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
plant (Euphorbia Tirucalli), and applied them to the part. For chest
pains he prescribed red ochre, and for infantile diseases myrabolam
(Terminalia) fruits mixed with water. In cases of snake-bite, a black
stone, said to be made of various drugs mixed together, and burnt,
is placed over the seat of the bite, and will, it was stated, drop
off of its own accord as soon as it has absorbed all the poison. It
is then put into milk or water to extract the poison, and the fluid
is thrown away as being dangerous to life if swallowed. As a remedy
for the bite of a mad dog, a plant, which is kept a secret, is mixed
with the milk of a white goat, pepper, garlic, and other ingredients,
and administered internally. A single dose is said to effect a cure.
At Tarikeri in Mysore, a wandering troupe of Are (Maratha) Dommaras
performed before me. The women were decorated with jewels and
flowers, and carried bells on their ankles. The men had a row of bells
attached all round the lower edge of their short drawers. Before the
performance commenced, a Pillayar (Ganesa) was made with cowdung,
and saluted. The entertainment took place in the open air amid the
beating of drums, whistling, singing, and dialogue. The jests and
antics of the equivalent of the circus clown were a source of much
joy to the throng of villagers who collected to witness the tamasha
(spectacle). One of the principal performers, in the waits between his
turns, played the drum, or took a suck at a hooka (tobacco pipe) which
was passed round among the members of the troupe. The entertainment,
in which both men and women took part, consisted of various acrobatic
feats, turning summersaults and catherine wheels, stilt-walking,
and clever feats on the tight rope. Finally a man, climbing up a
lofty bamboo pole, spun himself rapidly round and round on the top
of it by means of a socket in an iron plate tied to his loin cloth,
into which a spike in the pole fitted.
Dondia.--A title of Gaudo.
Donga Dasari.--Dasari (servant of the god), Mr. Francis writes, [105]
"in the strict sense of the word, is a religious mendicant of the
Vaishnavite sect, who has formally devoted himself to an existence
as such, and been formally included in the mendicant brotherhood
by being branded on the shoulders with Vaishnavite symbols." Far
different are the Donga, or thief Dasaris, who receive their name
from the fact that "the men and women disguise themselves as Dasaris,
with perpendicular Vaishnava marks on their foreheads, and, carrying
a lamp (Garuda kambum), a gong of bell-metal, a small drum called
jagata, and a tuft of peacock feathers, go begging in the villages,
and are at times treated with the sumptuous meals, including cakes
offered to them as the disciples of Venkatesvarlu. [106]"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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