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
It is noted by Mr. W. Robinson, in a report on the Laccadive islands
(1869), that "the Monegar has the assistance of one of the islanders
as a Karany, to take down depositions, and to read them, for the
character used is the Arabic. In addition to these duties, the Karany
has those of the Shanbogue. He keeps the accounts of the trees, and
the coir (cocoanut fibre) in the islands, and makes out and delivers
the accounts of coir brought to the coast."
Shikari.--Shikari, meaning a sportsman or hunter, occurs as a synonym
of Irula, and a sub-division of Korava. The name shikari is also
applied to a Native who "accompanies European sportsmen as a guide
and aid, and to the European sportsman himself." [176]
Sholaga.--In his account of the Sholagas or Solagas, early in the
last century, Buchanan [177] writes that they "speak a bad or old
dialect of the Karnata language, have scarcely any clothing, and sleep
round a fire, lying on a few plantain leaves, and covering themselves
with others. They live chiefly on the summits of mountains, where
the tigers do not frequent, but where their naked bodies are exposed
to a disagreeable cold. Their huts are most wretched, and consist of
bamboos with both ends stuck into the ground, so as to form an arch,
which is covered with plantain leaves." The up-to-date Sholaga, who
inhabits the jungles of Coimbatore between Dimbhum and Kollegal near
the Mysore frontier, is clad in a cotton loin-cloth, supplemented
by a coat of English pattern with regimental buttons, and smears
himself freely on special occasions, such as a visit to the Government
anthropologist, with sacred ashes in mimicry of the Lingayats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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