Note 3 — D

Some Gadaba women wear a bustle or dress improver, called irrē or kittē. This article of attire is accounted for by the following tradition. “A goddess visited a Gadaba village incognito, 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 thenceforth all Gadaba women should wear a bustle to remind them to avoid churlishness.”3 The Gadaba female cloths are manufactured by themselves from cotton thread and the fibre of silloluvāda or ankudi chettu (Holarrhena antidysenterica) and bōda luvāda or bodda chettu (Ficus glomerata). The fibre is carefully dried, and dyed blue or reddish-brown. The edges of the cloth are white, a blue strip comes next, while the middle portion is reddish-brown with narrow stripes of white or blue at regular intervals. The Gadabas account for the dress of their women by the following legend. When Rāma, during his banishment, was wandering in the forests of Dandaka, his wife Sīta accompanied him in spite of his entreaties to the contrary. It was one of the cruel terms of his stepmother Kaika that Rāma should wear only clothing made from jungle fibre, before leaving the capital. According to the Hindu religion, a virtuous wife must share both the sorrows and joys of her lord. Consequently Sīta followed the example of Rāma, and wore the same kind of clothing. They then left the capital amidst the loud lamentation of the citizens. During their wanderings, they met some Gadaba women, who mocked and laughed at Sīta. Whereupon she cursed them, and condemned them to wear no other dress but the cloth made of fibre. In a note on the Gadabas,4 Mr. L. Lakshminarayan writes that “although mill-prepared cloths are fast replacing house-spun cloths in all communities, yet, in the case of the Gadabas, there is a strong superstition which prevents the use of cloths prepared outside, particularly in regard to the cloths worn by their women. The legend (about Sīta) is fully believed by the Gadabas, and hence their religious adherence to their particular cloth. At the time of marriage, it is absolute that the Gadaba maiden should wear this fibre-made cloth, else misfortune will ruin the family. A bundle of twigs is brought, and the stems freed of leaves are bruised and twisted to loosen the bark, and are then dried for two or three days, after which the bark is ripped out and beaten down smooth with heavy sticks, to separate the bark from the fibre. The fibre is then collected, and combed down smooth, and spun into a tolerably fine twist. It is this twist that the Gadaba maiden weaves in her crude loom, and prepares from it her marriage sāri. According to a good custom among these people, a Gadaba maiden must learn to weave her cloths before she becomes eligible for marriage. And no Gadaba ever thinks of marrying a wife who cannot prepare her own cloths. Men can use cotton and other cloths, whereas women cannot do so, for they are under the curse of Sīta. But the passion for fineries in woman is naturally so strong that the modern Gadaba woman is now taking the liberty of putting cotton thread for the woof and ankudu fibre for the warp, and thus is able to turn out a more comfortable and finer cloth. But some old crones informed me that this mixed cloth is not so auspicious as that prepared wholly from the fibre.”