Note 42 — Glossary

Kāmāthi, Kāmāti.—A term applied in the Marātha Districts to immigrants from Madras. It is doubtful whether the Kāmāthis have become a caste, but about 150 persons returned this name as their caste in the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911, and there are about 7000 in India, none, however, being recorded from the Madras Presidency. It is stated that the word Kāmāthi means ‘fool’ in Tamil, and that in Bombay all Telugus are called Kāmāthis, to whatever caste they may belong. Similarly, Marātha immigrants into Madras are known by the generic name of Arya,42 and those coming from Hindustān into the Nerbudda valley as Pardeshi, while in the same locality the Brāhmans and Rājpūts of Central India are designated by the Marāthas as Rāngra. This term has the signification of rustic or boorish, and is therefore a fairly close parallel to Kāmāthi, if the latter word has the meaning given above. In the Thāna District of Bombay43 people of many classes are included under the name of Kāmāthi. Though they do not marry or even eat together, the different classes of Kāmāthis have a strong feeling of fellowship, and generally live in the same quarter of the town. In the Central Provinces the Kāmāthis are usually masons and house-builders or labourers. They speak Telugu in their houses and Marāthī to outsiders. In Sholapur44 the Kāmāthis dress like Kunbis. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling, and appear to have become a regular caste. Their priests are Telugu Brāhmans, and their ceremonies resemble those of Kunbis. On the third day after a child is born the midwife lifts it up for the first time, and it is given a few light blows on the back. For three days the child sucks one end of a rag the other end of which rests in a saucer of honey, and the mother is fed on rice and clarified butter. On the fourth day the mother begins to suckle the child. Until the mother is pregnant a second time, no choti or scalp-lock is allowed to grow on the child’s head. When she becomes pregnant, she is taken with the child before the village god, and a tuft of hair is thereafter left to grow on the crown of its head.