It may be observed that the totems are variously termed gotram, vamsam, and kulam. The first of these is in imitation of the Brahman gotras. Vamsam is the bams of the Agency tracts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, and the Godavari districts. The name means bamboo, and denotes a family, whose branches are as countless as those of a bamboo. Kulam is used as the equivalent of group or family. The totem objects are revered in the usual way, and no secret is made of the reverence shown to them. In regard to plant totems, it is stated that, if the totem objects are not strictly treated as tabu, delinquents will be born as insects for seven generations. But an exception is allowed. A person who wishes to eat the forbidden plant may do so by annually performing the funeral ceremonies of the totem ancestor at Gaya, the great Hindu place of pilgrimage where obsequial ceremonies to ancestors are performed. In recent times, the Komatis have claimed to be the Vaisyas mentioned in the Vedic Purusha-sukta. Accordingly, the totems have been arranged under the different Brahmanical gotras, whose pravaras have been appropriated. Thus, Munikula and four others are grouped under Madgalya Rishi gotra, whose pravara is given for all the five. Similarly, Vakkala kula and another kula come under Vayavya Rishi; Ghonta kula under Goupaka Rishi; Arati, Arisishta and a few others under Atri Rishi; Anupa kula under Agasthya Rishi, and so on. It is said that the totem names are secret names (sanketa namamulu) given by Kanyakamma, in order that the bearers thereof may be distinguished from those who did not take up her cause. All sub-divisions of the caste, however, have these septs in common. In the northern parts of the Madras Presidency, the sept is further sub-divided into sections called intiperulu (house names). These are either named after some distinguished ancestor, or the place where the family once lived before emigrating to their present abode. These intiperulu are purely exogamous.