Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Pātro

by Edgar Thurston

Pātro.——The title of the head of a group of villages in Ganjam, and also recorded, at times of census, as a title of Alia, Kālinga Kōmati, Dolai, and Jaggala. The conferring of a cloth (sādhi) on a Pātro is said to be emblematic of conferring an estate. The Pātro, among other perquisites, is entitled to a fee on occasions of marriage. I am informed that, in the Ganjam Māliahs, if a Kondh was unable to pay the fee, he met his love at night beneath two trysting trees, and retired with her into the jungle for three days and nights.