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
By Mr. F. S. Mullaly [104] the Dommaras are divided into Reddi or
Kapu (i.e., cultivators) and Aray (Maratha). "The women," he writes,
"are proficient in making combs of horn and wood, and implements used
by weavers. These they hawk about from place to place, to supplement
the profits they derive from their exhibitions of gymnastic feats. In
addition to performing conjuring tricks, rope-dancing and the like,
the Dommaras hunt, fish, make mats, and rear donkeys and pigs. The
head of the tribe is called the Mutli Guru. He is their high priest,
and exercises supreme jurisdiction over them both in spiritual and
temporal matters. His head-quarters is Chitvel in the Cuddapah
district. The legend regarding the office of the Mutli Guru is
as follows. At Chitvel, or as it was then known Mutli, there once
lived a king, who called together a gathering of all the gymnasts
among his subjects. Several classes were represented. Polerigadu,
a Reddi Dommara, so pleased the king that he was presented with a
ring, and a royal edict was passed that the wearer of the ring and
his descendants should be the head of the Dommara class. The ring then
given is said to be the same that is now worn by the head of the tribe
at Chitvel, which bears an inscription in Telugu declaring that the
wearer is the high-priest or guru of all the Dommaras. The office
is hereditary. The dwellings of the Dommaras are somewhat similar
to those of the Koravars and Joghis, made of palmyra leaves plaited
into mats with seven strands. These huts, or gudisays, are located on
the outskirts of villages, and carried on the backs of donkeys when
on the march. Stolen cloths, unless of value, are not as a rule sold,
but concealed in the packs of their donkeys, and after a time worn. The
Dommaras are addicted to dacoity, robbery, burglary, and thefts. The
instrument used by them is unlike those used by other criminal classes:
it is of iron, about a foot long, and with a chisel-shaped point. As
cattle and sheep lifters they are expert, and they have their regular
receivers at most of the cattle fairs throughout the Presidency."
It is noted, in the Nellore Manual, that the Dommaras "are stated by
the Nellore Tahsildar to possess mirasi rights in some villages; that I
take to mean that there is, in some villages, a customary contribution
for tumblers and mendicants, which, according to Wilson, was made in
Mysore the pretext for a tax named Dombar-lingada-vira-kaniki. This
tax, under the name Dombar tafrik, was levied in Venkatagiri in
1801." In the Madura district, Dommaras are found in some villages
formerly owned by zamindars, and they call themselves children of
the zamindars, by whom they were probably patronised.
Being a criminal class, the Dommaras have a thief's language of their
own, of which the following are examples:--
Bidam vadu, Dommara.
Poothi, policeman.
Marigam, pig.
Goparam, seven.
Dasa-masa, prostitute.
Kopparam, salt.
Kaljodu, goldsmith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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