Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Thurston, Edgar
General
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The headman of the caste is called Ejaman, who has under him an
officer entitled Dalavayi. The caste messenger bears the name of
Kondikar. These three offices are hereditary. The Ejaman presides at
council meetings which are held at the temple of the caste. The eldest
member of each family is entitled to a seat on the council. Those
who come late to a meeting thereof prostrate themselves before the
assembly. Witnesses before the council have to take an oath, which
is administered by the Kondikar. He makes the witness stand within
a circle drawn on the ground, and makes him repeat the formula
"Before God and the elders assembled, with the sky above and the
earth beneath, I will state only the truth." The Kondikar then takes
up a pinch of earth, and puts it on the head of the witness. For
merely threatening to beat a person with shoes, the offender has
to feed twenty-five castemen. If he takes the shoes in his hands he
must feed fifty, and, if he actually resorts to beating with them,
he has to feed a hundred men. In addition, the culprit has to pay
a small fine, and both parties have to be purified at the temple. A
similar punishment is enforced for beating, or threatening to beat
with a broom. For adultery the guilty person is excommunicated, and
is admitted back into the caste only after the death of one of the
parties concerned. He then has to feed a large number of castemen,
or pay a money fine, and, prostrating himself before the assembly,
he is beaten with a tamarind switch. He further makes obeisance to
the Ejaman, and washes his feet. The Ejaman then purifies him by a
small piece of burning camphor in his mouth.
When a married girl reaches puberty, she is taken to her father's
house, and her husband constructs a hut with branches of Ficus
glomerata. On the last day of her confinement therein, the hut is
pulled down, and the girl sets fire to it. The house is purified, and
the female relations go to the houses of the Ejaman and caste people,
and invite them to be present at a ceremonial. A small quantity of
turmeric paste is stuck on the doors of the houses of all who are
invited. The relations and members of the caste carry betel, and
other articles, on trays in procession through the streets. The girl
is seated on a plank, and the trays are placed in front of her. Rice
flour, fruits, betel, etc., are tied in her cloth, and she is taken
into the house. In the case of an unmarried girl, the hut is built
by her maternal uncle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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