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
(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the
cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The
house will soon take fire.
(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been
rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your
enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe
illness will attack them.
The Velans and Mannans are animists, and worship demoniacal gods,
such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chathan. All
of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a
tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls,
plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to
them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in
Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism
in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the
spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise
their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when
they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the
senior male members of the local Nayar, Kammalan and Izhuvan families
to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which
they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local
goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their
ancestors, are located in a room of their huts, and worshipped with
offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.
The Velans and Mannans either burn or bury the dead. The son is the
chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and
brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and
they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen
days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead
person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with
cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the mattu (a washed
cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free
from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations,
are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the
end of the year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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