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.)
Janjapul (sacred thread). — An exogamous sept of Bōya.
Janmi. — Janmi or Janmakāran means " proprietor or landlord; the person in whom the janman title rests.
- ↑ * Travels into East India and Arabia deserta, 1665.
