Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Kallan Mūppan

by Edgar Thurston

Kallan Mūppan.— In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Kallan Mūppan is returned as "a sub-caste of the Malabar Kammālans, the members of which are stone-workers." A correspondent writes to me that, "while the Kammālans are a polluting and polyandrous class, the Kallan Mūppans are allowed to enter the outside enclosure of temples. They do not remarry their widows, and are strictly monogamous. Their purōhits are Tamil barbers, who officiate at their marriages. The barber shaves the bridegroom before the wedding ceremony. The purōhit has also to blow the conch-shell all the way from the bridegroom's house to that of the bride." The names Kallan and KalkōttI are also those by which the Malabar stone-masons are known.