VIZAGAPATAM
The Sátánis frequently referred to above are the most prominent of a number of castes in this district who are half priests and half beggars. They are family priests to non-Bráhman Vaishnavas, gurus to several of the cultivating castes, and also go round singing and begging with a huge namam on their foreheads, strings of tulasi beads round their necks, a fan, and a copper vessel shaped like a melon. The word Sátáni is said to be a form of Sáttádavan, 'the uncovered one,' because these people wear no tuft of hair nor sacred thread. Its supposed connection with Chaitanya has no foundation. The Vizagapatam Sátánis are initiated and branded with the usual Vaishnavite emblems by gurus of Goomsur in Ganjám.
The Dasaris are also beggars who are branded with Vaishnava emblems. In the Tamil country they are essentially religious mendicants, but here they are generally wandering ballad-mongers who go about singing the popular rhymes of the countryside,such as those about the fall of Bobbili (pp. 237-41); the evil deeds and tragic end of Ammi Náyudu. a village headman in Pálkonda taluk; the fate of Lakshmamma, a Velama woman who was murdered by her husband for marrying her daughter according to éduru ménarikam; and the sati (p. 318) of Yerakamma of Srungavarapukóta.
There are also several beggar communities who are supported by certain particular castes, because they are supposed either to be illegitimate descendants of those bodies or to have done them some notable service in days gone by. Thus the Víramushtis, who are Lingáyat acrobats, beg only of Dévángas and Gavara Kómatis; the Mailáris and Nettikótalas only of the Gavara Kómatis, whom they say they assisted in their legendary struggle with king Vishnuvardhana; the Gósangis of Mádigas; the Mástigas of Málas; the Sádhauasúrulu of the Padma Sáles; the Samayamuváru of both Padma and Pattu Sáles; the Singamuváru of the Dévángas; and the juggler Vipravinódis of the Bráhmans.
The people of the Agency belong to two broad classes; namely, the original people of the soil and the foreigner Uriyas who in some remote past swept down and imposed their rule upon them. Uriya ousted (and is still ousting) the tribal dialects, and castes now speak it who are not Uriyas by descent; but which of the hill people are the original inhabitants and which are invaders and emigrants from elsewhere is an interesting question which the information at present on record is insufficient to solve.
Among the agency castes the exogamous septs are generally totemistic, a rare character in this Presidency. The commonest
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