Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The officiating priest at the marriage ceremony is a man of
their own sect, and is known as the Gurukkal. They address him as
Ayyanavaru, a title generally reserved for Brahmans in Kannada-speaking
districts. The main items of expenditure at a wedding are the musician,
presents of clothes, and pan-supari, especially the areca nuts. One
man, who was not rich, told me that it cost him, for a marriage,
three maunds of nuts, and that guests come more for them than for
the meals, which he characterised as not fit for dogs.
Widow remarriage is permitted. But it is essential that the contracting
parties should be widower and widow. For such a marriage no pandal is
erected, but all the elders countenance it by their presence. Such
a marriage is known as naduvittu tali, because the tali is tied
in the mid-house. It is usually a simple affair, and finished in a
short time after sunset instead of in the day time. The offspring
of such marriages are considered as legitimate, and can inherit. But
remarried couples are disqualified from performing certain acts, e.g.,
the distribution of pan-supari at weddings, partaking in the harathi
ceremony, etc. The disqualifications attaching to remarried people
are, by a curious analogy, extended to deformed persons, who are,
in some cases, considered to be widowers and widows.
Among the ordinary names of males are Basappa, Linganna, Devanna,
Ellappa, Naganna; and of females Ellamma, Lingi and Nagamma. It is
said that all are entitled to the honorific Saudri; but the title
is specially reserved for the agent of their sect. Among common
nicknames are Chikka and Dodda Thamma (younger and elder brother),
Andi (beggar), Karapi (black woman), Guni (hunch back). In the Mysore
Province the most becoming method of addressing a Lingayat is to call
him Sivane. Their usual titles are Ravut, Appa, Anna, and Saudri.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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