many insignia of office including a state palanquin. If any one declines to abide by his decision, excommunication is pronounced by the ceremony of 'placing the thorn,' which consists in laying a thorny branch across the threshold of the recalcitrant party's house, to signify that, for his contumacy, his property will go to ruin and be overrun with jungle. The removal of the thorn, and the restitution of the sinner to Kallan society can only be procured by abject apologies to Pinnai Tēvan."
The usual title of the Kallans is Ambalakāran (president of an assembly), but some, like the Maravans and Agamudaiyans, style themselves Tēvan (god) or Sērvaikkāran (commander).*[1]
Kallankanadōru (stone). — A sub-division of Kōmati, said to be descended from those who sat on the stone (kallu) mantapa outside the Penukonda Kanyakamma temple, when the question whether to enter the fire-pits or not was being discussed by the caste elders.
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."
- ↑ * Madras Census Report, 1891.
