Vizagapatam/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLE.
General Characteristics—Density of the population—Its growth —Emigration—Parent-tongue—Education—Occupations-Religions. The Jains. The Christians—The London Mission—Roman Catholic Mission—Schleswig-Holstein Lutheran Mission—Canadian Baptist Missions. The Musalmans. The Hindus—Villages and houses—Dress—Food—Amusements—Dancing—Chaitra feast—Superstitions. Religious Life—In the plains—The village deities—In the Agency. Principal Castes—In the plains—Kapu—Velama—Telaga— Nagaralu-Aiyarakulu—Bagata—Gavara—Konda Dora—Golla— \Kamsala—Sale— Salipu—Silavantulu—Yata—Mangala—Jaliri—Mila—Nagavasula—Relli—Godagula— Beggar castes—Principal castes in the Agency—Poroja— Domba—Paidi—Bottada—Kona—Bhumiya—Sondi—Korono—Mali—Omanaito—Mattiya— Pentiya—Dhakkada— Khond—Janapu—Muka Dora—Savara—Gadaba—Koya—Gond.
The density of the population in the Agency of Vizagapatam CHAP. III. General Characteristics. is less than in any other area in the Presidency except the Godavari Agency. The country as a whole contained in 1901 only 67 persons to the square mile, and Malkanagiri only 14—a smaller number than any other taluk in Madras.
The density of the people in the ordinary tracts is shown Density of the population. in the statistics of the 1901 census as 453 to the square mile, a number only exceeded in the rich districts of Tanjore and Malabar but there is little doubt that this figure is higher than the facts warrant, owing to the incorrectness of the official statistics of area from which it is calculated. The zamindaris, which make up over nine-tenths of the district, have never been surveyed by Government; the figures of their area are only approximations; and recent surveys in the Vizianagram zamindari have shown that there, at any rate, they have always been grossly understated. Taking the census figures as they stand, it appears that Pálkonda (645 persons to the square mile) is the most densely peopled taluk; that it is closely followed by Vizagapatam, Vizianagram, Bimlipatam and Anakápalle; and that the most sparsely populated taluk is Golgonda, which has only 235 persons to the square mile. A marked movement of the people into the larger towns is in progress. In the decade 1891-1901 the inhabitants of Parvatipur increased by as much as 72 per cent., and other notable advances occurred in Sálúr (25 per cent.), Vizianagram (21), Bobbili (20) and Vizagapatam (19). In the Agency the population in 1901 was actually less than that in 1891. Nine of the taluks showed a decrease, and the loss was especially heavy in Naurangpur. The decline has never been satisfactorily explained, and was probably due to careless enumeration. In Malkanagiri, Pádwa and Golgonda, however, considerable advances occurred.
The low country escaped the great famine of 1876, and therefore the growth of its population in the thirty years between 1871 and 1901 (though below that of its neighbour Gódávari)was in excess of the mean for the Presidency during that period. But in the decade 1881-91 the increase was much less than this mean, and in 1891-1901 it only just equalled it.
This result is largely due to the unusual amount of emigration which goes on. The census figures showed that in 1901 the Gódávari district contained no fewer than 120,940 persons who had been born in Vizagapatam, that Kistna included 17,524 more, and Ganjám another 8,795. On the whole, the net result in Vizagapatam of the movement of the people to and from other districts of the Presidency amounted to a loss of as many as 146,894 persons. From no other district in the Presidency did emigration occur on anything even approaching this large scale, and the inference arises that the people of Vizagapatam are not particularly contented with their lot.
Emigration to Burma is common, but the statistics do not distinguish genuine emigrants from ordinary travellers, so figures cannot be quoted; and apparently the emigration is usually only temporary (people going across for the paddy-harvest) and is almost balanced by corresponding immigration. Emigration to the Assam tea-gardens, which is so common in Ganjám, occurs in Vizagapatam on only a small scale. It is controlled under the Assam Labour and Emigration Act VI of 1901 1[1] and recruitment in the Agency is strictly prohibited. Two recruiter's depots have been established at Párvatipur.
The languages of the district form a veritable Babel. In the plains, 960 in every 1,000 people speak Telugu in their homes, 14 talk Uriya (Odiya), 9 Khond, 7 Gadaba and 5 Hindostáni; but among the same number in the Agency 481 speak Uriya, 206 Khond, 180 Telugu, 56 Savara, 30 ' Poroja,' 23 Gadaba, 11 Kóya, 3 Hindostáni, 8 Góndi and 5 other vernaculars, such as Lambádi, Bastari, Hindi, Chattisgarhi, etc. The 'Konda' language returned in the census reports appears to be merely Khond Under another name. 'Poroja' is a term which has occasioned much confusion, as there are some seven kinds of Poroja people who speak several different dialects (see p. 86 below)which are apparently forms of Khond, Uriya, Gadaba and Kóya respectively. Bastari, Hindi and Chattisgarhi are rare and occur only in the north of Naurangpur taluk; in the Golgonda and Viravilli Agencies Telugu is spoken to the exclusion of all other languages; Savara is only used by the people of that tribe in the hills east of Gunupur and in the Pálkonda Agency; and Kóya only by the Kóyas of south Malkanagiri. The other tongues are not definitely localized. Lambádi is the vernacular of the pack-bullock traders called Lambádis, Banjáris, Brinjáris or Boipáris. Uriya has a strong resemblance to Hindostáni and Bengali, and any one acquainted with either of those vernaculars can readily pick it up. The written language differs even more than usual from that in everyday use. These numerous vernaculars belong to as many as three different linguistic families; for Bastari, Chattisgarhi, Hindi, Hindostáni and Lambádi are Áryan tongues; Khond, Kóya and Telugu are Dravidian; and Gadaba and Savara are classed as belonging to the Munda (Kolarian) family.
The great diversity of tongues in the Agency constitutes an immense hindrance to administration; the more so that (except Uriya, Telugu, Hindostáni and Hindi) the vernaculars in use have no written character and have been but little studied, and that, thanks to the isolation enforced by difficult country, a language often possesses several local dialects. The Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak, for example, can scarcely make themselves understood by the Khonds of the 3,000 feet plateau,while neither of them can converse without difficulty with the lowland Khonds along the eastern fringe of the hills or with the Khonds of Kálahandi. The Gadabas of the Jeypore country,again, speak a patois which is unintelligible to the members of the same caste living on the eastern slopes of the 3,000 feet plateau.
No trained philologist has ever worked at these less-known tongues or their dialects, and a wide field is awaiting exploration. It would probably be found that Kóya and the dialect of the Bhúmiyas of Naurangpur and Jeypore taluks, which are usually classified as forms of Góndi, are in reality nothing of the kind; that 'Poroja,' which has long been classed as a separate language, resolves itself into a series of dialects of recognized vernaculars; and that Gadaba is not a Kolarian tongue. An interesting point in several of these languages is their deficiency in words for numerals. After 'five' or 'seven' they have often to borrow the Uriya or Telugu words for the higher numerals. Mr. H. G. Turner sent a note on this subject to the Indian Antiquary (ii, 97).
The education of the people is referred to in Chapter X below, which shows that the district (and particularly the Agency) has long been a byword for illiteracy.
The means of subsistence of the inhabitants are discussed in Chapter VI, from which it will be seen that arts, industries and trade support but few of them, and that an overwhelming proportion depend upon the land for a livelihood.
The religion of the district before the beginning of the Christian era was probably (see p. 25) Buddhism. Nowadays practically the whole of the population of the Agency are Hindus or Animists, Christians numbering only 37 in 10.000 in 1901, and Musalmans only 18 in the same number. The census figures attempt to differentiate Hindus (that is, those who worship the orthodox gods of the Hindu pantheon) from Animists (that is, those who reverence only animistic deities); but the accuracy of the result is vitiated by the fact that many members of the hill tribes, though Animists at heart, offer none the less a perfunctory and spasmodic worship to the Hindu gods of the plains and thus come within the four corners of the definition of a Hindu.
In the low country, nearly 99 per cent, of the people are Hindus and Animists, and Musalmans (108 in every 10,000) and Christians (20 in the same number) are proportionately fewer than in any district in the Presidency except Ganjám.
The Jains number only 49. Jain remains appear to occur in only one place in the plains (Rámatírtham, see p. 335) and the faith was presumably never powerful. In the Canarese country and the Deccan the Jains were ousted by the Lingáyats, and perhaps the same fate overtook them in Vizagapatam, for the district contains a proportion of Lingáyats which is curiously high for a tract so remote from the birthplace of that faith. Many of the Dévángas, Sáles and Kómatis belong to the sect, there are Lingáyat gurus at Anakápalle and Pálkonda, and Pondúru is a great centre o£ the creed.
The Christians, as has been said, form a smaller proportion of the total population than in any other district except Ganjám. They are relatively least scarce in the Vizagapatam and Koraput taluks, where they number about 2 per cent, of the population, and in the Sálúr Agency. In these latter two areas they consist almost entirely of Dombus converted by the Schleswig-Holstein Lutheran Mission. Nearly all of them are natives. Of those in the plains, more than half are Roman Catholics; in the Agency Lutherans are the most numerous sect.
The oldest Christian mission in the district is the London mission.1[2] Its pioneers, the Revs. G. Cran and A. des Granges, came from Tranquebar as far Lack as 1805 and were the first Protestants to preach in the Telugu country. Government invited them to hold services in the Court House in the fort at Vizagapatam, for the benefit of the soldiers and other British residents, and made them an allowance for so doing. They were assisted by a converted Bráhman from Tranquebar who had originally been a Roman Catholic. Educational work and translations of the Scriptures appear to have occupied more of the attention of the earlier missionaries than direct evangelization, and twenty-seven years elapsed before a single convert was made.
In 1840 a printing press was set up in Vizagapatam from which have issued, besides numerous tracts, two editions of a translation into Telugu of the New Testament and one of a version, in the same language, of the Old Testament. In 1845 the smaller vernacular schools belonging to the mission were closed and one central anglo-vernacular institution was started which eventually developed into the existing high school at Vizagapatam. Two missionaries, one stationed at Vizagapatam and one at Anakápalle, and two lady workers make up the present European staff; and there is a meeting-house in the fort at the former town and three other smaller ones elsewhere. After a century of effort, the number of native adherents of the mission is still less than 250.
It was not until 1845 that the Roman Catholic Church established any regular mission in 'the district.2[3] In that year five missionaries of St. Francis of Sales were sent thither. Their leader was the Very Rev. L. Gailhot, and in 1847 he was succeeded by the Very Rev. S. S. Neyret, who was consecrated Bishop of the diocese about two years afterwards and remained in charge of it until his death in 1862. Father Neyret was followed by the Right Rev. Dr. J. M. Tissot, one of the five original missionaries above mentioned, who held the post for 28 years and is buried at Súrada. During his time, in 1886, the existing diocese of Vizagapatam (which consists of the districts of Cuttack, Ganjám, Vizagapatam and Gódávari) was formed. The present Bishop, the Right Rev. Dr. J. M. Clerc, was consecrated in 1891.
Besides the cathedral, a building of brick and chunam in the Gothic style dating from 1854, the mission possesses three churches in Vizagapatam town; namely, one in the fort, erected in 1887, one near the Waltair station, put up in 1903, and a third, the chapel of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, picturesquely placed on Ross Hill overlooking the mouth of the Upputéru and visible from almost every part of the town. This last was finished in 1877 and is a well-known place of pilgrimage. Other Roman Catholic churches in the district are those in the Vizianagram cantonment (built in 1882-83) and at Kottavalasa (1899), and the half-finished erection at Pálkonda; while in nine other villages chapels have been put up.
The European staff of the mission in the district consists of eighteen Priests and four Brothers. Sixteen of these twenty-two are stationed in Vizagapatam town, seven of them being employed in the mission's schools, which are referred to in more detail in Chapter X below. Some forty members of the Sister- hood of St. Joseph are also working in the various girls' schools. A small theological seminary is maintained at Vizagapatam and also an orphanage containing about fifty European boys. An orphanage for European girls was formerly kept up, but has now been moved — partly to Cuttack and partly to Cocanada.
The Schleswig-Holstein Lutheran Mission is a much more recent arrival than either of the foregoing, having begun work only in 1882.1[4] In that year its pioneers, the Revs. H. Bothmann and E. Pohl, began the foundations of a mission house at Koraput, but suffered so severely from fever that they abandoned the place in favour of Sálúr. Work at the latter town was begun in 1883. Koraput was re-occupied in 1885 and in the next five years beginnings were successively made at Jeypore, Kótápad, Naurangpur, Párvatípur and Gunupur. Seventeen European missionaries and five lady workers are now posted to these seven stations; there are churches at Sálúr, Párvatípur, Kótapád and Naurangpur; numerous out-stations have been established; the number of adherents is returned at over 7,000 already; theological seminaries have been opened at Kótapád and Párvatípur,a lower secondary school at Sálúr, leper asylums at that place (financed by the Edinburgh Mission to Lepers in India and the East) and Jeypore, three industrial classes, an orphanage at Sálúr and a boarding-school at Kótapád in which there are 130 girls.
The Canadian Baptists (Ontario and Quebec board) of the Gódávari district sent over one of their body in 1890 to Yellamanchili, where he erected a mission house and took up his residence.1[5] Medical work being a part of the policy of the mission, a hospital with accommodation for ten in-patients was built there in 1897. Yellamanchili is now the only place in the district where the mission has any European worker left. A church was founded at Anakápalle in 1898, but that town is now included in the Yellamanchili field; and a station was opened in 1893 at Narasapatam, but is now under the missionary at Tuni in the Gódávari district.
The Baptists of the Maritime Provinces of Canada are also working in the district.2[6] Stations are in existence at Bimlipatam (started in 1875), Bobbili (1876). Vizianagram (1889) and Páalkonda (1891); the European staff consists of three missionaries and six lady workers; and, besides primary schools, the mission keeps up a lower secondary school for boys at Bimlipatam and another for girls at Bobbili.
As has been stated, Musalmans are proportionately fewer in Vizagapatam than in any other district except Ganjám. Seeing how long the country was under Muhammadan dominion, this is curious. They are relatively most numerous in the taluks of Vizagapatam, Sarvasiddhi (Kasimkóta was once an important fort) and Vizianagram. Those in the Vizagapatam fort are known as Jamáyats. In Túba and one or two other villages round Nandapuram in the Pottangi taluk are quite isolated settlements of Musalmans who say they are the descendants of soldiers who came on a military expedition from Hyderabad against the Jeypore country, and settled down there and married Poroja women. They still wear the Musalman costume and observe the Mohurrum.
The Muhammadans of the plains speak excellent Telugu, seldom keep their womenkind gósha, and are on Friendiy terms with the Hindus, who make vows to the famous Musalman darga in Vizagapatam town and join in the Mohnrrum. The feeling that the Mohurrum should be kept rather as a fast than a feast is, however, spreading among the better classes of Musalmans.
The Dúdékulas, the cotton-cleaning section, are scarcely to be distinguished, in outward appearance, from Hindus, and have adopted many Hindu ways — tying a táli (called pusti in Telugu) at weddings, worshipping the village deities, marrying according to the rule of ménarikam (see p. 76) and following the Hindu laws of inheritance.
There remain for consideration the Hindus (among whom will be included the Animists), who make up the mass of the population. These divide themselves into two widely differing sections; namely, the Telugus of the low country, who in casts customs resemble generally the rest of the Telugu-speaking population of the Northern Circars and in religious ritual follow semi-Bráhmanical ceremonies; and the backward peoples of the Agency, whose ways have been protected from outside influences by their isolation and whose religious beliefs are even yet but little imbued with Hinduism. It will be convenient first to refer shortly to a few of the more distinctive points in the social and religious ways of these two classes of the people and then to attempt briefly to describe the castes and tribes among them which are especially characteristic of this district or occur in it in greater strength than in any other.
In the case of the Agency, both these tasks are of extreme difficulty. The people there may be said to be more diverse, more out of the common and less known than any others in the Presidency. Their origins, their ways and their religious beliefs are the most interesting things in the district; but all three are almost untrodden ground. Except Lieutenant Smith, who contributed a few pages of somewhat general statements to Mr.Carmichael's Manual of the district, Messrs. H G. Turner and H. D. Taylor, who supplied the Census reports of 1871 and 1891 with brief notes on some of the castes of the Jeypore country, and Mr. F. Fawcett, who has written to the magazine Man an account of the Dombus— none of the many officers who have served in the Agency have placed on record the information they acquired concerning the people of their charges. The time at my own disposal has been too limited to admit of any presence of supplying this unfortunate gap by systematic personal enquiry, and the notes which follow are chiefly based on second-hand information or material collected by my Assistant, M.R.Ry. C. Hayavadana Rao, B.A., who has had a long training in matters ethnographical and was able to spend a considerable time in the hill country Enquiries are much hampered by the absence of any really complete statistical lists of the castes. The original census returns are made in Uriya by people who often do not understand the other vernaculars spoken in the Agency, and these have hitherto had to be compiled into caste tables by officers without any knowledge either of Uriya or of the intricate caste system in the hills. At the census of 1911 a list of all castes returned in each taluk, with the languages returned as spoken by each, should be preserved as a basis for farther detailed and local enquiry. Another great difficulty in the path of the enquirer in the Agency is the extraordinary diversity which occurs in different localities in the customs of the same caste. Geographical isolation has prevented free intercourse between the various sections of a community, and the ways of each have developed upon independent lines. This fact often greatly limits the applicability of the statements made in the accounts of the hill tribes below.
In the plains, the villages usually struggle along the two sides of one long street, off which lead narrow alleys. The weavers' quarter often boasts wider lanes, since space is required there for preparing the warp. Remains of fortifications are rare, and never embrace the whole village site, as in the Deccan. Hamlets (valasas) are exceptionally common. The Málas live in a separate Málapilli, and the Mádigas and Yátas also dwell apart. In the middle of the village tank usually stand two wooden posts side by side, one rather taller than the other. These represent Náráyana the Preserver and Lakshmi his wife, the goddess of prosperity,and were placed there at the solemn dedication (pratishta) of the tank when it was first completed. They are usually made of somida (Soymida febrifuga) wood, which is almost rot-proof. Similar posts are planted in topes when they first come into bearing. On the banks of the tanks often stand numbers of little masoury erections resembling tulasi altars, which have been erected by sorrowing relations over a portion of the remains of their dead, and on which flowers and lights are placed in affectionate remembrance every now and again.
In the south of the plain country the usual house of the lower classes is a circular, one-roomed, windowless, palmyra-thatched erection of mud plastered on to a rough framework of branches,the walls of which are smeared with the local red mud and decorated with neat devices in dots done in white chunam with the forefinger, or, sometimes, more elaborate patterns and drawings of the deities. These decorations are renewed annually at Sankránti. The eaves of these huts nearly reach the ground and make a shelter for cattle; the household cooking is usually done beneath them also, and the fires thus started often burn down a whole hamlet. Inside the one room is a broad shelf, five feet from the ground, where lumber is stored and valuables are hidden.
Further north, the circular house gives place to a continuous line of connected huts, their roofs thatched with cholam-straw or grass and all of the same height and pitch, so made that the whole side of a street looks like one house. These have a loft under the rafters which serves the same purposes as the shelf in the circular huts. The granaries are everywhere a distinctive feature, being circular wattle-and-daub constructions quite separate from the houses. The bottoms of the front door-posts are universally and regularly marked on Fridays with saffron and kunkumam in honour of Lakshmi.
In the Agency, the villages are often tiny temporary affairs, the population moving on as the needs of kondapódu (p. 111) dictate. Many of them contain only a couple of huts and a cattle-byre.Where more permanent, they generally consist of one main street flanked on either side by a continuous row of connected huts similar to those just described, behind which are the dwellings of the Dombus and other inferior castes. Uriya Bráhmans and Sondis (if any) live in superior quarters apart. Round many houses runs a neat bamboo wattle fence, some six feet high, which is probably a relic of the days when tigers were common and aggressive. The Savaras and Kuttiya Khonds are fond of putting their habitations on hill-tops. The village boundary (sandhi) is held in some honour and is often marked by a post at which, when cholera threatens to intrude, sacrifices are made, or a string of leaves and crows' or peacocks' feathers is hung across the path, or a broom is suspended to sweep away all harm.
In the plains, the standard of dress is far lower than in the southern districts. Both the men and women of all but the richer classes wear the coarsest cloths, made usually of home-spun cotton woven by the local weavers. These are narrower than in the Tamil country (so narrow, in fact, that the ladies of some castes wear a langúti underneath them) and when at work in the fields the women tuck them between their legs and pull them up in front to a height which would shock their southern sisters. The men's langútis, on the other hand, are not the inadequate rags in use in the Tamil country, but broad and flowing affairs which often reach to their knees both before and behind, and the ends of which flap about so much that they are often tucked into the waist-string. The men are less particular about wearing a turban than in the south and the women follow the Tamil fashion of dispensing with the tight-fitting bodice.
The prevailing colour of the women's cloths is white, with a very narrow red or blue border. Round about Rázám, however, where coloured cloths are woven, white is less universal. These white garments are hardly ever clean and are unpleasantly discoloured with the turmeric which is so commonly and lavishly used. This powder is not only used as an aid to beauty, as in the south, but is supposed to prevent skin diseases; and even tiny children and grown men rub it on their bodies. In Pálkonda and Párvatípur the Kalinga Kómati women mix it with kunkumam powder when they employ it as a cosmetic, and their faces are consequently often of a comical scarlet hue.
The men do not usually shave their heads, as in the Tamil country, but leave their hair to grow quite long (in which case it requires a metal tiga to keep it out of the eyes and is often coquettishly ornamented with a flower or two) or cut it fairly short all round — somewhat after the European fashion.
All the lower castes — men, women and children — wear necklaces of beads made of real or sham coral or of bits of coral stuck together with lac. They are imported from Bombay and Nellore and are on sale in every bazaar. Both men and women are very fond of ear-rings made of a bit of brass (sometimes gold) wire, curled round and round to symbolize a snake and with one end flattened out and pointed to represent its head. Next to these and the ever-present coral necklets, the most noticeable forms of jewellery are the bangles of yellow lac studded with bits of looking-glas ; the circular brass ring suspended from the central cartilage of the nose; the silver anklets, made either in the form of chains or curved so as not to chafe the ankle-bone; the waist-belts of the men, formed of little chased plaques hinged together; the gold bangle, a wedding-present from their fathers-in-law, worn by men of the upper classes on their left wrists; and the very elaborate gold jewellery displayed by the Gavara and Kalinga Kómati women, especially on the Párvatípur side. This last comprises beautifully wrought necklaces formed of strings of golden paddy-grains cunningly linked, rows of gold coins old and rare enough to make a numismatist's mouth water, and most elaborate jewelled nose-studs, often an inch wide and almost meeting across the point of the nose.
In the Agency, the dress of the masses is even commoner and coarser than on the plains. The usual wear is the coarse dupati made by the Dombus, with a black blanket in case of rain or cold. The distinctive dress of the Gadabas, Khonds, Porojas and Savaras is mentioned in the accounts of those communities below. Everyone carries a tangi, a light kind of axe. The jewellery of the hill people chiefly consists of glass beads and of massive and clumsily -worked brass and copper ornaments. German silver is the latest cry, and the correct thing in rings in some places is a cast of an eight-anna bit in this metal worn áa la marquise. Much of this finery is made on the plains and sent up to the hills by Kómatis, but some of it is locally manufactured by the Chitra Ghásis. Many of the hill folk wear the palm-leaf umbrella-hat which is so popular on the west coast.
In the plain taluks, the staple food of the masses is either cambu or ragi. In general terms it may be stated that south and west of Vizagapatam the former is more eaten than the latter,while north of that town the reverse is the case. Rice, as elsewhere, is the food of the Bráhmans and the rich.
On the 3,000 feet plateau and in the Ráyagada country sámai is the staple food; round Gunupur, Naurangpur, Jeypore and Malkanagiri much rice is eaten; and in the Savara country, hill cholam. The hill people eke out their grain with unusual substitutes, such as the pith of the sago-palm, pounded mango-kernels and dried mohwa flower. The Uriya-speaking Bráhmans, unlike others of that caste, eat fish and flesh and also smoke. The numerous strong drinks of the hill folk are referred to in Chapter XII.
The average Telugu eats more chutneys and vegetables and less meat than the Tamil, and flavours his food more with mustard and less with pepper and chillies. Betel-chewing is little practised, but, except in the higher castes, all the men, most of the women (who usually put the lighted end of the cheroot in their mouths) and many of the children smoke much tobacco.
The people have no lack of amusements. On the plains, wandering acrobats and ballad-mougers are commoner than usual. At the village deities' festivals, boys amuse themselves by dressing up in character and pretending to be girls, elephants, tahsildars, constables and so on. This practice has developed into the acting of regular plays, one of the most popular of which is the old story (Mr. Carmichael describes it as flourishing forty years ago) of the extortionate tahsildar who at first in his might bullies everyone around him, afterwards falls a victim to the blandishments of the dancing-girls and spends all his substance upon them; and at last gets a tákíd from the Nawab cancelling his appointment and is then hustled and kicked to the satisfaction. of everyone until the curtain falls. Puránic stories are also acted, and marionette shows representing- episodes in the Rámáyana are given by Bommalátas and others and at least one company of Bondili Rájputs. In Vizianagram, the present Rája's grandfather introduced at the Dasara the elaborate representations of scenes from the Rámáyana which are so popular in Northern India, and the three miniature forts which he built to represent Ayódhya, Janakapatnam and Lanka are still to be seen in the town. Dasara, Sankranti (the Tamil Pongal) and Sivarátri are the three most popular festivals in the country. Some account of the ceremonies performed at the first of these at Jeypore is given on p. 262. On the plains it is followed by the Gauri feast, celebrated by the women in memory of Párvati, who in the form of the beautiful Gauri, saved the corn from the rákshasas. Gauri, represented by a bundle of paddy ears, is carried in procession while the women chant songs setting forth her life and doings.
Cock- and ram-fighting are very popular. The latter is rather an aristocratic pastime, but few are too humble to have a likely cock or two. The best-known breeds are called Dinki and Punzu, and are sold for astonisliing prices. Sharp knives are tied to the combatants' spurs and the fights are short and gory. Gambling with cowries is a favourite pastime, especially among Dévángas and Kómatis. It is a kind of glorified pitch and toss, the players betting on how many out of sixteen cowries tossed into the air will come down wrong side uppermost.
In the Agency, cock-fighting is again popular, shikár is often available, drinking-parties are frequent and hilarious, and the periodical ceremonies at the shrines of the indigenous and imported gods provide excuses for festivities. Many of the men are fond of music; and while away the lonely hours in the fields by warbling to themselves plaintive melodies on bamboo flutes, or twanging at a two-stringed mandoline provided with a dried gourd for a sounding-board.
But dancing is the most popular diversion. The men and women dance in separate sets and a party begins at nightfall and usually lasts till daylight doth appear. There are several different tribal dances. The Khonds and Savaras pride themselves on their skill, but their best efforts are little more than clumsy stamping in time; the Brinjári women's idea of dancing is to stand in a bunch and clap their hands while their meufolk hop round them jingling their anklets; the Gadabas usually display more energy than science — though those round Boipariguda are more expert; the Kóya girls of Málkanagiri dance prettily in a ring with their hands on each others shoulders; and perhaps the best exponents of the art are the Jódia Poroja girls of the Koraput and Nandapuram country.
Picturesque in the extreme is a dancing party of these cheery maidens, dressed all exactly alike in clean white cloths with cerise borders or checks, reaching barely half way to the knee; great rings on their fingers; brass bells on their toes; their substantial but shapely arms and legs tattooed from wrist to shoulder and from ankle to knee; their left forearms hidden under a score of heavy brass bangles; and their feet loaded with chased brass anklets weighing perhaps a dozen pounds. The orchestra, which consists solely of drums of assorted shapes and sizes, dashes into an overture, and the girls quickly group themselves into a corps de ballet, each under the leadership of a première danseuse who marks the time with a long baton of peacock's feathers. Suddenly, the drums drop to a muffled beat and each group strings out into a long line, headed by the leader with the feathers, each maiden passing her right hand behind the next girl's back and grasping the left elbow of the next but one. Thus linked, and in time with the drums (which now break into allegro crescendo) the long chains of girls — dancing in perfect step, following the leader with her swaying baton, marking the time by clinking their anklets (right, left, right, clink; left, clink; right, left, right, clink; and so da capo), chanting the while (quite tunefully) in unison a refrain in a minor key ending on a sustained falling note — weave themselves into sinuous lines,curves, spirals, figures-of-eight and back into lines again; wind in and out like some brightly-coloured snake; never halting for a moment, now backwards, now forwards, first slowly and decorously, then, as the drums quicken, faster and faster, with more and more abandon and longer and longer steps, until suddenly some one gets out of step and the chain snaps amid peals of breathless laughter.
The most jovial occasion in the Agency is the feast in the month of Chaitra (March- April;, which is usually known as the Chaitra parvam but in the Golgonda and Víravilli Agencies is called the Ittika panduga. Everything makes for jollity in that month. There is nothing to be done in the fields, the sap is rising in the trees, the jungles have been burnt and are clear for shikár, and, above all, the sago-palms are giving toddy and the mohwa flower, from which strong waters are brewed, is falling. The month is spent in feasting, deep potations, night-long dancing and singing parties (in which the young men and maidens take opposite sides and wind up with extempore verses of a personal flavour designed to provoke equally personal repartees) and in expeditions into the jungles to gather the mohwa-blossom during which, it is said, free love is the rule among the unmarried. But the great event of the month ix the beat for game. In this all the able-bodied men take part, and they stay out, often for days together, until some male animal has been shot. Should they dare to return empty-handed, the women collect and pelt them with most unsavoury missiles.
This Chaitra Saturnalia is still observed with all its ancient enthusiasm throughout the wilder part of the Agency, but in the more civilized hill-tracts, such as the Ráyagada taluk, it is falling into desuetude.
The hill people are extraordinarily superstitious, and their beliefs and fears would fill a volume. Every ill that befalls them is attributed to witchcraft; suspected witches (see p. 205) get short shrift; charms of all sorts are widely worn; and a crowd of exorcists, medicine-men and magicians live by pretending to counteract the effects of the black art. These impostors are known in different parts and among different castes as jannis and díssaris (ordinary pújáris also bear these titles, however) and as bezzua (who are eunuchs), siras and guniyas. The powers attributed to witches are almost unlimited. They are supposed, for example,to be able to transform themselves into tigers (though one foot always still retains its human shape), to be able to wither up any limb they touch, and even to draw the life-blood from their victim by sucking at one end of a string the other end of which is laid upon his breast.
Devil-drivers, who profess to cure 'possessed' women, are common and employ much the same methods as elsewhere. They seat the woman in a fog of resin-smoke and work upon or beat her until she declares the supposed desire of the devil in the way of sacrifices; and when these have been complied with one of her hairs is put in a bottle, formally shown to the village goddess, and buried in the jungle, while iron nails are driven into the threshold of the woman's house to prevent the devil's return.
Rain-making spells are numerous, from the common plan of covering a frog with green leaves and water until he croaks, to the mysterious barmarákshasi panduga of the Kalyána Singapur Khonds, which consists in making life-size mud images of women seated on the ground and holding grinding-stones between their knees, and in offering sacrifices to them. In the plains, the general religious attitude of the people has been considerably affected by the numerous Bráhmans, whose forefathers were attracted to this district by the liberal grants of land made them by former zamindars. The Bráhmanical festivals (especially Sivarátri) are popular; Bráhman holy days, such as Amávásya, are widely observed; the larger Bráhmanical temples (such as those at Puri in Orissa, Simháchalam and Appikonda) attract a great following; and small shrines to the orthodox gods are numerous. These latter, it may here be mentioned, are usually mean erections, architecturally considered,and are surmounted by a squat pyramidal tower thickly covered with coarse plaster work, still more coarsely decorated, and topped (if they are dedicated to Vaishnava deities) with the chakram in open iron-work. Stone pillars (where they occur) have usually a capital formed of an inverted lotus blossom and the lower third of them often consists of some grotesque squatting animal.
But Bráhmanical influence has not sunk very deeply. The better class Súdras display more energy in celebrating Rámabhajanas (Saturday evening meetings round a picture or image of Ráma at which songs in honour of that hero are chanted) than in worship at the ordinary temples; the grámadévatas abound; and hardly a village is without its shrine to some pérantálamma, or woman who committed sati.
These grámadévatas, ammas, or village deities are numerous and all of the female sex. They include Núkálamma, Ellamma, Paidamma, Bangáramma, Maridamma, Ammátalli, Paiditalli, Muthyálamma, Pólamma, Gangamma, Asiramma, Pádálamma, Gavaramma, Pattábhiamma and others; but, unlike the village gods of the south, none of them appear to have any clear history, definite attributes, or (except that some like buffalo sacrifices and some do not) any special ritual. They are all equally feared, and are worshipped as averters of sickness and possible granters of boons to those who make vows before them. Their shrines are the poorest constructions, seldom consisting of more than one small cell and often being merely a spot under a tree marked by n few sacred emblems. The history of the pérantálammas is often better known (see, for instance, p. 315), but, except that they seem to have no powers over epidemics, the reverence paid to them differs little from that accorded to the grámadévatas.
In the Agency, Bráhman influence is naturally even slighter than on the plains. The Uriya conquerors brought their own gods with them and established these in shrines in some of the larger towns, but the mass of the people in the wilder parts worship exclusively their aboriginal forefathers' animistic deities, which differ altogether from those of the low country. Villages nearer civilization, however, exhibit curiously the transition which is occurring. In Chollapadam in Párvatípur taluk (to give only one instance) are simultaneously worshipped the Khonds' ancient Kondadévata, nameless mountain spirits who dwell in a cave on the hills; Jákara, the aboriginal Khond deity, to whom a Khond janni is priest; Pólamma, a village deity imported from the Telugu country whose priest is a Játapu, or civilized Khond; and Kásivisvésvara, an orthodox god of the Hindu pantheon, at whose shrine a Jangam (Lingáyat) officiates and who has a festival at Sivarátri.
The aboriginal deities of the Agency include the Jákara (or Jankari) above mentioned, Tákuráni, Pindráni, Mauli, Báripennu, Dharivipennu ('pennu' means 'god'), and a host of others. These again have apparently no separate attributes or personalities, and in some places the people worship the whole crowd of them together under the name Bododévata, the great gods.' Jákara and Tákuráni are more often met with than any others and Hindus are at pains to explain that the latter is merely another form of Durga or Káli. None of these deities have any proper shrines; a stone under a big tree, a sacred grove (from which no twig is ever cut), a mountain peak or a deep pool are their habitations. They are usually worshipped (always by priests belonging to the hill tribes themselves) with offerings of buffaloes, goats, pigs and pigeons, and much burning of resin; and if sufficiently propitiated grant good seasons and good hunting, and avert disease. When cholera or small-pox are virulent a ceremony is observed which is curiously parallel to that practised in the Deccan.1[7] A little car is made on which is placed a grain of saffron-stained rice for every soul in the village and also numerous offerings such as little swings, pots, knives,ploughs and the like and the blood of certain sacrificial victims, and this is then dragged with due ceremony to the boundary of the village. By this means the malignant essence of the deity who brings small-pox or cholera is transferred across the boundary. The neighbouring villagers naturally hasten to move the car on with similar ceremony, and it is thus dragged through a whole series of villages and eventually left by the roadside in some lonely spot. We may now go on to refer shortly to the castes which are found in especial strength in Vizagapatam or are in other ways characteristic of the district. A beginning will be made with the castes of the low country, who, with a few exceptions expressly noted, all speak Telugu. It will save space if a few points common to most of the non-polluting non-Bráhman castes are first mentioned.
Caste organization is scarcely as systematic as in the southern districts, and the headman (kula-pedda) has more limited powers. Castes are generally split into the usual endogamous sections, but, what is less common, these are generally again divided into exogamous septs called inti pérulu or 'house names'(apparently ordinarily derived from traditional birthplaces or supposed ancestors), the members of which may not marry among themselves. Here and there, between these two, occur instances of the totemistic exogamous sections which are so common among the agency castes and are referred to below. Besides the restrictions on the choice of a bride effected by these subdivisions, there are others imposed by caste rules. Ordinarily a man must follow the Dravidian custom known as ménarikam, and marry his maternal uncle's daughter; and if no such daughter exists he may follow what (though it is the ordinary rule among many Tamil castes)is here called 'éduru ménarikam or ' reversed ménarikam,' and wed his paternal aunt's daughter, if such there be.
The ceremonies at marriages, though differing widely in different castes, are of one general type. The preliminary understanding (or betrothal) is ratified either by a dinner at which the bride's dower in the way of jewellery is announced, or, among castes which have a vóli, or bride-price, by the acceptance of half the sum fixed by custom therefor. A propitious day haing subsequently been chosen, the wedding takes place — in the bridegroom's house if vóli is paid and otherwise in the bride's. A pandal of Eugenia jambolana poles decorated with Erythrina, indica twigs is set up; beneath this the couple are seated and sprinkled with rice, saffron and kunkumam ; the bridegroom is shaved and has his nails trimmed; the pair are bathed and dressed in new cloths; and a caste dinner follows. The priest having arrived, the couple stand one on each side of a curtain hung between them and touch feet below it, their right wrists are tied together with a saffron-coloured string called the kankanam, rice is thrown over them again, the marriage-badge (táli in Tamil or pusti in Telugu) is tied round the bride's neck, the pair hook their little fingers and the priest knots their cloths together, they walk round the pandal three times, are shown the star Arundhati, the emblem of constancy, and then the priest unties the knot in their cloths and the ceremony is over.
Except among the more Bráhmanized castes, divorce and widow remarriage are allowed, but a widow's marriage is a much simpler affair. The party whose conduct occasions the divorce has to repay the other the expenses originally incurred at their wedding.
Funeral ceremonies, like those at weddings, follow one general type but differ in details. Vaishnavites usually burn their dead, while Saivites bury. The latter generally have Jangam Lingáyats as priests, and so follow the Lingáyat custom of burying the dead in a sitting posture. Among some castes only the two days following the death are kept as the days of pollution during which no work should be done. On the third day, called the chinna rózu, the relations meet at the deceased's house, cook food, carry it to the cremation ground, offer some of it to an image made out of the dead man's ashes, and eat the rest. Among other castes, pollution lasts till the twelfth day, or pedda rózu, when the relations, accompanied by a Sátáni, take food to the nearest tank, throw some of it into this, and bathe and return to a dinner. Some castes keep both days.
By far the most numerous caste in Vizagapatam are the Kápus. In 1901 they numbered nearly 525,000 persons (more than in any other district) while with their branches and offshoots (the Velamas, Telagas, Nagarálu, Aiyarakulu and Bagatas mentioned below, three out of which five are also more numerous in this district than in any other) they amounted to no less than 971,000 souls, or one-third of the whole population of the district. They are the great cultivating caste of the community and the word Kápu is often used in the sense of 'ryot,' so that the more civilized sections of the Gadabas and Savaras are called Kápu Gadabas and Kápu Savaras although they have no connection with the Kápu caste proper.
The Kápus are split into numerous endogamous sub-divisions,of which the most prominent in this district are Panta and Gázula. The former are commonest in the coast taluks, and the latter inland, especially round Párvatípur. The word Gázula means 'bangle,' but nowadays Gázula Kápus have nothing to do with bangle-making. They differ from the Panta Kápus in showing signs of totemism. The tiger and cobra are totems of certain septs and are reverenced by these accordingly; but the primal function of the totemism has been dropped and the septs are no longer exogamous. The same relaxation of this essential characteristic of totemism is observable in several other castes in the plains and is an interesting example of the decay of the old ideas. Both the Panta and Gázula subdivisions comprise several exogamous intipérulu marriage follows the ménarikam rule, the vóli is Rs.3 and a Bráhman officiates; divorce and widow remarriage are allowed; the dead are burnt and chinna rózu ceremonies observed.
Velamas are a branch of the great Kápu clan and their name is sometimes supposed to mean ' seceder' therefrom. They number 274,000 in this district, or more than in any other. Their most prominent endogamous subdivisions are (i) Pedda ('big') alias Padma ('lotus') Velamas, who are said to be immigrants from Venkatagiri, are largely followers and dependents of the Bobbili family, forbid widow remarriage and keep their women-kind gósha;(ii) Kamma Velamas, who are found chiefly in Vizianagram town, are said to be descended from people who immigrated from Kistna in the train of the early Rájas of that place, keep their women gósha but allow widow remarriage; and (iii) Koppala Velamas (so called because they do not shave their heads but wear their hair in a tuft) who are the commonest of the three and who resemble the Kápus in their internal constitution, totemistic practices and marriage and funeral customs.
Another branch of the Kápus are the Telagas, who, including the Vantari subdivision, number 114,000 in this district. They have the same names as the Kápus for their intipérulu and occasionally intermarry with that caste, but are more Bráhmanized — having Bráhman gurus, marrying their girls before puberty, and refusing to recognize divorces and the remarriage of widows — are fonder of service under the zamindars and Government than of cultivation, and keep their women gósha.
The Nagarálu, another branch of the Kápus, are said to get their name, which means ' dwellers in towns' from the fact that in the eighteenth century their ancestors went to Vizianagram and rose into prominence as physicians. They are now physicians and cultivators by occupation and number some 11,000, or more than in any other district. The caste is divided into the three genuinely totemistic groups of the cobra, tortoise and mouse, which are again subdivided into intipérulu. Marriage follows ménarikam, usually takes place before puberty and is performed by a Bráhman. Except that there is no vóli, the ceremony is of the usual type. Divorce and widow remarriage are forbidden. The dead are burnt, both chinna and pedda rózu ceremonies are performed and a Bráhman officiates. The ancestors of the Aiyarakulu, yet another offshoot of the Kápus, are said to have been soldiers under Vizianagram, and stories of their military prowess are still recounted. In a campaign against Golconda, says one of these, 'they gave the Musalmans so much trouble that, when they were at last with difficulty exterminated, a Musalman general marched against their native villages to try and root out the whole brood once for all. But the Aiyarakulu women dressed and armed themselves like men and fell upon the invaders with such fury that the latter beat a liasty retreat. The people of the caste are now cultivators and cart-owners and number 17,000, or more than in any other district. They are commonest in the Srungavarapukóta taluk. They have the cobra and tortoise totems, and their marriage customs are similar to those of the Nagarálu.
The Bagatas (Bhaktas), who number 30,000 (more than in any other district), are a branch of the Kápus who chiefly reside in the Mádgole and Golgonda hills and form the aristocracy there. The Golgonda muttadars were usually of this caste. The Bagata inti pérulu are in several cases the same as those in the Kápu and Telaga castes and their marriage customs resemble generally those of the Nagarálu. They are both Vaishnavites and Saivites, but members of the two sects intermarry and dine together. The former own allegiance to, and are often branded with the Vaishnavite chank and chakram emblems by, a guru who lives in Gódávari; and the latter bury their dead in the usual sitting posture instead of burning them.
Another cultivating caste are the Gavaras, who live chiefly in the Anakápalle taluk and number some 47,000, or more than in any other district. They say that they fled from Végi near Ellore (p. 26) because the Eastern Chálukya kings molested their women, and came by sea to Púdimadaka, the port to the south of Anakápalle, and founded one or two villages between these two places. Páyaka Rao (p. 312) afterwards invited them to Anakápalle itself, where they founded the existing Gavarapálaiyam. They say they were originally traders (and some of their inti pérulu bear this out) but they are known nowadays as perhaps the most careful cultivators in all the district. They follow ménarikam and marriage is of the usual type and either infant or adult; widow remarriage is encouraged and divorce permitted; some are Vaishnavas and burn their dead, a Sátáni officiating as priest; and others are Saivas who have Jangam priests and bury in the sitting position. They pay especial reverence to the god Jagannátha of Puri, making frequent pilgrimages to his shrine and holding car-festivals in their villages on the same date as the Puri car-festival.
The last of the cultivating castes requiring mention are the Konda Doras ('lords of the hills') or Konda Kápus, who number 81,000 people, or more than in any other district. They mostly reside along the south-eastern edge of the 3,000 feet plateau and in the country below it, and they provide an interesting example (several others occur in this district) of the manner in which a section of a hill tribe which comes in contact with the people of the plains will gradually drop its original customs and adopt those of its more civilized neighbours, and thus in time become almost a distinct caste. They are split into two well-marked subdivisions, known as Pedda Kondalu and Chinna Kondalu, which still dine together and intermarry; but the former of these live on the plateau and are highlanders with highland customs while the latter reside in the low country and have taken to almost all the ways of the lowlanders. Thus the Chinna Kondalu have adopted inti pérulu, while the Pedda Kondalu still regulate their table of affinity by their ancient totemistic septs (tiger, cobra and tortoise); the former follow the lowland custom of ménarikam, but the latter adhere to eduru ménarikam; the marriage rites of the one resemble those of the plains, and those of the other the highland ceremonial; the women of the one class wear the jewels of the plains and those of the other the barbaric ornaments of the hill folk; and one subdivision names its children in the lowland fashion while the other continues to call them after the days of the week on which they were born. Both sections allow widow remarriage and divorce and both burn their dead.
The Gollas are the shepherds of the community, and say that their name is a contraction of the Sanskrit Gópála, 'protector of cows.' They also call themselves Kónárlu, the Telugu form of the corresponding Tamil title Kónán. They are 148,000 strong (more than in any other district), are most numerous in the southern taluks, and say that they are descended from the Golla kings of that country above alluded to (p. 28), the last of whom (five brothers) were overthrown and slain by kings from Nellore. Each Telugu New Year's Day, it is stated, Gollas come across from Gódávari and go round the Golla villages reciting the names of the progenitors of the fallen line and exhibiting paintings illustrative of their overthrow. The caste is now split into five endogainous subdivisions: the Erra Gollas, descended from a Bráhman father and so superior; the Gangeddu Gollas who take round performing bulls; the Gauda Gollas, a set of wandering cowherds; the Puni Gollas, who tend only buffaloes and cows; and the Mékala Gollas, who keep sheep and goats only. The last are the most numerous, have inti pérulu, follow ménarikam, generally marry before puberty (a Bráhman officiating), allow widows and divorcées to remarry not more than thrice, bury their dead, observe chinna and pedda rózu (a Sátáni officiating) and are Vaishnavites who pay especial reverence to Krishna because he sported with the girls of their caste.
The Kamsalas are the artisans of the district and are com-moner than in any other Collectorate, numbering 78,000 souls. As elsewhere, they are split into the five occupational subdivisions of Kamsáli or goldsmiths, Kanchari or brass-smiths, Kammara or blacksmiths, Vadrangi or carpenters, and Silpi (or Kási) stonemasons, who dine together and intermarry. These have again the usual inti pérulu. As in other districts (see p. 159 of the Report on the Madras census of 1901), the Kamsális claim to be superior to the Bráhmans owing to their alleged descent from Visvakarma, the architect of the gods, wear the sacred thread, have their own caste puróhits and in marriage and other matters follow closely the Bráhman ritual. But in Vizagapatam they assert this claim with less vehemence than in some places, and do not affect to possess gótras, or prohibit animal food and strong drink. Marriage follows the usual Dravidian rule of ménarikam.
The Sále weavers number 65,000 souls, again more than in any other district. They are split into the two endogamous subdivisions of Padma ('lotus') and Pattu ('silk'), the main differences between which are that the latter wear the sacred thread, will take food and water only from Bráhmans, and weave specially fine cloths, sometimes containing an admixture of silk. The peculiarly fine thread spun by the Pattu Sáles and their skill in tobacco-curing are referred to on pp. 123-4. Both subdivisions have exogamous inti pérulu septs and each has a headman called the Sénápati. The traditional origin of the caste is as follows: The celestials applied to Márkandéya rishi to provide them clothing, and he accordingly made a great sacrifice to Indra out of the flames of which issued Bhávana rishi "bearing a ball of thread manufactured from the lotus which sprang from Vishnu's navel, from which he wove the garments sought for. He subsequently married Bhadravati, daughter of the sun, and begat 101 sons of whom one hundred became the ancestors of the Padma Sáles and the remaining one the progenitor of the Pattu Sáles. Reverence is still periodically paid to Bhávana rishi, who is represented by a ball of thread. Marriage is of the usual type, follows ménarikam and occurs before puberty; neither widow remarriage nor divorce is recognized. The Vaishnavites of the caste burn their dead and the Saivites bury them sitting.
The Sálápus are a small weaving- caste and are practically confined to this district. They only make very coarse fabrics. They neither marry nor dine with the Sáles, but resemble them in claiming descent from Márkandéya rishi and in calling their headman Sénápati. Bráhmans officiate at their weddings, but they allow widow remarriage and divorce.
The Sílávantulu are another small weaving community.They make fabrics of superior kinds. They seem (though they do not admit it) to be an offshoot of the Pattu Sáles, and to have become a distinct caste owing to their embracing the Lingáyat faith and adopting the unusual custom (síla means a religious custom) of investing children with the iingam as soon as they are quick in their mothers' wombs. This lingam is tied to the string which carries the mother's, and is eventually hung round the child's neck when he or she has been weaned. Before the child can be married it has to be replaced by another lingam affixed with much ceremony by the family guru. The other social practices of the Sílávantulu are not peculiar; they have the usual inti pérulu, follow ménarikam, copy Bráhman wedding ceremonies, disallow divorce and widow remarriage, are vegetarians and abstainers and, of course, bury their dead in a sitting posture. The deceased's lingam is buried with him and to different parts of his body are affixed six little copper tablets on each of which is engraved one of the syllables of the holy invocation ' Om! Namasiváya!'
The Yátas, the toddy-drawer caste, number nearly 49,000. or more than in any other district. Their name is supposed to be a corruption of íta, the date-palm. They do not carry the same pollution as toddy-drawers in the south. Marriage is of the usual type, occurs after puberty and follows ménarikam. Divorce and widow remarriage are allowed. The dead are usually burnt and a Sátáni officiates at the chinna rózu.
The Mangalas, the barbers of the Telugu country, are more numerous here than in any other district and muster 33,000 souls. They have two endogamous subdivisions, called Kápu and Telaga, who are supposed to be descended from two half-brothers and therefore do not intermarry but will dine together. Unlike the barbers of the south, they carry no pollution when not actually engaged in their profession. They teach their boys to shave by making them practice for some months on an old chatti smeared with wet mud. They will not shave the polluting castes, but will lend them razors for a consideration. They are musicians as well as barbers, are often (like the Uriya barber caste of Bhondáris) store-keepers to rich households, and their women are sometimes midwives. Marriage occurs before puberty and is of the usual kind. A Bráhman officiates. Remarriage is generally permitted only in the case of childless widows, but divorce is allowed. The dead are burnt and chinna rózu rites observed.
Jáláris, fishermen in the sea, number some 15,000 and are more common than elsewhere. The name is derived from the Sanskrit jála, a net. The caste seems to have originally been an inland community, fishing only in fresh water, and to have afterwards gravitated to the sea-shore. Its marriage ceremonies are not peculiar, except that no pandal is used; widow remarriage and divorce are allowed; the dead are burnt and a Sátáni performs the pedda rózu ceremonies.
The Mílavándlu (míla means fish) or Odavándlu ('boatmen') are another caste of sea-fishermen. Their ways resemble generally those of the Jáláris, but they have different inti pérulu and are apparently a distinct caste. The caste goddess is Pólamma, in whose honour an annual festival is held.
The Nágavásulu, who are in greater strength (nearly 20,000 persons) here than elsewhere,were originally a dancing-girl caste (nágavásamu means a company of dancing- women) but are now chiefly well-to-do agriculturists. Some of the women are still dásis, and they gather recruits from other castes. Both ménarikam and éduru ménarikam are followed; marriage is either before or after puberty; a vóli is paid; widow remarriage and divorce are allowed; and the dead are burnt. The caste is commonest in the Pálkonda country.
The Rellis, also known as Sachcharis and called Sapiris among themselves, are a caste who speak Uriya (though they are not found in the Agency) and are partly gardeners and partly scavengers. The latter are said to have only taken to their present occupation during the 1877 famine, when they were starving, but they are now held to carry pollution and seldom marry with the other section.
Another Uriya-speaking caste found on the plains are the Godagula basket-makers who live all along the foot of the hills.They should not be confused with the Gúdalas, and are a polluting caste, which the Gúdalas are not. They make special kinds of winnowing-fans and other articles which the Médaras, Gúdalas and other basket-making castes do not manufacture. 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 totems are the tiger, cobra and tortoise, but the bear, iguana, dog, monkey, goat, bull, cow, lizard, parrot, peacock, and vulture also occur, and in addition certain plants such as the pumpkin and the Baahinia purpurea, and a few inanimate objects like stone and the sun. The usual Uriya name for a totem is horns, which seems to be the same word as vamsa, a family. Members of the same totem may not intermarry, and children take their father's totem. Every totem is revered. Animal totems may on no account be killed or eaten. The very idea of such a possibility makes the totemist shudder, and he declares that so unspeakable an act would result in the entire destruction of his whole tribe. Totems must, indeed, be befriended where possible — a tortoise, for example, being put in the nearest water. If the totem attacks a man he may kill it in self-defence; but its dead body is then often given funeral rites almost as if it was the corpse of a man. When a man sees his totem he folds his hands across his breast and does reverence. Plant totems are not eaten, injured, or even touched. The sun is venerated by the people of its totem fasting when it does not appear; and stone by being excluded from all buildings and all service — stone mortars, for example, being taboo. The idea that members of a totemistic division are all one family is strong. If one of them dies, all the others are under pollution for three days and have to get their food from their wives' relations.
The recognized forms of marriage in the Agency include several of those expressly forbidden by Manu. There is marriage by purchase, by service for three years in the house of the girls' parents, by mutual consent and clandestine elopement (the man having then to pay a fine called dos tonka), by forcible compulsion on the part of the bridegroom and his friends, and by selection at the dhangadi basa or girls' sleeping-hut. One form of this last is described in the account of the Banda Porojas below.
But the usual procedure is for the man's parents to go to the girl's house, leave presents (usually pots of strong drink) there, and judge of the livelihood of their suit being successful by seeing whether the liquor is thrown away or drunk. If it is drunk, they renew the suit with other presents until at length an understanding is arrived at. Subsequent ceremonies are simple and consist mainly in the provision of caste dinners and more liquor.
Divorce and widow remarriage are universally permitted. The younger brother may marry his elder brother's widow, but not conversely, for the elder brother is as the father of the family. If a widow has children and marries outside the family her new husband has to pay a fine called ránd tonka or 'widow-money.' The right to divorce is mutual and is exercised on slight grounds. The husband generally makes the woman a small present first. She often forestalls him by running off to the man she fancies, who then has to pay the expenses of her original wedding and return her jewellery.
The dead are nearly always burnt, but among some castes the ashes are afterwards buried and the spot marked in some way. Children who have not cut their teeth, pregnant women, and people who have died of small-pox are usually buried. Pollution lasts for from three to ten days.
In referring to the various castes we may first take those which talk Uriya and then those which have languages of their own; and within each of these groups we may usually arrange them in the order of their numerical strength.
The Porojas (91,000), the most numerous of the Uriya-speaking castes, form an appropriately difficult beginning to this difficult subject. The name is a generic term (some say it means merely 'ryot') which is loosely applied to a series of castes which differ in appearance, customs and even language. Apparently there are seven kinds of Porojas; namely, (i) Bárang Jódia Porojas, who speak a dialect of Uriya and eat beef; (ii) Pengu Porojas, who comprise two groups one of which will eat buffalo and the other will not, but both speak a tongue of their own which is said[8] to be akin to Khond; (iii) Khondi Porojas, who eat beef, are a section of the Khonds and speak the Khond language; (iv) Parengi Porojas, who are a section of the Gadabas and speak their language; (v) Banda, Nanda or Langla Porojas (all of which words mean 'naked'), also called Banda Gadabas, who are again a section of the Gadabas and apparently speak a dialect of Gadaba; (vi) Tagara Porojas, who are a division of the Kóyas and talk Kóya; and (vii) Dúr Porojas, also called Didáyi Porojas, who speak Uriya.
Only the first and fifth of these are readily distinguishable. The Bárang Jódias, sometimes called merely Jódias, are prominent round Koraput and Jeypore, where their short cerise and white cloths and their left arms covered with a dozen or more brass bracelets render them very conspicuous.[9]
Round about Koraput, their marriage ceremonies are of the typical kind. The parents of the boy deposit two pots of liquor and some rice at the house of the girl they want their son to marry and, if these are not thrown into the street, follow up their move by taking more liquor and rice, a new cloth and money as the price of the girl. A dinner follows in token that the match is arranged and next day the bride goes to the groom's village in state. Outside the latter 's house two poles are planted, between which a pumpkin is suspended from a string. As the bride's party approach, this is cut down with a tangi (axe), the party enter the house, the bride is given a new cloth, and liquor is liberally distributed. Cheered by this, the wedding party dance most of the night through, and next day, after a caste dinner, the bride is formally handed over to her husband in the presence of the janni (priest) and headman of the village.
Round Jeypore, however, the ceremonies differ considerably and as they doubtless change again every few miles, it would be profitless to point out the variations.
The Banda Porojas are the best recognized of the seven Poroja sections, because they have special ways of their own and live in a definite and prescribed locality in what is known as the Juangar mutta of Malkanagiri taluk, south-west of the falls of the Machéru referred to on p. 12. They are called 'naked' because the women (the men are not distinctive in appearance) shave their heads completely, wear nothing above the waist except brass ornaments and strings of beads, and have for their only garment a strip of coloured cloth woven from jungle fibre (Asclepias gigantea, apparently) eight inches wide and two feet long which they tie round their middles in such a way as to leave the left thigh bare both in front and behind. They explain this scanty costume by saying that some of their ancestresses once came upon Síta when she was bathing in the Machéru with very little on, and laughed at her; and that she pronounced a curse upon them if they ever wore more clothes than she was wearing then Mr. H. G. Turner, it is said, once induced one of them to wear a cloth, but she died soon after and none of the others has since dared to follow her example. Mr. H. C. Daniel, Assistant Superintendent of Police at Koraput, who provided some of the foregoing particulars, also gives the following account of the extraordinary manner in which matches are made among these people, the method being a rude variant of the custom prevalent among many of the hill tribes whereby a boy desirous of marriage goes at night to the dhangadi basa, or hut set aside for the unmarried girls to sleep in, and proffers his suit to the maiden of his affections. About two months before Dasara each village naik (headman) has a hole about eight feet square and nine feet deep dug in his village and roofed with logs and mud so arranged as to leave one small opening. In this all the unmarried girls of the village have to sleep. Any youth desirous of matrimony joins them there at night and next morning leaves his brass bracelet with the girl of his choice. The pair afterwards go together to the girl's people and explain matters and then, with the relatives on both sides, repair to the jungle,where a fire is lit and the girl takes a hot brand and applies; it to the boy's posteriors. If he cries out 'Yam! Yam!' in pain, the girl refuses him, but if he makes no sound the couple are considered to be man and wife. The girl of course takes care not to hold the brand too close to a youth she likes, and this system has the advantage of giving both parties a choice in the matter.
The Dombus, Dombos or Dombs number 51,000 and are the beggars, weavers, musicians and Pariahs of the Agency. They speak Uriya, but differ altogether in appearance both from other Uriyas and from the hill folk, and whence they originally came is not obvious. They seem to be closely akin to the Pános of Ganjám. Though almost the lowest caste in the country (the Ghási horsekeepers and Chitra Ghási brass-smiths are even deeper down in the social scale) they have succeeded by dubious means in acquiring much influence. Their superior intelligence enables them to lead the Khonds by the nose, their talent for cattle-theft (see p. 204) makes them not only hated but feared, their supposed powers over devils and witches result in their being consulted when troubles appear, and their skill in weaving and petty trading is rendering them well-to-do. Some of them are cultivators.All the native Christians of the Agency are recruited from this caste.
The Dombus seem to consist of six subdivisions; namely; Mirigáni and Kobbiriya, who live round Kótapád and with whom the others will neither dine nor intermarry; Odiya (Uriya), who are commonest round Pottangi, Koraput and Jeypore; Sódabisiya,from the Lakshmipuram side; Andiniya, who are also found near Kótapád; and Mándiri, who live chiefly round Rámagiri and Malkanagiri. The last four dine together and intermarry. These subdivisions are again split into totemistic septs, of which the Odiyas possess as many as ten. When a girl attains pubertY she is held to be polluted for five days, and at the end of that time drink is distributed among her Principal relations. Marriage usually occurs after puberty and preferentially follows édurn ménarikam. Overtures are first made by offering presents to the bride's parents in the usual way and the actual ceremony takes place in the bride's house. The rites are much as usual, the couple hooking their little fingers together, having their cloths knotted, and being bathed in saffron water. The relations feast on pork and strong drink. The untying of the knotted cloths is the final ceremony. The dead are usually buried,but the richer Dombus cremate them. Near relations shave on the tenth day.
When selecting a site for a house, the Dombus place, at the four corners, one grain of rice upon two others and shield them with stones and earth. If after several days the top grain still remains balanced on the other two, the site is considered lucky.Children are supposed to be born without souls and to be afterwards chosen as an abode by the soul of an ancestor. The coming of the ancestor is signalized by the child dropping a chicken bone which has been thrust into its hand and much rejoicing follows among the assembled relations.
Some of the Dombus of the Párvatípur Agency follow many of the customs of the low country castes (including ménarikam), and say they are the same as the Paidis (or Paidi Málas) of the plains adjoining, with whom they intermarry. These Paidis, who speak Telugu, are 40,000 strong and are also (p. 203) a low and criminal caste. Paidi Mála means 'hill Mála,' but the Paidis repudiate with indignation all connection with the ordinary Málas (and in most places with the Dombus also) and in the south and west of the district claim descent from Válmiki, the compiler of the Rámáyana. At their weddings they follow the ceremonies of the plains. Some of the Paidis cultivate land, but most are traders. They are nearly all Vaishnavites.
The Bottadas are 50,000 strong and their traditions say they came from Bastar. They speak a kind of Uriya (or perhaps Bastari) and are principally found near Naurangpur, Kótapád and Umarkót. They are perhaps the best cultivators in Jeypore, stand high in the "social scale and wear the sacred thread, permission to use which was bought by their ancestors from the Rája of Jeypore. They are split'into the three endogamous divisions of Bodo ('big'), or pure Bottadas; Madhya ('middle'), descendants of Bottada men by women of other castes; and Sanno ('little'), children of Madhya men and other women. Bodo Bottadas have several totemistic septs. Marriage occurs either before or after puberty and follows éduru ménarikam. The usual preliminary overtures to the girl's parents are made, but the actual ceremony is far more elaborate than an ordinary hill wedding, In front of the bridegroom's house a pandal of nine sál poles is erected, the caste dissari officiates as priest, the couple's little fingers are hooked together and their cloths knotted,they walk seven times round the pandal, hómam is lit, the pair are marked on the forehead with saffron and bathed in saffron water, and a caste banquet concludes the affair. The dead (with the usual exceptions) are burnt, and pollution lasts ten days during which the deceased's relations cannot cook any food; ceremonies are performed at the cremation ground on the second and eighth days.
The Ronas, or Rona Paikos (29,000), are another immigrant tribe. They say that seven brothers, their ancestors, came long ago to Nandapuram. then the capital of the Jeypore country, and took military service under the Rája there. They are still most numerous round Nandapuram (where their caste headman resides), Pádwa and Koraput; rona means 'battle' and poiko 'sepoy'; and some of them are still personal retainers of the Mahárája. They speak Uriya, wear the sacred thread (leave to do so having been purchased from the Rája in days gone by) and hold their heads high, declining to accept food from any but Bráhmans. They are split into three endogamous divisions resembling those of the Bottadas; namely, Rona Paiko proper; Kottiya Paiko, children of Rona men by women of other castes; and Puttiya Paiko, descendants of Kottiya Paiko men and other women. The last two rank below the pure Ronas in social matters. The Kottiyas (who numbered 12,000 in 1901) have usually, but apparently wrongly, been classed as a distinct caste. The people called Odiya Paikos, on the other hand, have generally been treated as Ronas, but they seem to be separate and to follow the customs of the upper Uriya castes, notably their very elaborate seven-days' wedding with its tiresome ceremonial.
The Rona Paikos have several totemistic exogamous septs. When a girl attains maturity she is kept in an enclosure within the house made of thread wound round seven arrows placed on end. Marriage occurs either before or after puberty, follows éduru ménarikam, and is somewhat similar in form to the Bottada ceremony.
The Bhúmiyas, 'soil- folk,' number 19,000 and reside chiefly on the western fringe of Jeypore between Kótapád and Salimi. Tradition says that they were the first to cultivate land on the hills. They speak Uriya; have totems; follow éduru ménarikam; and resemble the Bottadas in their marriage and funeral customs.
The Sondis (18,000) are Uriya-speaking distillers, liquor sellers and usurers who are scattered all about the hills. By pandering to the hill man's taste for strong drink they have in many places got him and his property entirely in their hands, and they are the best-hated class in all the Agency. Their own traditions say that they are descended from a Bráhman. This man, a great magician, was ordered by the king to exhibit his powers by setting a tank on fire. A distiller promised to show him how to do so on condition of being given his daughter to wife, and then covered the surface of the tank with liquor,which of course burnt readily enough. His descendants by the Bráhman magician's daughter are the present Sondis.
Like the Bottadas, the Sondis are split into the three endogaraous divisions of Bodo, Madhya and Sanno, the first of which is again sub-divided into exogamous septs corresponding to the inti pérulu of the plains. The caste headman is called Bissóyi. Marriage occurs before puberty and, as among the upper Uriyas generally, a man marries outside his family if he can. The actual ceremony, as with all these Uriyas, lasts seven whole days, and is a wearisome round of rites of which the meaning has been lost. On each day the couple play with cowries, part of the game consisting in the bride trying with both her hands to capture the shells her husband holds in one of his. and in his trying to force from her, with one finger, the cowries she is holding in both hands clasped. A Bráhman presides and hómam is lit, a pusti is tied, and offerings are made to ancestors. The dead are burnt and pollution lasts ten days. On the tenth night the heir performs an odd ceremony. He gets a pot, makes holes in its sides, puts food and a light in it, and carries it to the burning-ground. There he puts it down, calls thrice to the dead, saying that food is ready and asking him to come, and then returns home.
The Koronos, who speak Uriya, have usually been classed with Karnam in the statistics, and under this head have also been included the Telugu-speaking Shristi Karnams, who are apparently an entirely different body, though following the same occupation of clerk, village accountant, etc. The Koronos are split into several divisions, two of which are Mahanti and Patnaik. They marry outside their family if they can, and have the usual seven-days wedding ceremony above referred to, at which a Bráhman officiates. The Mális (14,000) say they were originally growers of flowers for temples and came from Benares. They are now among the most careful of all the hill cultivators, being especially skilful at raising garden crops. They speak Uriya and drink very little liquor. The caste is said to be split into six endogamous subdivisions which chiefly reside in six different parts of the Agency; namely, Bodo in Pottangi and Koraput, Pondra (which has often been wrongly treated as a separate caste) in Naurangpur and Kótapád, Kosalya in Parlákimedi in Ganjám, Pannara in Jeypore, Sonkuva in Gunupur, and Dongrudiya round Nandapuram. Marriage must take place, under penalty of being outcasted, before puberty, and among the Pondra Mális, if no suitable husband has been found as that time draws near, a mock wedding, without any bridegroom, is held. At ordinary weddings a Bráhman or caste elder officiates and the rites are not peculiar, but at marriages among the Pondra Mális the auspicious moment is awaited by the couple seated on either side of a curtain with their cloths knotted, the makkutas (fillets) on their heads, their hands touching and on them a myrabolam wound in cotton. As the auspicious moment passes the cotton is unwound, the knotted cloths are untied and the curtain is pulled down. These Pondra Mális also practise an unusual ceremony on the ninth day after funerals, the heir digging a hole in the deceased's house and burying in it a light and the remains of his supper.
The Omanaitos (Amanaito, Omaito) are cultivators who reside chiefly about Naurangpur. They have two endogamous divisions called Bodo and Sanno, of whom the latter are the illegitimate children of the former. The Bodos are split into totemistic septs. Their marriage and funeral ceremonies are much the same as usual except that one item in the former is a free -fight with mud for missiles.
The Mattiyas (the name means 'of the soil') are careful cultivators who live chiefly in the north-eastern corner of the Malkanagiri taluk and seem to belong to the original population of the country. They talk Uriya but follow the primitive fashion of naming their children after the day of the week on which they were born. The Mattiyas have totemistic septs, marry after puberty with much the same ceremonies as usual, and burn the dead. The spot where the body was burnt is first marked with a bamboo to which is tied some portion of the deceased's cloth and round which are broken the pots he last used. On the ninth day the ashes are collected and buried in a square pit roughly floored,and over this is erected a kind of small hut. The Pentiyas say their real name is Holuva or Halba and that they are called Pentiya because they emigrated from Bastar to Pentikonna near Sembliguda in Pottangi taluk. They speak Bastari mixed with Uriva. They are split into Bodo and Sanao divisions, like the Omanaitos, and have totemistic septs. The caste headman is called the Bhatto naik, is assisted in his duties by a pradháni (minister) and two others, and has a servant called the choláno who bears a silver wand of office when he summons pancháyats. This sort of pomp is unknown among the agency people proper. The pancháyats take themselves very seriously,also, and any one outcasted by them can only be readmitted after elaborate ceremonial which includes the branding of his tongue with silver wire. Marriages and funerals are of much the usual type.
Dhakkados (1,760 in number) are the illegitimate children of women of non-polluting castes by Uriya Bráhmans, who are legs particular than their castemen elsewhere about forming liaisonsoutside their own community. Dhakkados wear the sacred thread and take Bráhmanical names; but at weddings and funerals they observe the customs of their mother's caste and they adopt these people's occupation.
We now come to the tribes of the Agency who speak their own tribal dialects. Of these by far the most numerous are the Khonds, who are 150,000 strong. An overwhelming majority of this number, however, are not the wild barbarous Khonds regarding whom there is such a considerable literature1[10] and who are so prominent in Ganjám, but a series of communities descended from them which exhibit infinite degrees of difference from their more interesting progenitors according to the grade of civilisation to which they hare attained. The only really primitive Khonds in Vizagapatam are the Dongria ('jungle') Khonds of the north of Bissamkatak taluk, the Désya Khonds who live just south-west of them in and around the Nímgiris, and the Kuitiya ('hill') Khonds of the hills in the north-east of the Gunupur taluk. Time did not permit of any expedition to these out-of- the-way corners and any enquiry into the customs of the people there would have necessitated double interpretation from Khond into Uriya and from Uriya into Telugu or English, for a knowledge of both Khond and Telugu or Khond and English is rare. No fresh information has thus been obtained about these people. They were the classes who were most addicted to the meriah sacrifices referred to on p. 199. Their headmen are called majjis. The Kuttiya Khond men wear ample necklets of white beads and prominent brass earrings, but otherwise they dress like any other hill people. Their women, however, have a distinctive garb, putting on a kind of turban on state occasions, wearing nothing above the waist except masses of white bead necklaces which almost cover their breasts, and carrying a series of heavy brass bracelets half way up their forearms. The dhangadi basa system already referred to prevails among them in its simplest form and the youths and girls have opportunities for the most intimate acquaintance before they need inform their parents that they wish to marry. Special ceremonies are practised to prevent the spirits of the dead (especially of those killed by tigers) from returning to molest the living. Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no subdivisions.
The dress of the civilized Khonds of both sexes is ordinary and uninteresting. These people are called by themselves (sometimes) Kuvinga; in Telugu, generically, Kódulu; and by their neighbours by a whole series of terms, which differ according to the locality and the degree of civilization attained, among them being Poroja Kódulu, Konda Doralu, Doralu, Játapu Doralu, Játapu, Janapa Doralu and Múka Doralu. Whether these, or any of them, should be held to be distinct castes, and, if so, at what point a man ceases to be a Khond and becomes (say) a Játapu, are matters which need much careful enquiry to clear up.
The interesting aspect of the case is the manner in which fresh castes can be seen actually in the making. These civilized Khonds worship all degrees of deities from their own tribal Jákara down to the orthodox Hindu gods; follow every gradation of marriage and funeral customs from those of their primitive forefathers to those of the low-country Telugus; speak dialects which range from good Khond through bastard patois down to corrupt Telugu; and allow their totemistic septs to be degraded down to, or divided into, the inti pérulu of the plains.
The Játapus or Játapu Doras are usually classed as a, separate caste and were returned as 66,000 strong at the 1901 census. The Khonds in the Pálkonda hills call themselves by this name and it is supposed to be short for Khonda Játapu Doralu, or. 'lords of the Khond caste.' They speak a kind of Khond among themselves, worship Jákava, call their priests jannis and their soothsayers dissaris, have exogamous septs which are a mixture of totems and inti pérulu, marry after the low-country fashion but tie no pusti, observe only three days pollution at funerals and make periodical sacrifices to propitiate their ancestors.
The Múka Doras may perhaps be classed as a separate caste.The Páchipenta zamindar is one of them. They speak Telugu,have totems as well as inti pérulu, follow ménarikam, observe at wedding's ceremonies which are an odd mixture of hill rites and low-country practice, seclude girls within an enclosure of arrows when they attain puberty but observe no pollution at subsequent periods, practise a variant of the chinna rózu or pedda rózu ceremonies but also have a feast in honour of their ancestors in general, have taken to pack-bullock trading and give their children Telugu names.
The Savaras, like the Khonds, consist of two differing classes —the primitive race which lives on the hills east and north-east of Gunupur, and the more civilized sections which inhabit the Pálkonda hills and the low country in that corner of the district and are called Pallapu or Kápu Savaras. The two together number 50,000 persons. The former have a distinctive dress, the men using long langútis which hang down in front and behind like tails, wearing a plume of white crane's feathers in their cone-shaped red turbans and carrying a bow and arrows adorned with peacocks' feathers; and the women dressing in one short cloth with a broad red border round their waists and nothing above this except masses of brass wire and bead necklets a foot deep which almost prevent them from turning their heads and into which they stick their cheroots. Among these people are certain occupational subdivisions such as the Arisis, who weave the tribal cloths; the Kundáls, who make baskets; and the Loharas or Múlis, who are iron-workers;but there is no theoretical bar to marriage between these, and there are no totemistic septs among them. The Savaras' careful methods of cultivation are referred to on p. 257 below and the outbreaks amongst them on p. 258. Their remoteness and language hindered the collection of information regarding them,but Mr. F. Fawcett has described elaborately 1[11] the ways of the tribe just across the border in Ganjám (to which district it really belongs) and it will be sufficient to include here a few notes about the more numerous Savaras of the plains. These people worsliip either Jákara or Loddalu, 1[12] who have no regular temple but are symbolized by a stone under a big tree. Sacrifices of goats are made to them when the various crops are ripening and the victim must first eat food offered to it. The hill Savaras, on the other hand, chiefly fear the deity Jalia, who in many villages is provided with a small habitation with a circular thatched roof in which are placed wooden images of household implements and requisites and figures of men, animals, birds, etc. The Kápu Savaras, like the primitive section, have no real marriage divisions, but are taking to ménarikam although the hill custom requires a man to marry outside his village. Their wedding ceremonies bear a distant resemblance to those among the hill Savaras. When a youth among the latter wishes to marry a girl, his parents take an arrow, a white crane's feather and some liquor to the house of her parents, and if these latter at first throw the presents into the street and attack the bringers, they try again until they are peacefully welcomed and matters are put in train, or until the youth, tired of refusals, carries off the girl by stealth or force. Among the Kápu Savaras the preliminary arrow and liquor are similarly presented, but the bridegroom goes at length on an auspicious day with a large party to the bride's house, and the marriage is marked by his eating out of the same platter with her and by much drinking, feasting and dancing.
A death is announced by the firing of guns, the body is burnt, the bones are collected and buried along with the deceased's tangi and other possessions, the spot is marked with a sál post to which a bit of the departeds garment is attached, and a drink and dance conclude the ceremony. This again is a copy of the hill Savaras' rite, but the latter eventually mark the place with a stone. Both sections perform a great annual sacrifice to their departed ancestors on a full moon day in the spring at which a buffalo or goat is slain for every death during the year and the spirits of the dead are entreated not to return and molest the living. Savara headmen are called Gómangos.
The Gadabas are palanquin-bearers and cultivators by profession, number 40,000 persons, and are split into six subdivisions; namely, Bodo Gadabas and Ollár Gadabas, who dine together and intermarry; Parengi Gadabas, whose women do not wear the bustles and chaplets referred to below; Kalloyi Gadabas, who are the only section which will touch a horse (professional palki-bearers naturally have no love for the rival animal) and are contemned by the others accordingly; and Kápu and Kattiri Gadabas, who are the more civilized sections living on or near the plains. Each of these subdivisions is again split into totemistic septs, but some of the low-country Gadabas have abandoned these.
Gadaba men dress like other hill, people, but the women of the tribe have perhaps the most extraordinary garb of any in this Presidency. Round their waists they tie a fringed, narrow cloth, woven by themselves on the most primitive loom imaginable, of which the warp is the hand-spun fibre of different jungle shrubs and the woof is cotton, dyed at home with indigo and Morinda citrifolia, and arranged in stripes of red, blue and white; either over or under this they wear a bustle made of some forty strands of stout black cord woven from other shrubs and tied together at the ends; round the upper part of their bodies is another cloth, similar to but smaller than the waist-cloth; on their right forearms, from wrist to elbow, are a number of brass bracelets; over their foreheads is fixed a chaplet of cowrie shells, the white seeds of the kúsa grass, or the red and black berries of the Abrus precatorius; and in their ears are enormous coils of thick brass wire (one specimen was eight inches across and contained twenty strands) which hang down on their shoulders and in extreme cases prevent them from turning their heads except slowly and with care. The above are the essentials of the costume; the details differ in different places. The bustle is accounted for by the following tradition: A goddess visited a Gadaba villager incognita and asked leave of one of the women to rest on a cot. She was brusquely told that the proper seat for beggars was the floor; and she consequently decreed that thence-forth all Gadaba women should wear a bustle to remind them to avoid churlishness.
Marriage usually occurs after puberty and, as among the Khonds and Savaras, a man generally weds a girl from outside his family. The usual preliminary presents of toddy etc. are sent to the bride's people by the parents of the suitor, and eventually, if there is no just impediment, the latter and his relatives go to the girl's house with more presents and bring her to their village. The wedding is celebrated in a pandal there and is followed by the usual drinking and dancing. If the girl's parents dislike the match she often elopes with the youth, who eventually is punished for his transgression by having to provide a caste dinner. Gadaba children, like those of other primitive tribes here, are usually named after the day of the week on which they were born. Stone slabs are erected to the memory of the dead and sacrifices offered to them now and again. The Kóyas, who number 11,000 in this district, live in the corner of Malkanagiri taluk south-west of Malkanagiri town and are immigrants from Gódávari, to which district, rather than to Vizagapatam, they belong. Their customs in that country have been closely studied by the Rev. Mr. Cain, who spent years among them as a missionary and has published accounts of them in the Indian Antiquary for 1876 and 1879 and the Christian College Magazine for 1887 and 1888. In this district they have several exogamous, but not totemistic, septs, marry after puberty, follow éduru ménarikam and pay a bride-price or vóli. The wedding ceremony is conducted in a pandal, and one of the essential rites consists in the bridegroom bending his head over the bride's while the relations pour water over both. Drinking and riotous dancing all night conclude the marriage.
Apparently there is no pollution at deaths. The ashes of the dead are made into little balls and buried with some of his belongings and marked with a perpendicular stone slab. To this a buffalo is sacrificed. The tail is tied to the slab and left there, and the rest of the animal is eaten by the relations. They explain1[13] that as long as the tail is there the deceased thinks he has got the whole of the buffalo and is contented. A mile east of Malkanagiri, on the Kondakambéru road, is a great collection of these slabs. The Kóyas reverence the Pándava brothers and are often named after them. They are keen shikáris and often place their trophies on poles outside their habitations.
The Gónds (19,000) are another race who belong less to Vizagapatam than to adjoining areas. They are numerous in Naurangpur taluk, but their real home is in the Central Provinces, where their customs have been frequently studied.2[14] In Naurangpur they are split into the three divisions of Ráj, Dúr and Muria, each of which is subdivided into totemistic septs. Éduru ménarikam is followed and weddings take place in the bride's village.
- ↑ 1 A history of the control of this kind of emigration will be found in G.O.No.618, Public, dated 23rd August 1905.
- ↑ 1 Further particulars will be found on pp. 285-96 of the second volume of the Report of the Missionary Conference of South India and Ceylon, 1879.
- ↑ 2 For assistance with this section, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Rev. J. Contat of Vizagapatam.
- ↑ 1 The notes which follow have been kindly furnished by the Revs. P. Schulze and J. Th. Timmcke.
- ↑ 1 The account which follows has been kindly contributed by the Rev.E. G. Smith,M.H.
- ↑ 2 The Rev. W. V. Higgins has been good enough to supply information regarding them,
- ↑ 1 See Bellary Gazettee, 60,
- ↑ Report on Madras census of 1891, para. 272.
- ↑ No sooner, however, has the enquirer congratulated himself on differentiating these people than he is pulled up short by the fact that round Náráyanapatnam are persons calling themselves Jódias who differ altogether in appearance (their characteristic ornament being a pile of necklets of coral and blue beads a foot deep) and say they have no connection with any Porojas.
- ↑ 1 E.g., Maopherson's Report on the Khonds of Ganjam and Cuttack (1841);Maj.Gen. Campbell's Service among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan (1864); Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal (1872;; Hunter's Orissa (1872); Risley'e Tribes and Castes of Bengal(1891);the papers in J.R.A.S.. vii, 172 (Macpherson), xiii, 216 (Macpherson) and xvii, 1 (Lieut. Frye); in M.J.L.S., vi, 17 and vii, 89; in Culcutta Review, viii, I and x, 278; and in J.A.S.B, xxv, 39 and xxiii, 39.
- ↑ 1 Journ. Anthrop. Sec, of Bombay, i, 218.
- ↑ 1 This seems to be sometimes used as a generic term for the gods as a body.
- ↑ 1 Tests Mr. G. F. Paddison, I.C.3., who has kindly contributed other particulars embodied in these notes.
- ↑ See Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, edited by Sir R. Temple,and also the works of Messrs Dalton, Risley and Crooke.