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 Kammalans will not condescend to eat food at the hands of Kurups,
Tolkollans, Pulluvans, Mannans, or Tandans. But a Tandan thinks
it equally beneath his dignity to accept food from a Kammalan. The
Kammalans believe themselves to be indigenous in Malabar, and boast
that their system of polyandry is the result of the sojourn of the
exiled Pandavas, with their common wife Panchali, and their mother
Kunthi, in the forest of the Walluvanad division. They say that the
destruction of the Pandavas was attempted in the Arakkuparamba amsam
of this division, and that the Tac'chans (artisans) were given as
a reward by the Kurus the enjoyment of Tacchanattukara amsam. They
state further that the Pandus lived for some time at the village of
Bhimanad, and went to the Attapadi valley, where they deposited their
cooking utensils at the spot where the water falls from a height of
several hundred feet. This portion of the river is called Kuntipuzha,
and the noise of the water, said to be falling on the upset utensils,
is heard at a great distance.
The Kammalans, male and female, dress like Nayars, and their ornaments
are almost similar to those of the Nayars, with this difference, that
the female Tattan wears a single chittu or ring in the right ear only.
In the building of a house, the services of the Asari are required
throughout. He it is who draws the plan of the building. And, when
a door is fixed or beam raised, he receives his perquisite. The
completion of a house is signified as a rule by a kutti-poosa. For
this ceremony, the owner of the house has to supply the workmen with
at least four goats to be sacrificed at the four corners thereof,
a number of fowls to be killed so that the blood may be smeared
on the walls and ceiling, and an ample meal with liquor. The feast
concluded, the workmen receive presents of rings, gold ear-rings,
silk and other cloths, of which the Moothasari or chief carpenter
receives the lion's share. "The village carpenter," Mr. Gopal Panikkar
writes, [80] "has to do everything connected with our architecture,
such as fixing poles or wickets at the exact spot where buildings
are to be erected, and clearing newly erected buildings of all devils
and demons that may be haunting them. This he does by means of pujas
(worship) performed after the completion of the building. But people
have begun to break through the village traditions, and to entrust
architectural work to competent hands, when the village carpenter is
found incompetent for the same."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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