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
begged for pardon, and offered the village of Penukonda to Faqrud-din
as a jaghir (annuity). This offer was declined, and the saint asked
that the temple should be converted into a mosque. The Raja granted
this request, and it is said that large numbers of Hindus embraced
the Muhammadan religion, and were the ancestors of the Dudekulas.
The Dudekulas, like the Hindus, like to possess some visible symbol
for worship, and they enrol great personages who have died among the
number of those at whose graves they worship. So essential is this
grave worship that, if a place is without one, a grave is erected in
the name of some saint. Such a thing has happened in recent times in
Banganapalle. A Fakir, named Alla Bakhsh, died at Kurnool. A Dudekula
of the Banganapalle State visited his grave, took away a lump of earth
from the ground near it, and buried it in a village ten miles from
Banganapalle. A shrine was erected over it in the name of the saint,
and has become very famous for the miracles which are performed at
it. An annual festival is held, which is attended by large numbers
of Muhammadans and Dudekulas.
Some Dudekulas have names which, though at first sight they seem to be
Hindu, are really Muhammadan. For example, Kambannah is a corruption
of Kamal Sahib, and Sakali, which in Telugu means a washerman, seems
to be an altered form of Sheik Ali. Though Dudekulas say that they are
Muhammadans of the Sheik sect, the name Sheik is only occasionally
used as a prefix, e.g., Sheik Hussain or Sheik Ali. Names of males
are Hussain Sa, Fakir Sa, and Khasim Sa. Sa is an abbreviated form of
Sahib. One old Dudekula stated that the title Sahib was intended for
pucka (genuine) Muhammadans, and that the Dudekulas could not lay claim
to the title in its entirety. Instead of Sa, Bhai, meaning brother,
is sometimes used as a suffix to the name, e.g., Ghudu Bhai. Ghudu,
meaning ash-heap, is an opprobrious name given to children of those
whose offspring have died young, in the hope of securing long life to
them. The child is taken, immediately after birth, to an ash-heap,
where some of the ashes are sprinkled over it. Some Dudekulas adopt
the Hindu termination appa (father), anna (brother), or gadu, e.g.,
Pullanna, Naganna, Yerkalappa, Hussaingadu, Hussainappa. Typical names
of females are Roshamma, Jamalamma, and Madaramma. They have dropped
the title Bibi or Bi, and adopted the Hindu title amma (mother).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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