outside his house. A little while after, a woman of inferior caste, who was passing by the house, noticed it to be gold, and, upon her questioning him about it, the Brahman espoused her, and by her means was able to enjoy the treasure. He gave a feast in honour of his acquisition of wealth. He was subsequently outcasted for his mÉsalliance with the low caste female, while those that ate with him were put under a ban, and thus acquired the nickname.”

Sahu.—A title of Bolasis, Godiyas, and other Oriya castes.

Saindla (belonging to the death-house).—A sub-division of Mala.

Sajjana (good men).—A synonym of Lingayat Ganigas.

Sajje (millet: Setaria italica).—An exogamous sept of Devanga.

Sakala.—See Tsakala.

Sakkereya.—Some Upparas style themselves Mel (western) Sakkereya-varu. Their explanation is that they used to work in salt, which is more essential than sugar, and that Mel Sakkare means superior sugar.

Sakuna Pakshi.—For the following note on the Sakuna Pakshi (prophetic bird) mendicant caste of Vizagapatam, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The name of the caste is due to the fact that the members of the caste wear on their heads a plume composed of the feathers of a bird called palagumma, which is probably Coracias indica, the Indian roller, or “blue jay” of Europeans. This is one of the birds called sakuna pakshi, because they are supposed to possess the power of foretelling events, and on their movements many omens depend. Concerning the roller, Jerdon writes1 that “it is sacred to Siva, who assumed its form, and, at the feast of the Dasserah at Nagpore, one or more used to be liberated by the Rajah, amidst the firing of cannon and musketry, at a grand parade attended by all the officers of the station. Buchanan Hamilton also states that, before the Durga Puja, the Hindus of Calcutta purchase one of these birds, and, at the time when they throw the image of Durga into the river, set it at liberty. It is considered propitious to see it on this day, and those who cannot afford to buy one discharge their matchlocks to put it on the wing.”

According to their own account, the Sakuna Pakshis are Telagas who emigrated to Vizagapatam from Peddapuram in the Godavari district.

A member of the caste, before proceeding on a begging expedition, rises early, and has a cold meal. He then puts the Tengalai Vaishnava namam mark on his forehead, slings on his left shoulder a deer-skin pouch for the reception of the rice and other grain which will be given him as alms, and takes up his little drum (gilaka or damaraka) made of frog’s skin. It is essential for a successful day’s begging that he should first visit a Mala house or two, after which he begs from other castes, going from house to house.

The members combine with begging the professions of devil-dancer, sorcerer, and quack doctor. Their remedy for scorpion sting is well-known. It is the root of a plant called thella visari (scorpion antidote), which the Sakuna Pakshis carry about with them on their rounds. The root should be collected on a new-moon day which falls on a Sunday. On that day, the Sakuna Pakshi bathes, cuts off his loin-string, and goes stark naked to a selected spot, where he gathers the roots. If a supply thereof is required, and the necessary combination of moon and day is not forthcoming, the roots should be collected on a Sunday or Wednesday.

Salangukaran.—In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Salangaikaran is returned as a synonym of Karaiyan or Sembadavan fishermen. The word salangu or slangu is used for pearl fisheries, and Salangukaran is, I imagine, a name applied to pearl divers.

Salapu.—The Salapus are a small caste of Telugu weavers in Vizagapatam, for the following note on whom I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The name Salapu seems to be a corruption of Saluppan, a caste which formerly engaged in the manufacture of gunny-bags and coarse cloths. The Salapus at the present day make such cloths, commonly called gamanchalu. Like some other weaving castes, they claim descent from Markandeya rishi, who was remarkable for his austerities and great age, and is also known as Dirghayus. The Salapus will not eat, or intermarry with Sales. The caste is governed by a headman called Senapati. He decides disputes, and, on occasions of marriage, receives the first share of betel and sandal, and is the first to touch the sathamanam (marriage badge) when it is passed round to be blessed by those assembled. He is, at marriages, further presented with a rupee. At caste feasts, it is his privilege to partake of food first.

Like other Telugu castes, the Salapus have intiperulu, or exogamous septs. Girls are generally married before puberty. The custom of menarikam, by which a man should marry his maternal uncle’s daughter, is in force. The turmeric ceremony takes place some months before marriage. Some male and female relations of the future bridegroom repair to the house of the girl, taking with them a few rupees as the bride-price (voli). The girl bathes, and daubs herself with turmeric paste. A solid silver bangle is then put on her right wrist. The remarriage of widows and divorce are permitted.

The Salapus are divided into Lingavantas and Vaishnavas, who intermarry. The former bury their dead in a sitting posture, and the latter practice cremation. Jangams officiate for the Lingavantas, and Satanis for Vaishnavas. Both sections observe the chinna (little) and pedda rozu (big day) death ceremonies.

The caste title is generally Ayya.

Salapu.—A form of Sarapu, an occupational term for those who deal in coins, jewelry, coral, etc.

Sale.—The Sales are the great weaver class among the Telugus, for the following note on whom I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao.

The name is derived from Sanskrit, Salika, a weaver. The Sales call themselves Senapati (commander-in-chief), and this is further the title of the caste headman. They are divided into two main endogamous sections, Padma or lotus, and Pattu or silk. Between them there are three well-marked points of difference, viz., (1) the Pattu Sales wear the sacred thread, whereas the Padma Sales do not; (2) the Pattu Sales do not take food or water at the hands of any except Brahmans, whereas the Padma Sales will eat in Kapu, Golla, Telaga, Gavara, etc., houses; (3) the Pattu Sales weave superfine cloths, and, in some places, work in silk, whereas Padma Sales weave only coarse cloths. Each section is divided into a number of exogamous septs or intiperulu. Both speak Telugu, and are divided into Vaishnavites and Saivites. These religious distinctions are no bar to intermarriage and interdining.

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district (1907), that “on the plains, cotton cloths are woven in hundreds of villages by Sales, Padma Sales, Pattu Sales, Devangas, and Salapus. The ryots often spin their own cotton into thread, and then hand it over to the weavers to be made into cloths, but large quantities of machine-made yarn are used. In the south, the chief weaving centres are Nakkapalli and Payakaraopeta in Sarvasiddhi taluk, the Pattu Sales in the latter of which turn out fabrics of fine thread, enriched with much gold and silver ‘lace,’ which are in great demand in the Godavari and Ganjam districts. At Razam, coloured cloths for women are the chief product, and in the country round this place the white garments so universal everywhere give place to coloured dress. The cloths are sold locally, and also sent in large quantities to Berhampur, Cuttack, and even Calcutta. Most of the weaving is in the hands of Devangas, but the dyeing of the thread is done with imported aniline and alizarine colours by the Balijas of Sigadam in Chipurupalle taluk and Balijapeta in Bobbili. In Siripuram and Ponduru, the Pattu Sales make delicate fabrics from especially fine thread, called Pattu Sale nulu, or silk-weaver’s thread, which the women of their caste spin for them, and which is as fine as imported 1508. These are much valued by well-to-do natives for their softness and durability. The weaving industry is on the decline throughout the district, except perhaps in Razam, and the weaver castes are taking to other means of livelihood. Round Chipurupalle, for example, the Pattu Sales have become experts in tobacco-curing, and have made such profits that they are able to monopolise much of the trade and money-lending of the locality.”

Concerning the origin of the Sale caste, it is stated, in the Andhrapada Parijatamu, that it is the result of an union between a Kamsala man and a potter woman. According to a current legend, the celestials (devatas), being desirous of securing clothing for themselves and their dependents, asked Markandeya Rishi to supply them with it. He went to Vishnu, and prayed to him. The god directed him to make a sacrificial offering to Indra, the celestial king. Markandeya accordingly performed a great sacrifice, and from the fire issued Bhavana Rishi, with a ball of thread in his hands, which he had manufactured, under Vishnu’s direction, from the fibre of the lotus which sprang from the god’s navel. With this ball of thread he proceeded to make cloths for the celestials. He subsequently married Bhadravathi, the daughter of Surya (the sun), who bore him a hundred and one sons, of whom a hundred became the ancestors of the Padma Sales, while the remaining man was the ancestor of the Pattu Sales.

The caste worships Bhavana Rishi. At the close of the year, the caste occupation is stopped before the Sankramanam for ten days. Before they start work again, the Pattu Sales meet at an appointed spot, where they burn camphor, and wave it before a ball of thread, which represents Bhavana Rishi. A more elaborate rite is performed by the Padma Sales. They set apart a special day for the worship of the deified ancestor, and hold a caste feast. A special booth is erected, in which a ball of thread is placed. A caste-man acts as pujari (priest), and fruits, flowers, camphor, etc., are offered to the thread.

The Telugu Padma Sales, and Marathi-speaking Sukun and Suka Sales, are, as will be seen from the following table, short of stature, with high cephalic index:—

	Stature. cm.	Cephalic index.
Padma Sale	159.9	78.7
Suka Sale	161.1	81.8
Sukun Sale	160.3	82.2

The Padma and Karna Sales are dealt with in special articles.

Writing in the eighteenth century, Sonnerat remarks that the weaver fixes his loom under a tree before his house in the morning, and at night takes it home. And this observation holds good at the present day. Weaving operations, as they may be seen going on at weaving centres in many parts of Southern India, are thus described by Mr. H. A. Stuart.2 “The process of weaving is very simple. The thread is first turned off upon a hand-spindle, and then the warp is formed. Bamboo sticks, 120 in number, are fixed upright in the ground, generally in the shade of a tope or grove, at a distance of a cubit from one another, and ten women or children, carrying ratnams (spindles) in their hands, walk up and down this line, one behind the other, intertwining the thread between the bamboos, until 1,920 threads of various colours, according to the pattern desired, are thus arranged. For this work each gets half an anna—a small remuneration for walking four miles. To form a warp sufficient for eight women’s cloths, forty miles have thus to be traversed. In weaving silk cloths or the finer fabrics, the length of the warp is less than sixty yards. As soon as the threads have been arranged, the bamboos are plucked up, and rolled together with the threads upon them. Trestles are then set out in the tope, and upon them the warp with the bamboos is stretched horizontally, and sized by means of large long brushes with ragi starch, and carried along by two men. This having dried, the whole is rolled up, and placed in the loom in the weaver’s house. The weaving room is a long, narrow, dark chamber, lighted by one small window close to where the workman sits. The loom is constructed on the simplest principles, and can be taken to pieces in a few minutes, forming a light load for a man. The alternate threads of the warp are raised and depressed, to receive the woof in the following manner. Two pairs of bamboos are joined together by thin twine loops, and, being suspended from the roof, are also joined to two pedals near the floor. Through the joining loops of one pair of bamboos run half the threads, and through those of the other run the other half. Thus, by depressing one pedal with the foot and raising the other, one set of threads is depressed, and the other raised so as to admit of the woof thread being shot across. This thread is forced home by a light beam suspended from the roof, and then, the position of the pedals being reversed, the woof thread is shot back again between the reversed threads of the warp. In this way about three yards can be woven in a day.” Further Mr. J. D. Rees writes as follows.3 “As you enter a weaver’s grove, it appears at first sight as if those occupied in this industry were engaged in a pretty game. Rows of women walk up and down the shady aisles, each holding aloft in the left hand a spindle, and in the right a bamboo wand, through a hook at the end of which the thread is passed. Alongside are split bamboos reaching as high as their hips, and, as they pass, they unwind the thread from the spindle by means of the wand, and pass it over each alternate upright. The threads, thus separated, are subsequently lifted with their bamboo uprights from the ground, and, while extended from tree to tree in a horizontal position, are washed with rice-water, and carefully brushed. The threads are now ready to be made into cloth, and the actual weaving is carried on by means of primitive hand looms inside the houses.”

Weavers, like many other classes in Southern India, are eminently conservative. Even so trifling an innovation as the introduction of a new arrangement for maintaining tension in the warp during the process of weaving gave rise a short time ago to a temporary strike among the hand-loom weavers at the Madras School of Arts.

For the following note on the weaving industry, I am indebted to Mr. A. Chatterton. “The hand-weavers may be divided into two great classes—(1) plain weavers, who weave cloths or fabrics with a single shuttle, which carries the weft from selvage to selvage; (2) bordered cloth weavers, who weave cloths in which the threads of the weft of the portion of the fabric forming the borders are distinct from the threads of the weft of the main body of the cloth. To manufacture these cloths, three shuttles are employed, and as yet no successful attempt has been made to imitate them on the power loom. The bordered cloth weavers do not suffer from the direct competition of machine-made piece-goods, and the depression in their branch of the industry is due to changes in the tastes of the people.4 In the manufacture of a cloth from the raw material there are three distinct processes: spinning, warping, and weaving. Modern machinery has absolutely and completely ousted hand-spinning; the primitive native methods of warping have been to a large extent replaced by improved hand-machines, and power looms have displaced hand looms to some extent; but there is still an enormous hand-loom industry, some branches of which are in by no means an unsatisfactory condition. In our efforts to place the hand-weaving industry on a better footing, we are endeavouring to improve the primitive methods of indigenous weavers both in regard to warping and weaving. In respect to weaving we have met with considerable success, as we have demonstrated that the output of the fly-shuttle loom is fully double that of the native hand loom, and it is in consequence slowly making its way in the weaving centres of Southern India. In respect to warping, no definite solution has yet been effected, and we are still experimenting. The problem is complicated by the fact that the output of a warping mill must necessarily be sufficient to keep at least a hundred hand looms at work, and at the present time the hand-weaving industry is not organised on any basis, which gives promise of development into co-operative working on so large a scale as would give employment to this number of looms. In Madura, Coimbatore, Madras and Salem, attempts are being made to establish organised hand-loom weaving factories, and these represent the direction in which future development must take place. At present all these factories are running with fly-shuttle looms, and various modifications of the old types of hand-warping machinery. The only experiments in warping and sizing are now being conducted, at Government expense, in the Government weaving factory at Salem, and in a small factory established privately at Tondiarpet (Madras). A warping machinery, suited to Indian requirements, has been specially designed for us in England, and there is no doubt but that it will provide a solution to the warping question, but whether it will be satisfactory or not depends upon the efficiency of hank sizing. The superiority of native cloths is commonly attributed to the fact that they are made in hand looms, but in reality it is largely due to the methods of sizing employed by native weavers, and it is still doubtful whether we can attain the same results by any process which involves the production of continuous warps of indefinite length. The ordinary native warp is short, and it is stretched out to its full length in the street, and the size carefully and thoroughly brushed into it. The warps which our machines will produce may be thousands of yards in length, and, if they are successful, will almost entirely do away with the enormous waste of time involved in putting new warps into a loom at frequent intervals. That they will be successful in a sense there is no reasonable doubt, but whether the goods produced in our hand-weaving factories will be what are now known as hand-woven goods, or whether they will partake more of the nature of the power-loom productions, remains to be seen. With the cheap labour available in Southern India, there is probably a future for hand-weaving factories, but it will depend almost entirely upon the successful training of the weavers, and experience shows that they are not easily amenable to discipline, and have very rigid objections to anything approaching a factory system.”

In a speech delivered at Salem in 1906, Sir Arthur Lawley, Governor of Madras, spoke as follows. “I know something of the prosperity of the weaving industry in days gone by, and I regret exceedingly to learn that it is not in so flourishing a condition as at one time it well claimed to be. Now, we have all of us heard a good deal of Swadeshi, and the Government is being constantly urged, from time to time, to do something to foster the industries of this country. We made a beginning here by setting up a Weaving Institute. We believed that by doing so we should put within the knowledge of the weavers of this district methods whereby their output of cloth would be greater, while the cost was reduced, and that thus their material prosperity would be considerably advanced. Now it is somewhat of a surprise, and considerable disappointment to me to learn that this effort which we have made is regarded with suspicion, if not with hostility. I am afraid our motives have been misunderstood, because I need hardly assure you that the idea that the Government should enter into competition with any of the industries of the country never suggested itself to us. We desired simply and solely to infuse some fresh spirit into an industry which was languishing.”

In a note on the weaving industry, Mr. E. B. Havell writes thus.5 “The principle of the Danish co-operative system as applied to dairy-farming is the combination of a number of small proprietors for sending their products to a central factory, in which each of them has a share proportionate to the quantity of his contributions. In the management of the factory, each member has an absolutely equal voice, irrespective of his holdings. Adapting such a system to the Indian weaving industry, each weaving community would have a central establishment under its own control, which would arrange the purchase of material at wholesale rates, prepare warps for the weavers’ looms, and organise the sale of the finished products. The actual weaving would be carried on as at present in the weavers’ houses by the master weavers and their apprentices. If a system of this kind would retain the economic advantages of the factory system, and eliminate its many evils, it is obvious that a factory, owned and controlled by the weavers themselves, and worked only for their advantage, is a very different thing to a factory controlled by capitalists only for the purpose of exploiting the labour of their employees.”

As bearing on the general condition of the weaving community, the following extract from the Report of the Famine in the Madras Presidency, 1896–97, may be quoted. “Among the people who felt the distress at the beginning were the weavers. It is a well-known fact that the people of the weaver castes, as well as Mussalman weavers, are generally improvident, and consequently poor. In favourable times, the weavers generally earn fair wages. They, however, spend all they earn without caring to lay by anything, so that very few of their caste are in well-to-do circumstances. The same is the case with the Mussalman weavers. All these weavers are entirely in the hands of the sowcars (money-lenders), who make advances to them, and get cloths in return. The cloths thus obtained by the sowcars are exported to other parts of the country. It may be taken as a general fact that most of the professional weavers are indebted to the sowcars, and are bound to weave for them. So long as the seasons are favourable, and sowcars get indents for cloths from their customers, they continue their advances to their dependent weavers. But when, owing to any cause, the demand decreases, the sowcars curtail their advances proportionately, and the weavers are at once put to difficulty. According to the fineness and kind of fabrics turned out by the weavers, they may be divided into fine cloth weavers and silk weavers, and weavers of coarse cloths. It is the coarse cloth weavers that would be affected with the first appearance of distress. The consumers of their manufactures are the poorer classes, and, with the appearance of scarcity and high prices, the demand for the coarser kinds of cloths would cease. Such was actually the case at the beginning of the recent distress. The weavers are, as a class, not accustomed to hard manual labour, nor are they able to work exposed to heat and sun. If such people are put on earth-work, they would certainly fail to turn out the prescribed task, and consequently earn insufficient wages. They would thus be, as it were, punished for no fault of theirs. This state of things would last at least for some time, until the weavers got accustomed to earth-work. Again, these people have, by constant work at their own craft, attained to a certain degree of skill and delicacy, and, if compelled to do earth-work during the temporary unfavourable season, they would certainly lose, to some extent, their skill and delicacy of hand, and would become unfit, in that degree, for their accustomed work when favourable season returns. They would thus be put to inconvenience doubly. During the first part of the distress, their skill of hand, and delicacy of constitution would stand in their way, and, after the return of good season, the loss of manual skill and delicacy would place them at a disadvantage. It can be easily seen that giving relief to the weavers in their own calling is the most economical form of relief. In this form of special relief, Government advances materials to the weavers to be woven into different kinds of cloths. Government has no doubt to incur a large initial expenditure in the shape of value of materials, and wages for weavers for making these materials into cloths. But all the materials are returned woven into cloths, so that, at the close of the operations, Government has a stock of cloths, which can be disposed of without difficulty on the return of favourable times, and the cost incurred recovered. In this way, Government not only administers relief to a pretty large section of its poor subjects, but keeps up, with little or no cost to itself, the industrial skill of this section of the people.”

Of proverbs relating to the weaver, one runs to the effect that, “if you want to narrow the breadth of a river, you should plant reeds on its margin; and, if you desire to destroy the sanitation of a village, you should bring weavers to it, and settle them there.” When the dyes have to be fixed, and the dyed twist has to be washed, the weavers generally resort to running water, and pollute it. The several processes of twisting and untwisting threads, preparing skeins, etc., make combined labour a necessity in the weaving industry; and, wherever one finds a weaver settlement, he must find there a large number of these people, as is explained by the proverb that “the Chetti (merchant) lost by partnership, while the weaver came to grief by isolation.” When plying shuttles in the weaving process, the weavers always use their feet in shifting the warp, by treading on a press. Thus, if a weaver unfortunately happens to have a sore on his foot, it means loss to him; or, as the proverb says, “If a dog gets a sore on its head, it never recovers from it; and even so a weaver who gets a sore on his foot.”6

Salige (wire).—A gotra of Kurni.

Saliyan.—The Saliyan weavers of Kornad and Ayyampet, in the Tanjore district, are a Tamil-speaking class, who must not be confused with the Telugu Sales. They afford an interesting example of how a limited number of families, following the same occupation, can crystallise into a separate caste. They claim to have a Puranam relating to their origin, which is said to be found in the Sthalapuranam of the Nalladai temple. They believe that they are the descendants of one Saliya Maha Rishi, a low-caste man, who did service for one Visakar, who was doing penance near Nalladai. Through the grace of the rishi Visakar, Saliya became a rishi, and married two wives. The Saliyans are said to be descended from the offspring of the first wife, and the Mottai Saliyans from the offspring of the second.

The Saliyans have taken to wearing the sacred thread, engage Brahman purohits, and are guided by Brahman priests. They are said to have had their own caste priests until a Brahman from Sendangudi, near Mayavaram, accepted the office of priest. It is reported that, in former days, the Saliyans were not allowed to sell their goods except in a fixed spot called mamaraththumedu, where they set out their cloths on bamboos. High-caste people never touched the cloths, except with a stick. At the present day the Saliyans occupy a good position in the social scale, and employ Brahman cooks, though no other castes will eat in their houses.

A curious feature in connection with the Saliyans is that, contrary to the usual rule among Tamil castes, they have exogamous septs or vidu (house), of which the following are examples:—

Mandhi, black monkey. Kottangkachchi, cocoanut shell. Thuniyan, cloth. Kachchandhi, gunny-bag. Vellai parangi, white vegetable marrow. Ettadiyan, eight feet. Thadiyan, stout. Kazhudhai, donkey. Thavalai, frog. Sappaikalan, crooked-legged. Malaiyan, hill. Kaththan, an attendant on Aiyanar.

Ozhakkan, a measure. Thondhi, belly. Munginazhi, bamboo measure. Odakkazhinjan, one who defÆcated when running. Kamban, the Tamil poet. Ottuvidu, tiled house. Kalli, Euphorbia Tirucalli. Sirandhan, a noble person. Thambiran, master or lord. Kollai, backyard. Madividu, storeyed house. Murugan, name of a person.

The Saliyans have further acquired gotras named after rishis, and, when questioned as to their gotra, refer to the Brahman purohits.

The Saliyan weavers of silk Kornad women’s cloths, who have settled at Mayavaram in the Tanjore district, neither intermarry nor interdine with the Saliyans of the Tinnevelly district, though they belong to the same linguistic division. The Tinnevelly Saliyans closely follow the Kaikolans in their various ceremonials, and in their social organisation, and interdine with them. Saliya women wear three armlets on the upper arm, whereas Kaikola women only wear a single armlet. The Saliyans may not marry a second wife during the lifetime of the first wife, even if she does not bear children. They may, however, adopt children. Some of the Tinnevelly Saliyans have taken to trade and agriculture, while others weave coarse cotton cloths, and dye cotton yarn.

In the Census Report, 1901, Ataviyar is recorded as “a synonym for, or rather title of the Tinnevelly Sales.” Further, Pattariyar is described as a Tamil corruption of Pattu Saliyan, returned by some of the Tinnevelly Sales. The Adaviyar or Pattalia Settis are Tamilians, probably an offshoot of the Kaikolans, and have no connection with the Telugu Pattu Sales, who, like the Padma Sales, retain their mother-tongue wherever they settle. It is recorded7 in connection with the Saliyar of the Chingleput district, many of whom are Kaikolans, that “a story is current of their persecution by one Salva Naik (said to have been a Brahman). The result of this was that large bodies of them were forced to flee from Conjeeveram to Madura, Tanjore, and Tinnevelly, where their representatives are still to be found.”

The Adaviyars follow the Tamil Puranic type of marriage ceremonies, and have a sirutali (small tali) as a marriage badge. The caste deity is Mukthakshiamman. The dead are always cremated.

Saluppan.—The Tamil equivalent of the Telugu Janappan, which is derived from janapa, the sunn hemp (Crotolaria juncea).

Samagara.—The Samagaras have been described8 as “the principal class of leather-workers in the South Canara district. They are divided into two endogamous groups, the Canarese Samagaras and the Arya Samagaras. The latter speak Marathi. Though the Samagaras are in the general estimation as low a caste as the Holeyas, and do not materially differ from them in their religious and other ceremonies and customs, they are, as a rule, of much fairer complexion, and the women are often very handsome. The tanning industry is chiefly carried on by the Samagaras, and their modus operandi is as follows. The hides are soaked for a period of one month in large earthen vats containing water, to which chunam is added at the rate of two seers per hide. After the expiry of the above period, they are soaked in fresh water for three days, in view to the chunam being removed. They are then put into an earthen vessel filled with water and the leaves of Phyllanthus Emblica, in which they remain for twelve days. After this, they are removed and squeezed, and replaced in the same vessel, where they are allowed to remain for about a month, after which period they are again removed, washed and squeezed. They are then sewn up and stuffed with the bark of cashew, daddala, and nerale trees, and hung up for a day. After this, the stitching is removed, and the hides are washed and exposed to the sun to dry for a day, when they become fit for making sandals. Some of the hides rot in this process to such an extent as to become utterly unfit for use.”

The badge of the Are Samagara at Conjeeveram is said9 to be the insignia of the Mochis (or Mucchis), a boy’s kite.

Samantan.—“This,” the Census Superintendent, 1891, writes, “may be called the caste of Malayalam Rajahs and chieftains, but it is hardly a separate caste at all, at any rate at present, for those Nayars and others who have at any time been petty chieftains in the country, call themselves Samantas. The primary meaning of the word Samanta is given by Dr. Gundert10 as the chief of a district.” The number of people who returned themselves as Samantas (including a few Samantan Brahmans) at the Census, 1881, was 1,611, and in 1901 they increased to 4,351.

In a suit brought against the Collector of Malabar (Mr. Logan) some years ago by one Nilambur Thachara Kovil Mana Vikrama, alias Elaya Tirumalpad, the plaintiff entered an objection to his being said by the Collector to be of “a caste (Nayar), who are permitted to eat fish and flesh, except of course beef.” He stated in court that he was “a Samantan by caste, and a Samantan is neither a Brahman, nor a Kshatriya, nor a Vaisya, nor a Sudra.” Samantan, according to him, is a corruption of Samantran, which, he stated, meant one who performs ceremonies without mantrams. He said that his caste observes all the ceremonies that Brahmans do, but without mantrams. And he gave the following as the main points in which his caste differs from that of the Nayars. Brahmans can take their food in the houses of members of his caste, while they cannot do so in those of Nayars. At the performance of sradhs in his caste, Brahmans are fed, while this is not done in the case of Nayars. Brahmans can prepare water for the purpose of purification in his house, but not in that of a Nayar. If a Nayar touches a Samantan, he has to bathe in the same way as a Brahman would have to do. For the performance of marriages and other ceremonies in his caste, Malabar Brahmans are absolutely necessary. At marriages the tali is tied by Kshatriyas. A Samantan has fourteen days’ pollution, while a Nayar has fifteen. He can only eat what a Brahman can eat. He added that he was of the same caste as the Zamorin of Calicut. A number of witnesses, including the author of the Keralavakhsha Kramam, were examined in support of his assertions. It was noted by the District Judge that no documentary evidence was produced, or reference to public records or works of authority made in support of the theory as to the existence of a caste of Samantas who are not Nayars, and are classed under Kshatriyas, and above the Vaisyas. The following account is given by the author of the Keralavakhsha Kramam of the origin of the Samantas. Some Kshatriyas who, being afraid of Parasu Rama, were wandering in foreign parts, and not observing caste rules, came to Malabar, visited Cheraman Perumal, and asked for his protection. On this Cheraman Perumal, with the sanction of the Brahmans, and in pursuance of the rules laid down by the Maharajas who had preceded him, classed these people as members of the Samantra caste. “That this book,” the Judge observed, “can be looked on as being in any way an authority on difficult and obscure historical questions, or that the story can be classed as more than a myth, there are no grounds for supposing.” No linguistic work of recognised authority was produced in support of the derivation of the word Samantan from Samantran, meaning without mantrams.

One exhibit in the case above referred to was an extract from the report of a commission appointed to inspect the state and condition of the province of Malabar. It is dated 11th October, 1793, and in it allusion is made to the ‘Tichera Tiroopaar’ who is described as a chief Nayar of Nilambur in the southern division of the country. Evidence was given to show that Tichera Tiroopaar is the Nilambur Tirumulpad. And, in a letter from the Supervisor of Malabar, dated 15th November, 1793, allusion is made to Tichera Tiroopaar as a Nayar. Two extracts from Buchanan’s well-known work on Mysore, Canara and Malabar, were also filed as exhibits. In one Buchanan relates what was told him by the Brahmans of the history of ‘Malayala’. Among other things, he mentions that Cheraman Perumal, having come to the resolution of retiring to Mecca, went to Calicut. “He was there met by a Nayar who was a gallant chief, but who, having been absent at the division, had obtained no share of his master’s dominions. Cheraman Perumal thereupon gave him his sword, and desired him to keep all that he could conquer. From this person’s sisters are descended the Tamuri Rajahs or Zamorins.” In the second extract, Buchanan sums up the result of enquiries that he had made concerning the Zamorin and his family. He states that the head of the family is the Tamuri Rajah, called by Europeans the Zamorin, and adds: “The Tamuri pretends to be of a higher rank than the Brahmans, and to be inferior only to the invisible gods, a pretension that was acknowledged by his subjects, but which is held as absurd and abominable by the Brahmans, by whom he is only treated as a Sudra.”

An important witness said that he knew the plaintiff, and that he was a Sudra. He stated that he had lived for two years in the Zamorin’s kovilagom, and knew the customs of his family. According to him there was no difference between his own caste customs and those of the Zamorin. He said that Samantan means a petty chieftain, and drew attention to the ‘Sukra Niti,’ edited by Dr. Oppert, where a Samantan is said to be “he who gets annually a revenue of from one to three lakhs karshom from his subjects without oppressing them.” There are, according to him, some Nayars who call themselves Samantas, and he added that when, in 1887, the Collector of Malabar called for lists of all stanom-holders11 in the district, he examined these lists, and found that some of the Nayar chiefs called themselves Samantan.

“A consideration of all the evidence,” the Judge writes, “appears to me to prove conclusively that the plaintiff is a Nayar by caste.... What appears to me, from a consideration of the evidence, to be the safe inference to draw is that the members of the plaintiff’s family, and also the descendants of certain other of the old Nayar chieftains, have for some time called themselves, and been called by others, Samantas, but that there is no distinctive caste of that name, and that the plaintiff is, as the defendant has described him, a Nayar by caste.”12

The Samantans are summed up as follows in the Gazetteer of Malabar. “Samantan is the generic name of the group of castes forming the aristocracy of Malabar, and it includes the following divisions:—Nambiyar, Unnitiri, Adiyodi, all belonging to North Malabar; and Nedungadi, Vallodi, Eradi, and Tirumulpad, all belonging to South Malabar. There are also Nayars with the title of Nambiyar and Adiyodi. Nedungadi, Vallodi and Eradi, are territorial names applied to the Samantans indigenous to Ernad, Walavanad, and Nedunganad respectively; or perhaps it may be more correct to say that the tracts in question take their names from the ruling classes, who formerly bore sway there. Eradi is the caste to which belongs the Zamorin Raja of Calicut. It is also the name of a section of Kiriyattil Nayars. The Raja of Walavanad is a Vallodi. Tirumulpad is the title of a class of Samantans, to which belong a number of petty chieftains, such as the Karnamulpad of Manjeri and the Tirumulpad of Nilambur. The ladies of this class are called Kolpads or Koilammahs. Many Nambiyars in North Malabar claim to belong to the Samantan caste, but there is at least reason to suppose that they are properly Nayars, and that the claim to the higher rank is of recent date. That such recruitment is going on is indicated by the difference between the number of persons returned as Samantans in the censuses of 1901 and 1891 (4,351 and 1,225 respectively), which is far above the normal percentage of increase of population. Kshatriyas wear the punul (thread); Samantans as a rule do not. Most Kshatriyas eat with Brahmans, and have a pollution period of eleven nights, indicating that their position in the caste hierarchy lies between the Brahmans with ten days and the Ambalavasis proper with twelve. Samantans as a rule observe fifteen days’ pollution, and may not eat with Brahmans. Both follow marumakkatayam (inheritance in the female line), and their women as a rule have sambandham (alliance) only with Brahmans or Kshatriyas. Those who belong to the old Royal families are styled Raja or Tamburan (lord), their ladies Tamburattis, and their houses Kovilagams or palaces. Some Samantans have the caste titles of Kartavu and Kaimal. But it does not appear that there are really any material differences between the various classes of Samantans, other than purely social differences due to their relative wealth and influence.”

“Tradition,” writes the Travancore Census Superintendent (1901), “traces the Samantas to the prudent Kshatriyas, who cast off the holy thread, to escape detection and slaughter by Parasu Rama. They are believed to have then fled to uninhabited forests till they forgot the Sandhyavandana prayers, and became in certain respects no better than Sudras. Thus they came, it is said, to be called Amantrakas, Samantrakas, Samantas, or having no mantra at all. Referring to this, Mr. Stuart says13 ‘Neither philology, nor anything else, supports this fable.’ From the word Samantra, Samanta can, no doubt, be conveniently derived, but, if they could not repeat mantras, they should have been called Amantras and not Samantras. In the Kerala Mahatmya we read that the Perumals appointed Samantas to rule over portions of their kingdom. Taking the Sanskrit word Samanta, we may understand it to mean a petty chief or ruler. It is supposed that the Perumals who came to Malabar contracted matrimonial alliances with high class Nayar women, and that the issue of such unions were given chiefships over various extents of territories. Changes in their manners and customs were, it is said, made subsequently, by way of approximation to the Kshatriyas proper. Though the sacred thread, and the Gayatri hymn were never taken up, less vital changes, as, for instance, that of the wearing of the ornaments of the Kshatriya women, or of consorting only with Nambutiri husbands, were adopted. Those who lived in Ernat formed themselves by connections and alliances into one large caste, and called themselves Eratis. Those who lived in Valluvanat became Vallotis. The unification could not assume a more cosmopolitan character as the several families rose to importance at different times, and, in all probability, from different sections of the Nayars.”

In the Travancore Census Report (1901) the chief divisions of the Samantas are said to be Atiyoti, Unyatiri, Pantala, Erati, Valloti, and Netungati. “The Unyatiris,” the Travancore Census Superintendent writes further, “look upon themselves as a higher class than the rest of the Samantas, as they have an Aryapattar to tie the tali of their girls, the other five castes employing only Kshatriyas (Tirumulpats) for that duty. The word Atiyoti has sometimes been derived from Atiyan, a slave or vassal, the tradition being that the Kattanat Raja, having once been ousted from his kingdom by the Zamorin of Calicut, sought the assistance of the Raja of Chirakkal. The latter is believed to have made the Kattanat Raja his vassal as a condition for his territory being restored. The Unnittiris are not found in Travancore, their place being taken by the Unyatiris, who do not differ from them materially in any of their manners and customs. The word Unnittiri means the venerable boy, and is merely a title of dignity. The word Pantala comes from Bhandarattil, meaning ‘in or belonging to the royal treasury’. They appear to have been once the ruling chiefs of small territories. Their women are known as Kovilammamar, i.e., the ladies of palaces or ranis. The Erati, the Valloti, and Netungati are British Malabar castes, and receive their names from the localities, to which they may have been indigenous—Ernat, Valluvanat, and Netunganat. The Zamorin of Calicut is an Erati by caste. [In 1792, the Joint Commissioners wrote that ‘the Cartinaad and Samoory (the principal families in point of extent of dominion) are of the Samanth or Euree (cowherd) caste.’]14 Some of these Eratis, such as the Raja of Nilambur, are called Tirumulpats. The only peculiarity with these Tirumulpats is that they may tie the tali of their women, and need not call other Tirumulpats for the purpose, as the rest of the Samantas have to do. A title that several Samantas often take is Kartavu (agent or doer), their females being called Koilpats, meaning literally those who live in palaces. The Samantas of Manchery and Amarampalam in Malabar are also called Tirumulpats. The Samantas of Chuntampattai and Cherupulasseri are called Kartavus. Both Kartas and Tirumulpats are called by the Sudra castes Tampuran or prince. The caste government of the Samantas rests with the Namputiri Vaidikas, and their priesthood is undertaken by the Namputiris. They follow the marumakkathayam law of inheritance (through the female line), and observe both the forms of marriage in vogue in the country, namely, tali-kettu and sambandham. Women wear the three special ornaments of the Kshatriyas, viz., the mittil or cherutali, entram, and kuzhal. The chief of these is the mittil, which is used as the wedding ornament. It has the appearance of Rama’s parasu or battle-axe. The houses of those Samantas, who are or were till recently rulers of territories, are known as kottarams or palaces, while those of the commonalty are merely called mathams, a name given to the houses of Brahmans not indigenous to Malabar. The occupations, which the Samantas pursue, are chiefly personal attendance on the male and female members of Royal families. Others are landlords, and a few have taken to the learned professions.” In the Cochin Census Report, 1901, it is stated that “Samantas and Ambalavasis do not interdine. At public feasts they sit together for meals. Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Nampidis, and most of the Ambalavasi castes, do not take water from them. Birth and death pollution last for eleven days.”

In the Madras Civil List of titles and title-holders, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Valiya Rajas of Chirakkal, Kadattanad, Palghat, and Waluvanad, are returned as Samantas.

Samanthi (Chrysanthemum indicum).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba and Togata. The flowers of the chrysanthemum are largely used for garlands, etc., in temple worship.

Samantiya.—The Samantiyas are an Oriya caste of agricultural labourers and firewood sellers. It has been suggested that the caste name is derived from samantiba, which denotes sauntering to pick up scattered things. The Samantiyas are one of the castes, whose touch is supposed to convey pollution, and they consequently live apart in separate quarters.

All the Samantiyas are said to belong to the nagasa (cobra) gotra. The headman is called Behara, and he is assisted by an official called Poricha. There is also a caste servant entitled Dogara. The caste title is Podhano, which is also frequently given out as being the name of the caste.

Samantiya women will not eat food prepared by Brahmans or members of other castes, and they apparently object to cooking in open places when travelling, and leave this work for the men to perform. An Oriya Brahman purohit officiates at the marriage ceremonies, which, with slight variations, conform to the standard Oriya type. The marriage pandal (booth) is generally covered with cocoanut leaves and leafy twigs of Eugenia Jambolana and Zizyphus Jujuba. Four lights, and a vessel of water, are kept on the dais throughout the marriage ceremonies. The knot, with which the cloths of the bride and bridegroom are tied together, is untied on the evening of the bibha (wedding) day, instead of on the seventh day as among many other castes.

Samanto.—A title of Jatapus, and other Oriya castes.

Samaya.—In his ‘Inscriptions at Sravana Belgola’ in Mysore, Mr. Lewis Rice refers to the Samaya as “Dasaris or Vaishnava religious mendicants, invested with authority as censors of morals. No religious ceremony or marriage could be undertaken without gaining their consent by the payment of fees, etc. Under the former Rajas the office was farmed out in all the large towns, and credited in the public accounts as samayachara. An important part of the profits arose either from the sale of women accused of incontinency, or from fines imposed on them for the same reason. The unfortunate women were popularly known as Sarkar (Government) wives.” “The rules of the system,” Wilks writes,15 “varied according to the caste of the accused. Among Brahmans and Komatis, females were not sold, but expelled from their caste, and branded on the arm as prostitutes. They then paid to the ijardar (or contractor) an annual sum as long as they lived, and, when they died, all their property became his. Females of other Hindu castes were sold without any compunction by the ijardar, unless some relative stepped forward to satisfy his demand. These sales were not, as might be supposed, conducted by stealth, nor confined to places remote from general observation; for, in the large town of Bangalore, under the very eyes of the European inhabitants, a large building was appropriated to the accommodation of these unfortunate women, and, so late as 1833, a distinct proclamation of the Commissioners was necessary to enforce the abolition of this detestable traffic.”

Samayamuvaru.—An itinerant class of mendicants attached to the Sale caste. From a note by Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao, I gather that they say that the name is an abbreviation of Ranasamayamuvaru, or men of the day of battle. According to a legend, when Bhavana Rishi, the patron saint of the caste, was challenged to battle by Kalavasina, a rakshasa, these people were created, and, with their assistance, the rakshasa was conquered. In recognition of their services, Bhavana Rishi made the Sales maintain them. They wander from place to place in single families, and, when they reach a halting-place, dress up, and visit the house of the Pedda Senapati (headman), who feeds them for the day, and gives a chit (note) showing the amount paid by him. At their visits to Sale houses, Bhavana Rishi is praised. They marry in the presence of, and with the aid of the Sales.

Samban.—Samban, meaning Samba or Siva, has been recorded as a sub-division of Idaiyan and Paraiyan. At times of census, Sambuni Kapu has been returned as the caste name by some Palle fishermen in Nellore.

Sambandham.—Sambandham, meaning literally connexion, is “the term used by the Nayars [and other castes] of South Malabar to denote that a man and woman are united by a quasi-matrimonial bond.”16 In Act IV of 1896, Madras, sambandham is defined as “an alliance between a man and a woman, by reason of which they, in accordance with the custom of the community, to which they belong, or either of them belongs, cohabit or intend to cohabit as husband and wife.”

Same (millet: Panicum miliare).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.

Sami Puli (holy tiger).—An exogamous sept of Kallan.

Sammathi Makkal (hammer-men).—An exogamous section of Kallan.

Sammeraya.—A name for Telugu beggars employed as servants and messengers by the heads of Lingayat mutts (religious institutions). It is derived from samme, denoting confederacy or league, and denotes those who are bound to the rules laid down by Lingayats.

Samolo.—A title of Doluva.

Sampige.—Sampige and Sampangi (champac: Michelia Champaca) have been recorded as an exogamous sept of Kurni and Odde. Champac flowers are used in the manufacture of temple garlands.

Samudra.—Samudra, Samudram, or Samudrala, meaning the ocean, has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Telugu Brahmans, Koravas, Kurubas, Balijas, and Malas. The equivalent Tamudri occurs as the title of the Zamorin, who is the sea-king or ruler of Calicut.

Sani.—The Sanivallu, who are a Telugu dancing-girl caste, are described, in the Vizagapatam Manual, as women who have not entered into matrimony, gain money by prostitution, and acting as dancers at feasts. Sani is also a title of the Oriya Doluvas in Ganjam, who are said to be descended from Puri Rajas by their concubines. The streets occupied by Sanis are, in Ganjam, known as Sani vidhi. I have heard of missionaries, who, in consequence of this name, insist on their wives being addressed as Ammagaru instead of by the customary name Dorasani.

In a note on the Sanis of the Godavari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows. “In this district, dancing-girls and prostitutes are made up of six perfectly distinct castes, which are in danger of being confused. These are the Sanis proper, Bogams, Dommara Sanis, Turaka Sanis, Mangala Bogams, and Madiga Bogams. Of these, the Bogams claim to be superior, and will not dance in the presence of, or after a performance by any of the others. The Sanis do not admit this claim, but they do not mind dancing after the Bogams, or in their presence. All the other classes are admittedly inferior to the Sanis and the Bogams. The Sanis would scorn to eat with any of the other dancing castes. The Sani women are not exclusively devoted to their traditional profession. Some of them marry male members of the caste, and live respectably with them. The men do not, as among the dancing castes of the south, assist in the dancing, or by playing the accompaniments or forming a chorus, but are cultivators and petty traders. Like the dancing-girls of the south, the Sanis keep up their numbers by the adoption of girls of other castes. They do service in the temples, but they are not required to be formally dedicated or married to the god, as in the Tamil country. Those of them who are to become prostitutes are usually married to a sword on attaining puberty.”

Sani, meaning apparently cow-dung, occurs as a sub-division of the Tamil Agamudaiyans.

Sanjogi.—The Sanjogis are an Oriya class of religious mendicants, who wear the sacred thread, and act as priests for Panos and other lowly people. The name indicates connection, and that they are the connecting link between ordinary people and those who have given up earthly pleasures (Sanyasis). The Sanjogis follow the ordinary as well as the ascetic life. Mr. G. Ramamurti Pantulu informs me that they are believed to be the offspring of ascetics who have violated their vow of celibacy, and women with whom they have lived. They make and sell bead rosaries of the sacred tulsi or basil (Ocimum sanctum) which are worn by various Oriya castes. Some are cultivators, while others are beggars. A Sanjogi beggar goes about with a bell on the thigh, and a coloured pot on the left shoulder. A few are employed at Oriya maths (religious institutions), where it is their duty to invite Bairagis and ascetics to a dinner party, and afterwards to remove the leaf platters, and eat the food which is left.

Sankati (ragi or millet pudding).—An exogamous sept of Boya. Ragi is the staple dietary of many of the lower classes, who cannot afford rice.

Sanku.—Sanku, the conch or chank (Turbinella rapa) has been recorded as a sub-division of Dasaris, Koppala Velamas, and Paraiyans who act as conch-blowers at funerals, and as an exogamous sept of Kuruba. Sankukatti, or those who tie the chank, occurs as a sub-division of Idaiyan. The chank shell, which is regularly collected by divers off Tuticorin in the Tinnevelly district, is highly prized by Hindus, and used for offering libations, and as a musical instrument at temple services, marriages, and other ceremonials. Vaishnavites and Madhvas are branded with the emblems of the chank and chakram. The rare right-handed chank shell is specially valued, and purchased for large sums. A legend, recorded by BaldÆus, runs to the effect that “Garroude (Garuda) flew in all haste to Brahma, and brought to Kistna the chianko or kinkhorn twisted to the right”. Such a shell appears on the coat-of-arms of the Raja of Cochin and on the coins of Travancore.

Sanno (little).—A sub-division of Bottada, Omanaito, Pentiya, and Sondi.

Sanror.—A synonym of Shanans, who claim that Shanan is derived from Sanror, meaning the learned or noble.

Santarasi.—An exogamous sept of Dandasi. The members thereof may not use mats made of the sedge of this name.

Santha (a fair).—An exogamous sept of Devanga and Odde.

Santo.—A sub-division of Oriya Brahmans and Bhayipuos.

Sanyasi.—“A Sanyasi is literally a man who has forsaken all, and who has renounced the world and leads a life of celibacy, devoting himself to religious meditation and abstraction, and to the study of holy books. He is considered to have attained a state of exalted piety that places him above most of the restrictions of caste and ceremony. His is the fourth Asrama or final stage of life recommended for the three higher orders. [“Having performed religious acts in a forest during the third portion of his life, let him become a Sanyasi, for the fourth portion of it, abandoning all sensual affection.”17] The number of Brahman Sanyasis is very small; they are chiefly the Gurus or High Priests of the different sects. These are, as a rule, men of learning, and heads of monasteries, where they have a number of disciples under instruction and training for religious discussion. They are supported entirely by endowments and the contributions of their disciples. They undertake periodical tours for the purpose of receiving the offerings of their followers. Since the Sanyasi is considered to be above all sin, and to have acquired sufficient merit for salvation, no sradha is performed by the children born to him before he became an anchorite. [The skull of a Sanyasi is broken after death, as a guarantee of his passage to eternal bliss. Cf. Gosayi.] The corpse of a Sanyasi is buried, and never burnt, or thrown into the river.

“The majority of the Sanyasis found, and generally known as such, are a class of Sudra devotees, who live by begging, and pretend to powers of divination. They wear garments coloured with red ochre, and allow the hair to grow unshorn. They often have settled abodes, but itinerate. Many are married, and their descendants keep up the sect, and follow the same calling.”18

Sapiri.—A synonym of Relli.

Sappaliga.—It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that “in some taluks of South Canara they are said to be identical with, or a sub-caste of Ganiga.” The Ganigas are a Canarese caste, of which the traditional occupation is oil-pressing. In the Manual of the South Canara district, it is recorded that “Sappaligs appear to be identical with the Devadigas (temple musicians) in North Canara, though they are regarded as distinct castes in South Canara. The Sappaligs are, as the name sappal (noise) implies, a class of musicians in temples, but a number of them are cultivators.” Sappaliga is an occupational term. The musicians among the Tulu Moger fishing caste are called Sappaligas, in the same way that those Mogers who are engaged as oil-pressers are called Ganigas, both being occupational names.

Sara (thread).—A gotra of Kurni.

Saragu (dried or withered leaves).—A sub-division of Valaiyan.

Sarangulu.—Recorded, in the Nellore district, as being sailors. The name is doubtless equivalent to Serang, which has been defined19 as meaning “a native boatswain, or chief of a lascar crew; the skipper of a small native vessel.”

Sarattu (sacred thread).—A sub-division of Kanakkan, members of which wear the sacred thread.

Sarayi (alcoholic liquor).—A sub-division of Balija.

Sarige (lace).—The name of a class of gold-lace makers in Mysore, and of an exogamous sept of Kuruba.

Sastri.—In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Sastri (one learned in the shastras) is described as “unrecognizable. The word is used as a title by Smarta Brahmans in the Madras Presidency, but the persons returning it came from Bombay, and were not Brahmans.” Sastri is recorded in my notes as a title of Devangas.

Satani.—The Satanis are described in the Madras Census Report, 1891, as “a class of temple servants very much like the Malis of Bengal. The word Satani is a corrupt form of Sattadavan, which, literally means one who does not wear (the sacred thread and tuft of hair). For temple services Ramanuja classed Vaishnavites into Sattinavan and Sattadavan. The former are invariably Brahmans, and the latter Sudras. Hence Satani is the professional name given to a group of the Vaishnava creed. It is sometimes stated that the Satanis of the Madras Presidency are the disciples of the famous Bengali reformer Chaitanya (15th century), from whom, they say, the term Satani took its origin. But, so far as I can ascertain, this supposition rests on no better foundation than the similarity in sound of the two names, and it seems to me more than doubtful. There is no evidence of Chaitanya having ever preached in the Dravidian country, and the tenets of the Satanis of this Presidency differ widely from those of the followers of Chaitanya. The former worship only Krishna, while the latter venerate Vishnu in the form of Narayana also. The Satanis, too, have as much reverence for Ramanuja as the followers of Chaitanya have towards their guru, who is said to be an incarnation of Krishna. With regard to their religion, it will suffice to say that they are Tengalai Vaishnavites. They shave their heads completely, and tie their lower cloth like a Brahman bachelor. In their ceremonies they more or less follow the Brahmans, but the sacred thread is not worn by them. Though the consumption of alcoholic liquor and animal food is strictly prohibited, they practice both to a considerable extent on all festive occasions, and at sradhs. Drinking and other excesses are common. Some Satanis bury the dead, and others burn them. The principal occupations of Satanis are making garlands, carrying the torches during the god’s procession, and sweeping the temple floor. They also make umbrellas, flower baskets and boxes of palmyra leaves, and prepare the sacred balls of white clay (for making the Vaishnavite sectarian mark), and saffron powder. Their usual agnomen is Aiya.”

In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Satanis are summed up as being “a Telugu caste of temple servants supposed to have come into existence in the time of the great Vaishnavite reformer Sri Ramanujacharya (A.D. 1100). The principal endogamous sub-divisions of this caste are (1) Ekakshari, (2) Chaturakshari, (3) Ashtakshari, and (4) Kulasekhara. The Ekaksharis (eka, one, and akshara, syllable) hope to get salvation by reciting the one mystic syllable Om; the Chaturaksharis believe in the religious efficacy of the four syllables Ra-ma-nu-ja; the Ashtaksharis hold that the recitation of the eight syllables Om-na-mo-na-ra-ya-na-ya (Om! salutation to Narayana) will ensure them eternal bliss; and the Kulasekharas, who wear the sacred thread, claim to be the descendants of the Vaishnava saint Kulasekhara Alvar, formerly a king of the Kerala country. The first two sections make umbrellas, flower garlands, etc., and are also priests to Balijas and other Sudra castes of the Vaishnava sects, while the members of the other two have taken to temple service. In their social and religious customs, all the sub-divisions closely imitate the Tengalai Vaishnava Brahmans. The marriage of girls after puberty, and the remarriage of widows, are strictly prohibited. Most of them employ Brahman purohits, but latterly they have taken to getting priests from their own caste. They attach no importance to the Sanskrit Vedas, or to the ritual sanctioned therein, but revere the sacred hymns of the twelve Vaishnava saints or Alvars, called Nalayira Prabandham (book of the four thousand songs), which is in Tamil. From this their purohits recite verses during marriages and other ceremonies.” At the census, 1901, Ramanuja was returned as a sub-caste of Satani. In the Manual of the North Arcot district, Mr. H. A. Stuart describes the Satanis as “a mixed religious sect, recruited from time to time from other castes, excepting Paraiyans, leather-workers, and Muhammadans. All the Satanis are Vaishnavites, but principally revere Bashyakar (another name for Ramanuja), whom they assert to have been an incarnation of Vishnu. The Satanis are almost entirely confined to the large towns. Their legitimate occupations are performing menial services in Vishnu temples, begging, tending flower gardens, selling flower garlands, making fans, grinding sandalwood into powder, and selling perfumes. They are the priests of some Sudra castes, and in this character correspond to the Saivite Pandarams.”

In the Census Report, 1871, the Satanis are described as being “frequently religious mendicants, priests of inferior temples, minstrels, sellers of flowers used as offerings, etc., and have probably recruited their numbers by the admission into their ranks of individuals who have been excommunicated from higher castes. As a matter of fact, many prostitutes join this sect, which has a recognised position among the Hindus. This can easily be done by the payment of certain fees, and by eating in company with their co-religionists. And they thus secure for themselves decent burial with the ceremonial observances necessary to ensure rest to the soul.”

In the Mysore Census Report, 1891, it is noted that Satanis are also styled Khadri Vaishnavas, Sattadaval, Chatali, Kulasekhara, and Sameraya. These names, however, seem to have pricked their amour propre in the late census, and they took considerable pains not only to cast them off, but also to enrol themselves as Prapanna Vaishnavas, Nambi, Venkatapura Vaishnavas, etc. The idea of being tabulated as Sudras was so hateful to them that, in a few places, the enumerators, who had so noted down their caste according to precedent, were prosecuted by them for defamation. The cases were of course thrown out. Further, the Mysore Census Superintendent, 1901, writes that “the sub-divisions of the Satanis are Khadri Vaishnavas, Natacharamurti, Prathama Vaishnava, Sameraya or Samogi, Sankara, Suri, Sattadhava, Telugu Satani, and Venkatapurada. Some are employed in agriculture, but as a rule they are engaged in the service of Vishnu temples, and are flower-gatherers, torch-bearers, and strolling minstrels.”

The Satanis are also called Dasa Nambis. They are flesh-eaters, but some have now become pure vegetarians. There are, for example, at Srivilliputtur in the Tinnevelly district, a large number who have abandoned a meat dietary. They are connected with the temple of Andal, and supply flowers and tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) leaves for worship, carry torches before the goddess during processions, and watch the gate of the temple during the night. The small income which they derive from the temple is supplemented by the manufacture and sale of palmyra leaf baskets, and umbrellas made from Pandanus leaves. As a class, the Satanis are given to liquor, and all important ceremonial occasions are made the excuse for copious potations. This weakness is so well known that, in the north of the Presidency, the term Ramanuja Matham is used to denote the consumption of meat and drink at death or sradh ceremonies, just as Saivam signifies vegetarianism. The Satani mendicant can be recognised by the peculiar flat gourd-shaped brass pot and palm leaf fan which he carries. The Satanis claim to have sprung from the sweat of Virat Purusha (lord of the universe). The following legend is told, as accounting for the removal of the kudumi (tuft of hair on the head), and wearing the cloth without a fold behind. In the time of Ramanuja, the Satanis enjoyed certain privileges in the temples, but, not satisfied with these, they claimed to take rank next to Brahmans. This privilege was accorded, and, when flowers and other things used in the worship of the god were to be distributed, they were handed over to the Satanis. They, however, were unable to decide who should be deputed to represent the community, each person decrying the others as being of low caste. Ramanuja accordingly directed that they should shave their heads, and wear their loin-cloths with a fold in front only.

In addition to other occupations already noted, Satanis sell turmeric, coloured powders, and sacred balls of white clay used by Vaishnavites. Some act as priests to Balijas and Komatis, at whose death ceremonies the presence of a Satani is essential. Immediately after death, the Satani is summoned, and he puts sect marks on the corpse. At the grave, cooked food is offered, and eaten by the Satani and members of the family of the deceased. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmandiram), the Satani comes to the house of the dead person late in the evening, bringing with him certain idols, which are worshipped with offerings of cooked rice, flesh, and liquor in jars. The food is distributed among those present, and the liquor is doled out from a spoon called parikam, or a broom dipped in the liquor, which is drunk as it drips therefrom.

Satani women dress just like Vaishnava Brahman women, from whom it is difficult to distinguish them. In former days, the Satanis used to observe a festival called ravikala (bodice) utchavam, which now goes by the name of gandapodi (sandal powder) utchavam. The festival, as originally carried out, was a very obscene rite. After the worship of the god by throwing sandal powder, etc., the Satanis returned home, and indulged in copious libations of liquor. The women threw their bodices into vessel, and they were picked out at random by the men. The woman whose bodice was thus secured became the partner of the man for the day.

For the following note on Satanis in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. Satani is said to be the shortened form of Saththadavan, the uncovered man. They are prohibited from covering three different parts of their bodies, viz., the head with the usual tuft of hair, the body with the sacred thread, and the waist with the customary strip of cloth. All devout Satanis shave their heads completely. [There is a proverb “Tie a knot on the Satani’s tuft of hair, and on the ascetic’s holy thread.” The Satanis shave the whole head, and the Sanyasis have no sacred thread.]20 The caste is divided into exogamous septs, or intiperulu. The custom of menarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. The remarriage of widows and divorce are not allowed. Attempts have been made by some members of the caste, in other parts of the Madras Presidency, to connect themselves with Chaitanya. But, so far as the Vizagapatam district is concerned, this is repudiated. They are Ramanuja Vaishnavas of the Tenkalai persuasion. Their gurus are known as Paravasthuvaru—a corruption of Paravasu Deva, whose figure is on the vimana of the Srirangam temple, and who must be visited before entering the principal sanctuary. They live at Gumsur in Ganjam, and have Sadacharulu, or ever-devout followers, who act as their agents in Vizagapatam. They brand the shoulders of Satanis with the Vaishnavite emblems, the sankha and chakra, and initiate them into the mysteries of the Vaishnava religion by whispering into their ears the word Ramanuja. The Satani learns by heart various songs in eulogy of Srirangam and its deity, by means of which he earns his living. He rises in the early morning, and, after a bath, adorns his forehead and body with the Vaishnavite namam, ties round his clean-shaved head a string of tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) beads known as thirupavithram, puts a tulsi garland round his neck, and takes a fan called gajakarnam, or elephant’s ear, in his right hand. In his left hand he carries a copper gourd-shaped vessel. He is generally accompanied by another Satani similarly got up. When begging, they sing the songs referred to above, and collect the rice which is given to them in their vessels. At the end of their round they return home, and their wives clean the rice, bow down before it, and cook it. No portion of the rice obtained by begging should be sold for money. The Satanis play an important part in the social life of the Vaishnavites of the district, and are the gurus of some of the cultivating and other classes. They preside at the final death ceremonies of the non-Brahman Vaishnavite castes. They burn their dead, and perform the chinna (little) and pedda rozu (big day) death ceremonies.

Sathu.—A synonym, meaning a company of merchants or travellers, of Perike and Janappan.

Saurashtra.—A synonym of the Patnulkarans, derived from the Saurashtra country, whence they came southward. They also style themselves Saurashtra Brahmans.

Savalaikkaran.—A Tamil name for fishermen, who fish in the sea. Savalai or saval thadi is the flattened paddle used for rowing boats. The Savalaikkarans are more akin to the Pallis or Vanniyans than to the Sembadavans. Though a large number are agriculturists, some play on the nagasaram (reed instrument). In the Tinnevelly district, where Melakkarans are scarce, the temple musicians are either Savalaikkarans or Panisavans. The agricultural Savalaikkarans use the title Padayachi, and the musicians the title Annavi. Their marriages last three days, and the milk-post is made of teak-wood. Widow remarriage is prohibited. The dead are always buried. Socially they are on a par with the Maravans, with whom they interdine.

Savali.—A synonym of Budubudike.

Savantiya.—A synonym of Samantiya.

Savara.—The Savaras, Sawaras, or Saoras, are an important hill-tribe in Ganjam and Vizagapatam.The name is derived by General Cunningham from the Scythian sagar, an axe, in reference to the axe which they carry in their hands. In Sanskrit, sabara or savara means a mountaineer, barbarian, or savage. The tribe has been identified by various authorities with the Suari of Pliny and Sabarai of Ptolemy. “Towards the Ganges,” the latter writes, “are the Sabarai, in whose country the diamond is found in great abundance.” This diamond-producing country is located by Cunningham near Sambalpur in the Central Provinces. In one of his grants, Nandivarma Pallavamalla, a Pallava king, claims to have released the hostile king of the Sabaras, Udayana by name, and captured his mirror-banner made of peacock’s feathers. The Rev. T. Foulkes21 identifies the Sabaras of this copper-plate grant with the Savaras of the eastern ghats. But Dr. E. Hultzsch, who has re-edited the grant,22 is of opinion that these Sabaras cannot be identified with the Savaras. The Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig-veda makes the Savaras the descendants of the sons of Visvamitra, who were cursed to become impure by their father for an act of disobedience, while the Ramayana describes them as having emanated from the body of Vasishta’s cow to fight against the sage Visvamitra.

The language of the Savaras is included by Mr. G. A. Grierson23 in the Munda family. It has, he writes, “been largely influenced by Telugu, and is no longer an unmixed form of speech. It is most closely related to Kharia and Juang, but in some characteristics differs from them, and agrees with the various dialects of the language which has in this (linguistic) survey been described under the denomination of Kherwari.”

The Savaras are described by Mr. F. Fawcett24 as being much more industrious than the Khonds. “Many a time,” he writes, “have I tried to find a place for an extra paddy (rice) field might be made, but never with success. It is not too much to say that paddy is grown on every available foot of arable ground, all the hill streams being utilized for this purpose. From almost the very tops of the hills, in fact from wherever the springs are, there are paddy fields; at the top of every small area a few square yards, the front perpendicular revetment [of large masses of stones] sometimes as large in area as the area of the field; and larger and larger, down the hillside, taking every advantage of every available foot of ground there are fields below fields to the bottoms of the valleys. The Saoras show remarkable engineering skill in constructing their paddy fields, and I wish I could do it justice. They seem to construct them in the most impossible places, and certainly at the expense of great labour. Yet, with all their superior activity and industry, the Saoras are decidedly physically inferior to the Khonds. It seems hard the Saoras should not be allowed to reap the benefit of their industry, but must give half of it to the parasitic Bissoyis and their retainers. The greater part of the Saoras’ hills have been denuded of forest owing to the persistent hacking down of trees for the purpose of growing dry crops, so much so that, in places, the hills look almost bare in the dry weather. Nearly all the jungle (mostly sal, Shorea robusta) is cut down every few years. When the Saoras want to work a piece of new ground, where the jungle has been allowed to grow for a few years, the trees are cut down, and, when dry, burned, and the ground is grubbed up by the women with a kind of hoe. The hoe is used on the steep hill sides, where the ground is very stony and rocky, and the stumps of the felled trees are numerous, and the plough cannot be used. In the paddy fields, or on any flat ground, they use ploughs of lighter and simpler make than those used in the plains. They use cattle for ploughing.” It is noted by Mr. G. V. Ramamurti Pantulu, in an article on the Savaras, that “in some cases the Bissoyi, who was originally a feudatory chief under the authority of the zemindar, and in other cases the zemindar claims a fixed rent in kind or cash, or both. Subject to the rents payable to the Bissoyis, the Savaras under them are said to exercise their right to sell or mortgage their lands. Below the ghats, in the plains, the Savara has lost his right, and the mustajars or the renters to whom the Savara villages are farmed out take half of whatever crops are raised by the Savaras.” Mr. Ramamurti states further that a new-comer should obtain the permission of the Gomongo (headman) and the Boya before he can reclaim any jungle land, and that, at the time of sale or mortgage, the village elders should be present, and partake of the flesh of the pig sacrificed on the occasion. In some places, the Savaras are said to be entirely in the power of Paidi settlers from the plains, who seize their entire produce on the plea of debts contracted at a usurious rate of interests. In recent years, some Savaras emigrated to Assam to work in the tea-gardens. But emigration has now stopped by edict.

The sub-divisions among the Savaras, which, so far as I can gather, are recognised, are as follows:—

A.—Hill Savaras.

(1) Savara, Jati Savara (Savaras par excellence), or Maliah Savara. They regard themselves as superior to the other divisions. They will eat the flesh of the buffalo, but not of the cow.

(2) Arsi, Arisi, or Lombo Lanjiya. Arsi means monkey, and Lombo Lanjiya, indicating long-tailed, is the name by which members of this section are called, in reference to the long piece of cloth, which the males allow to hang down. The occupation is said to be weaving the coarse cloths worn by members of the tribe, as well as agriculture.

(3) Luara or Muli. Workers in iron, who make arrow heads, and other articles.

(4) Kindal. Basket-makers, who manufacture rough baskets for holding grain.

(5) Jadu. Said to be a name among the Savaras for the hill country beyond Kollakota and Puttasingi.

(6) Kumbi. Potters who make earthen pots. “These pots,” Mr. Fawcett writes, “are made in a few villages in the Saora hills. Earthen vessels are used for cooking, or for hanging up in houses as fetishes of ancestral spirits or certain deities.”

B.—Savaras of the low country.

(7) Kapu (denoting cultivator), or Pallapu.

(8) Suddho (good).

It has been noted that the pure Savara tribes have restricted themselves to the tracts of hill and jungle-covered valleys. But, as the plains are approached, traces of amalgamation become apparent, resulting in a hybrid race, whose appearance and manners differ but little from those of the ordinary denizens of the low country. The Kapu Savaras are said to retain many of the Savara customs, whereas the Suddho Savaras have adopted the language and customs of the Oriya castes. The Kapu section is sometimes called Kudunga or Baseng, and the latter name is said by Mr. Ramamurti to be derived from the Savara word basi, salt. It is, he states, applied to the plains below the ghats, as, in the fairs held there, salt is purchased by the Savaras of the hills, and the name is used to designate the Savaras living there. A class name Kampu is referred to by Mr. Ramamurti, who says that the name “implies that the Savaras of this class have adopted the customs of the Hindu Kampus (Oriya for Kapu). Kudumba is another name by which they are known, but it is reported that there is a sub-division of them called by this name.” He further refers to Bobbili and Bhima as the names of distinct sub-divisions. Bobbili is a town in the Vizagapatam district, and Bhima was the second of the five Pandava brothers.

In an account of the Maliya Savarulu, published in the ‘Catalogue RaisonnÉ of Oriental Manuscripts,’25 it is recorded that “they build houses over mountain torrents, previously throwing trees across the chasms; and these houses are in the midst of forests of fifty or more miles in extent. The reason of choosing such situations is stated to be in order that they may more readily escape by passing underneath their houses, and through the defile, in the event of any disagreement and hostile attack in reference to other rulers or neighbours. They cultivate independently, and pay tax or tribute to no one. If the zemindar of the neighbourhood troubles them for tribute, they go in a body to his house by night, set it on fire, plunder, and kill; and then retreat, with their entire households, into the wilds and fastnesses. They do in like manner with any of the zemindar’s subordinates, if troublesome to them. If they are courted, and a compact is made with them, they will then abstain from any wrong or disturbance. If the zemindar, unable to bear with them, raise troops and proceed to destroy their houses, they escape underneath by a private way, as above mentioned. The invaders usually burn the houses, and retire. If the zemindar forego his demands, and make an agreement with them, they rebuild their houses in the same situations, and then render assistance to him.”

The modern Savara settlement is described by Mr. Fawcett as having two rows of huts parallel and facing each other. “Huts,” he writes, “are generally built of upright pieces of wood stuck in the ground, 6 or 8 inches apart, and the intervals filled in with stones and mud laid alternately, and the whole plastered over with red mud. Huts are invariably built a few feet above the level of the ground, often, when the ground is very uneven, 5 feet above the ground in front. Roofs are always thatched with grass. There is usually but one door, near one end wall; no windows or ventilators, every chink being filled up. In front of the doorway there is room for six or eight people to stand, and there is a loft, made by cross-beams, about 5 feet from the floor, on which grain is stored in baskets, and under which the inmates crawl to do their cooking. Bits of sun-dried buffalo meat and bones, not smelling over-sweet, are suspended from the rafters, or here and there stuck in between the rafters and the thatch; knives, a tangi (battle-axe), a sword, and bows and arrows may also be seen stuck in somewhere under the thatch. Agricultural implements may be seen, too, small ones stuck under the roof or on the loft, and larger ones against the wall. As in Ireland, the pig is of sufficient importance to have a room in the house. There is generally merely a low wall between the pig’s room and the rest of the house, and a separate door, so that it may go in and out without going through that part of the house occupied by the family. Rude drawings are very common in Saora houses. They are invariably, if not always, in some way that I could never clearly apprehend, connected with one of the fetishes in the house.” “When,” Mr. Ramamurti writes, “a tiger enters a cottage and carries away an inmate, the villages are deserted, and sacrifices are offered to some spirits by all the inhabitants. The prevalence of small-pox in a village requires its abandonment. A succession of calamities leads to the same result. If a Savara has a number of wives, each of them sometimes requires a separate house, and the house sites are frequently shifted according to the caprice of the women. The death or disease of cattle is occasionally followed by the desertion of the house.”

When selecting a site for a new dwelling hut, the Maliah Savaras place on the proposed site as many grains of rice in pairs as there are married members in the family, and cover them over with a cocoanut shell. They are examined on the following day, and, if they are all there, the site is considered auspicious. Among the Kapu Savaras, the grains of rice are folded up in leaflets of the bael tree (Ægle Marmelos), and placed in split bamboo.

It is recorded by Mr. Fawcett, in connection with the use of the duodecimal system by the Savaras that, “on asking a Gomango how he reckoned when selling produce to the Panos, he began to count on his fingers. In order to count 20, he began on the left foot (he was squatting), and counted 5; then with the left hand 5 more; then with the two first fingers of the right hand he made 2 more, i.e., 12 altogether; then with the thumb of the right hand and the other two fingers of the same, and the toes of the right foot he made 8 more. And so it was always. They have names for numerals up to 12 only, and to count 20 always count first twelve and then eight in the manner described, except that they may begin on either hand or foot. To count 50 or 60, they count by twenties, and put down a stone or some mark for each twenty. There is a Saora story accounting for their numerals being limited to 12. One day, long ago, some Saoras were measuring grain in a field, and, when they had measured 12 measures of some kind, a tiger pounced in on them and devoured them. So, ever after, they dare not have a numeral above 12, for fear of a tiger repeating the performance.”

The Savaras are described by Mr. Fawcett as “below the middle height; face rather flat; lips thick; nose broad and flat; cheek bones high; eyes slightly oblique. They are as fair as the Uriyas, and fairer than the Telugus of the plains. Not only is the Saora shorter and fairer than other hill people, but his face is distinctly Mongolian, the obliquity of the eyes being sometimes very marked, and the inner corners of the eyes are generally very oblique. [The Mongolian type is clearly brought out in the illustration.] The Saora’s endurance in going up and down hill, whether carrying heavy loads or not, is wonderful. Four Saoras have been known to carry a 10-stone man in a chair straight up a 3,800 feet hill without relief, and without rest. Usually, the Saora’s dress (his full dress) consists of a large bunch of feathers (generally white) stuck in his hair on the crown of his head, a coloured cloth round his head as a turban, and worn much on the back of the head, and folded tightly, so as to be a good protection to the head. When feathers are not worn, the hair is tied on the top of the head, or a little at the side of it. A piece of flat brass is another head ornament. It is stuck in the hair, which is tied in a knot at the crown of the head, at an angle of about 40° from the perpendicular, and its waving up and down motion as a man walks has a curious effect. Another head ornament is a piece of wood, about 8 or 9 inches in length and ¾ inch in diameter, with a flat button about 2 inches in diameter on the top, all covered with hair or coloured thread, and worn in the same position as the flat piece of brass. A peacock’s feather, or one or two of the tail feathers of the jungle cock, may be often seen stuck in the knot of hair on the top of the head. A cheroot or two, perhaps half smoked, may often be seen sticking in the hair of a man or woman, to be used again when wanted. They also smoke pipes, and the old women seem particularly fond of them. Round the Saora’s neck are brass and bead necklaces. A man will wear as many as thirty necklaces at a time, or rather necklaces of various lengths passed as many as thirty times round his neck. Round the Saora’s waist, and under his fork, is tied a cloth with coloured ends hanging in front and behind. When a cloth on the body is worn, it is usually worn crossed in front. The women wear necklaces like the men. Their hair is tied at the back of the head, and is sometimes confined with a fillet. They wear only one cloth, tied round the waist. During feasts, or when dancing, they generally wear a cloth over the shoulders. Every male wears a small ring, generally of silver, in the right nostril, and every female wears a similar ring in each nostril, and in the septum. As I have been told, these rings are put in the nose on the eighth or tenth day after birth. Bangles are often worn by men and women. Anklets, too, are sometimes worn by the women. Brass necklets and many other ornaments are made in Saora hills by the Gangsis, a low tribe of workers in brass. The Saora’s weapons are the bow, sometimes ornamented with peacock’s feathers, sword, dagger, and tangi. The bow used by the Saoras is much smaller than the bow used by any of the other hill people. It is generally about 3½ feet long, and the arrows from 18 to 21 inches. The bow is always made of bamboo, and so is the string. The arrows are reeds tipped with iron, and leathered on two sides only. A blunt-headed arrow is used for shooting birds. Every Saora can use the bow from boyhood, and can shoot straight up to 25 or 30 yards.”

As regards the marriage customs of the Savaras, Mr. Fawcett writes that “a Saora may marry a woman of his own or of any other village. A man may have as many as three wives, or, if he is a man of importance, such as Gomango of a large village, he may have four. Not that there is any law in the matter, but it is considered that three, or at most four, are as many as a man can manage. For his first marriage, a man chooses a young woman he fancies; his other wives are perhaps her sisters, or other women who have come to him. A woman may leave her husband whenever she pleases. Her husband cannot prevent her. When a woman leaves her husband to join herself to another, the other pays the husband she has left a buffalo and a pig. Formerly, it is said, if he did not pay up, the man she left would kill the man to whom she went. Now arbitration comes into play. I believe a man usually takes a second wife after his first has had a child; if he did so before, the first wife would say he was impotent. As the getting of the first wife is more troublesome and expensive than getting the others, she is treated the best. In some places, all a man’s wives are said to live together peaceably. It is not the custom in the Kolakotta villages. Knowing the wives would fight if together, domestic felicity is maintained by keeping up different establishments. A man’s wives will visit one another in the daytime, but one wife will never spend the night in the house of another. An exception to this is that the first wife may invite one of the other wives to sleep in her house with the husband. As each wife has her separate house, so has she her separate piece of ground on the hill-side to cultivate. The wives will not co-operate in working each other’s cultivation, but they will work together, with the husband, in the paddy fields. Each wife keeps the produce of the ground she cultivates in her own house. Produce of the paddy fields is divided into equal shares among the wives. If a wife will not work properly, or if she gives away anything belonging to her husband, she may be divorced. Any man may marry a divorced woman, but she must pay to her former husband a buffalo and a pig. If a man catches his wife in adultery (he must see her in the act), he thinks he has a right to kill her, and her lover too. But this is now generally (but not always) settled by arbitration, and the lover pays up. A wife caught in adultery will never be retained as a wife. As any man may have as many as three wives, illicit attachments are common. During large feasts, when the Saoras give themselves up to sensuality, there is no doubt a great deal of promiscuous intercourse. A widow is considered bound to marry her husband’s brother, or his brother’s sons if he has no younger brothers. A number of Saoras once came to me to settle a dispute. They were in their full dress, with feathers and weapons. The dispute was this. A young woman’s husband was dead, and his younger brother was almost of an age to take her to wife. She had fixed her affections on a man of another village, and made up her mind to have him and no one else. Her village people wanted compensation in the shape of a buffalo, and also wanted her ornaments. The men of the other village said no, they could not give a buffalo. Well, they should give a pig at least—no, they had no pig. Then they must give some equivalent. They would give one rupee. That was not enough—at least three rupees. They were trying to carry the young woman off by force to make her marry her brother-in-law, but were induced to accept the rupee, and have the matter settled by their respective Bissoyis. The young woman was most obstinate, and insisted on having her own choice, and keeping her ornaments. Her village people had no objection to her choice, provided the usual compensation was paid.

“In one far out-of-the-way village the marriage ceremony consists in this. The bride’s father is plied with liquor two or three times; a feast is made in the bridegroom’s house, to which the bride comes with her father; and after the feast she remains in the man’s house as his wife. They know nothing of capture. In the Kolakotta valley, below this village, a different custom prevails. The following is an account of a Saora marriage as given by the Gomango of one of the Kolakotta villages, and it may be taken as representative of the purest Saora marriage ceremony. ‘I wished to marry a certain girl, and, with my brother and his son, went to her house. I carried a pot of liquor, and arrow, and one brass bangle for the girl’s mother. Arrived at the house, I put the liquor and the arrow on the floor. I and the two with me drank the liquor—no one else had any. The father of the girl said ‘Why have you brought the liquor?’ I said ‘Because I want your daughter.’ He said ‘Bring a big pot of liquor, and we will talk about it.’ I took the arrow I brought with me, and stuck it in the thatch of the roof just above the wall, took up the empty pot, and went home with those who came with me. Four days afterwards, with the same two and three others of my village, I went to the girl’s father’s house with a big pot of liquor. About fifteen or twenty people of the village were present. The father said he would not give the girl, and, saying so, he smashed the pot of liquor, and, with those of his village, beat us so that we ran back to our village. I was glad of the beating, as I know by it I was pretty sure of success. About ten days afterwards, ten or twenty of my village people went with me again, carrying five pots of liquor, which we put in the girl’s father’s house. I carried an arrow, which I stuck in the thatch beside the first one. The father and the girl’s nearest male relative each took one of the arrows I had put in the thatch, and, holding them in their left hands, drank some of the liquor. I now felt sure of success. I then put two more arrows in the father’s left hand, holding them in his hand with both of my hands over his, and asked him to drink. Two fresh arrows were likewise placed in the left hands of all the girl’s male relatives, while I asked them to drink. To each female relative of the girl I gave a brass bangle, which I put on their right wrists while I asked them to drink. The five pots of liquor were drunk by the girl’s male and female relations, and the villagers. When the liquor was all drunk, the girl’s father said ‘Come again in a month, and bring more liquor.’ In a month I went again, with all the people of my village, men, women and children, dancing as we went (to music of course), taking with us thirty pots of liquor, and a little rice and a cloth for the girl’s mother; also some hill dholl (pulse), which we put in the father’s house. The liquor was set down in the middle of the village, and the villagers, and those who came with me, drank the liquor and danced. The girl did not join in this; she was in the house. When the liquor was finished, my village people went home, but I remained in the father’s house. For three days I stayed, and helped him to work in his fields. I did not sleep with the girl; the father and I slept in one part of the house, and the girl and her mother in another. At the end of the three days I went home. About ten days afterwards, I, with about ten men of my village, went to watch for the girl going to the stream for water. When we saw her, we caught her, and ran away with her. She cried out and the people of her village came after us, and fought with us. We got her off to my village, and she remained with me as my wife. After she became my wife, her mother gave her a cloth and a bangle.” The same individual said that, if a man wants a girl, and cannot afford to give the liquor, etc., to her people, he takes her off by force. If she likes him, she remains, but, if not, she runs home. He will carry her off three times, but not oftener; and, if after the third time she again runs away, he leaves her. The Saoras themselves say that formerly every one took his wife by force. In a case which occurred a few years ago, a bridegroom did not comply with the usual custom of giving a feast to the bride’s people, and the bride’s mother objected to the marriage on that account. The bridegroom’s party, however, managed to carry off the bride. Her mother raised an alarm, whereon a number of people ran up, and tried to stop the bridegroom’s party. They were outnumbered, and one was knocked down, and died from rupture of the spleen.

A further account of the Saora marriage customs is given by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu, who writes as follows. “When the parents of a young man consider it time to seek a bride for him, they make enquiries and even consult their relatives and friends as to a suitable girl for him. The girl’s parents are informally apprised of their selection. On a certain day, the male relatives of the youth go to the girl’s house to make a proposal of marriage. Her parents, having received previous notice of the visit, have the door of the house open or closed, according as they approve or disapprove of the match. On arrival at the house, the visitors knock at the door, and, if it is open, enter without further ceremony. Sometimes the door is broken open. If the girl’s parents object to the match, they remain silent, and will not touch the liquor brought by the visitors, and they go away. Should, however, they regard it with favour, they charge the visitors with intruding, shower abuse on them, and beat them, it may be, so severely that wounds are inflicted, and blood is shed. This ill-treatment is borne cheerfully, and without resistance, as it is a sign that the girl’s hand will be bestowed on the young man. The liquor is then placed on the floor, and, after more abuse, all present partake thereof. If the girl’s parents refuse to give her in marriage after the performance of this ceremony, they have to pay a penalty to the parents of the disappointed suitor. Two or three days later, the young man’s relatives go a second time to the girl’s house, taking with them three pots of liquor, and a bundle composed of as many arrows as there are male members in the girl’s family. The liquor is drunk, and the arrows are presented, one to each male. After an interval of some days, a third visit is paid, and three pots of liquor smeared with turmeric paste, and a quantity of turmeric, are taken to the house. The liquor is drunk, and the turmeric paste is smeared over the back and haunches of the girl’s relatives. Some time afterwards, the marriage ceremony takes place. The bridegroom’s party proceed to the house of the bride, dancing and singing to the accompaniment of all the musical instruments except the drum, which is only played at funerals. With them they take twenty big pots of liquor, a pair of brass bangles and a cloth for the bride’s mother, and head cloths for the father, brothers, and other male relatives. When everything is ready, the priest is called in. One of the twenty pots is decorated, and an arrow is fixed in the ground at its side. The priest then repeats prayers to the invisible spirits and ancestors, and pours some of the liquor into leaf-cups prepared in the names of the ancestors [Jojonji and Yoyonji, male and female], and the chiefs of the village. This liquor is considered very sacred, and is sprinkled from a leaf over the shoulders and feet of the elders present. The father of the bride, addressing the priest, says ‘Boya, I have drunk the liquor brought by the bridegroom’s father, and thereby have accepted his proposal for a marriage between his son and my daughter. I do not know whether the girl will afterwards agree to go to her husband, or not. Therefore it is well that you should ask her openly to speak out her mind.’ The priest accordingly asks the girl if she has any objection, and she replies ‘My father and mother, and all my relatives have drunk the bridegroom’s liquor. I am a Savara, and he is a Savara. Why then should I not marry him?’ Then all the people assembled proclaim that the pair are husband and wife. This done, the big pot of liquor, which has been set apart from the rest, is taken into the bride’s house. This pot, with another pot of liquor purchased at the expense of the bride’s father, is given to the bridegroom’s party when it retires. Every house-holder receives the bridegroom and his party at his house, and offers them liquor, rice, and flesh, which they cannot refuse to partake of without giving offence.”

“Whoever,” Mr. Ramamurti continues, “marries a widow, whether it is her husband’s younger brother or some one of her own choice, must perform a religious ceremony, during which a pig is sacrificed. The flesh, with some liquor, is offered to the ghost of the widow’s deceased husband, and prayers are addressed by the Boyas to propitiate the ghost, so that it may not torment the woman and her second husband. ‘Oh! man,’ says the priest, addressing the deceased by name, ‘Here is an animal sacrificed to you, and with this all connection between this woman and you ceases. She has taken with her no property belonging to you or your children. So do not torment her within the house or outside the house, in the jungle or on the hill, when she is asleep or when she wakes. Do not send sickness on her children. Her second husband has done no harm to you. She chose him for her husband, and he consented. Oh! man, be appeased; Oh! unseen ones; Oh! ancestors, be you witnesses.’ The animal sacrificed on this occasion is called long danda (inside fine), or fine paid to the spirit of a dead person inside the earth. The animal offered up, when a man marries a divorced woman, is called bayar danda (outside fine), or fine paid as compensation to a man living outside the earth. The moment that a divorcÉe marries another man, her former husband pounces upon him, shoots his buffalo or pig dead with an arrow, and takes it to his village, where its flesh is served up at a feast. The Boya invokes the unseen spirits, that they may not be angry with the man who has married the woman, as he has paid the penalty prescribed by the elders according to the immemorial custom of the Savaras.

From a still further account of the ceremonial observances in connection with marriage, with variations, I gather that the liquor is the fermented juice of the salop or sago palm (Caryota urens), and is called ara-sal. On arrival at the girl’s house, on the first occasion, the young man’s party sit at the door thereof, and, making three cups from the leaves kiredol (Uncaria Gambier) or jak (Artocarpus integrifolia), pour the liquor into them, and lay them on the ground. As the liquor is being poured into the cups, certain names, which seem to be those of the ancestors, are called out. The liquor is then drunk, and an arrow (am) is stuck in the roof, and a brass bangle (khadu) left, before the visitors take their departure. If the match is unacceptable to the girl’s family, the arrow and bangle are returned. The second visit is called pank-sal, or sang-sang-dal-sol, because the liquor pots are smeared with turmeric paste. Sometimes it is called nyanga-dal-sol, because the future bridegroom carries a small pot of liquor on a stick borne on the shoulder; or pojang, because the arrow, which has been stuck in the roof, is set up in the ground close to one of the pots of liquor. In some places, several visits take place subsequent to the first visit, at one of which, called rodai-sal, a quarrel arises.

It is noted by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu that, among the Savaras who have settled in the low country, some differences have arisen in the marriage rites “owing to the introduction of Hindu custom, i.e., those obtaining among the Sudra castes. Some of the Savaras who are more Hinduised than others consult their medicine men as to what day would be most auspicious for a marriage, erect pandals (booths), dispense with the use of liquor, substituting for it thick jaggery (crude sugar) water, and hold a festival for two or three days. But even the most Hinduised Savara has not yet fallen directly into the hands of the Brahman priest.” At the marriage ceremony of some Kapu Savaras, the bride and bridegroom sit side by side at the auspicious moment, and partake of boiled rice (korra) from green leaf-cups, the pair exchanging cups. Before the bridegroom and his party proceed to their village with the bride, they present the males and females of her village with a rupee, which is called janjul naglipu, or money paid for taking away the girl. In another form of Kapu Savara marriage, the would-be bridegroom and his party proceed, on an auspicious day, to the house of the selected girl, and offer betel and tobacco, the acceptance of which is a sign that the match is agreeable to her parents. On a subsequent day, a small sum of money is paid as the bride-price. On the wedding day the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom, where the contracting couple are lifted up by two people, who dance about with them. If the bride attempts to enter the house, she is caught hold of, and made to pay a small sum of money before she is permitted to do so. Inside the house, the officiating Desari ties the ends of the cloths of the bride and bridegroom together, after the ancestors and invisible spirits have been worshipped.

Of the marriage customs of the Kapu Savaras, the following account is given in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district. “The Kapu Savaras are taking to menarikam (marriage with the maternal uncle’s daughter), although the hill custom requires a man to marry outside his village. Their wedding ceremonies bear a distant resemblance to those among the hill Savaras. Among the Kapu Savaras, the preliminary arrow and liquor are similarly presented, but the bridegroom goes at length on an auspicious day with a large party to the bride’s house, and the marriage is marked by his eating out of the same platter with her, and by much drinking, feasting, and dancing.”

Children are named after the day of the week on which they were born, and nicknames are frequently substituted for the birth name. Mr. Fawcett records, for example, that a man was called Gylo because, when a child, he was fond of breaking nuts called gylo, and smearing himself with their black juice. Another was called Dallo because, in his youthful days, he was fond of playing about with a basket (dalli) on his head.

Concerning the death rites, Mr. Fawcett writes as follows. “As soon as a man, woman, or child dies in a house, a gun, loaded with powder only, is fired off at the door, or, if plenty of powder is available, several shots are fired, to frighten away the Kulba (spirit). The gun used is the ordinary Telugu or Uriya matchlock. Water is poured over the body while in the house. It is then carried away to the family burning-ground, which is situated from 30 to 80 yards from the cluster of houses occupied by the family, and there it is burned. [It is stated by Mr. S. P. Rice26 that “the dead man’s hands and feet are tied together, and a bamboo is passed through them. Two men then carry the corpse, slung in this fashion, to the burning-ground. When it is reached, two posts are stuck up, and the bamboo, with the corpse tied to it, is placed crosswise on the posts. Then below the corpse a fire is lighted. The Savara man is always burnt in the portion of the ground—one cannot call it a field—which he last cultivated.”] The only wood used for the pyre is that of the mango, and of Pongamia glabra. Fresh, green branches are cut and used. No dry wood is used, except a few twigs to light the fire. Were any one to ask those carrying a body to the burning-ground the name of the deceased or anything about him, they would be very angry. Guns are fired while the body is being carried. Everything a man has, his bows and arrows, his tangi, his dagger, his necklaces, his reaping-hook for cutting paddy, his axe, some paddy and rice, etc., are burnt with his body. I have been told in Kolakotta that all a man’s money too is burned, but it is doubtful if it really ever is—a little may be. A Kolakotta Gomango told me “If we do not burn these things with the body, the Kulba will come and ask us for them, and trouble us.” The body is burned the day a man dies. The next day, the people of the family go to the burning-place with water, which they pour over the embers. The fragments of the bones are then picked out, and buried about two feet in the ground, and covered over with a miniature hut, or merely with some thatching grass kept on the place by a few logs of wood, or in the floor of a small hut (thatched roof without walls) kept specially for the Kulba at the burning-place. An empty egg-shell (domestic hen’s) is broken under foot, and buried with the bones. It is not uncommon to send pieces of bone, after burning, to relations at a distance, to allow them also to perform the funeral rites. The first sacrificial feast, called the Limma, is usually made about three or four days after the body has been burnt. In some places, it is said to be made after a longer interval. For the Limma a fowl is killed at the burning-place, some rice or other grain is cooked, and, with the fowl, eaten by the people of the family, with the usual consumption of liquor. Of course, the Kudang (who is the medium of communication between the spirits of the dead and the living) is on the spot, and communicates with the Kulba. If the deceased left debts, he, through the Kudang, tells how they should be settled. Perhaps the Kulba asks for tobacco and liquor, and these are given to the Kudang, who keeps the tobacco, and drinks the liquor. After the Limma, a miniature hut is built for the Kulba over the spot where the bones are buried. But this is not done in places like Kolakotta, where there is a special hut set apart for the Kulba. In some parts of the Saora country, a few logs with grass on the top of them, logs again on the top to keep the grass in its place, are laid over the buried fragments of bones, it is said to be for keeping rain off, or dogs from disturbing the bones. In the evening previous to the Limma, bitter food—the fruits or leaves of the margosa tree (Melia Azadirachta)—are eaten. They do not like this bitter food, and partake of it at no other time. [The same custom, called pithapona, or bitter food, obtains among the Oriya inhabitants of the plains.] After the Limma, the Kulba returns to the house of the deceased, but it is not supposed to remain there always. The second feast to the dead, also sacrificial, is called the Guar. For this, a buffalo, a large quantity of grain, and all the necessary elements and accompaniments of a feast are required. It is a much larger affair than the Limma, and all the relations, and perhaps the villagers, join in. The evening before the Guar, there is a small feast in the house for the purpose of calling together all the previously deceased members of the family, to be ready for the Guar on the following day. The great feature of the Guar is the erection of a stone in memory of the deceased. From 50 to 100 yards (sometimes a little more) from the houses occupied by a family may be seen clusters of stones standing upright in the ground, nearly always under a tree. Every one of the stones has been put up at one of these Guar feasts. There is a great deal of drinking and dancing. The men, armed with all their weapons, with their feathers in their hair, and adorned with coloured cloths, accompanied by the women, all dancing as they go, leave the house for the place where the stones are. Music always accompanies the dancing. At Kolakotta there is another thatched hut for the Kulba at the stones. The stone is put up in the deceased’s name at about 11 A.M., and at about 2 P.M. a buffalo is killed close to it. The head is cut off with an axe, and blood is put on the stone. The stones one sees are generally from 1½ to 4 feet high. There is no connection between the size of the stone and the importance of the deceased person. As much of the buffalo meat as is required for the feast is cooked, and eaten at the spot where the stones are. The uneaten remains are taken away by the relatives. In the evening the people return to the village, dancing as they go. The Kolakotta people told me they put up the stones under trees, so that they can have all their feasting in the shade. Relations exchange compliments by presenting one another with a buffalo for the Guar feast, and receive one in return on a future occasion. The Guar is supposed to give the Kulba considerable satisfaction, and it does not injure people as it did before. But, as the Guar does not quite satisfy the Kulba, there is the great biennial feast to the dead. Every second year (I am still speaking of Kolakotta) is performed the Karja or biennial feast to the dead, in February or March, after the crops are cut. All the Kolakotta Saoras join in this feast, and keep up drinking and dancing for twelve days. During these days, the Kudangs eat only after sunset. Guns are continually fired off, and the people give themselves up to sensuality. On the last day, there is a great slaughter of buffaloes. In front of every house in which there has been a death in the previous two years, at least one buffalo, and sometimes two or three, are killed. Last year (1886) there were said to be at least a thousand buffaloes killed in Kolakotta on the occasion of the Karja. The buffaloes are killed in the afternoon. Some grain is cooked in the houses, and, with some liquor, is given to the Kudangs, who go through a performance of offering the food to the Kulbas, and a man’s or a woman’s cloth, according as the deceased is a male or female, is at this time given to the Kudang for the Kulba of each deceased person, and of course the Kudang keeps the offerings. The Kudang then tells the Kulba to begone, and trouble the inmates no more. The house people, too, sometimes say to the Kulba ‘We have now done quite enough for you: we have given you buffaloes, liquor, food, and cloths; now you must go’. At about 8 P.M., the house is set fire to, and burnt. Every house, in which there has been a death within the last two years, is on this occasion burnt. After this, the Kulba gives no more trouble, and does not come to reside in the new hut that is built on the site of the burnt one. It never hurts grown people, but may cause some infantile diseases, and is easily driven away by a small sacrifice. In other parts of the Saora country, the funeral rites and ceremonies are somewhat different to what they are in Kolakotta. The burning of bodies, and burning of the fragments of the bones, is the same everywhere in the Saora country. In one village the Saoras said the bones were buried until another person died, when the first man’s bones were dug up and thrown away, and the last person’s bones put in their place. Perhaps they did not correctly convey what they meant. I once saw a gaily ornamented hut, evidently quite new, near a burning-place. Rude figures of birds and red rags were tied to five bamboos, which were sticking up in the air about 8 feet above the hut, one at each corner, and one in the centre, and the bamboos were split, and notched for ornament. The hut was about 4½ feet square, on a platform three feet high. There were no walls, but only four pillars, one at each corner, and inside a loft just as in a Saora’s hut. A very communicative Saora said he built the hut for his brother after he had performed the Limma, and had buried the bones in the raised platform in the centre of the hut. He readily went inside, and showed what he kept there for the use of his dead brother’s Kulba. On the loft were baskets of grain, a bottle of oil for his body, a brush to sweep the hut; in fact everything the Kulba wanted. Generally, where it is the custom to have a hut for the Kulba, such hut is furnished with food, tobacco, and liquor. The Kulba is still a Saora, though a spiritual one. In a village two miles from that in which I saw the gaily ornamented hut, no hut of any kind is built for the Kulba; the bones are merely covered with grass. Weapons, ornaments, etc., are rarely burned with a body outside the Kolakotta villages. In some places, perhaps one weapon, or a few ornaments will be burned with it. In some places the Limma and Guar feasts are combined, and in other places (and this is most common) the Guar and Karja are combined, but there is no burning of houses. In some places this is performed if crops are good. One often sees, placed against the upright stones to the dead, pieces of ploughs for male Kulbas, and baskets for sifting grain for female Kulbas. I once came across some hundreds of Saoras performing the Guar Karja. Dancing, with music, fantastically dressed, and brandishing their weapons, they returned from putting up the stones to the village, and proceeded to hack to pieces with their axes the buffaloes that had been slaughtered—a disgusting sight. After dark, many of the feasters passed my camp on their way home, some carrying legs and other large pieces of the sacrificed buffaloes, others trying to dance in a drunken way, swinging their weapons. During my last visit to Kolakotta, I witnessed a kind of combination of the Limma and Guar (an uncommon arrangement there) made owing to peculiar circumstances. A deceased Saora left no family, and his relatives thought it advisable to get through his Limma and Guar without delay, so as to run no risk of the non-performance of these feasts. He had been dead about a month. The Limma was performed one day, the feast calling together the deceased ancestors the same evening; and the Guar on the following day. Part of the Limma was performed in a house. Three men, and a female Kudang sat in a row; in front of them there was an inverted pot on the ground, and around it were small leaf cups containing portions of food. All chanted together, keeping excellent time. Some food in a little leaf cup was held near the earthen pot, and now and then, as they sang, passed round it. Some liquor was poured on the food in the leaf cup, and put on one side for the Kulba. The men drank liquor from the leaf cups which had been passed round the earthen pot. After some silence there was a long chant, to call together all spirits of ancestors who had died violent deaths, and request them to receive the spirit of the deceased among them; and portions of food and liquor were put aside for them. Then came another long chant, calling on the Kulbas of all ancestors to come, and receive the deceased and not to be angry with him.”

It is stated27 that, in the east of Gunupur, the Savaras commit much cattle theft, partly, it is said, because custom enjoins big periodical sacrifices of cattle to their deceased ancestors. In connection with the Guar festival, Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu writes that well-to-do individuals offer each one or two animals, while, among the poorer members of the community, four or five subscribe small sums for the purchase of a buffalo, and a goat. “There are,” he continues, “special portions of the sacrificed animals, which should, according to custom, be presented to those that carried the dead bodies to the grave, as well as to the Boya and Gomong. If a man is hanged, a string is suspended in the house on the occasion of the Guar, so that the spirit may descend along it. If a man dies of wounds caused by a knife or iron weapon, a piece of iron or an arrow is thrust into a rice-pot to represent the deceased.” I gather further that, when a Savara dies after a protracted illness, a pot is suspended by a string from the roof of the house. On the ground is placed a pot, supported on three stones. The pots are smeared with turmeric paste, and contain a brass box, chillies, rice, onions, and salt. They are regarded as very sacred, and it is believed that the ancestors sometimes visit them.

Concerning the religion of the Savaras, Mr. Fawcett notes that their name for deity is Sonnum or Sunnam, and describes the following:—

(1) Jalia. In some places thought to be male, and in others female. The most widely known, very malevolent, always going about from one Saora village to another causing illness or death; in some places said to eat people. Almost every illness that ends in death in three or four days is attributed to Jalia’s malevolence. When mangoes ripen, and before they are eaten cooked (though they may be eaten raw), a sacrifice of goats, with the usual drinking and dancing, is made to this deity. In some villages, in the present year (1887), there were built for the first time, temples—square thatched places without walls—in the villages. The reason given for building in the villages was that Jalia had come into them. Usually erections are outside villages, and sacrifice is made there, in order that Jalia may be there appeased, and go away. But sometimes he will come to a village, and, if he does, it is advisable to make him comfortable. One of these newly built temples was about four feet square, thatched on the top, with no walls, just like the hut for departed spirits. A Saora went inside, and showed us the articles kept for Jalia’s use and amusement. There were two new cloths in a bamboo box, two brushes of feathers to be held in the hand when dancing, oil for the body, a small looking-glass, a bell, and a lamp. On the posts were some red spots. Goats are killed close by the temple, and the blood is poured on the floor of the platform thereof. There are a few villages, in or near which there are no Jalia erections, the people saying that Jalia does not trouble them, or that they do not know him. In one village where there was none, the Saoras said there had been one, but they got tired of Jalia, and made a large sacrifice with numerous goats and fowls, burnt his temple, and drove him out. Jalia is fond of tobacco. Near one village is an upright stone in front of a little Jalia temple, by a path-side, for passers-by to leave the ends of their cheroots on for Jalia.

(2) Kitung. In some parts there is a story that this deity produced all the Saoras in Orissa, and brought them with all the animals of the jungles to the Saora country. In some places, a stone outside the village represents this deity, and on it sacrifices are made on certain occasions to appease this deity. The stone is not worshipped. There are also groves sacred to this deity. The Uriyas in the Saora hills also have certain sacred groves, in which the axe is never used.

(3) Rathu. Gives pains in the neck.

(4) Dharma Boja, Lankan (above), Ayungang (the sun). The first name is, I think, of Uriya origin, and the last the real Saora name. There is an idea in the Kolakotta country that it causes all births. This deity is not altogether beneficent, and causes sickness, and may be driven away by sacrifices. In some villages, this deity is almost the only one known. A Saora once told me, on my pointing to Venus and asking what it was, that the stars are the children of the sun and moon, and one day the sun said he would eat them all up. Woman-like, the moon protested against the destruction of her progeny, but was obliged to give in. She, however, managed to hide Venus while the others were being devoured. Venus was the only planet he knew. In some parts, the sun is not a deity.

(5) Kanni. Very malevolent. Lives in big trees, so they are never cut in groves which this deity is supposed to haunt. I frequently saw a Saora youth of about 20, who was supposed to be possessed by this deity. He was an idiot, who had fits. Numerous buffaloes had been sacrificed to Kanni, to induce that deity to leave the youth, but to no purpose.

“There are many hill deities known in certain localities—Derema, supposed to be on the Deodangar hill, the highest in the neighbourhood, Khistu, Kinchinyung, Ilda, Lobo, Kondho, Balu, Baradong, etc. These deities of the hills are little removed from the spirits of the deceased Saoras. [Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu refers to two hills, one at Gayaba called Jum-tang Baru, or eat cow hill, and the other about eight miles from Parlakimedi, called Media Baru. At the former, a cow or bull is sacrificed, because a Kuttung once ate the flesh of a cow there; at the latter the spirits require only milk and liquor. This is peculiar, as the Savaras generally hold milk in abhorrence.]”

“There is invariably one fetish, and generally there are several fetishes in every Saora house. In some villages, where the sun is the chief deity (and causes most mischief), there are fetishes of the sun god; in another village, fetishes of Jalia, Kitung, etc. I once saw six Jalia fetishes, and three other fetishes in one house. There are also, especially about Kolakotta, Kulba fetishes in houses. The fetish is generally an empty earthen pot, about nine inches in diameter, slung from the roof. The Kudang slings it up. On certain occasions, offerings are made to the deity or Kulba represented by the fetish on the floor underneath it. Rude pictures, too, are sometimes fetishes. The fetish to the sun is generally ornamented with a rude pattern daubed in white on the outside. In the village of Bori in the Vizagapatam Agency, offerings are made to the sun fetish when a member of the household gets pains in the legs or arms, and the fetish is said on such occasion to descend of itself to the floor. Sacrifices are sometimes made inside houses, under the fetishes, sometimes at the door, and blood put on the ground underneath the fetish.”

It is noted by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu that “the Kittungs are ten in number, and are said to be all brothers. Their names are Bhima, Rama, Jodepulu, Peda, Rung-rung, Tumanna, Garsada, Jaganta, Mutta, and Tete. On some occasions, ten figures of men, representing the Kittungs, are drawn on the walls of a house. Figures of horses and elephants, the sun, moon and stars, are also drawn below them. The Boya is also represented. When a woman is childless, or when her children die frequently, she takes a vow that the Kittungpurpur ceremony shall be celebrated, if a child is born to her, and grows in a healthy state. If this comes to pass, a young pig is purchased, and marked for sacrifice. It is fattened, and allowed to grow till the child reaches the age of twelve, when the ceremony is performed.

The Madras Museum possesses a series of wooden votive offerings which were found stacked in a structure, which has been described to me as resembling a pigeon-cot. The offerings consisted of a lizard (Varanus), paroquet, monkey, peacock, human figures, dagger, gun, sword, pick-axe, and musical horn. The Savaras would not sell them to the district officer, but parted with them on the understanding that they would be worshipped by the Government.

I gather that, at the sale or transfer of land, the spirits are invoked by the Boya, and, after the distribution of liquor, the seller or mortgager holds a pipal (Ficus religiosa) leaf with a lighted wick in it in his hand, while the purchaser or mortgagee holds another leaf without a wick. The latter covers the palm of the former with his leaf, and the terms of the transaction are then announced.

Concerning the performance of sacrifices, Mr. Fawcett writes that “the Saoras say they never practiced human sacrifice. Most Saora sacrifices, which are also feasts, are made to appease deities or Kulbas that have done mischief. I will first notice the few which do not come in this category. (a) The feast to Jalia when mangoes ripen, already mentioned, is one. In a village where the sun, and not Jalia, is the chief deity, this feast is made to the sun. Jalia does not trouble the village, as the Kudung meets him outside it now and then, and sends him away by means of a sacrifice. [Sacrifices and offerings of pigs or fowls, rice, and liquor, are also made at the mahua, hill grain, and red gram festivals.] (b) A small sacrifice, or an offering of food, is made in some places before a child is born. About Kolakotta, when a child is born, a fowl or a pound or so of rice, and a quart of liquor provided by the people of the house, will be taken by the Kudang to the jungle, and the fowl sacrificed to Kanni. Blood, liquor, and rice are left in leaf cups for Kanni, and the rest is eaten. In every paddy field in Kolakotta, when the paddy is sprouting, a sacrifice is made to Sattira for good crops. A stick of the tree called in Uriya kendhu, about five or six feet long, is stuck in the ground. The upper end is sharpened to a point, on which is impaled a live young pig or a live fowl, and over it an inverted earthen pot daubed over with white rings. If this sacrifice is not made, good crops cannot be expected. [It may be noted that the impaling of live pigs is practiced in the Telugu country.]28 When crops ripen, and before the grain is eaten, sacrifice is made to Lobo (the earth). Lobo Sonnum is the earth deity. If they eat the grain without performing this sacrifice, it will disagree with them, and will not germinate properly when sown again. If crops are good, a goat is killed, if not good, a pig or a fowl. A Kolakotta Saora told me of another sacrifice, which is partly of a propitiatory nature. If a tiger or panther kills a person, the Kudang is called, and he, on the following Sunday, goes through a performance, to prevent a similar fate overtaking others. Two pigs are killed outside the village, and every man, woman, and child is made to walk over the ground whereon the pig’s blood is spilled, and the Kudang gives to each individual some kind of tiger medicine as a charm. The Kudang communicates with the Kulba of the deceased, and learns the whole story of how he met his death. In another part of the Saora country, the above sacrifice is unknown; and, when a person is killed by a tiger or panther, a buffalo is sacrificed to the Kulba of the deceased three months afterwards. The feast is begun before dark, and the buffalo is killed the next morning. No medicine is used. Of sacrifices after injury is felt, and in order to get rid of it, that for rain may be noticed first. The Gomango, another important man in the village, and the Kudang officiate. A pig and a goat are killed outside the village to Kitung. The blood must flow on the stone. Then liquor and grain are set forth, and a feast is made. About Kolakotta the belief in the active malevolence of Kulbas is more noticeable than in other parts, where deities cause nearly all mischief. Sickness and death are caused by deities or Kulbas, and it is the Kudang who ascertains which particular spirit is in possession of, or has hold of any sick person, and informs him what is to be done in order to drive it away. He divines in this way usually. He places a small earthen saucer, with a little oil and lighted wick in it, in the patient’s hand. With his left hand he holds the patient’s wrist, and with his right drops from a leaf cup grains of rice on to the flame. As each grain drops, he calls out the name of different deities, and Kulbas, and, whichever spirit is being named as a grain catches fire, is that causing the sickness. The Kudang is at once in communication with the deity or Kulba, who informs him what must be done for him, what sacrifice made before he will go away. There is, in some parts of the Saora country, another method by which a Kudang divines the cause of sickness. He holds the patient’s hand for a quarter of an hour or so, and goes off in a trance, in which the deity or Kulba causing the sickness communicates with the Kudang, and says what must be done to appease him. The Kudang is generally, if not always, fasting when engaged in divination. If a deity or Kulba refuses to go away from a sick person, another more powerful deity or Kulba can be induced to turn him out.

A long account of a big sacrifice is given by Mr. Fawcett, of which the following is a summary. The Kudang was a lean individual of about 40 or 45, with a grizzled beard a couple of inches in length. He had a large bunch of feathers in his hair, and the ordinary Saora waist-cloth with a tail before and behind. There were tom-toms with the party. A buffalo was tied up in front of the house, and was to be sacrificed to a deity who had seized on a young boy, and was giving him fever. The boy’s mother came out with some grain, and other necessaries for a feed, in a basket on her head. All started, the father of the boy carrying him, a man dragging the buffalo along, and the Kudang driving it from behind. As they started, the Kudang shouted out some gibberish, apparently addressed to the deity, to whom the sacrifice was to be made. The party halted in the shade of some big trees. They said that the sacrifice was to the road god, who would go away by the path after the sacrifice. Having arrived at the place, the woman set down her basket, the men laid down their axes and the tom-toms, and a fire was lighted. The buffalo was tied up 20 yards off on the path, and began to graze. After a quarter of an hour, the father took the boy in his lap as he sat on the path, and the Kudang’s assistant sat on his left with a tom-tom before him. The Kudang stood before the father on the path, holding a small new earthen pot in his hand. The assistant beat the tom-tom at the rate of 150 beats to the minute. The Kudang held the earthen pot to his mouth, and, looking up to the sun (it was 9 A.M.), shouted some gibberish into it, and then danced round and round without leaving his place, throwing up the pot an inch or so, and catching it with both hands, in perfect time with the tom-tom, while he chanted gibberish for a quarter of an hour. Occasionally, he held the pot up to the sun, as if saluting it, shouted into it, and passed it round the father’s head and then round the boy’s head, every motion in time with the tom-tom. The chant over, he put down the pot, and took up a toy-like bow and arrow. The bow was about two feet long, through which was fixed an arrow with a large head, so that it could be pulled only to a certain extent. The arrow was fastened to the string, so that it could not be detached from the bow. He then stuck a small wax ball on to the point of the arrow head, and, dancing as before, went on with his chant accompanied by the tom-tom. Looking up at the sun, he took aim with the bow, and fired the wax ball at it. He then fired balls of wax, and afterwards other small balls, which the Uriyas present said were medicine of some kind, at the boy’s head, stomach, and legs. As each ball struck him, he cried. The Kudang, still chanting, then went to the buffalo, and fired a wax ball at its head. He came back to where the father was sitting, and, putting down the bow, took up two thin pieces of wood a foot long, an inch wide, and blackened at the ends. The chant ceased for a few moments while he was changing the bow for the pieces of wood, but, when he had them in his hands, he went on again with it, dancing round as before, and striking the two pieces of wood together in time. This lasted about five minutes, and, in the middle of the dance, he put an umbrella-like shade on his head. The dance over, he went to the buffalo, and stroked it all over with the two pieces of wood, first on the head, then on the body and rump, and the chant ceased. He then sat in front of the boy, put a handful of common herbs into the earthen pot, and poured some water into it. Chanting, he bathed the boy’s head with the herbs and water, the father’s head, the boy’s head again, and then the buffalo’s head, smearing them with the herbs. He blew into one ear of the boy, and then into the other. The chant ceased, and he sat on the path. The boy’s father got up, and, carrying the boy, seated him on the ground. Then, with an axe, which was touched by the sick boy, he went up to the buffalo, and with a blow almost buried the head of the axe in the buffalo’s neck. He screwed the axe about until he disengaged it, and dealt a second and a third blow in the same place, and the buffalo fell on its side. When it fell, the boy’s father walked away. As the first blow was given, the Kudang started up very excited as if suddenly much overcome, holding his arms slightly raised before him, and staggered about. His assistant rushed at him, and held him round the body, while he struggled violently as if striving to get to the bleeding buffalo. He continued struggling while the boy’s father made his three blows on the buffalo’s neck. The father brought him some of the blood in a leaf cup, which he greedily drank, and was at once quiet. Some water was then given him, and he seemed to be all right. After a minute or so, he sat on the path with the tom-tom before him, and, beating it, chanted as before. The boy’s father returned to the buffalo, and, with a few more whacks at it, stopped its struggles. Some two or three men joined him, and, with their axes and swords, soon had the buffalo in pieces. All present, except the Kudang, had a good feed, during which the tom-tom ceased. After the feed, Kudang went at it again, and kept it up at intervals for a couple of hours. He once went for 25 minutes at 156 beats to the minute without ceasing.

A variant of the ceremonial here described has been given to me by Mr. G. F. Paddison from the Gunapur hills. A buffalo is tied up to the door of the house, where the sick person resides. Herbs and rice in small platters, and a little brass vessel containing toddy, balls of rice, flowers, and medicine, are brought with a bow and arrow. The arrow is thicker at the basal end than towards the tip. The narrow part goes, when shot, through a hole in the bow, too small to allow of passage of the rest of the arrow. The Beju (wise woman) pours toddy over the herbs and rice, and daubs the sick person over the forehead, breasts, stomach, and back. She croons out a long incantation to the goddess, stopping at intervals to call out “Daru,” to attract her attention. She then takes the bow and arrow, and shoots into the air. She then stands behind the kneeling patient, and shoots balls of medicine stuck on the tip of the arrow at her. The construction of the arrow is such that the balls are dislodged from the tip of the arrow. The patient is thus shot at all over the body, which is bruised by the impact of the balls. Afterwards the Beju shoots one or two balls at the buffalo, which is taken to a path forming the village boundary, and killed with a tangi (axe). The patient is then daubed with blood of the buffalo, rice and toddy. A feast concludes the ceremonial.

The following account of a sacrifice to Rathu, who had given fever to the sister of the celebrant Kudang, is given by Mr. Fawcett. “The Kudang was squatting, facing west, his fingers in his ears, and chanting gibberish with continued side-shaking of his head. About two feet in front of him was an apparatus made of split bamboo. A young pig had been killed over it, so that the blood was received in a little leaf cup, and sprinkled over the bamboo work. The Kudang never ceased his chant for an hour and a half. While he was chanting, some eight Saoras were cooking the pig with some grain, and having a good feed. Between the bamboo structure and the Kudang were three little leaf cups, containing portions of the food for Rathu. A share of the food was kept for the Kudang, who when he had finished his chant, got up and ate it. Another performance, for which some dried meat of a buffalo that had been sacrificed a month previously was used, I saw on the same day. Three men, a boy, and a baby, were sitting in the jungle. The men were preparing food, and said that they were about to do some reverence to the sun, who had caused fever to some one. Portions of the food were to be set out in leaf cups for the sun deity.”

It is recorded by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu that, when children are seriously ill and become emaciated, offerings are made to monkeys and blood-suckers (lizards), not in the belief that illness is caused by them, but because the sick child, in its emaciated state, resembles an attenuated figure of these animals. Accordingly, a blood-sucker is captured, small toy arrows are tied round its body, and a piece of cloth is tied on its head. Some drops of liquor are then poured into its mouth, and it is set at liberty. In negotiating with a monkey, some rice and other articles of food are placed in small baskets, called tanurjal, which are suspended from branches of trees in the jungle. The Savaras frequently attend the markets or fairs held in the plains at the foot of the ghats to purchase salt and other luxuries. If a Savara is taken ill at the market or on his return thence, he attributes the illness to a spirit of the market called Biradi Sonum. The bulls, which carry the goods of the Hindu merchants to the market, are supposed to convey this spirit. In propitiating it, the Savara makes an image of a bull in straw, and, taking it out of his village, leaves it on the foot-path after a pig has been sacrificed to it.

“Each group of Savaras,” Mr. Ramamurti writes, “is under the government of two chiefs, one of whom is the Gomong (or great man) and the other, his colleague in council, is the Boya, who not only discharges, in conjunction with the Gomong, the duties of magistrate, but also holds the office of high priest. The offices of these two functionaries are hereditary, and the rule of primogeniture regulates succession, subject to the principle that incapable individuals should be excluded. The presence of these two officers is absolutely necessary on occasions of marriages and funerals, as well as at harvest festivals. Sales and mortgages of land and liquor-yielding trees, partition and other dispositions of property, and divorces are effected in the council of village elders, presided over by the Gomong and Boya, by means of long and tedious proceedings involving various religious ceremonies. All cases of a civil and criminal nature are heard and disposed of by them. Fines are imposed as a punishment for all sorts of offences. These invariably consist of liquor and cattle, the quantity of liquor and the number of animals varying according to the nature of the offence. The murder of a woman is considered more heinous than the murder of a man, as woman, being capable of multiplying the race, is the more useful. A thief, while in the act of stealing, may be shot dead. It is always the man, and not the woman, that is punished for adultery. Oaths are administered, and ordeals prescribed. Until forty or fifty years ago, it is said that the Savara magistrate had jurisdiction in murder cases. He was the highest tribunal in the village, the only arbitrator in all transactions among the villagers. And, if any differences arose between his men and the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, for settling which it was necessary that a battle should be fought, the Gomong became the commander, and, leading his men, contested the cause with all his might. These officers, though discharging such onerous and responsible duties, are regarded as in no special degree superior to others in social position. They enjoy no special privileges, and receive no fees from the suitors who come up to their court. Except on occasions of public festivals, over which they preside, they are content to hold equal rank with the other elders of the village. Each cultivates his field, and builds his house. His wife brings home fuel and water, and cooks for his family; his son watches his cattle and crops. The English officials and the Bissoyis have, however, accorded to these Savara officers some distinction. When the Governor’s Agent, during his annual tour, invites the Savara elders to bheti (visit), they make presents of a fowl, sheep, eggs, or a basket of rice, and receive cloths, necklaces, etc. The Bissoyis exempt them from personal service, which is demanded from all others.” At the Sankaranthi festival, the Savaras bring loads of firewood, yams (Dioscorea tubers), pumpkins, etc., as presents for the Bissoyi, and receive presents from him in return.

Besides cultivating, the Savaras collect Bauhinia leaves, and sell them to traders for making leaf platters. The leaves of the jel-adda tree (Bauhinia purpurea) are believed to be particularly appreciated by the Savara spirits, and offerings made to them should be placed in cups made thereof. The Savaras also collect various articles of minor forest produce, honey and wax. They know how to distil liquor from the flowers of the mahua (Bassia latifolia). The process of distillation has been thus described.29 “The flowers are soaked in water for three or four days, and are then boiled with water in an earthenware chatty. Over the top of this is placed another chatty, mouth downwards, the join between the two being made air-tight by being tied round with a bit of cloth, and luted with clay. From a hole made in the upper chatty, a hollow bamboo leads to a third pot, specially made for the purpose, which is globular, and has no opening except that into which the bamboo pipe leads. This last is kept cool by pouring water constantly over it, and the distillate is forced into it through the bamboo, and there condenses.”

In a report on his tour through the Savara country in 1863, the Agent to the Governor of Madras reported as follows. “At Gunapur I heard great complaints of the thievish habits of the Soura tribes on the hills dividing Gunapur from Pedda Kimedy. They are not dacoits, but very expert burglers, if the term can be applied to digging a hole in the night through a mud wall. If discovered and hard pressed, they do not hesitate to discharge their arrows, which they do with unerring aim, and always with fatal result. Three or four murders have been perpetrated by these people in this way since the country has been under our management. I arranged with the Superintendent of Police to station a party of the Armed Reserve in the ghaut leading to Soura country. One or two cases of seizure and conviction will suffice to put a check to the crime.”

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that “in 1864 trouble occurred with the Savaras. One of their headmen having been improperly arrested by the police of Pottasingi, they effected a rescue, killed the Inspector and four constables, and burnt down the station-house. The Raja of Jeypore was requested to use his influence to procure the arrest of the offenders, and eventually twenty-four were captured, of whom nine were transported for life, and five were sentenced to death, and hanged at Jalteru, at the foot of the ghat to Pottasingi. Government presented the Raja with a rifle and other gifts in acknowledgment of his assistance. The country did not immediately calm down, however, and, in 1865, a body of police, who were sent to establish a post in the hills, were attacked, and forced to beat a retreat down the ghat. A large force was then assembled, and, after a brief but harassing campaign, the post was firmly occupied in January, 1866. Three of the ringleaders of this rising were transported for life. The hill Savaras remained timid and suspicious for some years afterwards, and, as late as 1874, the reports mention it as a notable fact that they were beginning to frequent markets on the plains, and that the low-country people no longer feared to trust themselves above the ghats.”

In 1905, Government approved the following proposals for the improvement of education among the Savaras and other hill tribes in the Ganjam and Vizagapatam Agencies, so far as Government schools are concerned:—

(1) That instruction to the hill tribes should be given orally through the medium of their own mother tongue, and that, when a Savara knows both Uriya and Telugu, it would be advantageous to educate him in Uriya;

(2) That evening classes be opened whenever possible, the buildings in which they are held being also used for night schools for adults who should receive oral instruction, and that magic-lantern exhibitions might be arranged for occasionally, to make the classes attractive;

(3) That concessions, if any, in the matter of grants admissible to Savaras, Khonds, etc., under the Grant-in-aid Code, be extended to the pupils of the above communities that attend schools in the plains;

(4) That an itinerating agency, who could go round and look after the work of the agency schools, be established and that, in the selection of hill school establishments, preference be given to men educated in the hill schools;

(5) That some suitable form of manual occupation be introduced, wherever possible, into the day’s work, and the schools be supplied with the requisite tools, and that increased grants be given for anything original.

Savara.—A name, denoting hill-men, adopted by Male Kudiyas.

Savu (death).—A sub-division of Mala.

Sayakkaran.—An occupational term, meaning a dyer, returned, at times of census, by Tamil dyers.

Sayumpadai Tangi.—The name, meaning supporter of the vanquished army, of a section of Kallans.

Sedan.—A synonym of Devanga. At times of census, Seda Dasi has been returned by Devanga dancing-girls in the Madura district. The following legend of Savadamma, the goddess of the weaver caste in Coimbatore, is narrated by Bishop Whitehead.30 “Once upon a time, when there was fierce conflict between the men and the rakshasas, the men, who were getting defeated, applied for help to the god Siva, who sent his wife Parvati as an avatar or incarnation into the world to help them. The avatar enabled them to defeat the rakshasas, and, as the weaver caste were in the forefront of the battle, she became the goddess of the weavers, and was known in consequence as Savadamman, a corruption of Sedar Amman, Sedan being a title of the weavers. It is said that her original home was in the north of India, near the Himalayas.”

Segidi.—The Segidis are a Telugu caste of toddy sellers and distillers of arrack, who are found mainly in Ganjam and Vizagapatam.

For the purposes of the Madras Abkari Act, toddy means fermented or unfermented juice drawn from a cocoanut, palmyra, date, or any other kind of palm-tree. It is laid down, in the Madras Excise Manual, that “unfermented toddy is not subject to any taxation, but it must be drawn in pots freshly coated internally with lime. Lime is prescribed as the substance with which the interior of pots or other receptacles in which sweet toddy is drawn should be coated, as it checks the fermentation of the toddy coming in contact with it; but this effect cannot be secured unless the internal lime coating of the toddy pot or vessel is thorough, and is renewed every time that the pot is emptied of its contents.” It is noted by Bishop Caldwell31 that “it is the unfermented juice of the palmyra (and other palms) which is used as food. When allowed to ferment, which it will do before midday, if left to itself, it is changed into a sweet intoxicating drink called kal or toddy.” Pietro Della Valle records32 that he stayed on board till nightfall, “entertaining with conversation and drinking tari, a liquor which is drawn from the cocoanut trees, of a whitish colour, a little turbid, and of a somewhat rough taste, though with a blending in sweetness, and not unpalatable, something like one of our vini piccanti. It will also intoxicate, like wine, if drunk over freely.” Writing in 1673, Fryer33 describes the Natives as “singing and roaring all night long; being drunk with toddy, the wine of the Cocoe.”

Arrack is a spirituous liquor distilled from the fermented sap of various palms. In some parts of the Madras Presidency, arrack vendors consider it unlucky to set their measures upside down. Some time ago, the Excise Commissioner informs me, the Excise department had some aluminium measures made for measuring arrack in liquor shops. It was found that the arrack corroded the aluminium, and the measures soon leaked. The shopkeepers were told to turn their measures upside down, in order that they might drain. This they refused to do, as it would bring bad luck to their shop. New measures with round bottoms were evolved, which would not stand up. But the shopkeepers began to use rings of india-rubber from soda-water bottles, to make them stand. An endeavour has since been made to induce them to keep their measures inverted by hanging them on pegs, so that they will drain without being turned upside down. The case illustrates well how important a knowledge of the superstitions of the people is in the administration of their affairs.

The Segidis do not draw the liquor from the palm-tree themselves, but purchase it from the toddy-drawing castes, the Yatas and Gamallas.

They have a caste headman, called Kulampedda, who settles disputes with the assistance of a council. Like other Telugu castes, they have intiperulu or house names, which are strictly exogamous. Girls are married either before or after puberty. The custom of menarikam is practiced, in accordance with which a man marries his maternal aunt’s daughter. A Brahman officiates at marriages, except the remarriage of widows. When a widow is remarried, the caste-men assemble, and the Kulampedda ties the sathamanam (marriage badge) on the bride’s neck.

The dead are usually cremated, and the washerman of the village assists the chief mourner in igniting the pyre. A Satani conducts the funeral ceremonies.

The Segidis worship various village deities, and perantalammas, or women who killed themselves during their husbands’ lives or on their death.

The more well-to-do members of the caste take the title Anna.

Sekkan (oil-man).—A synonym of Vaniyan.

Sembadavan.—The Sembadavans are the fishermen of the Tamil country, who carry on their calling in freshwater tanks (ponds), lakes and rivers, and never in the sea. Some of them are ferrymen, and the name has been derived from sem (good), padavan (boatmen). A legend runs to the effect that the goddess Ankalamman, whom they worship with offerings of sheep, pigs, fowls, rice, etc., was a Sembadava girl, of whom Siva became enamoured, and Sembadavan is accordingly derived from Sambu (Siva) or a corruption of Sivan padavan (Siva’s boatmen). Some members of the caste in the Telugu country returned themselves, at the census, 1901, as Sambuni Reddi or Kapu. According to another legend, the name is derived from sembu padavor or copper boatmen. Parvatha Raja, disguised as a boatman, when sailing in a copper boat, threw out his net to catch fish. Four Vedas were transformed into nets, with which to catch the rakshasas, who assumed the form of fishes. Within the nets a rishi was also caught, and, getting angry, asked the boatman concerning his pedigree. On learning it, he cursed him, and ordained that his descendants should earn their living by fishing. Hence the Sembadavans call themselves Parvatha Rajavamsam. Yet another legend states that the founder of the caste, while worshipping God, was tried thus. God caused a large fish to appear in the water near the spot at which he was worshipping. Forgetting all about his prayers, he stopped to catch the fish, and was cursed with the occupation of catching fish for ever. According to yet another account of the origin of the Sembadavans, Siva was much pleased with their ancestors’ devotion to him when they lived upon the sea-shore by catching a few fish with difficulty, and in recognition of their piety furnished them with a net, and directed various other castes to become fish-eaters, so that the Sembadavar might live comfortably.

Of the Sembadavans of the North Arcot district, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes34 that they “act as boatmen and fishers. They have little opportunity of exercising the former profession, but during heavy freshes in big rivers they ferry people from bank to bank in round leather-covered basket coracles, which they push along, swimming or wading by the side, or assist the timid to ford by holding their hands. At such times they make considerable hauls. During the rest of the year they subsist by fishing in the tanks.”

“The Sembadavans of the South Arcot district,” Mr. Francis writes,35 “are fresh-water fishermen and boatmen. Both their occupations being of a restricted character, they have now in some cases taken to agriculture, weaving, and the hawking of salted sea-fish, but almost all of them are poor. They make their own nets, and, when they have to walk any distance for any purpose, they often spin the thread as they go along. Their domestic priests are Panchangi Brahmans, and these tie the tali at weddings, and perform the purificatory ceremonies on the sixteenth day after deaths.”

The Sembadavans consider themselves to be superior to Pattanavans, who are sea-fishermen. They usually take the title Nattan, Kavandan, Maniyakkaran, Paguththar, or Pillai. Some have assumed the title Guha Vellala, to connect themselves with Guha, who rowed the boat of Rama to Ceylon. At the census, 1901, Savalakkaran (q.v.) was returned as a sub-caste. Savalalai or saval thadi is the flattened paddle for rowing boats. A large number call themselves Pujari, (priest), and wear the lingam enclosed in a silver casket or pink cloth, and the sacred thread. It is the pujari who officiates at the temple services to village deities. At Malayanur, in the South Arcot district, all the Sembadavans call themselves pujari, and seem to belong to a single sept called Mukkali (three-legged).

Most of the Sembadavans call themselves Saivites, but a few, e.g., at Kuppam in North Arcot, and other places, say that they are Vaishnavites, and belong to Vishnu gotram. Even among those who claimed to be Vaishnavites, a few were seen with a sandal paste (Saivite) mark on the forehead. Their explanation was that they were returning from the fields, where they had eaten their food. This they must not do without wearing a religious emblem, and they had not with them the mirror, red powder, water, etc., necessary for making the Vaishnavite namam mark. They asserted that they never take a girl in marriage from Saivite families without burning her tongue with a piece of gold, and purifying her by punyavachanam.

The Sembadavans at Chidambaram are all Saivites, and point out with pride their connection with the temple. It appears that, on a particular day, they are deputed to carry the idol in procession through the streets, and their services are paid for with a modest fee and a ball of cooked rice for each person. Some respect is shown to them by the temple authorities, as the goddess, when being carried in procession, is detained for some time in their quarters, and they make presents of female cloths to the idol.

The Sembadavans have exogamous septs, named after various heroes, etc. The office of Nattan or Nattamaikkaran (headman) is confined to a particular sept, and is hereditary. In some places he is assisted by officers called Sangathikkar or Sangathipillai, through whom, at a council, the headman should be addressed. At their council meetings, representatives of the seven nadus (villages), into which the Sembadavans of various localities are divided, are present. At Malayanur these nadus are replaced by seven exogamous septs, viz., Devar, Seppiliyan, Ethinayakan, Sangili, Mayakundali, Pattam, and Panikkan. If a man under trial pleads not guilty to the charge brought against him, he has to bear the expenses of the members of council. Sometimes, as a punishment, a man is made to carry a basket of rubbish, with tamarind twigs as the emblem of flogging, and a knife to denote cutting of the tongue. Women are said to be punished by having to carry a basket of rubbish and a broom round the village.

Sembadavans who are ferrymen by profession do special worship to Ganga, the goddess of water, to whom pongal (rice) and goats are offered. It is believed that their immunity from death by drowning, caused by the upsetting of their leather coracles, is due to the protection of the goddess.

The ceremonial when a girl reaches puberty corresponds to that of various other Tamil castes. Meat is forbidden, but eggs are allowed to be eaten. To ward off devils twigs of Vitex Negundo, margosa (Melia Azadirachta), and Eugenia Jambolana are stuck in the roof. Sometimes a piece of iron is given to the girl to keep. During the marriage ceremonies, a branch of Erythrina indica is cut, and tied, with sprays of the pipal (Ficus religiosa) and a piece of a green bamboo culm, to one of the twelve posts, which support the marriage pandal (booth). A number of sumangalis (married women) bring sand, and spread it on the floor near the marriage dais, with pots, two of which are filled with water, over it. The bride and bridegroom go through a ceremony called sige kazhippu, with the object of warding off the evil eye, which consists in pouring a few drops of milk on their foreheads from a fig or betel leaf. To their foreheads are tied small gold or silver plates, called pattam, of which the most conspicuous are those tied by the maternal uncles. The plate for the bridegroom is V-shaped like a namam, and that for the bride like a pipal leaf. The bride and bridegroom go through a mock ceremony representative of domestic life, and pot-searching. Seven rings are dropped into a pot. If the girl picks up three of these, her first-born will be a girl. If the bridegroom picks up five, it will be a boy. Married women go in procession to an ant-hill, and bring to the marriage booth a basket-load of the earth, which they heap up round the posts. Offerings of balls of rice, cooked vegetables, etc., are then made. After the wrist-threads (kankanam) have been removed, the bride and bridegroom go to a tank, and go through a mock ploughing ceremony. In some places, the purohits give the bridegroom a sacred thread, which is finally thrown into a tank or well.

By some Sembadavans a ceremony, called muthugunir kuththal (pouring water on the back) is performed in the seventh month of pregnancy. The woman stands on the marriage dais, and red-coloured water, and lights are waved. Bending down, she places her hands on two big pots, and milk is poured over her back from a betel leaf by all her relations.

The Vaishnava Sembadavans burn, and the Saivites bury their dead in a sitting posture. Fire is carried to the burial-ground by the barber. In cases of burial the face is covered over by a cloth, in which a slit is made, so that the top of the head and a portion of the forehead are exposed. A figure representing Ganesa is made on the head with ashes. All present throw sacred ashes, and a pie (copper coin) into the grave, which is then filled in. While this is being done, a bamboo stick is placed upright on the head of the corpse. On the surface of the filled-in grave an oblong space is cleared, with the bamboo in the centre. The bamboo is then removed, and water poured through the hole left by it, and a lingam made, and placed over the opening.

At Malayanur a ceremony called mayana or smasana kollai (looting the burning-ground) is performed. The village of Malayanur is famous for its Ankalamman temple, and, during the festival which takes place immediately after the Sivaratri, some thousands of people congregate at the temple, which is near the burning-ground. In front of the stone idol is a large ant-hill, on which two copper idols are placed, and a brass vessel, called korakkudai, is placed at the base of the hill, to receive the various votive offerings. Early in the day, the pujari (a Sembadavan) goes to a tank, and brings a decorated pot, called pungkaragam, to the temple. Offerings are made to a new pot, and, after a sheep has been sacrificed, the pot is filled with water, and carried on the head of the pujari, who shows signs of possession by the deity, through the streets of the village to the temple, dancing wildly, and never touching the pot with his hands. It is believed that the pot remains on the head, without falling, through the influence of the goddess. When the temple is reached, another pujari takes up a framework, to which are tied a head made of rice flour, with three faces coloured white, black and red, representing the head of Brahma which was cut off by Siva, and a pot with three faces on it. The eyes of the flour figure are represented by hen’s eggs. The pot is placed beneath the head. Carrying the framework, and accompanied by music, the pujari goes in procession to the burning-ground, and, after offerings of a sheep, arrack, betel and fruits have been made to the head of Brahma, it is thrown away. Close to the spot where corpses are burnt, the pujaris place on the ground five conical heaps (representing Ganesa), made of the ashes of a corpse. To these are offered the various articles brought by those who have made vows, which include cooked pulses, bangles, betel, parts of the human body modelled in rice flour, etc. The offerings are piled up in a heap, which is said to reach ten or twelve feet in height. Soon afterwards, the people assembled fall on the heap, and carry off whatever they can secure. Hundreds of persons are said to become possessed, eat the ashes of the corpses, and bite any human bones, which they may come across. The ashes and earth are much prized, as they are supposed to drive away evil spirits, and secure offspring to barren women. Some persons make a vow that they will disguise themselves as Siva, for which purpose they smear their faces with ashes, put on a cap decorated with feathers of the crow, egret, and peacock, and carry in one hand a brass vessel called Brahma kapalam. Round their waist they tie a number of strings, to which are attached rags and feathers. Instead of the cap, Paraiyans and Valluvans wear a crown. The brass vessel, cap, and strings are said to be kept by the pujari, and hired out for a rupee or two per head. The festival is said to be based on the following legend. Siva and Brahma had the same number of faces. During the swayamvaram, Parvati, the wife of Siva, found it difficult to recognise her husband, so Siva cut off Brahma’s head. The head stuck on to Siva’s hand, and he could not get rid of it. To get rid of the skull, and throw off the crime of murder, Siva wandered far and wide, and came to the burning-ground at Malayanur, where various bhuthas (devils) were busy eating the remains of corpses. Parvati also arrived there, and failed to recognise Siva. Thereon the skull laughed, and fell to the ground. The bhuthas were so delighted that they put various kinds of herbs into a big vessel, and made of them a sweet liquor, by drinking which Siva was absolved from his crime. For this reason arrack is offered to him at the festival. A very similar rite is carried out at Walajapet. A huge figure, representing the goddess, is made at the burning-ground out of the ashes of burnt bodies mixed with water, the eyes being made of hen’s eggs painted black in the centre to represent the pupils. It is covered over with a yellow cloth, and a sweet-smelling powder (kadampam) is sprinkled over it. The following articles, which are required by a married woman, are placed on it:—a comb, pot containing colour-powder, glass bangles, rolls of palm leaf for dilating the ear-lobes, and a string of black beads. Devotees present as offerings limes, plantains, arrack, toddy, sugar-cane, and various kinds of cooked grains, and other eatables. The goddess is taken in procession from her shrine to the burning-ground, and placed in front of the figure. The pujari (fisherman), who wears a special dress for the occasion, walks in front of the idol, carrying in one hand a brass cup representing the skull which Siva carried in his hand, and in the other a piece of human skull bone, which he bites and chews as the procession moves onward. When the burning-ground is reached, he performs puja by breaking a cocoanut, and going round the figure with lighted camphor in his hand. Goats and fowls are sacrificed. A woman, possessed by a devil, seats herself at the feet of the figure, and becomes wild and agitated. The puja completed, the assembled multitude fall on the figure, and carry off whatever they can grab of the articles placed on it, which are believed to possess healing and other virtues. They also smear their bodies with the ashes. The pujari, and some of the devotees, then become possessed, and run about the burning-ground, seizing and gnawing partly burnt bones. Tradition runs to the effect that, in olden times, they used to eat the dead bodies, if they came across any. And the people are so afraid of their doing this that, if a death should occur, the corpse is not taken to the burning-ground till the festival is over. “In some cases,” Herbert Spencer writes,36 “parts of the dead are swallowed by the living, who seek thus to inspire themselves with the good qualities of the dead; and we saw that the dead are supposed to be honoured by this act.”

Sembunadu.—The name, meaning the Pandya country, of a sub-division of Maravan.

Semmadi.—A Telugu form of Sembadavan.

Semman.—The Semmans are described, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, as “an insignificant caste of Tamil leather-workers, found only in the districts of Madura and Tinnevelly (and in the Pudukottai State). Though they have returned tailor and lime-burner as their occupations, the original occupation was undoubtedly leather-work. In the Tamil dictionaries Semman is explained as a leather-worker, and a few of them, living in out-of-the way villages, have returned shoe-making as their occupation. The Semmans are, in fact, a sub-division of the Paraiyans, and they must have been the original leather-workers of the Tamil tribes. The immigrant Chakkiliyans have, however, now taken their place.” The Semmans are described, in the Madura Manual, as burning and selling lime for building purposes. In the Census Report, 1901, the caste is said to have “two hypergamous sub-divisions, Tondaman and Tolmestri, and men of the former take wives from the latter, but men of the latter may not marry girls of the former.”

Girls are married after puberty, and divorce and remarriage are freely allowed. As the caste is a polluting one, the members thereof are not allowed to use village wells, or enter caste Hindu temples. The caste title is Mestri.

Sem Puli (red tiger).—A section of Kallan.

Senaikkudaiyan.—The Senaikkudaiyans are betel vine (Piper Betel) cultivators and betel leaf sellers, who are found in large numbers in the Tinnevelly district, and to a smaller extent in other parts of the Tamil country. The original name of the caste is said to have been Elai (leaf) Vaniyan, for which the more high-sounding Senaikkudaiyan (owner of an army) or Senaittalavan (chief of an army) has been substituted. They also called themselves Kodikkal Pillaimar, or Pillaimars who cultivate betel gardens, and have adopted the title Pillai. The titles Muppan and Chetti are also borne by members of the caste.

It is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that “the priests of the Senaikkudaiyans are Vellalas, and occasionally Brahmans. They do not wear the sacred thread. They burn their dead, and perform annual sraddhas (memorial services). In 1891, following the Tanjore Manual, they were wrongly classed with Vaniyans or oil-mongers, but they are superior to these in social position, and are even said to rank above Nattukottai Chettis. Yet it is stated that, in Tanjore, Paraiyans will not enter the Senaikkudaiyans’ houses to carry away dead cattle, and ordinary barbers will not serve them, and food prepared by them will not be accepted even by barbers or washermen. Somewhat similar anomalies occur in the case of the Kammalas, and the explanation may be that these two castes belonged to the old left-hand faction, while the Pariyans, and the barbers and washermen belonged to the right-hand. Paraiyans similarly will not eat in the houses of Beri Chettis, who were of the left-hand faction.”

Senapati.—A title, denoting commander-in-chief, said to be sold to Khoduras, and also occurring as a title of other Oriya castes, e.g., Kurumo and Ronguni. Among the Rongunis, the title is practically an exogamous sept. Senapati is further a name for Sales (Telugu weavers), the headman among whom is called Pedda (big) Senapati. The headman of the Salapu weavers, who do not intermarry with the Sales, is also styled Senapati. It is also a title of the Raja of Sandur.

Sendalai (red-headed man).—Returned as a sub-division of Konga Vellalas at times of census.

Sengundam (red dagger).—A synonym, connected with a caste legend, of Kaikolan.

Seniga (Bengal gram: Cicer arietinum).—An exogamous sept of Medara and Pedakanti Kapu.

Seniyan.—The name Seniyan is generally used to denote the Karna Sale weavers, but at Conjeeveram it is applied to Canarese Devangas. Elsewhere Canarese Devangas belong to the left-hand section, but at Conjeeveram they are classed with the right-hand section. Like other Devangas, the Conjeeveram Seniyans have exogamous house-names and gotras, which are interesting inasmuch as new names have been, in recent times, substituted for the original ones, e.g., Chandrasekhara rishi, Nilakanta rishi, Markandeya rishi. The Devangas claim Markandeya as their ancestor. The old house-name Picchi Kaya (water-melon: Citrullus vulgaris) has been changed to Desimarada, and eating the melon is tabu. A list of the house-names and gotras is kept by the headman for reference. The Conjeeveram Seniyans are Lingayats, but are not so strict as the Canarese Lingayats. Jangams are respected, but rank after their own stone lingams. In the observance of death rites, a staunch Lingayat should not bathe, and must partake of the food offered to the corpse. These customs are not observed by the Seniyans. Until quite recently, a man might tie a tali (marriage badge) secretly on a girl’s neck, with the consent of the headman and his relatives, and the girl could then be given in marriage to no other man. This custom is said to have been very common, especially in the case of a man’s maternal uncle’s or paternal aunt’s daughter. At Conjeeveram it was extended to girls not so related, and a caste council was held, at which an agreement was drawn up that the secret tali-tying was forbidden, and, if performed, was not to be regarded as binding. The priest of the Conjeeveram Seniyans is a Vellala Pandaram, who is the head of the Tirugnana Sambanda Murti mutt (religious institution) at Conjeeveram.

Servai.—Servai, meaning service, has been recorded as the title of Agamudaiyans and Valaiyans. Servaikaran or Servaigaran (captain or commander) is the title of Agamudaiyan, Ambalakaran, Kallan, Maravan, and Parivaram. It further occurs as the name for a headman among the Vallambans, and it has been adopted as a false caste name by some criminal Koravas in the south.

Servegara.—The Servegaras are a caste found in South Canara, and to a small extent in Bellary. “They are said to be a branch of the Konkan Marathis of Goa, from whence they were invited by the Lingayat kings of Nagara to serve as soldiers and to defend their forts (kote), whence the alternative name of Koteyava (or Kotegara). Another name for them is Ramakshatri. The mother-tongue of the Servegaras of South Canara is Canarese, while their brethren in the north speak Konkani. They have now taken to cultivation, but some are employed in the Revenue and Police departments as peons (orderlies) and constables, and a few are shopkeepers. The name Servegara is derived from the Canarese serve, an army. In religion they are Hindus, and, like most West Coast castes, are equally partial to the worship of Siva and Vishnu. They wear the sacred thread. Karadi Brahmans are their priests, and they owe allegiance to the head of the Sringeri mutt. Their girls are married before puberty, and the remarriage of widows is neither allowed nor practiced. Divorce is permitted only on the ground of the unchastity of the wife. The body of a child under three years is buried, and that of any person exceeding that age is cremated. They eat flesh, but do not drink. Their titles are Nayak, Aiya, Rao, and Sheregar.”37 In the Census Report, 1901, Bomman Valekara is returned as a synonym, and Vilayakara as a sub-caste of Servegara.

Setti.—See Chetti.

Settukkaran.—A castle title, meaning economical people, sometimes used by Devangas instead of Setti or Chetti.

Sevagha Vritti.—A sub-division of Kaikolan.

Sevala (service).—An exogamous sept of Golla.

Shanan.—The great toddy-drawing caste of the Tamil country, which, a few years ago, came into special prominence owing to the Tinnevelly riots in 1899. “These were,” the Inspector-General of Police writes,38 “due to the pretensions of the Shanans to a much higher position in the religio-social scale than the other castes are willing to allow. Among other things, they claimed admission to Hindu temples, and the manager of the Visvanatheswara temple at Sivakasi decided to close it. This partial victory of the Shanans was keenly resented by their opponents, of whom the most active were the Maravans. Organised attacks were made on a number of the Shanan villages; the inhabitants were assailed; houses were burnt; and property was looted. The most serious occurrence was the attack on Sivakasi by a body of over five thousand Maravans. Twenty-three murders, 102 dacoities, and many cases of arson were registered in connection with the riots in Sivakasi, Chinniapuram, and other places. Of 1,958 persons arrested, 552 were convicted, 7 being sentenced to death. One of the ring-leaders hurried by train to distant Madras, and made a clever attempt to prove an alibi by signing his name in the Museum visitor’s book. During the disturbance some of the Shanans are said to have gone into the Muhammadan fold. The men shaved their heads, and grew beards; and the women had to make sundry changes in their dress. And, in the case of boys, the operation of circumcision was performed.”

The immediate bone of contention at the time of the Tinnevelly riots was, the Census Superintendent, 1901, writes, “the claim of the Shanans to enter the Hindu temples, in spite of the rules in the Agama Shastras that toddy-drawers are not to be allowed into them; but the pretensions of the community date back from 1858, when a riot occurred in Travancore, because female Christian converts belonging to it gave up the caste practice of going about without an upper cloth.” On this point Mr. G. T. Mackenzie informs us39 that “in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the female converts to Christianity in the extreme south ventured, contrary to the old rules for the lower castes, to clothe themselves above the waist. This innovation was made the occasion for threats, violence, and series of disturbances. Similar disturbances arose from the same cause nearly thirty years later, and, in 1859, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras, interfered, and granted permission to the women of the lower castes to wear a cloth over the breasts and shoulders. The following proclamation was issued by the Maharaja of Travancore:—We hereby proclaim that there is no objection to Shanan women either putting on a jacket like the Christian Shanan women, or to Shanan women of all creeds dressing in coarse cloth, and tying themselves round with it as the Mukkavattigal (fisherwomen) do, or to their covering their bosoms in any manner whatever, but not like women of high castes.” “Shortly after 1858, pamphlets began to be written and published by people of the caste, setting out their claims to be Kshatriyas. In 1874 they endeavoured to establish a right to enter the great Minakshi temple at Madura, but failed, and they have since claimed to be allowed to wear the sacred thread, and to have palanquins at their weddings. They say they are descended from the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings; they have styled themselves Kshatriyas in legal papers; labelled their schools Kshatriya academy; got Brahmans of the less particular kind to do purohit’s work for them; had poems composed on their kingly origin; gone through a sort of incomplete parody of the ceremony of investiture with the sacred thread; talked much but ignorantly of their gotras; and induced needy persons to sign documents agreeing to carry them in palanquins on festive occasions.” [During my stay at Nazareth in Tinnevelly, for the purpose of taking measurements of the Shanans, I received a visit from some elders of the community from Kuttam, who arrived in palanquins, and bearing weapons of old device.] Their boldest stroke was to aver that the coins commonly known as Shanans’ cash were struck by sovereign ancestors of the caste. The author of a pamphlet entitled ‘Bishop Caldwell and the Tinnevelly Shanars’ states that he had met with men of all castes who say that they have seen the true Shanar coin with their own eyes, and that a Eurasian gentleman from Bangalore testified to his having seen a true Shanar coin at Bangalore forty years ago. The coin referred to is the gold Venetian sequin, which is still found in considerable numbers in the south, and bears the names of the Doges (Paul Rainer, Aloy Mocen, Ludov Manin, etc.) and a cross, which the Natives mistake for a toddy palm. “If,” Mr. Fawcett writes,40 “one asks the ordinary Malayali (native of Malabar) what persons are represented on the sequin, one gets for answer that they are Rama and Sita: between them a cocoanut tree. Every Malayali knows what an AmÂda is; it is a real or imitation Venetian sequin. I have never heard any explanation of the word AmÂda in Malabar. The following comes from Tinnevelly. AmÂda was the consort of Bhagavati, and he suddenly appeared one day before a Shanar, and demanded food. The Shanar said he was a poor man with nothing to offer but toddy, which he gave in a palmyra leaf. AmÂda drank the toddy, and performing a mantram (consecrated formula) over the leaf, it turned into gold coins, which bore on one side the pictures of AmÂda, the Shanar, and the tree, and these he gave to the Shanar as a reward for his willingness to assist him.”

In a petition to myself from certain Shanans of Nazareth, signed by a very large number of the community, and bearing the title “Short account of the Cantras or Tamil Xatras, the original but down-trodden royal race of Southern India,” they write as follows. “We humbly beg to say that we are the descendants of the Pandya or Dravida Xatra race, who, shortly after the universal deluge of Noah, first disafforested and colonized this land of South India under the guidance of Agastya Muni. The whole world was destroyed by flood about B.C. 3100 (Dr. Hale’s calculation), when Noah, otherwise called Vaivasvata-manu or Satyavrata, was saved with his family of seven persons in an ark or covered ship, which rested upon the highest mountain of the Aryavarta country. Hence the whole earth was rapidly replenished by his descendants. One of his grandsons (nine great Prajapatis) was Atri, whose son Candra was the ancestor of the noblest class of the Xatras ranked above the Brahmans, and the first illustrious monarch of the post-diluvian world.”

“Apparently,” the Census Superintendent continues, “judging from the Shanan’s own published statements of their case, they rest their claims chiefly upon etymological derivations of their caste name Shanan, and of Nadan and Gramani, their two usual titles. Caste titles and names are, however, of recent origin, and little can be inferred from them, whatever their meaning may be shown to be. Brahmans, for example, appear to have borne the titles of Pillai and Mudali, which are now only used by Sudras, and the Nayak kings, on the other hand, called themselves Aiyar, which is now exclusively the title of Saivite Brahmans. To this day the cultivating Vellalas, the weaving Kaikolars, and the semi-civilised hill tribe of the Jatapus use equally the title of Mudali, and the Balijas and Telagas call themselves Rao, which is properly the title of Mahratta Brahmans. Regarding the derivation of the words Shanan, Nadan and Gramani, much ingenuity has been exercised. Shanan is not found in the earlier Tamil literature at all. In the inscriptions of Rajaraja Chola (A. D. 984–1013) toddy-drawers are referred to as Iluvans. According to Pingalandai, a dictionary of the 10th or 11th century, the names of the toddy-drawer castes are Palaiyar, Tuvasar, and Paduvar. To these the Chudamani Nikandu, a Tamil dictionary of the 16th century, adds Saundigar. Apparently, therefore, the Sanskrit word Saundigar must have been introduced (probably by the Brahmans) between the 11th and 16th centuries, and is a Sanskrit rendering of the word Iluvan. From Saundigar to Shanan is not a long step in the corruption of words. The Shanans say that Shanan is derived from the Tamil word Sanrar or Sanror, which means the learned or the noble. But it does not appear that the Shanans were ever called Sanrar or Sanror in any of the Tamil works. The two words Nadan and Gramani mean the same thing, namely, ruler of a country or of a village, the former being a Tamil, and the latter a Sanskrit word. Nadan, on the other hand, means a man who lives in the country, as opposed to Uran, the man who resides in a village. The title of the caste is Nadan, and it seems most probable that it refers to the fact that the Iluvan ancestors of the caste lived outside the villages. (South Indian Inscriptions, vol. II, part 1.) But, even if Nadan and Gramani both mean rulers, it does not give those who bear these titles any claim to be Kshatriyas. If it did, all the descendants of the many South Indian Poligars, or petty chiefs, would be Kshatriyas.”

The Census Superintendent, 1891, states that the “Shanans are in social position usually placed only a little above the Pallas and the Paraiyans, and are considered to be one of the polluting castes, but of late many of them have put forward a claim to be considered Kshatriyas, and at least 24,000 of them appear as Kshatriyas in the caste tables. This is, of course, absurd, as there is no such thing as a Dravidian Kshatriya. But it is by no means certain that the Shanans were not at one time a warlike tribe, for we find traces of a military occupation among several toddy-drawing castes of the south, such as the Billavas (bowmen), Halepaik (old foot soldiers), Kumarapaik (junior foot). Even the Kadamba kings of Mysore are said to have been toddy-drawers. ‘The Kadamba tree appears to be one of the palms, from which toddy is extracted. Toddy-drawing is the special occupation of the several primitive tribes spread over the south-west of India, and bearing different names in various parts. They were employed by former rulers as foot-soldiers and bodyguards, being noted for their fidelity.41’ The word Shanan is ordinarily derived from Tamil saru, meaning toddy; but a learned missionary derives it from san (a span) and nar (fibre or string), that is the noose, one span in length, used by the Shanans in climbing palm-trees.” The latter derivation is also given by Vellalas.

It is worthy of note that the Tiyans, or Malabar toddy-drawers, address one another, and are addressed by the lower classes as Shener, which is probably another form of Shanar.42

The whole story of the claims and pretensions of the Shanans is set out at length in the judgment in the Kamudi temple case (1898) which was heard on appeal before the High Court of Madras. And I may appropriately quote from the judgment. “There is no sort of proof, nothing, we may say, that even suggests a probability that the Shanars are descendants from the Kshatriya or warrior castes of Hindus, or from the Pandiya, Chola or Chera race of kings. Nor is there any distinction to be drawn between the Nadars and the Shanars. Shanar is the general name of the caste, just as Vellala and Maravar designate castes. ‘Nadar’ is a mere title, more or less honorific, assumed by certain members or families of the caste, just as Brahmins are called Aiyars, Aiyangars, and Raos. All ‘Nadars’ are Shanars by caste, unless indeed they have abandoned caste, as many of them have by becoming Christians. The Shanars have, as a class, from time immemorial, been devoted to the cultivation of the palmyra palm, and to the collection of the juice, and manufacture of liquor from it. There are no grounds whatever for regarding them as of Aryan origin. Their worship was a form of demonology, and their position in general social estimation appears to have been just above that of Pallas, Pariahs, and Chucklies (Chakkiliyans), who are on all hands regarded as unclean, and prohibited from the use of the Hindu temples, and below that of Vellalas, Maravans, and other classes admittedly free to worship in the Hindu temples. In process of time, many of the Shanars took to cultivating, trade, and money-lending, and to-day there is a numerous and prosperous body of Shanars, who have no immediate concern with the immemorial calling of their caste. In many villages they own much of the land, and monopolise the bulk of the trade and wealth. With the increase of wealth they have, not unnaturally, sought for social recognition, and to be treated on a footing of equality in religious matters. The conclusion of the Sub-Judge is that, according to the Agama Shastras which are received as authoritative by worshippers of Siva in the Madura district, entry into a temple, where the ritual prescribed by these Shastras is observed, is prohibited to all those whose profession is the manufacture of intoxicating liquor, and the climbing of palmyra and cocoanut trees. No argument was addressed to us to show that this finding is incorrect, and we see no reason to think that it is so.... No doubt many of the Shanars have abandoned their hereditary occupation, and have won for themselves by education, industry and frugality, respectable positions as traders and merchants, and even as vakils (law pleaders) and clerks; and it is natural to feel sympathy for their efforts to obtain social recognition, and to rise to what is regarded as a higher form of religious worship; but such sympathy will not be increased by unreasonable and unfounded pretensions, and, in the effort to rise, the Shanars must not invade the established rights of other castes. They have temples of their own, and are numerous enough, and strong enough in wealth and education, to rise along their own lines, and without appropriating the institutions or infringing the rights of others, and in so doing they will have the sympathy of all right-minded men, and, if necessary, the protection of the Courts.”

In a note on the Shanans, the Rev. J. Sharrock writes43 that they “have risen enormously in the social scale by their eagerness for education, by their large adoption of the freedom of Christianity, and by their thrifty habits. Many of them have forced themselves ahead of the Maravars by sheer force of character. They have still to learn that the progress of a nation, or a caste, does not depend upon the interpretation of words, or the assumption of a title, but on the character of the individuals that compose it. Evolutions are hindered rather than advanced by such unwise pretensions resulting in violence; but evolutions resulting from intellectual and social development are quite irresistible, if any caste will continue to advance by its own efforts in the path of freedom and progress.”

Writing in 1875, Bishop Caldwell remarks44 that “the great majority of the Shanars who remain heathen wear their hair long; and, if they are not allowed to enter the temples, the restriction to which they are subject is not owing to their long hair, but to their caste, for those few members of the caste, continuing heathens, who have adopted the kudumi—generally the wealthiest of the caste—are as much precluded from entering the temples as those who retain their long hairs. A large majority of the Christian Shanars have adopted the kudumi together with Christianity.”

By Regulation XI, 1816, it was enacted that heads of villages have, in cases of a trivial nature, such as abusive language and inconsiderable assaults or affrays, power to confine the offending members in the village choultry (lock-up) for a time not exceeding twelve hours; or, if the offending parties are of the lower castes of the people, on whom it may not be improper to inflict so degrading a punishment, to order them to be put in the stocks for a time not exceeding six hours. In a case which came before the High Court it was ruled that by “lower castes” were probably intended those castes which, prior to the introduction of British rule, were regarded as servile. In a case which came up on appeal before the High Court in 1903, it was ruled that the Shanars belong to the lower classes, who may be punished by confinement in the stocks.

With the physique of the Shanans, whom I examined at Nazareth and Sawyerpuram in Tinnevelly, and their skill in physical exercises I was very much impressed. The programme of sports, which were organised in my honour, included the following events:—

• Fencing and figure exercises with long sticks of iron-wood (Mesua ferrea).
• Figure exercises with sticks bearing flaming rags at each end.
• Various acrobatic tricks.
• Feats with heavy weights, rice-pounders, and pounding stones.
• Long jump.
• Breaking cocoanuts with the thrust of a knife or the closed fist.
• Crunching whiskey-bottle glass with the teeth.
• Running up, and butting against the chest, back, and shoulders.
• Swallowing a long silver chain.
• Cutting a cucumber balanced on a man’s neck in two with a sword.
• Falconry.

One of the good qualities of Sir Thomas Munro, formerly Governor of Madras, was that, like Rama and Rob Roy, his arms reached to his knees, or, in other words, he possessed the kingly quality of an Ajanubahu, which is the heritage of kings, or those who have blue blood in them. This particular anatomical character I have met with myself only once, in a Shanan, whose height was 173 cm. and span of the arms 194 cm. (+ 21 cm.). Rob Roy, it will be remembered, could, without stooping, tie his garters, which were placed two inches below the knee.

For a detailed account of demonolatry among the Shanans, I would refer the reader to the Rev. R. (afterwards Bishop) Caldwell’s now scarce ‘Tinnevelly Shanans’ (1849), written when he was a young and impulsive missionary, and the publication of which I believe that the learned and kind-hearted divine lived to regret.

Those Shanans who are engaged in the palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) forests in extracting the juice of the palm-tree climb with marvellous activity and dexterity. There is a proverb that, if you desire to climb trees, you must be born a Shanan. A palmyra climber will, it has been calculated, go up from forty to fifty trees, each forty to fifty feet high, three times a day. The story is told by Bishop Caldwell of a man who was sitting upon a leaf-stalk at the top of a palmyra palm in a high wind, when the stalk gave way, and he came down to the ground safely and quietly, sitting on the leaf, which served the purpose of a natural parachute. Woodpeckers are called Shanara kurivi by birdcatchers, because they climb trees like Shanars. “The Hindus,” the Rev. (afterwards Canon) A. MargÖschis writes,45 “observe a special day at the commencement of the palmyra season, when the jaggery season begins. Bishop Caldwell adopted the custom, and a solemn service in church was held, when one set of all the implements used in the occupation of palmyra-climbing was brought to the church, and presented at the altar. Only the day was changed from that observed by the Hindus. The perils of the palmyra-climber are great, and there are many fatal accidents by falling from trees forty to sixty feet high, so that a religious service of the kind was particularly acceptable, and peculiarly appropriate to our people.” The conversion of a Hindu into a Christian ceremonial rite, in connection with the dedication of ex votos, is not devoid of interest. In a note46 on the Pariah caste in Travancore, the Rev. S. Mateer narrates a legend that the Shanans are descended from Adi, the daughter of a Pariah woman at Karuvur, who taught them to climb the palm tree, and prepared a medicine which would protect them from falling from the high trees. The squirrels also ate some of it, and enjoy a similar immunity.

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that Shanan toddy-drawers “employ Pallans, Paraiyans, and other low castes to help them transport the liquor, but Musalmans and Brahmans have, in several cases, sufficiently set aside the scruples enjoined by their respective faiths against dealings in potent liquor to own retail shops, and (in the case of some Musalmans at least) to serve their customers with their own hands.” In a recent note,47 it has been stated that “L.M.S. Shanar Christians have, in many cases, given up tapping the palmyra palm for jaggery and toddy as a profession beneath them; and their example is spreading, so that a real economic impasse is manifesting itself. The writer knows of one village at least, which had to send across the border (of Travancore) into Tinnevelly to procure professional tree-tappers. Consequent on this want of professional men, the palm trees are being cut down, and this, if done to any large extent, will impoverish the country.”

In the palmyra forests of Attitondu, in Tinnevelly, I came across a troop of stalwart Shanan men and boys, marching out towards sunset, to guard the ripening cholum crop through the night, each with a trained dog, with leash made of fibre passed through a ring on the neck-collar. The leash would be slipped directly the dog scented a wild pig, or other nocturnal marauder. Several of the dogs bore the marks of encounters with pigs. One of the party carried a musical instrument made of a ‘bison’ horn picked up in the neighbouring jungle.

The Shanans have a great objection to being called either Shanan or Marameri (tree-climber), and much prefer Nadan. By the Shanans of Tinnevelly, whom I visited, the following five sub-divisions were returned:—

1. Karukku-pattayar (those of the sharp sword), which is considered to be superior to the rest. In the Census Report, 1891, the division Karukku-mattai (petiole of the palmyra leaf with serrated edges) was returned. Some Shanans are said to have assumed the name of Karukku-mattai Vellalas.

2. Kalla. Said to be the original servants of the Karukku-pattayar, doing menial work in their houses, and serving as palanquin-bearers.

3. Nattati. Settled at the village of Nattati near Sawyerpuram.

4. Kodikkal. Derived from kodi, a flag. Standard-bearers of the fighting men. According to another version, the word means a betel garden, in reference to those who were betel cultivators.

5. Mel-natar (mel, west). Those who live in the western part of Tinnevelly and in Travancore.

At the census, 1891, Konga (territorial) and Madurai were returned as sub-divisions. The latter apparently receives its name, not from the town of Madura, but from a word meaning sweet juice. At the census, 1901, Tollakkadan (man with a big hole in his ears) was taken as being a sub-caste of Shanan, as the people who returned it, and sell husked rice in Madras, used the title Nadan. Madura and Tinnevelly are eminently the homes of dilated ear-lobes. Some Tamil traders in these two districts, who returned themselves as Pandyan, were classified as Shanans, as Nadan was entered as their title. In Coimbatore, some Shanans, engaged as shop-keepers, have been known to adopt the name of Chetti. In Coimbatore, too, the title Muppan occurs. This title, meaning headman or elder, is also used by the Ambalakaran, Valayan, Sudarman, Senaikkudaiyan, and other castes. In the Tanjore Manual, the Shanans are divided into Tennam, Panam, and Ichcham, according as they tap the cocoanut, palmyra, or wild date (Phoenix sylvestris). The name Enadi for Shanans is derived from Enadi Nayanar, a Saivite saint. But it also means a barber.

The community has, among its members, land-owners, and graduates in theology, law, medicine, and the arts. Nine-tenths of the Native clergy in Tinnevelly are said to be converted Shanans, and Tinnevelly claims Native missionaries working in Madagascar, Natal, Mauritius, and the Straits. The occupations of those whom I saw at Nazareth were merchant, cultivator, teacher, village munsif, organist, cart-driver, and cooly.

The Shanans have established a school, called Kshatriya Vidyasala, at Virudupati in Tinnevelly. This is a free school, for attendance at which no fee is levied on the pupils, for the benefit of the Shanan community, but boys of other castes are freely admitted to it. It is maintained by Shanans from their mahimai fund, and the teachers are Brahmans, Shanans, etc. The word mahimai means greatness, glory, or respectability.

Shanbog.—The Magane Shanbog takes the place, in South Canara, of the village Karnam or accountant. There are also temple Shanbogs, who are employed at the more important temples. When social disputes come up for decision at caste council meetings, the Shanbog appointed by the caste records the evidence, and the Moktessor or Mukhtesar (chief man) of the caste decides upon the facts. In some places in South Canara Shanbog is used as a synonym for Sarasvat Brahman. In Mysore, the Shanbog is said48 to be “the village accountant, with hardly an exception of the Brahman caste. The office is hereditary. In some places they hold land free of rent, and in others on light assessment. In some few places a fixed money allowance is given. In all instances there are certain fixed fees payable to them in money or kind by the ryots.”

It is noted by Mr. W. Robinson, in a report on the Laccadive islands (1869), that “the Monegar has the assistance of one of the islanders as a Karany, to take down depositions, and to read them, for the character used is the Arabic. In addition to these duties, the Karany has those of the Shanbogue. He keeps the accounts of the trees, and the coir (cocoanut fibre) in the islands, and makes out and delivers the accounts of coir brought to the coast.”

Shikari.—Shikari, meaning a sportsman or hunter, occurs as a synonym of Irula, and a sub-division of Korava. The name shikari is also applied to a Native who “accompanies European sportsmen as a guide and aid, and to the European sportsman himself.”49

Sholaga.—In his account of the Sholagas or Solagas, early in the last century, Buchanan50 writes that they “speak a bad or old dialect of the Karnata language, have scarcely any clothing, and sleep round a fire, lying on a few plantain leaves, and covering themselves with others. They live chiefly on the summits of mountains, where the tigers do not frequent, but where their naked bodies are exposed to a disagreeable cold. Their huts are most wretched, and consist of bamboos with both ends stuck into the ground, so as to form an arch, which is covered with plantain leaves.” The up-to-date Sholaga, who inhabits the jungles of Coimbatore between Dimbhum and Kollegal near the Mysore frontier, is clad in a cotton loin-cloth, supplemented by a coat of English pattern with regimental buttons, and smears himself freely on special occasions, such as a visit to the Government anthropologist, with sacred ashes in mimicry of the Lingayats.

I gather from a correspondent that the following tradition concerning their origin is current. In days of yore there lived two brothers in the Geddesala hills, by name Karayan and Billaya or Madheswara. The Uralis and Sholagas are descended from Karayan, and the Sivacharis (Lingayats) from Madheswara. The two brothers fell into the hands of a terrible Rakshasha (demon), by name Savanan, who made Karayan a shepherd, but imprisoned Madheswara for not paying him sufficient respect, and extracted all kinds of menial work from him. Last of all he ordered him to make a pair of shoes, whereupon Madheswara asked for his liberty for a few days, to enable him to have the shoes well made. His request being granted, Madheswara betook himself to the god Krishnamurti, and asked him for his help in his troubles. The god was only too happy to assist, and suggested that the shoes should be made of wax. Helped by Krishnamurti, Madheswara made a very beautiful-looking pair of shoes. Krishnamurti then ordered him to pile up and light a huge bonfire on a bare rocky hill east of Geddesala, so as to make it nearly red-hot. The ashes were then cleared away, so as to leave no trace of their plot. Madheswara then took the shoes, and presented them to Savanan, who was much pleased with them, and willingly acceded to Madheswara’s request that he would put them on, and walk along the rock. But, as soon as he stepped upon it, the shoes melted, and Savanan fell heavily on the rock, clutching hold of Madheswara as he fell, and trying to strangle him. Krishnamurti had assembled all the gods to witness the carrying out of the plot, and, telling each of them to pile a stone on Savanan’s head, himself rescued Madheswara from his clutches, and all jumped upon the Rakshasha till no trace of him was left. While this was going on, Karayan was tending Savanan’s herds in the forest, and, when he came to hear about it, was angry with his brother for not consulting him before destroying Savanan. Flying from Karayan, who was armed with a knife, Madheswara implored Krishnamurti’s help, by which he was able to leap from Kotriboli to the hill called Urugamalai, a distance of some ten miles. The force of the leap caused the hill to bend—hence its name meaning the bending hill. Finding that the hill was bending, and being still hotly pursued by his brother, knife in hand, Madheswara again appealed to Krishnamurti, and was enabled to make another leap of about five miles to a hill called Eggaraimalai, which immediately began to subside. Hence its name, meaning the subsiding hill. Thence he fled to Munikanal, and concealed himself under a rock, closely followed by Karayan, who slashed the rock with his knife, and left marks which are visible to this day. From Munikanal he fled to the hill now known as Madheswaranamalai, and hid in a rat hole. Karayan, not being able to unearth him, sent for a lot of shepherds, and made them pen their sheep and cattle over the hole. The effluvium became too strong for the fugitive, so he surrendered himself to his brother, who pardoned him on the understanding that, on deification, Karayan should have prior claim to all votive offerings. To this Madheswara agreed, and to this day Sivacharis, when doing puja, first make their offerings to Karayan and afterwards to Madheswara. In connection with this legend, any one proceeding to the top of Kotriboli hill at the present day is expected to place a stone upon the rock, with the result that there are many piles of stones there. Even Europeans are asked to do this.

The Sholagas are said to call themselves men of five kulams, or exogamous septs, among which are Chalikiri, Teneru, Belleri, Surya (the sun), and Aleru. By members of the twelve kulam class, everything is done by twelves. For example, on the twelfth day after a birth, twelve elders are invited to the house to bless the child. At a marriage, twelve of the bridegroom’s relations go and fetch the bride, and the wedding pandal (booth) has twelve posts. The parents of the bridegroom pay twelve rupees to the bride’s father, and a tali (marriage badge) worth twelve annas is tied round the bride’s neck. In case of death, the body is borne on a stretcher made of twelve bamboos, and mourning lasts for twelve days.

Tribal disputes, e.g., quarrelling and adultery, are decided by the Yejamana, assisted by a Pattagara and a few leading men of the community. Under the orders of the two former is the Chalavathi or village servant. The Yejamana, Pattagara, and Chalavathi must belong respectively to the Chalikiri, Teneri, and Surya septs.

When a girl reaches puberty, she occupies a separate hut for five days, and then returns home after a bath. The maternal uncle should present her with a new cloth, betel leaves and areca nuts, and plantain fruits. In the formal marriage ceremony, the tali is tied by the bridegroom inside a booth; the maternal uncle, if he can afford it, presents a new cloth to the bride, and a feast is held. Sometimes even this simple rite is dispensed with, and the couple, without any formality, live together as man and wife, on the understanding that, at some time, a feast must be given to a few of the community. I am told that the Sholagas of the Burghur hills have a very extraordinary way of treating expectant mothers. A few days before the event is expected to take place, the husband takes his wife right away into the jungle, and leaves her there alone with three days’ supply of food. There she has to stay, and do the best she can for herself. If she does not come back at the end of the three days, the husband goes out and takes her more food. But she may not return to her village till the baby is born. When one of these unfortunate creatures comes back safely, there is a great celebration in her honour, with beating of tom-tom, etc.

The dead are buried with the body lying on its left side, and the head to the south. On their return home from a funeral, those who have been present thereat salute a lighted lamp. On the spot where the dead person breathed his last, a little ragi (Eleusine Coracana) paste and water are placed, and here, on the fourth day, a goat is sacrificed, and offered up to the soul of the departed. After this the son proceeds to the burial ground, carrying a stone, and followed by men selected from each of the exogamous septs. Arrived near the grave, they sit down, while the son places the stone on the ground, and they then lift it in succession. The last man to do so is said to fall into a trance. On his recovery, leaves (plantain, teak, etc.) corresponding in number to the exogamous septs, are arranged round the stone, and, on each leaf, different kinds of food are placed. The men partake of the food, each from the leaf allotted to his sept. The meal concluded, the son holds the stone in his hands, while his companions pour ragi and water over it, and then carries it away to the gopamane (burial-ground) of his sept, and sets it up there.

On the occasion of a death in a Mala Vellala village, the Sholagas come in crowds, with clarionets and drums, and bells on their legs, and dance in front of the house. And the corpse is borne, in musical procession, to the burning-ground.

The staple food of the Sholagas is ragi paste and yams (Dioscorea), which, like the Uralis, they supplement by sundry jungle animals and birds. Paroquets they will not eat, as they regard them as their children.

Their main occupation is to collect minor forest produce, myrabolams, vembadam bark (Ventilago madraspatana), avaram bark (Cassia auriculata), deers’ horns, tamarinds, gum, honey, soap-nuts, sheekoy (Acacia Concinna),etc. The forests have been divided into blocks, and a certain place within each block has been selected for the forest depÔt. To this place the collecting agents, mostly Sholagas and Uralis, bring the produce, and there it is sorted and paid for by special supervisors appointed for the work.

In the Coimbatore district the Sholagas are said to collect honey from rocky crevices. The combs are much larger than those found on trees, and are supposed to contain twice as much wax in proportion to the honey. On the Nilgiri hills honey-combs are collected by Jen Kurumbas and Sholagas. The supply of honey varies according to the nature of the season, and is especially plentiful and of good quality when Strobilanthes Wightianus, S. Kunthiana, and other species are in flower.

It has been said that even wild beasts will scent a Sholaga, and flee before the aroma.

The Sholagas, who were examined by Dr. Rivers and myself, came to the conclusion that the object of our enquiry was to settle them in a certain place near London, and that the wools of different colours (used for testing colour vision) given to them for selection, were for tying them captive with. Others said that they could not understand why the different organs of their bodies were measured; perhaps to reduce or increase the size of their body to suit the different works, which they were expected to do near London. It has been pointed out to me, as an interesting fact, that a similarity of idea concerning the modification of different organs to suit men for the doing of special work has been arrived at by the jungle folk, and by Mr. Wells in his book, ‘The first men in the moon,’ where the lunar inhabitants are described as carrying on the practice.

Of the experiences of a Sholaga when out with a European on a shooting expedition, the following account has recently been given.51 “My husband was after a bear, and tracked Bruin to his cave. He had torches made, and these he ordered to be thrust into the cave in the hope of smoking the bear out, but, as nothing happened, he went into the cave, accompanied by a Sholigar carrying a torch. As soon as they got used to the light, they saw a small aperture leading into an inner cave, and the Sholigar was told to put the torch in there. Hardly was this done, when out rushed a large bear, knocking over the Sholigar, and extinguishing the torch. My husband could not get his gun up in time to fire, as the bear rushed through the cave into the jungle. Just as the Sholigar was picking himself up, out rushed another bear. This time my husband was ready, and fired. To the Sholigar’s horror, Bruin sank down wounded at the entrance to the outer cave, thus blocking the exit, and keeping both tracker and my husband prisoners. The Sholigar began whimpering, saying he was the father of a large family, and did not wish to leave the children fatherless. Soon the bear, though very badly wounded, managed to get to its feet, and crawl away into the jungle, so liberating the prisoners.”

Concerning the Sholagas of the Mysore Province,52 I gather that they “inhabit the depths of the forests clothing the foot and slopes of the Biligirirangam hills. They cultivate with the hoe small patches of jungle clearings. Their chief god is Biligiri Rangasvami, but they also worship Karaiyya, their tribal tutelary deity. Their principal food is the ragi, which they grow, supplemented by wild forest produce. They are partial to the flesh of deer, antelope, pigs, sheep and goats. A few of them have, in recent years, come to own lands. Like the Jenu Kurumbas, they are perfect trackers of wild animals. Three kinds of marriage prevail among them. The first is affected by the more well-to-do, who perform the ceremony with much Éclat under a shed with twelve pillars (bamboo posts), accompanied by music and festivities, which continue for three days. The second is more common, and seems to be a modified form of concubinage. The poorer members resort to the third kind, which consists in the couple eloping to a distant jungle, and returning home only after the bride has become a mother. They speak a patois, allied to old Canarese or Hale Kannada.”53

Shola Naiker.—A synonym of Jen Kurumbas in the Wynad.

Sibbi Dhompti (brass vessel offering).—A subdivision of Madigas, who, at marriages, offer food to the god in brass vessels.

Siddaru.—A synonym of Jogi mendicants.

Sika (kudumi or hair-knot).—An exogamous sept of Devanga.

Sikili (broom).—An exogamous sept of Madiga.

Sikligar.—In the Madras Census Report, 1901, eleven individuals are returned as belonging to an Upper India caste of knife-grinders (Sikligar). In the Madura Manual, Sikilkarars are described as knife-grinders, who wander about in quest of work from village to village.

Sila (stone).—An exogamous sept of Omanaito.

Silam (good conduct).—An exogamous sept of Mala.

Silavant.—In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Silavant is recorded as meaning the virtuous, and as being a sub-sect of Lingayats. In the Mysore Census Report, Silavanta is given as a name for Lingayat Nayindas. For the following note on the Silavantalu or Silevantalu of Vizagapatam, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao.

They are a sect of Lingayats, who, though they do not admit it, appear to be an offshoot of Pattu Sales, who became converts to the Lingayat religion. They are engaged in the manufacture of fine cloths for males and females. The religious observances which secured them their name, meaning those who practice or possess particular religious customs, have been thus described. In the seventh month of pregnancy, at the time of quickening, a small stone linga is enclosed in black lac, wrapped in a piece of silk cloth, and tied to the thread of the linga which is on the woman’s neck. The child is thus invested with the linga while still in utero. When it is about a year old, and weaned, the linga is taken off the mother’s neck, and replaced by a silver locket. The linga is tied on the neck of the child. At the beginning of the twelfth year in the case of boys, and just before the marriage of girls, this linga is taken off, and a fresh one suspended round the neck by a guru.

The Silavantalu are divided into exogamous septs, or intiperulu. The custom of menarikam, whereby a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is the rule. But, if the maternal uncle has no daughter, he must find a suitable bride for his nephew. Girls are married before puberty, and a Jangam, known as Mahesvara, officiates at weddings.

The dead are buried in a sitting posture, facing north. The linga is suspended round the neck of the corpse, and buried with it. Six small copper plates are made, each containing a syllable of the invocation Om na ma Si va ya. Two of these are placed on the thighs of the corpse, one on the head, one on the navel, and two on the shoulders, and stuck on with guggilam paste. The corpse is then tied up in a sack. The relatives offer flowers to it, and burn camphor before it. The grave is dug several feet deep, and a cavity or cell is made on the southern side of it, and lined with bamboo matting. The corpse is placed within the cell, and salt thrown into the grave before it is filled in. A Jangam officiates at the funeral. Monthly and annual death ceremonies are performed. A samathi or monument is erected over the grave. Such a monument may be either in the form of a square mound (brindavan) with niches for lights and a hole in the top, in which a tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) is planted, or in the form of a small chamber. Relations go occasionally to the grave, whereon they deposit flowers, and place lights in the niches or chamber.

The Silavantalu are strict vegetarians and total abstainers. Their titles are Ayya and Lingam.

Silpa (artisan).—A sub-division of the Kammalans, Panchalas or Kamsalas, whose hereditary occupation is that of stone-masons. In the Silpa Sastra, the measurements necessary in sculpture, the duties of a Silpi, etc., are laid down. I am informed that the carver of a stone idol has to select a male or female stone, according as the idol is to be a god or goddess, and that the sex of a stone can be determined by its ring when struck.

Sindhu.—The Sindhuvallu (drummers) are Madigas, who go about acting scenes from the Ramayana or Mahabharatha, and the story of Ankamma. Sindhu also occurs as a gotra of Kurni. The beating of the drum called sindhu is, I gather, sometimes a nuisance, for a missionary writes to the paper enquiring whether there is any order of Government against it, as the practice “causes much crime, and creates extra work for police and magistrates. Village officials believe they have no authority to suppress it, but there are some who assert that it is nominally forbidden.”

Singamu-varu.—Singam is described, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a class of beggars, who beg only from Sales. They are, however, described by Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao as a class of itinerant mendicants attached to the Devangas. “The name,” he writes, “is a variant of Simhamu-varu, or lion-men, i.e., as valourous as a lion. They are paid a small sum annually by each Devanga village for various services which they render, such as carrying fire before a Devanga corpse to the burial-ground, acting as caste messengers, and cleaning the weaving instruments.”

Sinnata (gold).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.

Siolo.—A small class of Oriya toddy-drawers, whose touch conveys pollution. The Sondis, who are an Oriya caste of toddy-sellers, purchase their liquor from the Siolos.

Sipiti.—The Sipitis are described, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as “Oriya temple priests and drummers; a sub-caste of Ravulo.” In an account of them as given to me, they are stated to be Smartas, and temple priests of village deities, who wear the sacred thread, but do not employ Brahmans as purohits, and are regarded as somewhat lower in the social scale than the Ravulos. Some of their females are said to have been unrecognised prostitutes, but the custom is dying out. The caste title is Muni. (See Ravulo.)

Sir.—A sub-division of Kanakkan.

Sirpadam.—A sub-division of Kaikolan.

Sirukudi.—A nadu or territorial division of Kallan.

Siru Tali.—The name, indicating those who wear a small tali (marriage badge), of a sub-division of Kaikolan and Maravan.

Sitikan.—Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as an occupational sub-division of Maran.

Sitra.—See Pano.

Siva Brahmana.—Recorded as a synonym of Stanika.

Sivachara.—It is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that the Lingayats call themselves “Vira Saivas, Sivabhaktas, or Sivachars. The Virasaiva religion consists of numerous castes. It is a religion consisting of representatives from almost every caste in Hindu society. People of all castes, from the highest to the lowest, have embraced the religion. There are Sivachar Brahmins, Sivachar Kshatriyas, Sivachar Vaisyas, Sivachar carpenters, Sivachar weavers, Sivachar goldsmiths, Sivachar potters, Sivachar washermen, and Sivachar barbers, and other low castes who have all followed the popular religion in large numbers.”

Sivadvija.—The name, denoting Saivite Brahman, by which Mussads like to be called. Also recorded as a synonym of Stanika.

Sivaratri.—An exogamous sept of Odde, named after the annual Mahasivaratri festival in honour of Siva. Holy ashes, sacred to Siva, prepared by Smartas on this day, are considered to be very pure.

Sivarchaka.—The word means those who do puja (worship) to Siva. Priests at the temple of village deities are ordinarily known as Pujari, Pusali, Occhan, etc., but nowadays prefer the title of Umarchaka or Sivarchaka. The name Sivala occurs in the Madras Census Report, 1901.

Siviyar.—Siviyar means literally a palanquin-bearer, and is an occupational name applied to those employed in that capacity. For this reason a sub-division of the Idaiyans is called Siviyar. The Siviyars of Coimbatore say that they have no connection with either Idaiyans or Toreyas, but are Besthas who emigrated from Mysore during the troublous times of the Muhammadan usurpation. The name Siviyar is stated to have been given to them by the Tamils, as they were palanquin-bearers to officers on circuit and others in the pre-railway days. They claim origin, on the authority of a book called Parvatharaja Charithum, from Parvatharaja. Their main occupations at the present day are tank and river fishing, but some are petty traders, physicians, peons, etc. Their language is Canarese, and their title Naickan. They have eighteen marriage divisions or gotras, named after persons from whom the various gotras are said to have been descended. On occasions of marriage, when betel leaf is distributed, it must be given to members of the different gotras in their order of precedence. In cases of adultery, the guilty parties are tied to a post, and beaten with tamarind switches. When a grown-up but unmarried person dies, the corpse is made to go through a mock marriage with a human figure cut out of a palm leaf.

Sodabisiya.—A sub-division of Domb.

Soi.—A title of Doluva. It is a form of Sui or Swayi.

Solaga.—See Sholaga.

Soliyan.—Soliyan or Soliya is a territorial name, meaning an inhabitant of the Chola country, recorded as a sub-division of Karnam, Idaiyan, Pallan, and Vellala. The equivalent Solangal occurs as an exogamous sept of Vallamban, and Soliya illam (Malayalam, house) as an exogamous sept of Panikkans in the Tamil country. Some Pallis style themselves Solakanar (descendants of Chola kings), or Solakula Kshatriya. (See Sozhia.)

Somakshatri.—A name sometimes adopted by Canarese Ganigas in South Canara.

Somara.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a small class of potters in the Vizagapatam hills.

Somari (idler).—A division of Yanadis, who do scavenging work, and eat the refuse food thrown away by people from the leaf plate after a meal.

Soma Varada (Sunday).—The name of Kurubas who worship their god on Sundays.

Sonagan.—See Jonagan.

Sonar.—The Sonars or Sonagaras of South Canara are described by Mr. H. A. Stuart54 as a goldsmith caste, who “speak Konkani, which is a dialect of Marathi, and are believed to have come from Goa. The community at each station has one or two Mukhtesars or headmen, who enquire into, and settle the caste affairs. Serious offences are reported to the swamy of Sode, who has authority to excommunicate, or to inflict heavy fines. They wear the sacred thread. Marriages within the same gotra are strictly prohibited. Most of them are Vaishnavites, but a few follow Siva. The dead are burned, and the ashes are thrown into a river. They eat fish, but not flesh. Their title is Setti.” They consider it derogatory to work in metals other than gold and silver.

In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Sunnari (or Sonnari) are described as Oriya goldsmiths (see Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Sonar). These goldsmiths, in the Oriya portion of the Madras Presidency, are, I am informed, Kamsalas from the Telugu country. Unlike the Oriyas, and like other Telugu classes, they invariably have a house-name, and their mother tongue is Telugu. They are Saivites, bury their dead, claim to be descendants of Viswakarma, and call themselves Viswa Brahmans. They do not eat meals prepared by Brahmans, or drink water at the hands of Brahmans.

In former times, goldsmiths held the post of Nottakaran (tester) or village shroff (money-changer). His function was to test the rupees tendered when the land revenue was being gathered in, and see that they were not counterfeit. There is a proverb, uncomplimentary to the goldsmiths, to the effect that a goldsmith cannot make an ornament even for his wife, without first secreting some of the gold or silver given him for working upon.

It has been noted55 that “in Madras, an exceedingly poor country, there is one male goldsmith to every 408 of the total population; in England, a very rich country, there is only one goldsmith to every 1,200 inhabitants. In Europe, jewellery is primarily for ornament, and is a luxury. In India it is primarily an investment, its ornamental purpose being an incident.”

The South Indian goldsmith at work has been well described as follows.56 “A hollow, scooped out in the middle of the mud floor (of a room or verandah), does duty for the fireplace, while, close by, there is raised a miniature embankment, semi-circular in shape, with a hole in the middle of the base for the insertion of the bellows. Crucibles of clay or cow-dung, baked hard in the sun, tongs and hammers, potsherds of charcoal, dirty tins of water, and little packets of sal-ammoniac, resin, or other similar substances, all lie scattered about the floor in picturesque confusion. Sitting, or rather crouching on their haunches, are a couple of the Panchala workmen. One of them is blowing a pan of charcoal into flame through an iron tube some eighteen inches long by one in diameter, and stirring up the loose charcoal. Another is hammering at a piece of silver wire on a little anvil before him. With his miserable tools the Hindu goldsmith turns out work that well might, and often deservedly does, rank with the greatest triumphs of the jeweller’s art.”

Sondi.—The Sondis or Sundis are summed up in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as “Oriya toddy-selling caste. They do not draw toddy themselves, but buy it from Siolos, and sell it. They also distill arrack.” The word arrack or arak, it may be noted en passant, means properly “perspiration, and then, first the exudation of sap drawn from the date-palm; secondly, any strong drink, distilled spirit, etc.”57 A corruption of the word is rack, which occurs, e.g., in rack punch.

According to a Sanskrit work, entitled Parasarapaddati, Soundikas (toddy-drawers and distillers of arrack) are the offspring of a Kaivarata male and a Gaudike female. Both these castes are pratiloma (mixed) castes. In the Matsya Purana, the Soundikas are said to have been born to Siva of seven Apsara women on the bank of the river Son. Manu refers to the Soundikas, and says that a Snataka58 may not accept food from trainers of hunting dogs, Soundikas, a washerman, a dyer, pitiless man, and a man in whose house lives a paramour of his wife.

In a note on the allied Sunris or Sundis of Bengal, Mr. Risley writes59 that “according to Hindu ideas, distillers and sellers of strong drink rank among the most degraded castes, and a curious story in the Vaivarta Purana keeps alive the memory of their degradation. It is said that when Sani, the Hindu Saturn, failed to adapt an elephant’s head to the mutilated trunk of Ganesa, who had been accidentally beheaded by Siva, Viswakarma, the celestial artificer, was sent for, and by careful dissection and manipulation he fitted the incongruous parts together, and made a man called Kedara Sena from the slices cut off in fashioning his work. This Kedara Sena was ordered to fetch a drink of water for Bhagavati, weary and athirst. Finding on the river’s bank a shell full of water, he presented it to her, without noticing that a few grains of rice left in it by a parrot had fermented and formed an intoxicating liquid. Bhagavati, as soon as she had drunk, became aware of the fact, and in her anger condemned the offender to the vile and servile occupation of making spirituous liquor for mankind. Another story traces their origin to a certain Bhaskar or Bhaskar Muni, who was created by Krishna’s brother, Balaram, to minister to his desire for strong drink. A different version of the same legend gives them for ancestor Niranjan, a boy found by Bhaskar floating down a river in a pot full of country liquor, and brought up by him as a distiller.”

For the following note on the Sondis of Vizagapatam, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. According to a current tradition, there was, in days of old, a Brahman, who was celebrated for his magical powers. The king, his patron, asked him if he could make the water in a tank (pond) burn, and he replied in the affirmative. He was, however, in reality disconsolate, because he did not know how to do it. By chance he met a distiller, who asked him why he looked so troubled, and, on learning his difficulty, promised to help him on condition that he gave him his daughter in marriage. To this the Brahman consented. The distiller gave him a quantity of liquor to pour into the tank, and told him to set it alight in the presence of the king. The Brahman kept his word, and the Sondis are the descendants of the offspring of his daughter and the distiller. The caste is divided into several endogamous divisions, viz., Bodo Odiya, Madhya kula, and Sanno kula. The last is said to be made up of illegitimate descendants of the two first divisions.

The Sondis distil liquor from the ippa (Bassia) flower, rice, and jaggery (crude sugar). There is a tradition that Brahma created the world, and pinched up from a point between his eyebrows a little mud, from which he made a figure, and endowed it with life. Thus Suka Muni was created, and authorised to distil spirit from the ippa flowers, which had hitherto been eaten by birds.

When a girl reaches puberty, she is set apart in a room within a square enclosure made with four arrows connected together by a thread. Turmeric and oil are rubbed over her daily, and, on the seventh day, she visits the local shrine.

Girls are married before puberty. Some days before a wedding, a sal (Shorea robusta) or neredu (Eugenia Jambolana) post is set up in front of the bridegroom’s house, and a pandal (booth) erected round it. On the appointed day, a caste feast is held, and a procession of males proceeds to the bride’s house, carrying with them finger rings, silver and glass bangles, and fifty rupees as the jholla tonka (bride price). On the following day, the bride goes to the house of the bridegroom. On the marriage day, the contracting couple go seven times round the central post of the pandal, and their hands are joined by the presiding Oriya Brahman. They then sit down, and the sacred fire is raised. The females belonging to the bridegroom’s party sprinkle them with turmeric and rice. On the following day, a Bhondari (barber) cleans the pandal, and draws patterns in it with rice flour. A mat is spread, and the couple play with cowry shells. These are five in number, and the bridegroom holds them tightly in his right hand, while the bride tries to wrest them from him. If she succeeds in so doing, her brothers beat the bridegroom, and make fun of him; if she fails, the bridegroom’s sisters beat and make fun of her. The bride then takes hold of the cowries, and the same performance is gone through. A basket of rice is brought, and some of it poured into a vessel. The bridegroom holds a portion of it in his hand, and the bride asks him to put it back. This, after a little coaxing, he consents to do. These ceremonies are repeated during the next five days. On the seventh day, small quantities of food are placed on twelve leaves, and twelve Brahmans, who receive a present of money, sit down, and partake thereof. The marriage of widows is permitted, and a younger brother may marry the widow of an elder brother.

The dead are burned, and death pollution lasts for ten days. Daily, during this period, cooked food is strewed on the way leading to the burning-ground. On the eleventh day, those under pollution bathe, and the sacred fire (homam) is raised by a Brahman. As at a wedding, twelve Brahmans receive food and money. Towards midnight, a new pot is brought, and holes are bored in it. A lighted lamp and food are placed in it, and it is taken towards the burning-ground and set down on the ground. The dead man’s name is then called out three times. He is informed that food is ready, and asked to come.

Men, but not women, eat animal food. The women will not partake of the remnants of their husbands’ meal on days on which they eat meat, because, according to the legend, their female ancestor was a Brahman woman.

Among the Sondis of Ganjam, if a girl does not secure a husband before she reaches maturity, she goes through a form of marriage with an old man of the caste, or with her elder sister’s husband, and may not marry until the man with whom she has performed this ceremony dies. On the wedding day, the bridegroom is shaved, and his old waist-thread is replaced by a new one. The ceremonies commence with the worship of Ganesa, and agree in the main with those of many other Oriya castes. The remarriage of widows is permitted. If a widow was the wife of the first-born or eldest son in a family, she may not, after his death, marry one of his younger brothers. She may, however, do so if she was married in the first instance to a second son.

It is noted by Mr. C. F. MacCartie, in the Madras Census Report, 1881, that “a good deal of land has been sold by Khond proprietors to other castes. It was in this way that much territory was found some years ago to be passing into the hands of the Sundis or professional liquor distillers. As soon as these facts were brought to the notice of Government, no time was lost in the adoption of repressive measures, which have been completely successful, as the recent census shows a great reduction in the numbers of these Sundis, who, now that their unscrupulous trade is abolished, have emigrated largely to Boad and other tracts. This is the only case to my knowledge in which a special trade has decayed, and with the best results, as, had it not been so, there is no doubt that the Khond population would very soon have degenerated into pure adscripti glebÆ, and the Sundis become the landlords.”

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that “besides ippa (liquor distilled from the blossom of Bassia latifolia), the hill people brew beer from rice, samai (the millet Panicum miliare), and ragi (Eleusine Coracana). They mash the grain in the ordinary manner, add some more water to it, mix a small quantity of ferment with it, leave it to ferment three or four days, and then strain off the grain. The beer so obtained is often highly intoxicating, and different kinds of it go by different names, such as londa, pandiyam, and maddikallu. The ferment which is used is called the saraiya-mandu (spirit drug) or Sondi-mandu (Sondi’s drug), and can be bought in the weekly market. There are numerous recipes for making it, but the ingredients are always jungle roots and barks.60 It is sold made up into small balls with rice. The actual shop-keepers and still-owners in the hills, especially in the Parvatipur and Palkonda agencies, are usually immigrants of the Sondi caste, a wily class who know exactly how to take advantage of the sin which doth so easily beset the hill man, and to wheedle from him, in exchange for the strong drink which he cannot do without, his ready money, his little possessions, his crops, and finally his land itself.

“The Sondis are gradually getting much of the best land into their hands, and many of the guileless hill ryots into their power. Mr. Taylor stated in 1892 that ‘the rate of interest on loans extorted by these Sondis is 100 per cent. and, if this is not cleared off in the first year, compound interest at 100 per cent. is charged on the balance. The result is that, in many instances, the cultivators are unable to pay in cash or kind, and become the gotis or serfs of the sowcars, for whom they have to work in return for mere batta (subsistence allowance), whilst the latter take care to manipulate their accounts in such a manner that the debt is never paid off. A remarkable instance of this tyranny was brought to my notice a few days since. A ryot some fifty years ago borrowed Rs. 20; he paid back Rs. 50 at intervals, and worked for the whole of his life, and died in harness. For the same debt the sowcar (money-lender) claimed the services of his son, and he too died in bondage, leaving two small sons aged 13 and 9, whose services were also claimed for an alleged arrear of Rs. 30 on a debt of Rs. 20 borrowed 50 years back, for which Rs. 50 in cash had been repaid in addition to the perpetual labour of a man for a similar period.’ This custom of goti is firmly established, and, in a recent case, an elder brother claimed to be able to pledge for his own debts the services of his younger brother, and even those of the latter’s wife. Debts due by persons of respectability are often collected by the Sondis by an exasperating method, which has led to at least one case of homicide. They send Ghasis, who are one of the lowest of all castes, and contact with whom is utter defilement entailing severe caste penalties, to haunt the house of the debtor who will not pay, insult and annoy him and his family, and threaten to drag him forcibly before the Sondi.” A friend was, on one occasion, out after big game in the Jeypore hills, and shot a tiger. He asked his shikari (tracker) what reward he should give him for putting him on to the beast. The shikari replied that he would be quite satisfied with twenty-five rupees, as he wanted to get his younger brother out of pledge. Asked what he meant, he replied that, two years previously, he had purchased as his wife a woman who belonged to a caste higher than his own for a hundred rupees. He obtained the money by pledging his younger brother to a sowcar, and had paid it all back except twenty-five rupees. Meanwhile his brother was the bondsman of the sowcar, and cultivating his land in return for simple food.

It is further recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that Dombu (or Domb) dacoits “force their way into the house of some wealthy person (for choice the local Sondi liquor-seller and sowcar—usually the only man worth looting in an Agency village, and a shark who gets little pity from his neighbours when forced to disgorge), tie up the men, rape the women, and go off with everything of value.”

The titles of the Ganjam Sondis are Behara, Chowdri, Podhano, and Sahu. In the Vizagapatam agency tracts, their title is said to be Bissoyi.

Sonkari.—The Sonkaris are a small class of Oriya lac bangle (sonka) makers in Ganjam and Vizagapatam, who should not be confused with the Telugu Sunkaris. The men are engaged in agriculture, and the women manufacture the bangles, chains, chamaras (fly-flappers), kolatam sticks (for stick play), and fans ornamented with devices in paddy (unhusked rice) grains, which are mainly sold to Europeans as curios.

Sonkari girls are married before puberty. A man should marry his paternal aunt’s daughter, but at the present day this custom is frequently disregarded. Brahmans officiate at their marriages. The dead are cremated. The caste title is Patro.

Sonkuva.—A sub-division of Mali.

Sonti (dried ginger).—An exogamous sept of Asili.

Soppu (leaf).—The name for Koragas, who wear leafy garments.

Sozhia.—A territorial name of sub-divisions of various Tamil classes who are settled in what was formerly the Chola country, e.g., Brahman, Chetti, Kaikolan, Kammalan, Pallan, and Vellala.

Srishti Karnam.—A sub-division of Karnam. The name is variously spelt, e.g., Sristi, Sishta, Sishti. The name Sishti Karanamalu is said to have been assumed by Oddilu, who have raised themselves in life.61

Stala (a place).—Lingayats sometimes use the word Staladavaru, or natives of a place, to distinguish them from recent settlers.

Stanika.—The Stanikas are summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as being “Canarese temple servants. They claim to be Brahmans, though other Brahmans do not admit the claim; and, as the total of the caste has declined from 4,650 in 1891 to 1,469, they have apparently returned themselves as Brahmans in considerable numbers.” The Stanikas are, in the South Canara Manual, said to be “the descendants of Brahmins by Brahmin widows and outcast Brahmin women, corresponding with Manu’s Golaka. They however now claim to be Siva Brahmins, forcibly dispossessed of authority by the Madhvas, and state that the name Stanika is not that of a separate caste, but indicates their profession as managers of temples, with the title of Deva Stanika. This claim is not generally conceded, and as a matter of fact the duties in which Stanikas are employed are clearly those of temple servants, namely, collecting flowers, sweeping the interiors of temples, looking after the lamps, cleaning the temple vessels, ringing bells, and the like. Many of them, however, are landowners and farmers. They are generally Sivites, and wear the sacred thread. Their special deities are Venkatramana and Ganapati. Dravida Brahmins officiate as their priests, but of late some educated men of the caste have assumed the priestly office. The caste has two sub-divisions, viz., Subramania and Kumbla. Girls must be married in infancy, i.e., before they attain puberty. Widow remarriage is neither permitted nor practiced. Their other customs are almost the same as those of the Kota Brahmans. They neither eat flesh nor drink liquor.” It is stated in the Manual that the Stanikas are called Shanbogs and Mukhtesars. But I am informed that at an inquest or a search the Moktessors or Mukhtesars (chief men) of a village are assembled, and sign the inquest report or search list. The Moktessors of any caste can be summoned together. Some of the Moktessors of a temple may be Stanikas. In the case of social disputes decided at caste meetings, the Shanbog (writer or accountant) appointed by the caste would record the evidence, and the Moktessor would decide upon the facts.

Of the two sections Subramanya and Kumbla, the former claim superiority, and there is no intermarriage between them. The members of the Subramanya section state that they belong to Rig Saka (Rig Veda) and have gotras, such as Viswamitra, Angirasa, and Baradwaja, and twelve exogamous septs. Of these septs, the following are examples:—

The famous temple of Subramanya is said to have been in charge of the Subramanya Stanikas, till it was wrested from them by the Shivalli Brahmans. In former times, the privilege of sticking a golden ladle into a heap of food piled up in the temple, on the Shasti day or sixth day after the new moon in December, is said to have belonged to the Stanikas. They also brought earth from an ant-hill on the previous day. Food from the heap and earth are received as sacred articles by devotees who visit the sacred shrine. A large number of Stanikas are still attached to temples, where they perform the duties of cleaning the vessels, washing rice, placing cooked food on the bali pitam (altar stone), etc. The food placed on the stone is eaten by Stanikas, but not by Brahmans. In the Mysore province, a Brahman woman who partakes of this food loses her caste, and becomes a prostitute.

At times of census, Sivadvija and Siva Brahman have been given as synonyms of Stanika.

Sthavara.—Recorded, at times of census, as a sub-division of Jangam. The lingam, which Lingayats carry on some part of the body, is called the jangama lingam or moveable lingam, to distinguish it from the sthavara or fixed lingam of temples.

Subuddhi.—A title, meaning one having good sense, among several Oriya castes.

Sudarman.—See Udaiyan.

Suddho.—Two distinct castes go by this name, viz., the Savaras who have settled in the plains, and a small class of agriculturists and paiks (servants) in the low country of Ganjam. The Suddhos who live in the hills eat fowls and drink liquor, which those in the plains abstain from. The caste name Suddho means pure, and is said to have its origin in the fact that Suddho paiks used to tie the turbans of the kings of Gumsur. Like other Oriya castes, the Suddhos have Podhano, Bissoyi, Behara, etc., as titles. The caste has apparently come into existence in recent times.

Sudra.—The fourth of the traditional castes of Manu. The Sudra Nayars supply the female servants in the houses of Nambutiris.

Sudra Kavutiyan.—A name adopted by barbers who shave Nayars, to distinguish them from other barbers.

Sudugadusiddha.—The name is derived from sudugadu, a burning-ground. In the Mysore Census Report, 1901, they are described as being “mendicants like the Jogis, like whom they itinerate. They were once lords of burning-grounds, to whom the Kulavadi (see Holeya), who takes the cloth of the deceased and a fee for every dead body burned, paid something as acknowledging their overlordship.” These people are described by Mr. J. S. F. Mackenzie,62 under the name Sudgudu Siddha, or lords of the burning-ground, as agents who originally belonged to the Gangadikara Vakkaliga caste, and have become a separate caste, called after their head Sudgudu Siddharu. They intermarry among themselves, and the office of agent is hereditary. They have particular tracts of country assigned to them, when on tour collecting burial fees. They can be recognised by the wooden bell in addition to the usual metal one, which they always carry about. Without this no one would acknowledge the agent’s right to collect the fees.

Sugali.—Sugali and Sukali are synonyms of Lambadi.

Sugamanchi Balija.—A name said to mean the best of Balijas, and used as a synonym for Gazula Balija.

Sukka (star).—An exogamous sept of Yerukala. The equivalent Sukra occurs as a gotra of Oriya Kalinjis.

Sule.—A Canarese name for professional prostitutes. Temple dancing-girls object to the name, as being low. They call themselves Vesyas or Besyas, Naiksani, or Naikini (Naik females).

Sullokondia.—The highest sub-division of the Gaudos, from whose hands Oriya Brahmans will accept water.

Sunar.—See Sonar. <b>Sundarattan.—A sub-division of Nattukottai Chetti.

Sundi.—See Sondi.

Sunkari.—The Sunkari or Sunkara-vandlu are cultivators, fishermen, and raftsmen in the Godavari district. According to the Rev. J. Cain63 they come from some part of the Central Provinces, and are not regarded as outcasts, as stated in the Central Provinces Gazetteer.

Sunna Akki (thin rice).—A family name or bedagu of Donga Dasari.

Sunnambukkaran (lime man).—An occupational name for Paravas, Paraiyans, and other classes, who are employed as lime (chunam) burners. Sunnapu, meaning shell or quick-lime, occurs as an exogamous sept of Balija.

Sunnata.—A sub-division of Kurumbas, who are said to make only white blankets.

Surakkudi.—A section or kovil (temple) of Nattukottai Chetti.

Surti.—The name for domestic servants of Europeans in Bombay, who come from Surat.

Surya (the sun).—Recorded as a sept of Domb, Kuruba, and Pentiya, and a sub-division of Ambalakkaran. The equivalent Suryavamsam (people of the solar race) occurs as a sub-division of Razu, and as a synonym of the Konda Doras or Konda Kapus, some of whom style themselves Raja (= Razu) Kapus or Reddis.

Sutakulam.—A name by which the Besthas call themselves. They claim descent from the Rishi Suta Mahamuni. It has been suggested64 as probable that the Besthas gained the name from their superiority in the culinary art, suta meaning cook.

Sutarlu.—Recorded by the Rev. J. Cain65 as bricklayers and masons in the Godavari district.

Suthala (needle).—An exogamous sept of Kamma.

Svarupam.—Svarupam has been defined66 as “a dynasty, usually confined to the four principal dynasties, termed the Kola, Nayaririppu, Perimbadappu, and Trippa Svarupam, represented by the Kolatiri or Chirakal Rajah, the Zamorin, and the Cochin and Travancore Rajahs.” Svarupakkar or Svarupathil, meaning servants of Svarupams or kingly houses, is an occupational sub-division of Nayar.

Swayi.—A title of Alia, Aruva, Kalinji, and other Oriya classes.

Swetambara (clad in white).—One of the two main divisions of the Jains.

Syrian Christian.—The following note, containing a summary of the history of a community in connection with which the literature is considerable, is mainly abstracted from the Cochin Census Report, 1901, with additions.

St. Thomas cross, Kottayam.

The Syrian Christians have “sometimes been called the Christians of the Serra (a Portuguese word, meaning mountains). This arose from the fact of their living at the foot of the ghauts.”67 The glory of the introduction of the teachings of Christ to India is, by time-honoured tradition, ascribed to the apostle Saint Thomas. According to this tradition so dearly cherished by the Christians of this coast, about 52 A.D. the apostle landed at Malankara, or, more correctly, at Maliankara near Cranganur (Kodungallur), the Mouziris of the Greeks, or Muyirikode of the Jewish copper plates. Mouziris was a port near the mouth of a branch of the Alwaye river, much frequented in their early voyages by the Phoenician and European traders for the pepper and spices of this coast, and for the purpose of taking in fresh water and provisions. The story goes that Saint Thomas founded seven churches in different stations in Cochin and Travancore, and converted, among others, many Brahmans, notably the Cally, Calliankara, Sankarapuri, and Pakalomattam Nambudri families, the members of the last claiming the rare distinction of having been ordained as priests by the apostle himself. He then extended his labours to the Coromandel coast, where, after making many converts, he is said to have been pierced with a lance by some Brahmans, and to have been buried in the church of St. ThomÉ, in Mylapore, a suburb of the town of Madras. Writing concerning the prevalence of elephantiasis in Malabar, Captain Hamilton records68 that “the old Romish Legendaries impute the cause of those great swell’d legs to a curse Saint Thomas laid upon his murderers and their posterity, and that was the odious mark they should be distinguished by.” “Pretty early tradition associates Thomas with Parthia,69 Philip with Phrygia, Andrew with Syria, and Bartholomew with India, but later traditions make the apostles divide the various countries between them by lot.”70 Even if the former supposition be accepted, there is nothing very improbable in Saint Thomas having extended his work from Parthia to India. Others argue that, even if there be any truth in the tradition of the arrival of Saint Thomas in India, this comprised the countries in the north-west of India, or at most the India of Alexander the Great, and not the southern portion of the peninsula, where the seeds of Christianity are said to have been first sown, because the voyage to this part of India, then hardly known, was fraught with the greatest difficulties and dangers, not to speak of its tediousness. It may, however, be observed that the close proximity of Alexandria to Palestine, and its importance at the time as the emporium of the trade between the East and West, afforded sufficient facilities for a passage to India. If the Roman line of traffic vi Alexandria and the Red Sea was long and tedious, the route vi the Persian Gulf was comparatively easy.

When we come to the second century, we read of Demetrius of Alexandria receiving a message from some natives of India, earnestly begging for a teacher to instruct them in the doctrines of Christianity. Hearing this, PantÆnus, Principal of the Christian College of Alexandria, an Athenian stoic, an eminent preacher and “a very great gnosticus, who had penetrated most profoundly into the spirit of scripture,” sailed from Berenice for Malabar between 180 and 190 A.D. He found his arrival “anticipated by some who were acquainted with the Gospel of Mathew, to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the same Gospel in Hebrew, which also was preserved until this time. Returning to Alexandria, he presided over the College of Catechumens.” Early in the third century, St. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, also assigns the conversion of India to the apostle Bartholomew. To Thomas he ascribes Persia and the countries of Central Asia, although he mentions Calamina, “a city of India,” as the place where Thomas suffered death. The Rev. J. Hough71 observes that “it is indeed highly problematical that Saint Bartholomew was ever in India.” It may be remarked that there are no local traditions associating the event with his name, and, if Saint Bartholomew laboured at all on this coast, there is no reason why the earliest converts of Malabar should have preferred the name of Thomas to that of Bartholomew. Though Mr. Hough and Sir W. W. Hunter,72 among others, discredit the mission of St. Thomas in the first century, they both accept the story of the mission of PantÆnus. Mr. Hough says that “it is probable that these Indians (who appealed to Demetrius) were converts or children of former converts to Christianity.” If, in the second century, there could be children of former converts in India, it is not clear why the introduction of Christianity to India in the first century, and that by St. Thomas, should be so seriously questioned and set aside as being a myth, especially in view of the weight of the subjoined testimony, associating the work with the name of the apostle.

In the Asiatic Journal (Vol. VI), Mr. Whish refutes the assertions made by Mr. Wrede in the Asiatic Researches (Vol. VII) that the Christians of Malabar settled in that country “during the violent persecution of the sect of Nestorius under Theodosius II, or some time after,” and says, with reference to the date of the Jewish colonies in India, that the Christians of the country were settled long anterior to the period mentioned by Mr. Wrede. Referring to the acts and journeyings of the apostles, Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre (254–313 A.D.), says “the Apostle Thomas, after having preached the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Germanians, Bactrians, and Magi, suffered martyrdom at Calamina, a town of India.” It is said that, at the Council of Nice held in 325 A.D., India was represented by Johannes, Bishop of India Maxima and Persia. St. Gregory of Nazianzen (370–392 A.D.), in answering the reproach of his being a stranger, asks “Were not the apostles strangers? Granting that JudÆa was the country of Peter, what had Paul in common with the Gentiles, Luke with Achaia, Andrew with Epirus, John with Ephesus, Thomas with India, Mark with Italy”? St. Jerome (390 A.D.) testifies to the general belief in the mission of St. Thomas to India. He too mentions Calamina as the town where the apostle met with his death. Baronius thinks that, when Theodoret, the Church historian (430–458 A.D.), speaks of the apostles, he evidently associates the work in India with the name of St. Thomas. St. Gregory of Torus relates that “in that place in India, where the body of Thomas lay before it was transferred to Edessa, there is a monastery and temple of great size.” Florentius asserts that “nothing with more certainty I find in the works of the Holy Fathers than that St. Thomas preached the Gospel in India.” Rufinus, who stayed twenty-five years in Syria, says that the remains of St. Thomas were brought from India to Edessa. Two Arabian travellers of the ninth century, referred to by Renaudot, assert that St. Thomas died at Mailapur.

Coming to modern times, we have several authorities, who testify to the apostolic origin of the Indian Church, regarded as apocryphal by Mr. Milne Rae, Sir W. W. Hunter, and others. The historian of the ‘Indian Empire,’ while rejecting some of the strongest arguments advanced by Mr. Milne Rae, accepts his conclusions in regard to the apostolic origin. The Romanist Portuguese in their enthusiasm coloured the legends to such an extent as to make them appear incredible, and the Protestant writers of modern times, while distrusting the Portuguese version, are not agreed as to the rare personage that introduced Christianity to India. Mr. Wrede asserts that the Christians of Malabar settled in that country during the violent persecution of the sect of Nestorius under Theodosius II, or some time after. Dr. Burnell traces the origin to the ManichÆan Thomas, who flourished towards the end of the third century. Mr. Milne Rae brings the occurrence of the event down to the sixth century of the Christian era. Sir William Hunter, without associating the foundation of the Malabar Church with the name of any particular person, states the event to have taken place some time in the second century, long before the advent of Thomas the ManichÆan, but considers that the name St. Thomas Christians was adopted by the Christians in the eighth century. He observes that “the early legend of the ManichÆan Thomas in the third century and the later labours of the Armenian Thomas, the rebuilder of the Malabar Church in the eighth century, endeared that name to the Christians of Southern India.” [It has recently been stated, with reference to the tradition that it was St. Thomas the apostle who first evangelised Southern India, that, “though this tradition is no more capable of disproof than of proof, those authorities seem to be on safer ground, who are content to hold that Christianity was first imported into India by Nestorian or ChaldÆan missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia, whose apostolic zeal between the sixth and twelfth centuries ranged all over Asia, even into Tibet and Tartary. The seat of the Nestorian Patriarchate of Babylon was at Bagdad, and, as it claimed to be par excellence the Church of St. Thomas, this might well account for the fact that the proselytes it won over in India were in the habit of calling themselves Christians of St. Thomas. It is, to say the least, a remarkable coincidence that one of the three ancient stone crosses preserved in India bears an inscription and devices, which are stated to resemble those on the cross discovered near Singanfu in China, recording the appearance of Nestorian missionaries in Shenshi in the early part of the seventh century.”]

As already said, there are those who attribute the introduction of the Gospel to a certain Thomas, a disciple of Manes, who is supposed to have come to India in 277 A.D., finding in this an explanation of the origin of the Manigramakars (inhabitants of the village of Manes) of Kayenkulam near Quilon. Coming to the middle of the fourth century, we read of a Thomas Cana, an AramÆan or Syrian merchant, or a divine, as some would have it, who, having in his travels seen the neglected conditions of the flock of Christ on the Malabar coast, returned to his native land, sought the assistance of the Catholics of Bagdad, came back with a train of clergymen and a pretty large number of Syrians, and worked vigorously to better their spiritual condition. He is said to have married two Indian ladies, the disputes of succession between whose children appear, according to some writers, to have given rise to the two names of Northerners (Vadakkumbagar) and Southerners (Thekkumbagar)—a distinction which is still jealously kept up. The authorities are, however, divided as to the date of his arrival, for, while some assign 345 A.D., others give 745 A.D. It is just possible that this legend but records the advent of two waves of colonists from Syria at different times, and their settlement in different stations; and Thomas Cana was perhaps the leader of the first migration. The Syrian tradition explains the origin of the names in a different way, for, according to it, the foreigners or colonists from Syria lived in the southern street of Cranganur or Kodungallur, and the native converts in the northern street. After their dispersion from Cranganur, the Southerners kept up their pride and prestige by refusing to intermarry, while the name of Northerners came to be applied to all Native Christians other than the Southerners. At their wedding feasts, the Southerners sing songs commemorating their colonization at Kodungallur, their dispersion from there, and settlement in different places. They still retain some foreign tribe names, to which the original colony is said to have belonged. A few of these names are Baji, Kojah, Kujalik, and Majamuth. Their leader Thomas Cana is said to have visited the last of the Perumals and to have obtained several privileges for the benefit of the Christians. He is supposed to have built a church at Mahadevarpattanam, or more correctly Mahodayapuram, near Kodungallur in the Cochin State, the capital of the Perumals or Viceroys of Kerala, and, in their documents, the Syrian Christians now and again designate themselves as being inhabitants of Mahadevarpattanam.

In the Syrian seminary at Kottayam are preserved two copper-plate charters, one granted by Vira Raghava Chakravarthi,and the other by Sthanu Ravi Gupta, supposed to be dated 774 A.D. and 824 A.D. Specialists, who have attempted to fix approximately the dates of the grants, however, differ, as will be seen from a discussion of the subject by Mr. V. Venkayya in the Epigraphia Indica.73

Concerning the plate of Vira Raghava, Mr. Venkayya there writes as follows. “The subjoined inscription is engraved on both sides of a single copper-plate, which is in the possession of the Syrian Christians at Kottayam. The plate has no seal, but, instead, a conch is engraved about the middle of the left margin of the second side. This inscription has been previously translated by Dr. Gundert.74 Mr. Kookel Keloo Nair has also attempted a version of the grant.75 In the translation I have mainly followed Dr. Gundert.”

Translation.

Hari! Prosperity! Adoration to the great Ganapati! On the day of (the Nakshatra) Rohini, a Saturday after the expiration of the twenty-first (day) of the solar month Mina (of the year during which) Jupiter (was) in Makara, while the glorious Vira-Raghava-Chakravartin,—(of the race) that has been wielding the sceptre for several hundred thousands of years in regular succession from the glorious king of kings, the glorious Vira-Kerala-Chakravartin—was ruling prosperously:—

While (we were) pleased to reside in the great palace, we conferred the title of Manigramam on Iravikorttan, alias Seramanloka-pperun-jetti of Magodaiyarpattinam.

We (also) gave (him the right of) festive clothing, house pillars, the income that accrues, the export trade (?), monopoly of trade, (the right of) proclamation, forerunners, the five musical instruments, a conch, a lamp in day-time, a cloth spread (in front to walk on), a palanquin, the royal parasol, the Telugu (?) drum, a gateway with an ornamental arch, and monopoly of trade in the four quarters.

We (also) gave the oilmongers and the five (classes of) artisans as (his) slaves.

We (also) gave, with a libation of water—having (caused it to be) written on a copper-plate—to Iravikorttan, who is the lord of the city, the brokerage on (articles) that may be measured with the para, weighed by the balance or measured with the tape, that may be counted or weighed, and on all other (articles) that are intermediate—including salt, sugar, musk (and) lamp oil—and also the customs levied on these (articles) between the river mouth of Kodungallur and the gate (gopura)—chiefly between the four temples (tali) and the village adjacent to (each) temple.

We gave (this) as property to SÊramÂn-lÔka-pperun-jetti, alias Iravikorttan, and to his children’s children in due succession.

(The witnesses) who know this (are):—We gave (it) with the knowledge of the villagers of PanniyÛr and the villagers of SÔgiram. We gave (it) with the knowledge (of the authorities) of VÊnÂdu and OdunÂdu. We gave (it) with the knowledge (of the authorities) of EranÂdu and ValluvanÂdu. We gave (it) for the time that the moon and the sun shall exist.

The hand-writing of SÊramÂn-lÔka-pperun-dattan Nambi Sadeyan, who wrote (this) copper-plate with the knowledge of these (witnesses).

Mr. Venkayya adds that “it was supposed by Dr. Burnell76 that the plate of VÎra-RÂghava created the principality of Manigramam, and the Cochin plates that of Anjuvannam.77 The Cochin plates did not create Anjuvannam, but conferred the honours and privileges connected therewith to a Jew named RabbÂn. Similarly, the rights and honours associated with the other corporation, ManigrÂmam, were bestowed at a later period on Ravikkorran. It is just possible that Ravikkorran was a Christian by religion. But his name and title give no clue in this direction, and there is nothing Christian in the document, except its possession by the present owners. On this name, Dr. Gundert first said78 ‘Iravi Corttan must be a Nasrani name, though none of the Syrian priests whom I saw could explain it, or had ever heard of it.’ Subsequently he added: ‘I had indeed been startled by the Iravi Corttan, which does not look at all like the appellation of a Syrian Christian; still I thought myself justified in calling ManigrÂmam a Christian principality—whatever their Christianity may have consisted in—on the ground that, from Menezes’ time, these grants had been regarded as given to the Syrian colonists.’ Mr. Kookel Keloo Nair considered Iravikkorran a mere title, in which no shadow of a Syrian name is to be traced.”

Nestorius, a native of Germanicia, was educated at Antioch, where, as Presbyter, he became celebrated, while yet very young, for his asceticism, orthodoxy, and eloquence. On the death of Sisinnius, Patriarch of Constantinople, this distinguished preacher of Antioch was appointed to the vacant See by the Emperor Theodosius II, and was consecrated as Patriarch in 428 A.D. The doctrine of a God-man respecting Christ, and the mode of union of the human and the divine nature in Him left undefined by the early teachers, who contented themselves with speaking of Him and regarding Him as “born and unborn, God in flesh, life in death, born of Mary, and born of God,” had, long before the time of Nestorius, begun to tax the genius of churchmen, and the controversies in respect of this double nature of Christ had led to the growth and spread of important heretical doctrines. Two of the great heresies of the church before that of Nestorius are associated with the names of Arius and Apollinaris. Arius “admitted both the divine and the human nature of Christ, but, by making Him subordinate to God, denied His divinity in the highest sense.” Apollinaris, undermining the doctrine of the example and atonement of Christ, argued that “in Jesus the Logos supplied the place of the reasonable soul.” As early as 325 A.D. the first Œcumenical Council of Nice had defined against the Arians, and decreed that “the Son was not only of like essence, but of the same essence with the Father, and the human nature, maimed and misinterpreted by the Apollinarians, had been restored to the person of Christ at the Council of Constantinople in 381.” Nestorius, finding the Arians and Apollinarians, condemned strongly though they were, still strong in numbers and influence at Constantinople, expressed in his first sermon as Patriarch his determination to put down these and other heretical sects, and exhorted the Emperor to help him in this difficult task. But, while vigorously engaged in the effectual extinction of all heresies, he incurred the displeasure of the orthodox party by boldly declaring, though in the most sincerely orthodox form, against the use of the term Theotokos, that is, Mother of God, which, as applied to the Virgin Mary, had then grown into popular favour, especially amongst the clergy at Constantinople and Rome. While he himself revered the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of Christ, he declaimed against the use of the expression Mother of God in respect of her, as being alike “unknown to the Apostles, and unauthorised by the Church,” besides its being inherently absurd to suppose that the Godhead can be born or suffer. Moreover, in his endeavour to avoid the extreme positions taken up by Arians and Apollinarians, he denied, while speaking of the two natures in Christ, that there was any communication of attributes. But he was understood on this point to have maintained a mechanical rather than a supernatural union of the two natures, and also to have rent Christ asunder, and divided Him into two persons. Explaining his position, Nestorius said “I distinguish the natures, but I unite my adoration.” But this explanation did not satisfy the orthodox, who understood him to have “preached a Christ less than divine.” The clergy and laity of Constantinople, amongst whom Nestorius had thus grown unpopular, and was talked of as a heretic, appealed to Cyril, Bishop of the rival See of Alexandria, to interfere on their behalf. Cyril, supported by the authority of the Pope, arrived on the scene, and, at the Council of Ephesus, hastily and informally called up, condemned Nestorius as a heretic, and excommunicated him. After Nestorianism had been rooted out of the Roman Empire in the time of Justinian, it flourished “in the East,” especially in Persia and the countries adjoining it, where the churches, since their foundation, had been following the Syrian ritual, discipline, and doctrine, and where a strong party, among them the Patriarch of Seleucia or Babylon, and his suffragan the Metropolitan of Persia, with their large following, revered Nestorius as a martyr, and faithfully and formally accepted his teachings at the Synod of Seleucia in 448 A.D. His doctrines seem to have spread as far east as China, so that, in 551, Nestorian monks who had long resided in that country are said to have brought the eggs of the silkworm to Constantinople. Cosmos, surnamed Indicopleustes, the Indian traveller, who, in 522 A.D., visited Male, “the country where the pepper grows,” has referred to the existence of a fully organised church in Malabar, with the Bishops consecrated in Persia. His reference, while it traces the origin of the Indian church to the earlier centuries, also testifies to the fact that, at the time of his visit, the church was Nestorian in its creed “from the circumstance of its dependence upon the Primate of Persia, who then unquestionably held the Nestorian doctrines.”

The next heresy was that of Eutyches, a zealous adherent of Cyril in opposition to Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. But Eutyches, in opposing the doctrine of Nestorius, went beyond Cyril and others, and affirmed that, after the union of the two natures, the human and the divine, Christ had only one nature the divine, His humanity being absorbed in His divinity. After several years of controversy, the question was finally decided at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when it was declared, in opposition to the doctrine of Eutyches, that the two natures were united in Christ, but “without any alteration, absorption, or confusion”; or, in other words, in the person of Christ there were two natures, the human and the divine, each perfect in itself, but there was only one person. Eutyches was excommunicated, and died in exile. Those who would not subscribe to the doctrines declared at Chalcedon were condemned as heretics; they then seceded, and afterwards gathered themselves around different centres, which were Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Cyprus and Palestine, Armenia, Egypt, and Abyssinia. The Armenians embraced the Eutychian theory of divinity being the sole nature in Christ, the humanity being absorbed, while the Egyptians and Abyssinians held in the monophysite doctrine of the divinity and humanity being one compound nature in Christ. The West Syrians, or natives of Syria proper, to whom the Syrians of this coast trace their origin, adopted, after having renounced the doctrines of Nestorius, the Eutychian tenet. Through the influence of Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, they gradually became Monophysites. The Monophysite sect was for a time suppressed by the Emperors, but in the sixth century there took place the great Jacobite revival of the monophysite doctrine under James BardÆus, better known as Jacobus Zanzalus, who united the various divisions, into which the Monophysites had separated themselves, into one church, which at the present day exists under the name of the Jacobite church. The head of the Jacobite church claims the rank and prerogative of the Patriarch of Antioch—a title claimed by no less than three church dignitaries. Leaving it to subtle theologians to settle the disputes, we may briefly define the position of the Jacobites in Malabar in respect of the above controversies. While they accept the qualifying epithets pronounced by the decree passed at the Council of Chalcedon in regard to the union of the two natures in Christ, they object to the use of the word two in referring to the same. So far they are practically at one with the Armenians, for they also condemn the Eutychian doctrine; and a Jacobite candidate for holy orders in the Syrian church has, among other things, to take an oath denouncing Eutyches and his teachers.

We have digressed a little in order to show briefly the position of the Malabar church in its relation to Eastern Patriarchs in the early, mediÆval, and modern times. To resume the thread of our story, from about the middle of the fourth century until the arrival of the Portuguese, the Christians of Malabar in their spiritual distress generally applied for Bishops indiscriminately to one of the Eastern Patriarchs, who were either Nestorian or Jacobite; for, as observed by Sir W. W. Hunter, “for nearly a thousand years from the 5th to the 15th century, the Jacobite sect dwelt in the middle of the Nestorians in the Central Asia,” so that, in response to the requests from Malabar, both Nestorian and Jacobite Bishops appear to have visited Malabar occasionally, and the natives seem to have indiscriminately followed the teachings of both. We may here observe that the simple folk of Malabar, imbued but with the primitive form of Christianity, were neither conversant with nor ever troubled themselves about the subtle disputations and doctrinal differences that divided their co-religionists in Europe and Asia Minor, and were, therefore, not in a position to distinguish between Nestorian or any other form of Christianity. Persia also having subsequently neglected the outlying Indian church, the Christians of Malabar seem to have sent their applications to the Patriarch of Babylon, but, as both prelates then followed the Nestorian creed, there was little or no change in the rituals and dogmas of the church. Dr. Day79 refers to the arrival of a Jacobite Bishop in India in 696 A.D. About the year 823 A.D., two Nestorian Bishops, Mar Sapor and Mar Aprot, appear to have arrived in Malabar under the command of the Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon. They are said to have interviewed the native rulers, travelled through the country, built churches, and looked after the religious affairs of the Syrians.

We know but little of the history of the Malabar Church for nearly six centuries prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in India. We have, however, the story of the pilgrimage of the Bishop of Sherborne to the shrine of St. Thomas in India about 883 A.D., in the reign of Alfred the Great; and the reference made to the prevalence of Nestorianism among the St. Thomas’ Christians of Malabar by Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller.

The Christian community seem to have been in the zenith of their glory and prosperity between the 9th and 14th centuries, as, according to their tradition, they were then permitted to have a king of their own, with Villiarvattam near Udayamperur (Diamper) as his capital. According to another version, the king of Villiarvattam was a convert to Christianity. The dynasty seems to have become extinct about the 14th century, and it is said that, on the arrival of the Portuguese, the crown and sceptre of the last Christian king were presented to Vasco da Gama in 1502. We have already referred to the high position occupied by the Christians under the early kings, as is seen from the rare privileges granted to them, most probably in return for military services rendered by them. The king seems to have enjoyed, among other things, the right of punishing offences committed by the Christian community, who practically followed his lead. A more reasonable view of the story of a Christian king appears to be that a Christian chief of Udayamperur enjoyed a sort of socio-territorial jurisdiction over his followers, which, in later times, seems to have been so magnified as to invest him with territorial sovereignty. We see, in the copper-plate charters of the Jews, that their chief was also invested with some such powers.

Mention is made of two Latin Missions in the 14th century, with Quilon as head-quarters, but their labours were ineffectual, and their triumphs but short-lived. Towards the end of the 15th, and throughout the whole of the 16th century, the Nestorian Patriarch of Mesopotamia seems to have exercised some authority over the Malabar Christians, as is borne out by the occasional references to the arrival of Nestorian Bishops to preside over the churches.

Until the arrival of the Portuguese, the Malabar church was following unmolested, in its ritual, practice and communion, a creed of the Syro-ChaldÆan church of the East. When they set out on their voyages, conquest and conversion were no less dear to the heart of Portuguese than enterprise and commerce. Though, in the first moments, the Syrians, in their neglected spiritual condition, were gratified at the advent of their co-religionists, the Romanist Portuguese, and the Portuguese in their turn expected the most beneficial results from an alliance with their Christian brethren on this coast, “the conformity of the Syrians to the faith and practice of the 5th century soon disappointed the prejudices of the Papist apologists. It was the first care of the Portuguese to intercept all correspondence with the Eastern Patriarchs, and several of their Bishops expired in the prisons of their Holy Office.” The Franciscan and Dominican Friars, and the Jesuit Fathers, worked vigorously to win the Malabar Christians over to the Roman Communion. Towards the beginning of the last quarter of the 16th century, the Jesuits built a church at Vaippacotta near Cranganur, and founded a college for the education of Christian youths. In 1584, a seminary was established for the purpose of instructing the Syrians in theology, and teaching them the Latin, Portuguese and Syriac languages. The dignitaries who presided over the churches, however, refused to ordain the students trained in the seminary. This, and other causes of quarrel between the Jesuits and the native clergy, culminated in an open rupture, which was proclaimed by Archdeacon George in a Synod at Angamali. When Alexes de Menezes, Archbishop of Goa, heard of this, he himself undertook a visitation of the Syrian churches. The bold and energetic Menezes carried all before him. Nor is his success to be wondered at. He was invested with the spiritual authority of the Pope, and armed with the terrors of the Inquisition. He was encouraged in his efforts by the Portuguese King, whose Governors on this coast ably backed him up. Though the ruling chiefs at first discountenanced the exercise of coercive measures over their subjects, they were soon won over by the stratagems of the subtle Archbishop. Thus supported, he commenced his visitation of the churches, and reduced them in A.D. 1599 by the decrees of the Synod of Diamper (Udayamperur), a village about ten miles to the south-east of the town of Cochin. The decrees passed by the Synod were reluctantly subscribed to by Archdeacon George and a large number of Kathanars, as the native priests are called; and this practically converted the Malabar Church into a branch of the Roman Church. Literature sustained a very great loss at the hands of Menezes, “for this blind and enthusiastic inquisitor destroyed, like a second Omar, all the books written in the Syrian or ChaldÆan language, which could be collected, not only at the Synod of Diamper, but especially during his subsequent circuit; for, as soon as he had entered into a Syrian Church, he ordered all their books and records to be laid before him, which, a few indifferent ones excepted, he committed to the flames, so that at present neither books nor manuscripts are any more to be found amongst the St. ThomÉ Christians.”80

Immediately after the Synod of Diamper, a Jesuit Father, Franciscus Roz, a Spaniard by birth, was appointed Bishop of Angamali by Pope Clement VIII. The title was soon after changed to that of Archbishop of Cranganur. By this time, the rule of the Jesuits had become so intolerable to the Syrians that they resolved to have a Bishop from the East, and applied to Babylon, Antioch, Alexandria, and other ecclesiastical head-quarters for a Bishop, as if the ecclesiastical heads who presided over these places professed the same creed. The request of the Malabar Christians for a Bishop was readily responded to from Antioch, and Ahattala, otherwise known as Mar Ignatius, was forthwith sent. Authorities, however, differ on this point, for, according to some, this Ahattala was a Nestorian, or a protÉgÉ of the Patriarch of the Copts. Whatever Ahattala’s religious creed might have been, the Syrians appear to have believed that he was sent by the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch. The Portuguese, however, intercepted him, and took him prisoner. The story goes that he was drowned in the Cochin harbour, or condemned to the flames of the Inquisition at Goa in 1653. This cruel deed so infuriated the Syrians that thousands of them met in solemn conclave at the Coonen Cross at Mattancheri in Cochin, and, with one voice, renounced their allegiance to the Church of Rome. This incident marks an important epoch in the history of the Malabar Church, for, with the defection at the Coonen Cross, the Malabar Christians split themselves up into two distinct parties, the Romo-Syrians who adhered to the Church of Rome, and the Jacobite Syrians, who, severing their connection with it, placed themselves under the spiritual supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch. The following passage explains the exact position of the two parties that came into existence then, as also the origin of the names since applied to them. “The Pazheia Kuttukar, or old church, owed its foundation to Archbishop Menezes and the Synod of Diamper in 1599, and its reconciliation, after revolt, to the Carmelite Bishop, Joseph of St. Mary, in 1656. It retains in its services the Syrian language, and in part the Syrian ritual. But it acknowledges the supremacy of the Pope and his Vicars Apostolic. Its members are now known as Catholics of the Syrian rite, to distinguish them from the converts made direct from heathenism to the Latin Church by the Roman missionaries. The other section of the Syrian Christians of Malabar is called the Puttan Kuttukar, or new church. It adheres to the Jacobite tenets introduced by its first Jacobite Bishop, Mar Gregory, in 1665.”81 We have at this time, and ever after, to deal with a third party, that came into existence after the advent of the Portuguese. These are the Catholics of the Latin rite, and consist almost exclusively of the large number of converts gained by the Portuguese from amongst the different castes of the Hindus. To avoid confusion, we shall follow the fortunes of each sect separately.

When the Portuguese first came to India, the Indian trade was chiefly in the hands of the Moors, who had no particular liking for the Hindus or Christians, and the arrival of the Portuguese was therefore welcome alike to the Hindus and Christians, who eagerly sought their assistance. The Portuguese likewise accepted their offers of friendship very gladly, as an alliance, especially with the former, gave them splendid opportunities for advancing their religious mission, while, from a friendly intercourse with the latter, they expected not only to further their religious interests, but also their commercial prosperity. In the work of conversion they were successful, more especially among the lower orders, the Illuvans, Mukkuvans, Pulayans, etc. The labours of Miguel Vaz, afterwards Vicar-General of Goa, and of Father Vincent, in this direction were continued with admirable success by St. Francis Xavier.

We have seen how the strict and rigid discipline of the Jesuit Archbishops, their pride and exclusiveness, and the capture and murder of Ahattala brought about the outburst at the Coonen Cross. Seeing that the Jesuits had failed, Pope Alexander VII had recourse to the Carmelite Fathers, who were specially instructed to do their best to remove the schism, and to bring about a reconciliation; but, because the Portuguese claimed absolute possession of the Indian Missions, and as the Pope had despatched the Carmelite Fathers without the approval of the King of Portugal, the first batch of these missionaries could not reach the destined field of their labours. Another body of Carmelites, who had taken a different route, however, succeeded in reaching Malabar in 1656, and they met Archdeacon Thomas who had succeeded Archdeacon George. While expressing their willingness to submit to Rome, the Syrians declined to place themselves under Archbishop Garcia, S.J., who had succeeded Archbishop Roz, S.J. The Syrians insisted on their being given a non-Jesuit Bishop, and, in 1659, Father Joseph was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the “Sierra of Malabar” without the knowledge of the King of Portugal. He came out to India in 1661, and worked vigorously for two years in reconciling the Syrian Christians to the Church of Rome. But he was not allowed to continue his work unmolested, because, when the Dutch, who were competing with the Portuguese for supremacy in the Eastern seas, took the port of Cochin in 1663, Bishop Joseph was ordered to leave the coast forthwith. When he left Cochin, he consecrated Chandy Parambil, otherwise known as Alexander de Campo.

By their learning, and their skill in adapting themselves to circumstances, the Carmelite Fathers had continued to secure the good-will of the Dutch, and, returning to Cochin, assisted Alexander de Campo in his work. Father Mathew, one of their number, was allowed to build a church at Chatiath near Ernakulam. Another church was built at Varapuzha (Verapoly) on land given rent-free by the Raja of Cochin. Since this time, Varapuzha, now in Travancore, has continued to be the residence of a Vicar Apostolic.

The history of a quarter of a century subsequent to this is uneventful, except for the little quarrels between the Carmelite Fathers and the native clergy. In 1700, however, the Archbishop of Goa declined to consecrate a Carmelite Father nominated by the Pope to the Vicariate Apostolic. But Father Anjelus, the Vicar Apostolic elect, got himself consecrated by one Mar Simon, who was supposed to be in communion with Rome. The Dutch Government having declined admission to Archbishop Ribeiro, S.J., the nominee of the Portuguese King to their dominions, Anjelus was invested with jurisdiction over Cochin and Cranganur. Thereupon, the Jesuit Fathers sought shelter in Travancore, and in the territories of the Zamorin. With the capture of Cranganur by the Dutch, which struck the death-blow to Portuguese supremacy in the East, the last vestige of the church, seminary and college founded by the Jesuits disappeared. As the Dutch hated the Jesuits as bigoted Papists and uncompromising schismatics, several of the Jesuit Fathers, who were appointed Archbishops of Cranganur, never set foot within their diocese, and such of them as accepted the responsibility confined themselves to the territories of the Raja of Travancore. It was only after the establishment of British supremacy that the Jesuit Fathers were able to re-enter the scene of their early labours. An almost unbroken line of Carmelite Fathers appointed by the Pope filled the Vicariate till 1875, though the Archbishop of Goa and the Bishop of Cochin now and then declined to consecrate the nominee, and thus made feeble attempts on behalf of their Faithful King to recover their lost position.

Salvador, S.J., Archbishop of Cranganur, died in 1777. Five years after this, the King of Portugal appointed Joseph Cariatil and Thomas Paramakal, two native Christians, who had been educated at the Propaganda College at Rome, as Archbishop and Vicar-General, respectively, of the diocese of Cranganur.

The native clergy at the time were mostly ignorant, and the discipline amongst them was rather lax. The Propaganda attempted reforms in this direction, which led to a rupture between the Latin and the native clergy. The Carmelite Fathers, like the Jesuits, had grown overbearing and haughty, and an attempt at innovation made by the Pope through them became altogether distasteful to the natives. Serious charges against the Carmelites were, therefore, formally laid before the Pope and the Raja of Travancore by the Syrians. They also insisted that Thomas should be consecrated Bishop. At this time, the Dutch were all-powerful at the courts of native rulers, and, though the Carmelite missionaries who had ingratiated themselves into the good graces of the Dutch tried their best to thwart the Syrians in their endeavours, Thomas was permitted to be consecrated Bishop, and the Syrians were allowed the enjoyment of certain rare privileges. It is remarkable that, at this time and even in much earlier times, the disputes between the foreign and the native clergy, or between the various factions following the lead of the native clergy, were often decided by the Hindu kings, and the Christians accepted and abided by the decisions of their temporal heads.

In 1838, Pope Gregory XVI issued a Bull abolishing the Sees of Cranganur and Cochin, and transferring the jurisdiction to the Vicar Apostolic of Varapuzha. But the King of Portugal questioned the right of the Pope, and this led to serious disputes. The abolition of the smaller seminaries by Archbishop Bernardin of Varapuzha, and his refusal to ordain candidates for Holy Orders trained in these seminaries by the Malpans or teacher-priests, caused much discontent among the Syrian Christians, and, in 1856, a large section of the Syrians applied to the Catholic ChaldÆan Patriarch of Babylon for a ChaldÆan Bishop. This was readily responded to by the Patriarch, who, though under the Pope, thought that he had a prescriptive right to supremacy over the Malabar Christians. Bishop Roccos was sent out to Malabar in 1861, and though, owing to the charm of novelty, a large section of the Christians at once joined him, a strong minority questioned his authority, and referred the matter to the Pope. Bishop Roccos was recalled, and the Patriarch was warned by the Pope against further interference.

Subsequently, the Patriarch, again acting on the notion that he had independent jurisdiction over the ChaldÆan Syrian church of Malabar, sent out Bishop Mellus to Cochin. The arrival of this Bishop in 1874 created a distinct split among the Christians of Trichur, one faction acknowledging the supremacy of the Pope, and the other following the lead of Bishop Mellus. This open rupture had involved the two factions in a costly litigation. The adherents of Bishop Mellus contend that their church, ever since its foundation in 1810 or 1812, has followed the practice, ritual, and communion of the ChaldÆan church of Babylon, without having ever been in communion with Rome. The matter is sub judice. They are now known by the name of ChaldÆan Syrians. The Pope, in the meanwhile, excommunicated Bishop Mellus, but he continued to exercise spiritual authority over his adherents independently of Rome. In 1887 the Patriarch having made peace with the Pope, Bishop Mellus left India, and submitted to Rome in 1889. On the departure of Bishop Mellus, the ChaldÆan Syrians chose Anthony Kathanar, otherwise known as Mar Abdeso, as their Archbishop. He is said to have been a Rome Syrian priest under the Archbishop of Varapuzha. It is also said that he visited Syria and Palestine, and received ordination from the anti-Roman Patriarch of Babylon. Before his death in 1900, he ordained Mar Augustine, who, under the title of Chorepiscopus, had assisted him in the government of the ChaldÆan church, and he now presides over the ChaldÆan Syrian churches in the State.

In 1868, Bishop Marcellinus was appointed Coadjutor to the Vicar Apostolic of Varapuzha, and entrusted with the spiritual concerns of the Romo-Syrians. On his death in 1892, the Romo-Syrians were placed under the care of two European Vicars Apostolic. We have seen how the Jesuits had made themselves odious to the native Christians, and how reluctantly the latter had submitted to their rigid discipline. We have seen, too, how the Carmelites who replaced them, in spite of their worldly wisdom and conciliatory policy, had their own occasional quarrels and disputes with the native clergy and their congregations. From the time of the revolt at the Coonen Cross, and ever afterwards, the Christians had longed for Bishops of their own nationality, and made repeated requests for the same. For some reason or other, compliance with these requisitions was deferred for years. Experience showed that the direct rule of foreign Bishops had failed to secure the unanimous sympathy and hearty co-operation of the people. The Pope was, however, convinced of the spiritual adherence of the native clergy and congregation to Rome. In these circumstances, it was thought advisable to give the native clergy a fair trial in the matter of local supremacy. Bishops Medlycott and Lavigne, S.J., who were the Vicars Apostolic of Trichur and Kottayam, were therefore withdrawn, and, in 1896, three native Syrian priests, Father John Menacheri, Father Aloysius Pareparambil, and Father Mathew Mackil, were consecrated by the Papal Delegate as the Vicars Apostolic of Trichur, Ernakulam, and Chenganacheri.

The monopoly of the Indian missions claimed by the Portuguese, and the frequent disputes which disturbed the peace of the Malabar church, were ended in 1886 by the Concordat entered into between Pope Leo XIII and the King of Portugal. The Archbishop of Goa was by this recognised as the Patriarch of the East Indies with the Bishop of Cochin as a suffragan, whose diocese in the Cochin State is confined to the seaboard taluk of Cochin. The rest of the Latin Catholics of this State, except a small section in the Chittur taluk under the Bishop of Coimbatore, are under the Archbishop of Varapuzha.

Since the revolt of the Syrians at the Coonen Cross in 1653, the Jacobite Syrians have been governed by native Bishops consecrated by Bishops sent by the Patriarch of Antioch, or at least always received and recognised as such. In exigent circumstances, the native Bishops themselves, before their death, consecrated their successors by the imposition of hands. Immediately after the defection, they chose Archdeacon Thomas as their spiritual leader. He was thus the first Metran or native Bishop, having been formally ordained after twelve years of independent rule by Mar Gregory from Antioch, with whose name the revival of Jacobitism in Malabar is associated. The Metran assumed the title of Mar Thomas I. He belonged to the family that traced its descent from the Pakalomattom family, held in high respect and great veneration as one of the Brahman families, the members of which are supposed to have been converted and ordained as priests by the apostle himself. Members of the same family continued to hold the Metranship till about the year 1815, when the family is supposed to have become extinct. This hereditary succession is supposed by some to be a relic of the Nestorian practice. It may, however, be explained in another way. The earliest converts were high-caste Hindus, amongst whom an Anandravan (brother or nephew) succeeded to the family estates and titles in pursuance of the joint family system as current in Malabar. The succession of a brother or a nephew might, therefore, be quite as much a relic of the Hindu custom. The Metrans possessed properties. They were, therefore, interested in securing the succession of their Anandravans, so that their properties might not pass to a different family. Mar Thomas I was succeeded by his brother Mar Thomas II, on whose death his nephew became Metran under the title of Mar Thomas III. He held office only for ten days. Mar Thomas IV, who succeeded him, presided over the church till 1728. Thomas III and IV are said to have been consecrated by Bishop John, a scholar of great repute, who, with one Bishop Basil, came from Antioch in 1685. During the rÉgime of Mar Thomas IV, and of his nephew Thomas V, Mar Gabriel, a Nestorian Bishop, appeared on the scene in 1708. He seems to have been a man without any definite creed, as he proclaimed himself a Nestorian, a Jacobite, or a Romanist, according as one or the other best suited his interests. He had his own friends and admirers among the Syrians, with whose support he ruled over a few churches in the north till 1731. The consecration of Mar Thomas V by Mar Thomas IV was felt to be invalid, and, to remedy the defect, the assistance of the Dutch was sought; but, being disappointed, the Christians had recourse to a Jewish merchant named Ezekiel, who undertook to convey their message to the Patriarch of Antioch. He brought from Bassorah one Mar Ivanius, who was a man of fiery temper. He interfered with the images in the churches. This led to quarrels with the Metran, and he had forthwith to quit the State. Through the Dutch authorities at Cochin, a fresh requisition was sent to the Patriarch of Antioch, who sent out three Bishops named Basil, John, and Gregory. Their arrival caused fresh troubles, owing to the difficulty of paying the large sum claimed by them as passage money. In 1761, Mar Thomas V, supposed to have died in 1765, consecrated his nephew Mar Thomas VI. About this time, Gregory consecrated one Kurilos, the leader of a faction that resisted the rule of Thomas VI. The disputes and quarrels which followed were ended with the flight of Kurilos, who founded the See of Anjoor in the north of Cochin and became the first Bishop of Tholiyur. Through the kind intercession of the Maharaja of Travancore, Thomas VI underwent formal consecration at the hands of the Bishops from Antioch, and took the title of Dionysius I, known also as Dionysius the Great. In 1775, the great Carmelite father Paoli visited Mar Dionysius, and tried to persuade him to submit to Rome. It is said that he agreed to the proposal, on condition of his being recognised as Metropolitan of all the Syrians in Malabar, but nothing came of it. A few years after this, the struggle for supremacy between the Dutch and the English had ended in the triumph of the latter, who evinced a good deal of interest in the Syrian Christians, and, in 1805, the Madras Government deputed Dr. Kerr to study the history of the Malabar Church. In 1809, Dr. Buchanan visited Mar Dionysius, and broached the question of a union of the Syrian Church with the Church of England. The proposal, however, did not find favour with the Metropolitan, or his congregation. Mar Dionysius died in 1808. Before his death, he had consecrated Thomas Kathanar as Thomas VIII. He died in 1816. His successor, Thomas IX, was weak and old, and he was displaced by Ittoop Ramban, known as Pulikot Dionysius or Dionysius II. He enjoyed the confidence and good-will of Colonel Munro, the British Resident, through whose good offices a seminary had been built at Kottayam in 1813 for the education of Syrian youths. He died in 1818. Philixenos, who had succeeded Kurilos as Bishop of Tholiyur, now consecrated Punnathara Dionysius, or Dionysius III.

We have now to refer to an important incident in the history of the Jacobite Syrians. Through the influence of the British Resident, and in the hope of effecting the union proposed by Dr. Buchanan, the Church Mission Society commenced their labours in 1816. The English Missionaries began their work under favourable circumstances, and the most cordial relations existed between the Syrians and the missionaries for some years, so much so that the latter frequently visited the Syrian churches, and even preached sermons. On the death of Dionysius III in 1825, or as some say 1827, Cheppat Dionysius consecrated by Mar Philixenos again, succeeded as Metropolitan under the title of Dionysius IV. During his rÉgime, there grew up among the Syrians a party, who suspected that the missionaries were using their influence with the Metropolitan, and secretly endeavouring to bring the Syrians under the Protestant Church. The conservative party of Syrians stoutly opposed the movement. They petitioned the Patriarch of Antioch, who at once sent out a Bishop named Athanasius. On arrival in 1825, a large number of Syrians flocked to him. He even went to the length of threatening Mar Dionysius with excommunication. But the Protestant missionaries and the British Resident came to the rescue of the Metropolitan, and exercised their influence with the ruler of Travancore, who forthwith deported Athanasius. The deportation of Athanasius strengthened the position of the missionaries. The British Resident, and through his influence the native ruler, often rendered them the most unqualified support. The missionaries who superintended the education of the Syrian students in the seminary, having begun to teach them doctrines contrary to those of the Jacobite Church, the cordiality and friendship that had existed between the missionaries and the Metropolitan gradually gave place to distrust and suspicion. The party that clung to the time-honoured traditions and practices of their church soon fanned the flame of discord, and snapped asunder the ties of friendship that had bound the Metropolitan to the missionaries. Bishop Wilson of Calcutta proceeded to Travancore to see if a reconciliation could be effected. But his attempts in this direction proved fruitless, because the Syrians could not accept his proposal to adopt important changes affecting their spiritual and temporal concerns, such as doing away with prayers for the dead, the revision of their liturgy, the management of church funds, etc., and the Syrians finally parted company with the missionaries in 1838. Soon after this, disputes arose in regard to the funds and endowments of the seminary, but they were soon settled by arbitration in 1840, and the properties were divided between the Metropolitan and the missionaries. The missionaries had friends among the Jacobites, some of whom became members of the Church of England.

Mar Dionysius.

The Syrians were rather distressed, because they thought that the consecration of their Metropolitan by Mar Philixenos was insufficient. They therefore memorialised the Patriarch of Antioch. There grew up also a party hostile to the Metropolitan, and they sent to Antioch a Syrian Christian named Mathew. His arrival at Antioch was most opportune. The Patriarch was looking out for a proper man. Mathew was therefore welcomed, and treated very kindly. He was consecrated as Metropolitan by the Patriarch himself in 1842, and sent out with the necessary credentials. He arrived in 1843 as Metropolitan of Malankara under the title of Mathew Anastatius, and advanced his claims to the headship of the Church, but Mar Dionysius resisted him, and sent an appeal to the Patriarch of Antioch, in which he denounced Mathew as one who had enlisted his sympathies with the Protestant missionaries. Upon this, the Patriarch sent out one Cyril with power to expel Mathew, and, with the connivance of Mar Dionysius, Cyril cut the gordian knot by appointing himself as Metropolitan of Malabar. Disputes arising, a committee was appointed to examine the claims of Athanasius and Cyril. The credentials of Cyril were proved to be forged, whereupon Athanasius was duly installed in his office in 1862, and Cyril fled the country. Cyril having failed, the Patriarch sent another Bishop named Stephanos, who contributed his mite towards widening the breach, and, on the British Resident having ordered the Bishop to quit the country, an appeal was preferred to the Court of Directors, who insisted on a policy of non-interference. This bestirred Mar Cyril, who reappeared on the scene, and fanned the flame of discord. Being ordered to leave Mar Athanasius unmolested, he and his friends sent one Joseph to Antioch, who returned with fresh credentials in 1866, assumed the title of Dionysius V, claimed the office of Metropolitan, and applied to the Travancore Government for assistance. Adopting a policy of non-interference, the darbar referred him to the Law Courts, in case he could not come to terms with Mar Athanasius. The Patriarch of Antioch himself visited Cochin and Travancore in 1874, and presided over a Synod which met at Mulanthurutha in the Cochin State. Resolutions affirming the supremacy of Antioch, recognising Mar Dionysius as the accredited Metropolitan of Malabar, and condemning Mathew Athanasius as a schismatic, were passed by the members of the assembly, and the Patriarch returned to Mardin in 1876. This, however, did not mend matters, and the two parties launched themselves into a protracted law suit in 1879, which ended in favour of Mar Dionysius in 1889. Mar Athanasius, who had taken up an independent position, died in 1875, and his cousin, whom he had consecrated, succeeded as Metropolitan under the title of Mar Thomas Anastatius. He died in 1893, and Titus Mar Thoma, consecrated likewise by his predecessor, presides over the Reformed Party of Jacobite Syrians, who prefer to be called St. Thomas’ Syrians. We have thus traced the history of the Jacobite Syrians from 1653, and shown how they separated themselves into two parties, now represented by the Jacobite Syrians under Mar Dionysius, owing allegiance to the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Reformed Syrians or St. Thomas’ Syrians owning Titus Mar Thoma as their supreme spiritual head. Thus, while the Jacobite Syrians have accepted and acknowledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch, the St. Thomas’ Syrians, maintaining that the Jacobite creed was introduced into Malabar only in the seventeenth century after a section of the church had shaken off the Roman supremacy, uphold the ecclesiastical autonomy of the church, whereby the supreme control of the spiritual and temporal affairs of the church is declared to be in the hands of the Metropolitan of Malabar. The St. Thomas’ Syrians hold that the consecration of a Bishop by, or with the sanction of the Patriarch of Babylon, Alexandria or Antioch, gives no more validity or sanctity to that office than consecration by the Metropolitan of Malabar, the supreme head of the church in Malabar, inasmuch as this church is as ancient and apostolic as any other, being founded by the apostle St. Thomas; while the Jacobites hold that the consecration of a Bishop is not valid, unless it be done with the sanction of their Patriarch. The St. Thomas’ Syrians have, however, no objection to receiving consecration from the head of any other episcopal apostolic church, but they consider that such consecrations do not in any way subject their church to the supremacy of that prelate or church.

Both the Latins and the Romo-Syrians use the liturgy of the Church of Rome, the former using the Latin, and the latter the Syriac language. It is believed by some that the Christians of St. Thomas formerly used the liturgy of St. AdÆus, East Syrian, Edessa, but that it was almost completely assimilated to the Roman liturgy by Portuguese Jesuits at the Synod of Diamper in 1599. The ChaldÆan Syrians also use the Roman liturgy, with the following points of difference in practice, communicated to me by their present ecclesiastical head:—(1) They perform marriage ceremonies on Sundays, instead of week days as the Romo-Syrians do. (2) While reading the Gospel, their priests turn to the congregation, whereas the Romo-Syrian priests turn to the altar. (3) Their priests bless the congregation in the middle of the mass, a practice not in vogue among the Romo-Syrians. (4) They use two kinds of consecrated oil in baptism, which does away with the necessity of confirmation. The Romo-Syrians, on the other hand, use only one kind of oil, and hence they have to be subsequently confirmed by one of their Bishops.

The liturgy used by the Jacobite Syrians and the St. Thomas’ Syrians is the same, viz., that of St. James. The St. Thomas’ Syrians have, however, made some changes by deleting certain passages from it. [A recent writer observes that “a service which I attended at the quaint old Syrian church at Kottayam, which glories in the possession of one of the three ancient stone crosses in India, closely resembled, as far as my memory serves me, one which I attended many years ago at Antioch, except that the non-sacramental portions of the mass were read in Malayalam instead of in Arabic, the sacramental words alone being in both cases spoken in the ancient Syriac tongue.] In regard to doctrine and practice, the following points may be noted:—(1) While the Jacobite Syrians look upon the Holy Bible as the main authority in matters of doctrine, practice, and ritual, they do not allow the Bible to be interpreted except with the help of the traditions of the church, the writings of the early Fathers, and the decrees of the Holy Synods of the undivided Christian period; but the St. Thomas’ Syrians believe that the Holy Bible is unique and supreme in such matters. (2) While the Jacobites have faith in the efficacy and necessity of prayers, charities, etc., for the benefit of departed souls, of the invocation of the Virgin Mary and the Saints in divine worship, of pilgrimages, and of confessing sins to, and obtaining absolution from priests, the St. Thomas’ Syrians regard these and similar practices as unscriptural, tending not to the edification of believers, but to the drawing away of the minds of believers from the vital and real spiritual truths of the Christian Revelation. (3) While the Jacobites administer the Lord’s Supper to the laity and the non-celebrating clergy in the form of consecrated bread dipped in consecrated wine, and regard it a sin to administer the elements separately after having united them in token of Christ’s resurrection, the St. Thomas’ Syrians admit the laity to both the elements after the act of uniting them. (4) While the Jacobite Syrians allow marriage ceremonies on Sundays, on the plea that, being of the nature of a sacrament, they ought to be celebrated on Sundays, and that Christ himself had taken part in a marriage festival on the Sabbath day, the St. Thomas’ Syrians prohibit such celebrations on Sundays as unscriptural, the Sabbath being set apart for rest and religious exercises. (5) While the Jacobites believe that the mass is as much a memorial of Christ’s oblation on the cross as it is an unbloody sacrifice offered for the remission of the sins of the living and of the faithful dead, the St. Thomas’ Syrians observe it as a commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. (6) The Jacobites venerate the cross and the relics of Saints, while the St. Thomas’ Syrians regard the practice as idolatry. (7) The Jacobites perform mass for the dead, while the St. Thomas’ Syrians regard it as unscriptural. (8) With the Jacobites, remarriage, marriage of widows, and marriage after admission to full priesthood, reduce a priest to the status of a layman, and one united in any such marriage is not permitted to perform priestly functions, whereas priests of the St. Thomas’ Syrian party are allowed to contract such marriages without forfeiture of their priestly rights. (9) The Jacobite Syrians believe in the efficacy of infant baptism, and acknowledge baptismal regeneration, while the St. Thomas’ Syrians, who also baptise infants, deny the doctrine of regeneration in baptism, and regard the ceremony as a mere external sign of admission to church communion. (10) The Jacobites observe special fasts, and abstain from certain articles of food during such fasts, while the St. Thomas’ Syrians regard the practice as superstitious.

The Jacobite Syrian priests are not paid any fixed salary, but are supported by voluntary contributions in the shape of fees for baptism, marriages, funerals, etc. The Romo-Syrian and Latin priests are paid fixed salaries, besides the above perquisites. The Syrian priests are called Kathanars, while the Latin priests go by the name of Padres. For the Jacobite Syrians, the morone or holy oil required for baptism, consecration of churches, ordination of priests, etc., has to be obtained from Antioch. The churches under Rome get it from Rome. Unlike the Catholic clergy, the Jacobite clergy, except their Metropolitan and the Rambans, are allowed to marry.

The generality of Syrians of the present day trace their descent from the higher orders of the Hindu society, and the observance by many of them of certain customs prevalent more or less among high-caste Hindus bears out this fact. It is no doubt very curious that, in spite of their having been Christians for centuries together, they still retain the traditions of their Hindu forefathers. It may sound very strange, but it is none the less true, that caste prejudices which influence their Hindu brethren in all social and domestic relations obtain to some extent among some sections of the Syrian Christians, but, with the spread of a better knowledge of the teachings of Christ, the progress of English education, and contact with European Christians, caste observances are gradually dying out. The following relics of old customs may, however, be noted:—

(1) Some Christians make offerings to Hindu temples with as much reverence as they do in their own churches.

Some non-Brahman Hindus likewise make offerings to Christian churches.

(2) Some sections of Syrians have faith in horoscopes, and get them cast for new-born babies, just as Hindus do.

(3) On the wedding day, the bridegroom ties round the neck of the bride a tali (small ornament made of gold). This custom is prevalent among all classes of Native Christians. On the death of their husbands, some even remove the tali to indicate widowhood, as is the custom among the Brahmans.

(4) When a person dies, his or her children, if any, and near relatives, observe pula (death pollution) for a period ranging from ten to fifteen days. The observance imposes abstinence from animal food. The pula ends with a religious ceremony in the church, with feasting friends and relatives in the house, and feeding the poor, according to one’s means. Sradha, or anniversary ceremony for the soul of the dead, is performed with services in the church and feasts in the house.

(5) In rural parts especially, the Onam festival of the Malayali Hindus is celebrated with great Éclat, with feasting, making presents of cloths to children and relatives, out-door and in-door games, etc.

(6) Vishu, or new-year’s day, is likewise a gala day, when presents of small coins are made to children, relatives, and the poor.

(7) The ceremony of first feeding a child with rice (annaprasanam or chorunu of the Hindus) is celebrated generally in the sixth month after birth. Parents often make vows to have the ceremony done in a particular church, as Hindu parents take their children to particular temples in fulfilment of special vows.

(8) The Syrians do not admit within their premises low-castes, e.g., Pulayans, Paraiyans, etc., even after the conversion of the latter to Christianity. They enforce even distance pollution, though not quite to the same extent as Malayali Hindus do. Iluvans are allowed admission to their houses, but are not allowed to cook their meals. In some parts, they are not even allowed to enter the houses of Syrians.

There are no intermarriages between Syrians of the various denominations and Latin Catholics. Under very exceptional circumstances, a Romo-Syrian contracts a marriage with one of Latin rite, and vice versÂ, but this entails many difficulties and disabilities on the issues. Among the Latins themselves, there are, again, no intermarriages between the communities of the seven hundred, the five hundred, and the three hundred. The difference of cult and creed has led to the prohibition of marriages between the Romo-Syrians and Jacobite Syrians. The Jacobite Syrians properly so called, St. Thomas’ Syrians, and the Syro-Protestants do, however, intermarry. The Southerners and Northerners do not intermarry; any conjugal ties effected between them subject the former to some kind of social excommunication. This exclusiveness, as we have already said, is claimed on the score of their descent from the early colonists from Syria. The Syrians in general, and the Jacobite Syrians in particular, are greater stricklers to customs than other classes of Native Christians.

We have already referred to the privileges granted to the Syrians by the Hindu kings in early times. They not only occupied a very high position in the social scale, but also enjoyed at different times the rare distinction of forming a section of the body-guard of the king and the militia of the country. Education has of late made great progress among them. The public service has now been thrown open to them, so that those who have had the benefit of higher education now hold some of the important posts in the State. In enterprises of all kinds, they are considerably ahead of their Hindu and Musalman brethren, so that we see them take very kindly to commerce, manufacture, agriculture, etc.; in fact, in every walk of life, they are making their mark by their industry and enterprise.82

The following additional information is contained in the Gazetteer of Malabar. “The men are to be distinguished by the small cross worn round the neck, and the women by their tali, which has 21 beads on it, set in the form of a cross. Their churches are ugly rectangular buildings with flat or arched wooden roofs and whitewashed facades. They have no spire, but the chancel, which is at the east end, is usually somewhat higher than the nave. Between the chancel and the body of the church is a curtain, which is drawn while the priest consecrates the elements at the mass. Right and left of the chancel are two rooms, the vestry and the sacristy. At the west end is a gallery, in which the unmarried priests sometimes live. Most churches contain three altars, one in the chancel, and the other two at its western ends on each side. There are no images in Jacobite or Reformed churches, but there are sometimes pictures. Crucifixes are placed on the altars, and in other parts of the churches. The clergy and men of influence are buried in the nave just outside the chancel. The Syrian Bishops are called Metrans. They are celibates, and live on the contributions of their churches. They wear purple robes and black silk cowls figured with golden crosses, a big gold cross round the neck, and a ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Bishops are nominated by their predecessors from the body of Rambans, who are men selected by priests and elders in advance to fill the Episcopate. Metrans are buried in their robes in a sitting posture. Their priests are called Cattanars. They should strictly pass through the seven offices of ostiary, reader, exorcist, acolyte, sub-deacon and deacon before becoming priests; but the first three offices practically no longer exist. The priestly office is often hereditary, descending by the marumakkattayam system (inheritance in the female line). Jacobite and St. Thomas’ Syrian priests are paid by contributions from their parishioners, fees at weddings, and the like. Their ordinary dress consists of white trousers, and a kind of long white shirt with short sleeves and a flap hanging down behind, supposed to be in the form of a cross. Over this the Jacobites now wear a black coat. Priests are allowed to marry, except in the Romo-Syrian community; but, among the Jacobites, a priest may not marry after he has once been ordained, nor may he re-marry or marry a widow. Malpans, or teachers, are the heads of the religious colleges, where priests are trained. Jacobites also now shave clean, while other Syrian priests wear the tonsure. Every church has not more than four Kaikkars or churchwardens, who are elected from the body of parishioners. They are the trustees of the church property, and, with the priest, constitute a disciplinary body, which exercises considerable powers in religious and social matters over the members of the congregation. The Romo-Syrians follow the doctrines and ritual of the Roman Catholics, but they use a Syriac version83 of the Latin liturgy. Jacobites and St. Thomas’ Christians use the Syriac liturgy of St. James. Few even of the priests understand Syriac, and, in the Reformed Syrian churches, a Malayalam translation of the Syriac liturgy has now been generally adopted. The Jacobites say masses for the dead, but do not believe in purgatory; they invoke the Virgin Mary, venerate the cross and relics of saints; they recognise only three sacraments, baptism, marriage (which they always celebrate on Sundays) and the mass; they prescribe auricular confession before mass, and at the mass administer the bread dipped in the wine; they recite the Eastern form of the Nicene Creed, and discourage laymen from studying the Bible. The Reformed Syrians differ from them in most of these points. The Jacobites observe the ordinary festivals of the church; the day of the patron saint of each church is celebrated with special pomp, and on the offerings made on that day the priests largely depend for their income. They keep Lent, which they call the fifty days’ fast, strictly from the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, abjuring all meat, fish, ghee, and toddy; and on Maundy Thursday they eat a special kind of unsweetened cake marked with a cross, in the centre of which the karnavan of the family should drive a nail, and drink a kanji of rice and cocoanut-milk (the meal is said to symbolize the Passover and the Last Supper, and the nail is supposed to be driven into the eye of Judas Iscariot).

“Amongst the Syrian Christians, as amongst the Mappillas, there are many survivals of Hindu customs and superstitions, and caste prejudices have by no means disappeared amongst the various sections of the community. Southerners and Northerners will not intermarry, and families who trace their descent from Brahmans and Nayars will, in many cases, not admit lower classes to their houses, much less allow them to cook for them or touch them. Most of the Syrians observe the Onam and Vishnu festivals; the astrologer is frequently consulted to cast horoscopes and tell omens; while it is a common custom for persons suffering from diseases to seek a cure by buying silver or tin images of the diseased limb, which their priest has blessed. Similar survivals are to be noticed in their social ceremonies. A Pulikudi ceremony, similar to that of the Hindus, was commonly performed till recently, though it has now fallen into disuse. Immediately on the birth of a child, three drops of honey in which gold has been rubbed are poured into its mouth by its father, and the mother is considered to be under pollution till the tenth day. Baptism takes place on the fourteenth day amongst the Southern Jacobites, and amongst other divisions on the fifty-sixth day. A rice-giving ceremony similar to the Hindu Chorunnu is still sometimes performed in the fifth or sixth month, when the child is presented by the mother with a gold cross, if a boy, or a small gold coin or taluvam if a girl, to be worn round the neck.

“Among the Jacobites early marriage was the rule until comparatively recently, boys being married at ten or twelve years of age, and girls at six or seven. Now the more usual age for marriage is sixteen in the case of boys, and twelve in the case of girls. Weddings take place on Sundays, and, amongst the Northerners, may be celebrated in either the bride’s or the bridegroom’s parish church. On the two Sundays before the wedding, the banns have to be called in the two churches, and the marriage agreements concluded in the presence of the parish priests (Ottu kalyanam). The dowry, which is an essential feature of Syrian weddings, is usually paid on the Sunday before the wedding. It should consist of an odd number of rupees, and should be tied up in a cloth. On the Thursday before the wedding day, the house is decorated with rice flour, and on the Saturday the marriage pandal (booth), is built. The first ceremonial takes place on Saturday night when bride and bridegroom both bathe, and the latter is shaved. Next morning both bride and bridegroom attend the ordinary mass, the bridegroom being careful to enter the church before the bride. Now-a-days both are often dressed more or less in European fashion, and it is essential that the bride should wear as many jewels as she has got, or can borrow for the occasion. Before leaving his house, the bridegroom is blessed by his guru to whom he gives a present (dakshina) of clothes and money. He is accompanied by a bestman, usually his sister’s husband, who brings the tali. After mass, a tithe (pathuvaram) of the bride’s dowry is paid to the church as the marriage fee, a further fee to the priest (kaikasturi), and a fee called kaimuttupanam for the bishop. The marriage service is then read, and, at its conclusion, the bridegroom ties the tali round the bride’s neck with threads taken from her veil, making a special kind of knot, while the priest holds the tali in front. The priest and the bridegroom then put a veil (mantravadi) over the bride’s head. The tali should not be removed so long as the girl is married, and should be buried with her. The veil should also be kept for her funeral. The bridal party returns home in state, special umbrellas being held over the bride and bridegroom. At the gate they are met by the bride’s sister carrying a lighted lamp, and she washes the bridegroom’s feet. The married couple then go to the pandal, where they are ceremonially fed with sweets and plantains by the priest and by representatives of their two families, to the accompaniment of the women’s kurava (cry), and in the presence of the guests, who are seated in order of precedence, the chief persons having seats of honour covered with black rugs and white cloths (vellayum karimbadavum), traditionally a regal honour. The bride and bridegroom are then led into the house by the bestman and bride’s uncle, the bride being careful to enter it right foot first; and the guests are feasted in order of rank. It is a peculiar custom of the Syrian Christians at these feasts to double up the ends of the plantain leaves which serve them as plates, and is supposed to be symbolical of the royal privilege of eating off a double plate. Until the following Wednesday, the bestman sleeps with the bridegroom in the bridal chamber, the bride occupying another room. On Wednesday evening comes the ceremony called nalam kuli, or fourth day bath. The bridegroom and the bestman, who are in the bridal chamber, lock the door; the bride’s mother knocks and begs the bridegroom to come out, which he at last does after she has sung a song (vathilturapattu) celebrating the attractions and virtues of the bride. The bridegroom and bride then bathe, dress in new clothes, and go to the pandal, where they perform paradakshinams round a lighted lamp, and the bridegroom gives cloths to the bride’s uncle, mother, and grand-parents. The married couple are then escorted to the bridal chamber, which has in the interval been cleaned and prepared for them. The next morning they have to go to the bridegroom’s or bride’s house as the case may be, and there eat together and go through a ceremonial similar to that which they performed on the wedding day in the other house. This concludes the marriage ceremonies, but on Sunday the bridegroom and bride should attend mass together in the bride’s parish church if they were married in the bridegroom’s, and vice versÂ. Amongst the Southern Jacobites, the ceremonies are very similar, but the dowry is not paid till the marriage day, or till the girl’s first confinement. Half the pathuvaram is paid to the priest instead of a kaikasturi, and the bridegroom puts a ring on the bride’s finger during the marriage service. After the church service, the couple go to the bridegroom’s house, where they are fed ceremonially by the bride’s mother, and the subsequent feast is at the expense of the bride’s people. On Monday morning, the bridegroom is ceremonially fed by the bride’s mother in the bridal chamber (manavalan choru), and in the evening there is a ceremony called manavalan tazhukkal, in which the bride and bridegroom are embraced in turn by their respective parents and relations, after which there is a feast with singing of hymns. Before the couple leave for the bride’s house on Thursday, there is a big feast, called kudivirunnu, given by the bridegroom to the bride’s people, followed by a ceremony called vilakku toduga, in which men and women sing hymns and dance round a lighted lamp, which they touch at intervals. Amongst the Romo-Syrians and the Reformed sect, the marriage ceremonies have less trace of Hindu ritual; they do not celebrate weddings on Sundays, and have no nalam kuli ceremony, but a tali is usually tied in addition to the giving of a ring.

“At funerals (except amongst the Reformed sect) it is usual for each of the dead man’s connections to bring a cloth to serve as a shroud. Before the body is lowered into the grave, holy oil is poured into the eyes, nostrils and ears. The mourners are under pollution, and fast till the day of the second funeral or pula kuli (purification), and till then masses should be said daily for the dead. The pula kuli is celebrated usually on the 11th day, but may be deferred till the 15th, 17th or 21st, or sometimes to the 41st. The mourners are incensed, while hymns are sung and prayers offered. Each then gives a contribution of money to the priest, and receives in return a pinch of cummin. A feast is then given to the neighbours and the poor. On the 40th day there is another feast, at which meat is eaten by the mourners for the first time. A requiem mass should be said each month on the day of death for twelve months, and on the first anniversary the mourning concludes with a feast.”

To the foregoing account of the Syrian Christians, a few stray notes may be added.

It is recorded by Sir M. E. Grant Duff, formerly Governor of Madras,84 that “the interesting body known as the Syrian Christians or Christians of St. Thomas is divided into several groups much opposed to each other. In an excellent address presented to me they said that this was the occasion which, for the first time after ages of separation, witnessed the spectacle of all the different sects of their community, following divergent articles of faith, sinking for once their religious differences to do honour to their friend.”

Some years ago, the wife of a District Judge of Calicut asked the pupils of a school how long they had been Christians. “We were,” came the crushing reply, “Christians when you English were worshipping Druids, and stained with woad.” More recently, the master at a college in Madras called on all Native Christians in his class to stand up. Noticing that one boy remained seated, he called on him for an explanation, when the youth explained that he was a Syrian Christian, and not a Native Christian.

It is noted by the Rev. W. J. Richards that “at the very time that our King John was pulling out Jews’ teeth to make them surrender their treasures, Hindu princes were protecting Jewish and Christian subjects, whose ancestors had been honoured by Royal grants for hundreds of years.”

The Southerners say that they can be distinguished from the Northerners by the red tinge of their hair. A man with reddish moustache, and a dark-skinned baby with brilliant red hair, whose father had red whiskers, were produced before me in support of the claim.

As examples of Old and New Testament names occurring, in a changed form, among Syrian Christians, the following may be cited:—

• Abraham, Abragam.
• Joshua, Koshi.
• Peter, Puthros, Ittiyerah, Itte.
• Paul, Powlos.
• John, Yohan, Sonanan, Chona.
• Titus, Tetos.
• Matthew, Mathai, Mathen.
• Philip, Philippos, Papi, Eippe, Eapen.
• Thomas, Thoma, Thommi, Thommen.
• Joseph, Ouseph.
• Jacob, Yacob, Chako
• Alexander, Chandi.
• Samuel, Chamuel.
• Mary, Maria, Mariam.
• Sarah, Sara.
• Susannah, Sosa.
• Rebecca, Rabka, Raca.
• Elizabeth, Elspeth, Elia, Elacha.
• Rachael, Rachi, Raghael, Chacha.

Syrian Christians take the name of their father, their own name, and that of their residence. Whence arise such names as Edazayhikkal Mathoo Philippos, Kunnampuram Thommen Chandi, and Chandakadayil Joseph Chommi.

I have seen some Syrian Christian men tattooed with a cross on the upper arm, and a cross and their initials on the forearm.

In conclusion, I may, for the sake of comparison, place on record the averages of the more important physical measurements of Northerner and Southerner Syrian Christians and Nayars.

It may be noted that, in his ‘Letters from Malabar,’ Canter Visscher, in the middle of the eighteenth century, writes that the St. Thomas’ Christians “keep very strict genealogical records, and they will neither marry nor in any way intermingle with the new low-caste Christians, being themselves mostly Castade Naiross, that is, nobility of the Nayar caste, in token of which they generally carry a sword in the hand, as a mark of dignity.”

It is stated by E. Petersen and F. V. Luschan85 that “probably a single people originally occupied the greater part of Asia Minor. They are still represented as a compact group by the Armenians. The type resembles the Dissentis type of His and RÜtimeyer; the head extremely short and high, stature moderate, skin dark, eyes dark, and hair dark and smooth. It extends through the S. half of Asia Minor, N.E. to the Caucasus, and E. to the Upper Euphrates. The Tachtadschy people, a hill people living without serious mixture with other peoples, give measurements closely like the Armenians.” [The cephalic index of Armenians is given by E. Chantre86 as 85–86.]

In the following table, the averages of some of the more important measurements of the Syrian Christians and Tachtadschy people are recorded:—

1 Birds of India.

2 Manual of the North Arcot district.

3 Twelfth Tour of Lord Connemara, 1890.

4 See Thurston. Monograph on the Cotton Industry of the Madras Presidency, 1897.

5 East and West, VI, 70, 1907.

6 Madras Mail, 1904.

7 Manual of the Chingleput district.

8 Manual of the South Canara district.

9 Ind. Ant., IV, 1875.

10 Malayalam and English Dictionary.

11 Sthanam = a station, rank or dignity. Moore: Malabar Law and Custom.

12 Original Suit No. 31, 1887, Court of Calicut. Appeal No. 202, 1888, High Court of Madras.

13 Madras Census Report, 1891.

14 See Malabar Quart. Review, II, 4, 1903.

15 Historical Sketches of the South of India: Mysore.

16 Moore: Malabar Law and Custom, 1905.

17 Manu.

18 Mysore Census Report, 1891, 1901.

19 Yule and Burnell. Hobson-Jobson.

20 Rev. H. Jensen. Classified Collection of Tamil Proverbs, 1897.

21 Ind. Ant., VIII, 1879.

22 South Indian Inscriptions, II, Part III, 1895.

23 Linguistic Survey of India, IV, 1906.

24 Journ. Anthrop. Soc., Bombay, 1, 1901.

25 The Rev. W. Taylor, Vol. III, 1862.

26 Occasional Essays on Native South Indian Life, 1901.

27 Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district.

28 See Bishop Whitehead. Madras Museum Bull., Vol. 3, 136, 1907.

29 Gazetteer of Vizagapatam district.

30 Madras Museum Bulletin, V, 3, 1907.

31 Lectures on Tinnevelly Missions, 1857.

32 Viaggi, 1614–26.

33 A New Account of East India and Persia, 1698.

34 Manual of the North Arcot district.

35 Gazetteer of the South Arcot district.

36 Principles of Sociology.

37 Manual of the South Canara district.

38 Administration Report, 1899.

39 Christianity in Travancore, 1901.

40 Madras Museum Bull., III, 3, 1901.

41 Rice. Mysore Inscriptions, p. 33.

42 Madras Census Report, 1901.

43 Madras Mail, 1901.

44 Ind. Ant., IV, 1875.

45 Christianity and Caste, 1893.

46 Journ. Roy. As. Soc., XVI.

47 Madras Mail, 1907.

48 L. Rice, Mysore and Coorg Gazetteer.

49 Yule and Burnell. Hobson-Jobson.

50 Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, 1807.

51 Madras Mail, 1907.

52 Mysore Census Report, 1891.

53 Mysore Census Report, 1891.

54 Manual of the South Canara district.

55 Madras Census Report, 1881.

56 A Native. Pen-and-ink Sketches of Native Life in Southern India, 1880.

57 Yule and Burnell. Hobson-Jobson.

58 A Snataka is a Brahman, who has just finished his student’s career.

59 Tribes and Castes of Bengal.

60 A very complicated recipe is given in the Manual of the Vizagapatam district, 1869, p. 264.

61 Rev. J. Cain, Ind. Ant., VIII, 1879.

62 Ind. Ant. II, 1873.

63 Ind. Ant. VIII, 1879.

64 Manual of the North Arcot district.

65 Ind. Ant. VIII, 1879.

66 Wigram, Malabar Law and Customs.

67 Rev. W. J. Richards. The Indian Christians of Saint Thomas.

68 A New Account of the East Indies, 1744.

69 Vide G. Milne Rae. The Syrian Church in India, 1892.

70 EncyclopÆdia Britannica, 9th ed.

71 See Hough, the History of Christianity in India from the commencement of the Christian Era.

72 Indian Empire, 3rd edition.

73 IV. 290–97, 1896–7.

74 Madras Journ. Lit. and Science, XIII, part, 118. Dr. Gundert’s translation is reprinted in Mr. Logan’s Malabar, Vol. II, Appendix XII.

75 Madras Journ. Lit. and Science, XXI, 35–38.

76 Ind. Ant., III, 1874.

77 See article on the Jews of Cochin.

78 Loc. cit.

79 Land of the Perumauls: Cochin past and present, 1863.

80 F. Wrede. Asiatic Researches, VII, 181. Account of the St. ThomÉ Christians.

81 Hunter. Indian Empire.

82 In the preparation of the above sketch, the following authorities, among others, were consulted: Sir W. W. Hunter, Indian Empire and History of British India; J. Hough, History of Christianity in India; T. Whitehouse, Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land; G. T. Mackenzie, Christianity in Travancore; F. Day, Land of the Perumauls; T. Logan, Manual of Malabar; Christian College Magazine, Madras, Vol. VI; and Judgments of the Civil Courts of Travancore and Cochin. To the bibliography relating to the Syrian Christians may also be added L. M. Agur, Church History of Travancore, the Rev. G. Milne Rae, the Syrian Church in India, and the Rev. W. J. Richards, the Indian Christians of St. Thomas. The Malabar Quarterly Review, VI, 1 and 2, 1907, may also be consulted.

83 The Syriac is not a modern Syriac dialect, but is very like the ancient Aramaic.

84 Notes from a Diary, 1881–86.

85 Recherches Anthropologiques dans le Caucase, IV, 1887.

86 Reisen in Lykien, Melyas, und Kibyratis, II, 1889.

Madras: Printed by The Superintendent, Government Press.