Note 49 — B (continued 2)

Myāsa Bēdar women are said49 to be debarred from wearing toe-rings. Both Ūru and Myāsa women are tattooed on the face, and on the upper extremities with elaborate designs of cars, scorpions, centipedes, Sīta’s jade (plaited hair), Hanumān, parrots, etc. Men are branded by the priest of a Hanumān shrine on the shoulders with the emblem of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) and chakram (wheel of the law) in the belief that it enables them to go to Swarga (heaven). When a Myāsa man is branded, he has to purchase a cylindrical basket called gopāla made by a special Mēdara woman, a bamboo stick, fan, and winnow. Female Bēdars who are branded become Basavis (dedicated prostitutes), and are dedicated to a male deity, and called Gandu Basaviōru (male Basavis). They are thus dedicated when there happens to be no male child in a family; or, if a girl falls ill, a vow is made to the effect that, if she recovers, she shall become a Basavi. If a son is born to such a woman, he is affiliated with her father’s family. Some Bēdar women, whose house deities are goddesses instead of gods, are not branded, but a string with white bone beads strung on it, and a gold disc with two feet (Vishnupād) impressed on it, is tied round their neck by a Kuruba woman called Pattantha Ellamma (priestess to Uligamma). Bēdar girls, whose house deities are females, when they are dedicated as Basavis, have in like manner a necklace, but with black beads, tied round the neck, and are called Hennu Basavis (female Basavis). For the ceremony of dedication to a female deity, the presence of the Mādiga goddess Mātangi is necessary. The Mādigas bring a bent iron rod with a cup at one end, and twigs of Vitex Negundo to represent the goddess, to whom goats are sacrificed. The iron rod is set up in front of the doorway, a wick and oil are placed in the cup, and the impromptu lamp is lighted. Various cooked articles of food are offered, and partaken of by the assembled Bēdars. Bēdar women sometimes live in concubinage with Muhammadans. And some Bēdars, at the time of the Mohurram festival, wear a thread across the chest like Muhammadans, and may not enter their houses till they have washed themselves.