Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Jaggāli
Jaggāli. — The Jaggālis are defined, in the Manual of the Ganjam district, as Uriya workers in leather in Ganjam. It is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that "the traditional occupation of this caste was apparently leatherworking, but now it is engaged in cultivation and miscellaneous labour. Its members speak both Oriya and Telugu. They admit outcastes from other communities to their ranks on payment of a small fee. Marriage is either infant or adult, and widows and divorcees may remarry. Sātānis are employed as priests. They eat beef and pork, and drink alcohol. They bury their dead. In some places they work as syces (grooms), and in others as firewood-sellers and as labourers. Pātro and Bēhara are their titles." It may, I think, be accepted that the Jaggālis are Telugu Mādigas, who have settled in Ganjam, and learnt the Oriya language. It is suggested that the name is derived from the Oriya jagiba, watching, as some are village crop-watchers.