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KAMMALAN
- When a child is born in a blacksmith's family, sugar must be dealt out in the street of the dancing girls. This has reference to the legendary relation of the Kammālans and Kaikōlans.
- A blacksmith's shop, and the place in which donkeys roll themselves, are alike.
- The carpenters and blacksmiths are to be relegated, i.e., to the part of the village called the Kammālachēri.
- What if the carpenter's wife has become a widow? This would seem to refer to the former practice of widow remarriage.
- The carpenter wants (his wood) too long, and the blacksmith wants (his iron) too short, i.e., a carpenter can easily shorten a piece of wood, and a blacksmith can easily hammer out a piece of iron.
- When a Kammālan buys cloth, the stuff he buys is so thin that it does not hide the hair on his legs.
Kammālan (Malayalam). — " The Kammālans of Malabar," Mr. Francis writes,*[1] "are artisans, like those referred to immediately above, but they take a lower position than the Kammālans and Kamsalas of the other coast, or the Pānchālas of the Canarese country. They do not claim to be Brāhmans or wear the sacred thread, and they accept the position of a polluting caste, not being allowed into the temples or into Brāhman houses. The highest sub-division is Asāri, the men of which are carpenters, and wear the thread at certain ceremonies connected with house-building."
According to Mr. F. Fawcett "the orthodox number of classes of Kammālans is five. But the artisans do not admit that the workers in leather belong to the
- ↑ ♦ Madras Census Report, 1901.
