Note 1 — C

Dandāsi.—The Dandāsis are summed up in the Ganjam Manual as being village watchmen, many of whom are great thieves. “It is curious,” Mr. S. P. Rice writes,1 “to find that the word Naiko [meaning leader or chief], which is corrupted into the Telugu Naidu, is the caste distinction of the lowest class, the village watcher and professional thief. This man, for all that his cognomen is so lofty, goes by the generic name of Dandāsi. This word means worthy of punishment, and assuredly no appellation ever fitted its owner more completely than does this. He is the village policeman and the village thief, a curious mixture of callings.” According to other versions, the name is derived from danda, a stick, and āsi, sword, from dandabādi, a stout bamboo stick, or from dandapāsi, stick and rope, in reference to the insignia of the Dandāsi’s office.