Note 142 — K (continued 4)

These, and similar customs, traces of which still exist in some places (e.g., North Arcot), show that the Mādiga has some claim on the Kōmatis. What that claim is is not clear. However, it is reported that, if the Mādiga is not satisfied, he can effectually put a stop to a marriage by coming to the house at which it is to be celebrated, chopping away the plantain trunks which decorate the marriage booth, and carrying them off. Similarly, Kammālans invite Vettiyāns (or Paraiyans) to their marriage, and, if this is not done, there is the same right to cut down the plantain trunks. It would seem that the right thus exercised has reference to the right to the soil on which the booth stands. The cutting away of the plantain shows that their right to stand there is not recognised. The invitation to the Mādiga or Vettiyān would thus refer to the recognition by the Kōmatis and Kammālans to the lordship of the soil held in bygone days by these now depressed castes. Writing in 1869 and 1879, respectively, Sir Walter Elliot and Major J. S. F. Mackenzie of the Mysore Commission refer142 to the presentation of betel and nuts by the Kōmatis to the Mādigas, thereby inviting them to be present at their marriages. Dr. G. Oppert also refers to the same custom.143 Having risen in the social scale, the Kōmatis would naturally wish to give this invitation covertly. Major Mackenzie says that the Kōmatis in Mysore, in order to covertly invite the Mādigas to the wedding, went to the back of their houses at a time when they were not likely to be seen, and whispered into an iron vessel, such as is commonly used for measuring grain, an invitation in the following words:—“In the house of the small ones (i.e., Kōmatis) a marriage is going to take place. The members of the big house (i.e., Mādigas) are to come.” The Mādigas look on such a secret invitation as an insult, and would, if they saw the inviters, handle them roughly. It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that “now-a-days the presentation (of betel leaf and nuts) is sometimes veiled by the Kōmati concerned sending his shoes to be mended by the Mādiga a few days before the wedding, deferring payment till the wedding day, and then handing the Mādiga the leaf and nut with the amount of his bill.” According to another account, the Kōmati of set purpose unbinds the toe-ring of his native shoes (chērupu), and summons the Mādiga, whose function it is to make and repair these articles of attire. The Mādiga quietly accepts the job, and is paid more amply than is perhaps necessary in the shape of pān-supāri, flowers, and money. On the acceptance by the Mādiga of the betel and nuts, the Kōmati asks “Chērinda, chērinda”? i.e., has it reached you, and the Mādiga replies “Chērindi, chērindi”, i.e., it has reached. Until he replies thus, the māngalyam cannot, it is said, be tied on the bride’s neck. In the Bellary district, betel leaf and nuts are usually left at night behind the Mādiga’s house, in token of the invitation to the wedding. In the Godāvari district, according to Mr. Hemingway, the Kōmati gives an order for a Mādiga for palmyra leaf baskets before the marriage, and presents him with betel and nut when he brings the baskets. Still another account says that some of the Kōmatis, just before a marriage, leave in the backyard of Mādiga houses a few pice and betel close to the cattle-pen, and that it is whispered that some Kōmatis use chuckler’s (leather-worker’s) tools, made in silver, for worship. It is also reported that chuckler’s work is pretended to be gone through by some Kōmatis, after the completion of the marriage ceremonies, in the backyard of the house at dead of night, in the presence of caste-people only, and by preference under a dānimma chettu (Punica Granatum: pomegranate). This is known as kulāchāram, kuladharmam, or gōtra pūja (custom of the caste, or worship of the gōtras). The figure of a cow is made of flour, and into its stomach they put a mixture of turmeric, lime, and water, called wōkali. This, it has been suggested, is meant to represent blood. After the cow has been worshipped in due form, it is cut up with instruments made of flour, and intended to represent those used by cobblers. To each family is secretly sent that portion of the cow, which, according to custom, they are entitled to receive. Thus, the Kommala-vāru receive the horns, the Gontula the neck, the Karakapāla the hands and temples, the Thonti the hump, the Danta the teeth, the Veligollu the white nails, and so on. Major Mackenzie testified to the performance of this ceremony by the caste in Mysore in 1879, and it is recorded from different parts of the Madras Presidency. The flour, which is thus distributed, is known as nēpāsāni mudda or nēpāsāni unta. The ceremony is still performed in the city of Madras, on the night of the fifth day if the marriage lasts over seven days, or on the night of the third day if it lasts over five days. If the wedding ceremonies are completed in one day, the ceremony is performed even during the day time. The following details are performed. A brass vessel (kalasam) and a cocoanut are set up in the house, and the bride and bridegroom’s parties arrange themselves on each side of it. The vessel is decorated, and the cocoanut is made to represent the face of a woman, with eyes, nose, mouth, etc., and adorned with jewelry, flowers, anilin and turmeric powder marks. A young man of the bridegroom’s party worships the feet of all present. The flour cow is then made, cut up, and distributed. Cocoanuts are broken, and camphor is set on fire, and waved before the vessel. Mr. Muhammad Ibrahim states that families are known by the names of the various organs of the cow in the Godāvari district. There is, he says, a story to the effect that some Kōmatis killed a cow-buffalo, which went about as such by day, but became transformed into a beautiful woman under the miraculous influence of a pious Brāhman. As a redemption for their sin, these Kōmatis were ordered by the Brāhman to take their names after the various parts of the animal, and as, by killing the animal, they proved worse than Mādigas, they were ordered to show respect to these people. In the Kumbum tāluk of the Kurnool district, a flour buffalo is substituted for the cow. In the Markapūr tāluk of the same district, two elephants are made of mud, and the bride and bridegroom sit beside them. Presentations of cloths and jewels are then made to them. The officiating purōhit (priest) worships the elephants, and the bride and bridegroom go round them.