Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 — John Shaqi
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
1. Blue spot tattooed over the glabella.
2. Silver amulet-case, containing fifteen gold fanams, at the
waist. He said that he kept the coins in the receptacle for
security, but I think it was for good luck.
3. Ear-ring (kadakkan) in each ear. A copper amulet-case,
containing a yantram to keep off devils, at the waist.
4. Four silver amulet-cases, containing yantrams on a copper
sheet for curing some ailment, at the waist.
5. Two gold kadakkans in each ear. A white spot over the glabella.
(c) North Malabar, Females.
In olden days, the women used to wear coloured and striped cloths round
the waist, and hanging to the knees. The breast was not covered. The
body above the waist was not allowed to be covered, except during the
period of death pollution. Nowadays, white is generally the colour to
be seen, and the body is seldom covered above the waist--never one may
say, except (and then only sometimes) in the towns. The Izhuvan women
in Malabar always wear blue cloths: just one cloth rolled tightly
round the waist, and hanging to the knees. Of late, they have taken
to wearing also a blue cloth drawn tight over the breast.
Ornaments. The thodu, which is now sometimes worn by Tiyan women,
is not a Tiyan ornament. The ear-rings, called kathila and ananthod,
are the Tiyan ornaments, and look like strings of gold beads with
pendants. Discs of white metal or lead are used to stretch and keep
open the dilated lobes of the ears, in which gold ornaments are worn
when necessary or possible. Venetian sequins, real or imitation,
known in Malabar as amada, are largely used for neck ornaments. There
is a Malabar proverb that one need not look for an insect's burrow in
amada, meaning that you cannot find anything vile in a worthy person.
Turning now to the subject of marriage. In the ordinary course of
things, a marriage would not be made between a Tiyan girl of South
Malabar and a Tiyan man of North Malabar, for the reason that the
children of such a marriage would inherit no property from the family
of either parent. The husband would have no share in the property
of his family, which devolves through the women; nor would the wife
have any share in that of her family, which is passed on through the
men. So there would be nothing for the children. But, on the other
hand, marriage between a girl of the north and a man of the south is
a different thing. The children would inherit from both parents. As a
rule, Tiyans of the north marry in the north, and those of the south
in the south.
It was generally admitted that it was formerly the custom among the
Tiyans in South Malabar for several brothers--in fact all of them--to
share one wife. Two existing instances of this custom were recorded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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