Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
Kolakotta Gomango told me "If we do not burn these things with the
body, the Kulba will come and ask us for them, and trouble us." The
body is burned the day a man dies. The next day, the people of the
family go to the burning-place with water, which they pour over the
embers. The fragments of the bones are then picked out, and buried
about two feet in the ground, and covered over with a miniature hut,
or merely with some thatching grass kept on the place by a few logs
of wood, or in the floor of a small hut (thatched roof without walls)
kept specially for the Kulba at the burning-place. An empty egg-shell
(domestic hen's) is broken under foot, and buried with the bones. It
is not uncommon to send pieces of bone, after burning, to relations
at a distance, to allow them also to perform the funeral rites. The
first sacrificial feast, called the Limma, is usually made about
three or four days after the body has been burnt. In some places,
it is said to be made after a longer interval. For the Limma a fowl
is killed at the burning-place, some rice or other grain is cooked,
and, with the fowl, eaten by the people of the family, with the usual
consumption of liquor. Of course, the Kudang (who is the medium of
communication between the spirits of the dead and the living) is on
the spot, and communicates with the Kulba. If the deceased left debts,
he, through the Kudang, tells how they should be settled. Perhaps
the Kulba asks for tobacco and liquor, and these are given to the
Kudang, who keeps the tobacco, and drinks the liquor. After the
Limma, a miniature hut is built for the Kulba over the spot where
the bones are buried. But this is not done in places like Kolakotta,
where there is a special hut set apart for the Kulba. In some parts
of the Saora country, a few logs with grass on the top of them, logs
again on the top to keep the grass in its place, are laid over the
buried fragments of bones, it is said to be for keeping rain off,
or dogs from disturbing the bones. In the evening previous to the
Limma, bitter food--the fruits or leaves of the margosa tree (Melia
Azadirachta)--are eaten. They do not like this bitter food, and partake
of it at no other time. [The same custom, called pithapona, or bitter
food, obtains among the Oriya inhabitants of the plains.] After the
Limma, the Kulba returns to the house of the deceased, but it is
not supposed to remain there always. The second feast to the dead,
also sacrificial, is called the Guar. For this, a buffalo, a large
quantity of grain, and all the necessary elements and accompaniments
of a feast are required. It is a much larger affair than the Limma,
and all the relations, and perhaps the villagers, join in. The evening
before the Guar, there is a small feast in the house for the purpose
of calling together all the previously deceased members of the family,
to be ready for the Guar on the following day. The great feature of
the Guar is the erection of a stone in memory of the deceased. From 50
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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