Malayālam Kavitiyan, and Pāndi Kavitiyan or immigrants from the Pāndyan country.
The Kakkalans have a legend concerning their origin to the effect that Siva was once going about begging as a Kapaladhārin, and arrived at a Brāhman street, from which the inhabitants drove him away. The offended god immediately reduced the village to ashes, and the guilty villagers begged his pardon, but were reduced to the position of the Kakkalans, and made to earn their livelihood by begging.
The women wear iron and silver bangles, and a palunka māla or necklace of variously coloured beads. They are tattooed, and tattooing members of other castes is one of their occupations, which include the following: —
- Katukuttu, or boring the lobes of the ears.
- Katuvaippu, or plastic operations on the ear, which Nāyar women and others who wear heavy pendant ear ornaments often require.
- Kainokku or palmistry, in which the women are more proficient than the men.
- Kompuvaippu, or placing the twig of a plant on any swelling of the body, and dissipating it by blowing on it.
- Taiyyal, or tailoring.
- Pāmpātam or snake dance, in which the Kakkalans are unrivalled.
- Fortune telling.
The chief object of worship by the Kakkalans is the rising sun, to which boiled rice is offered on Sunday. They have no temples of their own, but stand at some distance from Hindu temples, and worship the gods thereof. Though leading a wandering life, they try to be at home for the Malabar new year, on which occasion they wear new clothes, and hold a feast. They do not observe the national Ōnam and Vishu festivals.
