Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Jangam

by Edgar Thurston

Jangam. — It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that "strictly speaking, a Jangam is a priest to the religious sect of Lingāyats, but the term is frequently loosely applied to any Lingāyat, which accounts for the large numbers under this head (102,121). Jangams proper are said to be of two classes, Pattādikāris, who have a definite head-quarters, and Charamūrtis, who go from village to village, preaching the principles of the Lingāyat sect. Many Jangams are priests to Sūdras who are not Lingāyats, others are merely religious beggars, and others of them go in for trade." In the Census Report, 1891, it is further recorded that "the full name is Jangama Lingāyat, meaning those who always worship a moveable lingam, in contradistinction to the Sthāvara (immoveable) lingam of the temples. Only two of the sub-divisions returned are numerically important, Ganāyata and Sthāvara. The sub-division Sthāvara is curious, for a Sthāvara Jangam is a contradistinction in terms. This sub-division is found only in the two northern districts, and it is possible that the Jangam caste, as there found, is different from the ordinary Jangam, for, in the Vizagapatam District Manual, the Jangams are said to be tailors." In the Telugu country Lingāyats are called Jangālu.

The Ganta Jangams are so called, because they carry a metal bell (ganta).

The Jangams are thus referred to by Pietro della Valle.*^[1] "At Ikkeri I saw certain Indian Friars, whom in their language they call Giangāma, and perhaps are the same with the sages seen by me elsewhere; but they have wives, and go with their faces smeared with ashes, yet not naked, but clad in certain extravagant habits, and a kind of hood or cowl upon their heads of dyed linen of that colour which is generally used amongst them, namely a reddish brick colour, with many bracelets upon their arms and legs, filled with something within that makes a jangling as they walk. I saw many persons come to kiss their feet, and, whilst such persons were kissing them, and, for more reverence, touching their feet with their foreheads, these Giangāmas stood firm with a seeming severity, and without taking notice of it, as if they had been abstracted from the things of the world." (See Lingāyat.)

1. * Travels into East India and Arabia deserta, 1665.