The Kakkalans are conspicuously polygamous, and some have as many as twelve wives, who are easily supported, as they earn money by their professional engagements. A first marriage must be celebrated on Sunday, and the festivities last from Saturday to Monday, Subsequent marriages may also be celebrated on Thursday. On the night of the day before the wedding, a brother, or other near relation of the bridegroom, places the sambandham (alliance) by bringing a fanam (coin), material for chewing, and cooked rice to the marriage pandal (booth). Fruit and other things are flung at him by the bride's people. On the following day the bridegroom arrives at the pandal, and, after raising the tāli (marriage badge) three times towards heaven, and, invoking a blessing from on high, ties it round the bride's neck. When a girl reaches puberty, a merry celebration is kept up for a week. The dead are buried. Inheritance is from father to son. A childless widow is a coparcener with the brothers of the deceased, and forfeits this right if she remarries.
Though in the presence of other castes the Kakkalans speak Malayālam, they have a peculiar language which is used among themselves, and is not understood by others.*[1]
Kakkē (Indian laburnum: Cassia fistula). — A gōtra of Kurni.
Kala.— Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as a sub-division of Nāyar.
Kalaikūttādi (pole-dancer). — A Tamil synonym of Dommara.
Kalāl.— A Hindustani synonym of Gamalla.
- ↑ • For this note I am indebted to Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar.
