Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Halēpaik
Halēpaik.— The Halēpaiks are Canarese toddy-drawers, who are found in the northern tāluks of the South Canara district. The name is commonly derived from hale, old, and paika, a soldier, and it is said that they were formerly employed as soldiers. There is a legend that one of their ancestors became commander of the Vijayanagar army, was made ruler of a State, and given a village named Halepaikas as a jaghir (hereditary assignment of land). Some Halēpaiks say that they belong to the Tengina (cocoanut palm) section, because they are engaged in tapping that palm for toddy.
There is intermarriage between the Canarese-speaking Halēpaiks and the Tulu-speaking Billava toddy-drawers, and, in some places, the Billavas also call themselves Halēpaiks. The Halēpaiks have exogamous septs or balis, which run in the female line. As examples of these, the following may be noted: —
Chendi (Cerbera Odollum), Honnē (Calophyllum inophyllum), Tolar (wolf), Dēvana (god) and Ganga. It is recorded *[1] of the Halēpaiks of the Canara district in the Bombay Presidency that "each exogamous section, known as a bali (literally a creeper), is named after some animal or tree, which is held sacred by the members of the same. This animal, tree or flower, etc., seems to have been once considered the common ancestor of the members of the bali, and to the present day it is both worshipped by them, and held sacred in the sense that they will not injure it. Thus the members of the nāgbali, named apparently after the nāgchampa flower, will not wear this flower in their hair, as this would involve injury to the plant. The Kadavēbali will not kill the sambhar (deer: kadavē), from which they take their name." The Halēpaiks of South Canara seem to attach no such importance to the sept names. Some, however, avoid eating a fish called Srinivāsa, because they fancy that the streaks on the body have a resemblance to the Vaishnavite sectarian mark (nāmam).
All the Halēpaiks of the Kundapūr tāluk profess to be Vaishnavites, and have become the disciples of a Vaishnava Brāhman settled in the village of Sankarappakōdlu near Wondse in that tāluk. Though Venkataramana is regarded as their chief deity, they worship Baiderkulu, Panjurli, and other bhūthas (devils). The Pūjaris (priests) avoid eating new grain, new areca nuts, new sugarcane, cucumbers and pumpkins, until a feast, called kaidha pūja, has been held. This is usually celebrated in November- December, and consists in offering food, etc., to Baiderkulu. Somebody gets possessed by the bhūtha, and pierces his abdomen with an arrow.
In their caste organisation, marriage and death ceremonies, the Halēpaiks closely follow the Billavas. They do not, however, construct a car for the final death ceremonies. As they are Vaishnavites, after purification from death pollution by their own caste barber, a Vaishnavite mendicant, called Dāssaya, is called in, and purifies them by sprinkling holy water and putting the nāmam on their foreheads.
There are said to be some differences between the Halēpaiks and Billavas in the method of carrying out the process of drawing toddy. For example, the Halēpaiks generally grasp the knife with the fingers directed upwards and the thumb to the right, while the Billavas hold the knife with the fingers directed downwards and the thumb to the left. For crushing the flower-buds within the spathe of the palm, Billavas generally use a stone, and the Halēpaiks a bone. There is a belief that, if the spathe is beaten with the bone of a buffalo which has been killed by a tiger, the yield of toddy will, if the bone has not touched the ground, be greater than if an ordinary bone is used. The Billavas generally carry a long gourd, and the Halēpaiks a pot, for collecting the toddy in.
- ↑ * Monograph, Eth. Survey of Bombay, 12, 1904.