Note 8 — M

Writing concerning the Mādigas,8 the Rev. H. Huizinga states that “they live in hamlets at a respectable distance from the villages of the caste people, by whom they are greatly despised. Their habits are squalid in the extreme, and the odour of a Mādiga hamlet is revolting. They perform all the lowest kinds of service for the caste people, especially bearing burdens and working in leather. They take charge of the ox or buffalo as soon as it dies. They remove the skin and tan it, and eat the loathsome carcase, which makes them specially despised, and renders their touch polluting. Some of the skins are used for covering the rude drums that are so largely used in Hindu festivals, and beaten in honour of the village deities. The caste men impress the Mādigas into their service, not only to make the drums, but also to beat them at their feasts. It may be mentioned that nearly ten per cent. of the Mādigas are nominal Christians, and, in some parts of the Nellore district, the Christians form over half of the Mādiga population. This changes their habits of life and also their social position. Eating of carrion is now forbidden, as well as beating of drums at Hindu festivals, and their refusal in this particular often leads to bitter persecution at the hands of the caste people. The main duty of the Mādigas is the curing and tanning of hides, and the manufacture of rude leather articles, especially sandals, trappings for bullocks, and large well-buckets used for irrigation. The process of tanning with lime and tangēdu (Cassia auriculata) bark is rough and simple. [Tangēdu is said9 to be cut only by the Mādigas, as other classes think it beneath their dignity to do it.] As did their forefathers, so the Mādigas do to-day. The quality of the skins they turn out is fair, and the state of the development of the native leather trade compares very favourably with that of other trades such as blacksmithy and carpentry. The Mādiga’s sandals are strong, comfortable, and sometimes highly ornamental. His manner of working, and his tools are as simple as his life. He often gets paid in kind, a little fodder for his buffalo, so many measures of some cheap grain, perhaps a few vegetables, etc. In the northern districts, the Mādigas are attached to one or more families of ryots, and are entitled to the dead animals of their houses. Like the Vettiyan in the south, the Mādiga is paid in kind, and he has to supply sandals for the ryots, belts for the bulls, and all the necessaries of agriculture; and for these he has to find the requisite leather himself; but for the larger articles, such as water-buckets, the master must find the leather. Of late years there is a tendency observable among Mādigas to poach on each other’s monopoly of certain houses, and among the ryots themselves to dispense with the services of family Mādigas, and resort to the open market for their necessaries. In such cases, the ryots demand payment from the Mādigas for the skins of their dead animals. The hides and skins, which remain after local demands have been satisfied, are sold to merchants from the Tamil districts, and there is generally a central agent, to whom the various sub-agents send their collections, and by him they are dried and salted and sent to Madras for tanning. In the Kīstna district, children have little leather strings hanging from the left shoulder, like the sacred cord of the Brāhman, from which is suspended a bag containing something put in it by a Mādiga, to charm away all forms of disease from the infant wearer.”