may be remarked, en passant, that Dasis are not at the present day so much patronised at Hindu marriages as in olden times. Much is due in this direction to the progress of enlightened ideas, which have of late been strongly put forward by Hindu social reformers. When a Kaikolan Dasi dies, her body is covered with a new cloth removed from the idol, and flowers are supplied from the temple, to which she belonged. No puja is performed in the temple till the corpse is disposed of, as the idol, being her husband, has to observe pollution. "In former times, dancing-girls used to sleep three nights at the commencement of their career in the inner shrine of the Koppesvara temple at Palivela in the Godavari district, so as to be embraced by the god. But one of them, it is said, disappeared one night, and the practice has ceased. The funeral pyre of every girl of the dancing girl (Sani) caste dying in the village should be lit with fire brought from the temple. The same practice is found in the Srirangam temple near Trichinopoly." [69] The following account of Dasis in Travancore, where their total strength is only about four hundred, is taken from a note by Mr. N. Subramani Aiyer. "While the Dasis of Kartikappalli, Ambalapuzha, and Shertallay belonged originally to the Konkan coast, those of Shenkottah belonged to the Pandian country. But the South Travancore Dasis are an indigenous class. The female members of the caste are, besides being known by the ordinary name of Tevadiyal and Dasi, both meaning servant of God, called Kudikkar, meaning those belonging to the house (i.e., given rent free by the Sirkar), and Pendukal, or women, the former of these designations being more popular than the latter. Males are called Tevadiyan, though many prefer to be known as Nanchinat Vellalas. Males, like these Vellalas, take the title of Pillai. In ancient days Deva-dasis, who became experts in singing and dancing, received the title of Rayar (king) which appears to have been last conferred in 1847 A.D. The South Travancore Dasis neither interdine nor intermarry with the dancing-girls of the Tamil-speaking districts. They adopt girls only from a particular division of the Nayars, Tamil Padam, and dance only in temples. Unlike their sisters outside Travancore, they do not accept private engagements in houses on the occasion of marriage. The males, in a few houses, marry the Tamil Padam and Padamangalam Nayars, while some Padamangalam Nayars and Nanchinat Vellalas in their turn take their women as wives.