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KARAITURAI
The following are some of the proverbs relating to the Kāpus: —
- The Kāpu protects all.
- The Kāpu's difficulties are known only to god.
- The Kāpu dies from even the want of food.
- The Kāpu knows not the distinction between daughter and daughter-in-law (i.e., both must work for him).
- The Karnam (village accountant) is the cause of the Kāpu's death.
- The Kāpu goes not to the fort (i.e., into the presence of the Rāja). A modern variant is that the Kāpu goes not to the court (of law).
- While the Kāpu was sluggishly ploughing, thieves stole the rope collars.
- The year the Kāpu came in, the famine came too.
- The Reddis are those who will break open the soil to fill their bellies.
- When the unpracticed Reddi got into a palanquin, it swung from side to side.
- The Reddi who had never mounted a horse sat with his face to the tail.
- The Reddi fed his dog like a horse, and barked himself.
Kāradhi.— A name sometimes given to Māri Holeyas.
Karadi (bear). — An exogamous sept of Tottiyan.
Kāraikkāt.— Kāraikkāt, Kāraikkātar, or Kārkātta, meaning those who waited for rain, or, according to another version, those who saved or protected the clouds, is an endogamous division of Vellāla. Some Tamil Malayālis, who claim to be Vellālas who emigrated to the hills from Conjeeveram, have, at times of census, returned themselves as Karaikkat Vellālas.
Karaiturai (sea-coast) Vellāla. — A name assumed by some Pattanavans.
