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 Komatis are a highly organised caste. In each place where they
are settled there is a Pedda Setti, who, among the Kalinga Komatis,
is known as Puri Setti or Senapathi. Among the latter, there is
also a headman for several villages, who is styled Kularaju or
Vaisyaraju. Each Pedda Setti is assisted by a Mummadi Setti, who
assembles the castemen for the settlement of important questions,
by fines, excommunication, etc. There is further a caste guru
Bhaskaracharya, whose duties are more religious than social. Komatis
have recourse to the established Courts of Justice only as a last
resort. They are consulted by other castes in the settlement of their
disputes, and it must be said to their credit that their decisions
are usually sound, and bear ample testimony to the confidence which
is placed in them.
The Komatis are, broadly speaking, divided into two great sections,
called Gavara and Kalinga. The former live as far north of Vizianagram,
and are then replaced by the latter. The Gavaras or Gauras are said to
be so called because, by following the caste goddess Kanyakamma into
the fire-pits, they maintained the gauravam or social status of the
caste. According to another version, they are so called because they
revere Gauri (Parvati), the consort of Siva, whose incarnation was the
goddess Kanyakamma. The Kalinga Komatis are those who live in the old
Kalinga or Kling country, which extended roughly from Vizagapatam to
Orissa. They are forbidden to settle beyond Ramatirtham, a place of
pilgrimage close to Vizianagram. The story goes that their ancestors
lived at Padmanabham, the hill close to Bimlipatam, well known from
the battle which took place close to it in 1794, and there sustained
great losses. Hence the place was deserted, and has ever since been
regarded as inauspicious. The Komatis have since that time not resided
at any place from which the hill can be seen. In fact, they make their
first appearance at Chipurupalli, and increase in numbers as we go
north-eastward. The Kalinga Komatis believe themselves to be Gavara
Komatis, who became separated from the main stock owing to their
emigration from their original home. Their meat-eating habit has,
they say, widened the breach which separates the two divisions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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