Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/14

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KABBILI
6

(Andropogon Sorghum) kanji, mix these with it, and sprinkle this kanji, or gruel, all round their fields. After this, the Kāpu proceeds to the potter's kiln in the village or town, fetches ashes from it, and makes a figure of a human being. This figure is placed prominently in some convenient spot in the field, and is called Jokumara, or rain-god. It is supposed to have the power of bringing down the rain in proper time. The figure is sometimes small, and sometimes big."*[1]

Kabbili.—Kabbili or Kabliga, recorded as a sub-division of Bestha, is probably a variant of Kabbēra.

Kadacchil (knife-grinder or cutler).—A sub-division of Kollan.

Kadaiyan.—The name, Kadaiyan, meaning last or lowest, occurs as a sub-division of the Pallans. The Kadaiyans are described †[2] as being lime (shell) gatherers and burners of Rāmēsvaram and the neighbourhood, from whose ranks the pearl-divers are in part recruited at the present day. On the coasts of Madura and Tinnevelly they are mainly Christians, and are said, like the Paravas, to have been converted through the work of St. Francis Xavier.‡[3]

Kadapēri.—A sub-division of Kannadiyan.

Kadavala (pots).—An exogamous sept of Padma Sālē.

Kādi (blade of grass).—A gōtra of Kurni.

Kādir.—The Kādirs or Kādans inhabit the Ānaimalai or elephant hills, and the great mountain range which extends thence southward into Travancore. A night journey by rail to Coimbatore, and forty miles by

  1. * Madras Mail, November, 1905.
  2. † J. Hornell. Report on the Indian Pearl Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar, 1905.
  3. ‡ Madras Diocesan Mag., 1906.