Jammi (Prosopis spicigera). — A gōtra of Gollas, members of which may not use the tree. It is further a gōtra of Chembadis. Children of this caste who are named after the caste god Gurappa or Gurunāthadu are taken, when they are five, seven, or nine years old, to a jammi tree, and shaved after it has been worshipped with offerings of cooked food, etc. The jammi or sami tree is regarded as sacred all over India. Some orthodox Hindus, when they pass it, go round it, and salute it, repeating a Sanskrit verse to the effect that "the sami tree removes sins; it is the destroyer of enemies; it was the bearer of the bows and arrows of Arjuna, and the sight of it was very welcome to Rāma."
Janappan. — The Janappans, Mr. W. Francis writes,*[1] "were originally a section of the Balijas, but they have now developed into a distinct caste. They seem to have been called Janappan, because they manufactured gunny-bags of hemp (janapa) fibre. In Tamil they are called Saluppa Chettis, Saluppan being the Tamil form of Janappan. Some of them have taken to calling themselves Dēsāyis or Dēsādhīpatis (rulers of countries), and say they are Balijas. They do not wear the sacred thread. The caste usually speaks Telugu, but in Madura there is a section, the women of which speak Tamil, and also are debarred from taking part in religious ceremonies, and, therefore, apparently belonged originally to some other caste."
In a note on the Janappans of the North Arcot district†[2] Mr. H. A. Stuart states that Janappan is "the name of a caste, which engages in trade by hawking goods about the towns and villages. Originally they were merely manufacturers of gunny-bags out of hemp
