Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Children are supposed to be born without souls, and to be afterwards
chosen as an abode by the soul of an ancestor. The coming of the
ancestor is signalised by the child dropping a chicken bone which
has been thrust into its hand, and much rejoicing follows among the
assembled relations. [99]
Mr. Paddison tells me that some Dombs are reputed to be able to pour
blazing oil over their bodies, without suffering any hurt; and one
man is said to have had a miraculous power of hardening his skin, so
that any one could have a free shot at him, without hurting him. He
further narrates that, at Sujanakota in the Vizagapatam district,
the Dombs, notwithstanding frequent warnings, put devils into two
successive schoolmasters.
Various tattoo devices, borne by the Dombs examined by Mr. Fawcett,
are figured and described by him. "These patterns," he writes,
"were said to be, one and all, purely ornamental, and not in any way
connected with totems, or tribal emblems." Risley, however, [100]
regards "four out of the twelve designs as pretty closely related to
the religion and mythology of the tribe; two are totems and two have
reference to the traditional avocations. Nos. 11 and 12 represent a
classical scene in Dom folk-lore, the story of King Haris-Chandra, who
was so generous that he gave all he had to the poor and sold himself
to a Dom at Benares, who employed him to watch his cremation ground at
night. While he was thus engaged, his wife, who had also been sold for
charitable purposes, came to burn the body of her son. She had no money
to pay her fees, and Haris-Chandra, not knowing her in the darkness,
turned her away. Fortunately the sun rose; mutual recognition followed;
the victims of promiscuous largesse were at once remarried, and Vishnu
intervened to restore the son to life. Tatu No. 11 shows Haris-Chandra
watching the burning-ground by moonlight; the wavy line is the Ganges;
the dots are the trees on the other side; the strokes on either side
of the king are the logs of wood, which he is guarding. In No. 12
we see the sun rising, its first ray marked with a sort of fork,
and the meeting of the king and queen."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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