Part 1

CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA

By

EDGAR THURSTON, C.I.E.,

Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d'Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa, Romana di Anthropologia.

Assisted by

K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum.

Volume II--C to J

Government Press, Madras

1909.

CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA.

VOLUME II.

C

Canji (gruel).--An exogamous sept of Padma Sale. Canji is the word "in use all over India for the water, in which rice has been boiled. It also forms the usual starch of Indian washermen." [1] As a sept of the Sale weavers, it probably has reference to the gruel, or size, which is applied to the warp.

Chacchadi.--Haddis who do scavenging work, with whom other Haddis do not freely intermarry.

Chadarapu Dhompti (square space marriage offering).--A sub-division of Madigas, who, at marriages, offer food to the god in a square space.

Chakala.--See Tsakala.

Chakkan.--Recorded in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as "a Malabar caste of oil-pressers (chakku means an oil-mill). Followers of this calling are known also as Vattakkadans in South Malabar, and as Vaniyans in North Malabar, but the former are the higher in social status, the Nayars being polluted by the touch of the Vaniyans and Chakkans, but not by that of the Vattakkadans. Chakkans and Vaniyans may not enter Brahman temples. Their customs and manners are similar to those of the Nayars, who will not, however, marry their women." Chakkingalavan appears as a synonym for Chakkan.

Chakkiliyan.--"The Chakkiliyans," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [2] "are the leather-workers of the Tamil districts, corresponding to the Madigas of the Telugu country. The Chakkiliyans appear to be immigrants from the Telugu or Canarese districts, for no mention is made of this caste either in the early Tamil inscriptions, or in early Tamil literature. Moreover, a very large proportion of the Chakkiliyans speak Telugu and Canarese. In social position the Chakkiliyans occupy the lowest rank, though there is much dispute on this point between them and the Paraiyans. Nominally they are Saivites, but in reality devil-worshippers. The avaram plant (Cassia auriculata) is held in much veneration by them, [3] and the tali is tied to a branch of it as a preliminary to marriage. Girls are not usually married before puberty. The bridegroom may be younger than the bride. Their widows may remarry. Divorce can be obtained at the pleasure of either party on payment of Rs. 12-12-0 to the other in the presence of the local head of the caste. Their women are considered to be very beautiful, and it is a woman of this caste who is generally selected for the coarser form of Sakti worship. They indulge very freely in intoxicating liquors, and will eat any flesh, including beef, pork, etc. Hence they are called, par excellence, the flesh-eaters (Sanskrit shatkuli)." It was noted by Sonnerat, in the eighteenth century, [4] that the Chakkiliyans are in more contempt than the Pariahs, because they use cow leather in making shoes. "The Chucklers or cobblers," the Abbé Dubois writes, [5] "are considered inferiors to the Pariahs all over the peninsula. They are more addicted to drunkenness and debauchery. Their orgies take place principally in the evening, and their villages resound, far into the night, with the yells and quarrels which result from their intoxication. The very Pariahs refuse to have anything to do with the Chucklers, and do not admit them to any of their feasts." In the Madura Manual, 1868, the Chakkiliyans are summed up as "dressers of leather, and makers of slippers, harness, and other leather articles. They are men of drunken and filthy habits, and their morals are very bad. Curiously enough, their women are held to be of the Padmani kind, i.e., of peculiar beauty of face and form, and are also said to be very virtuous. It is well known, however, that zamindars and other rich men are very fond of intriguing with them, particularly in the neighbourhood of Paramagudi, where they live in great numbers." There is a Tamil proverb that even a Chakkili girl and the ears of the millet are beautiful when mature. In the Tanjore district, the Chakkiliyans are said [6] to be "considered to be of the very lowest status. In some parts of the district they speak Telugu and wear the namam (Vaishnavite sect mark) and are apparently immigrants from the Telugu country." Though they are Tamil-speaking people, the Chakkiliyans, like the Telugu Madigas, have exogamous septs called gotra in the north, and kilai in the south. Unlike the Madigas, they do not carry out the practice of making Basavis (dedicated prostitutes).

The correlation of the most important measurements of the Madigas of the Telugu country, and so-called Chakkiliyans of the city of Madras, is clearly brought out by the following figures:--

Thirty Madigas. Fifty Chakkiliyans. cm. cm. Stature 163.1 162.2 Cephalic length 18.6 18.6 Cephalic breadth 13.9 13.9 Cephalic index 75. 75. Nasal height 4.5 4.6 Nasal breadth 3.7 3.6 Nasal index 80.8 78.9

The Chakkiliyan men in Madras are tattooed not only on the forehead, but also with their name, conventional devices, dancing-girls, etc., on the chest and upper extremities.

It has been noticed as a curious fact that, in the Madura district, "while the men belong to the right-hand faction, the women belong to and are most energetic supporters of the left. It is even said that, during the entire period of a faction riot, the Chakkili women keep aloof from their husbands and deny them their marital rights." [7]

In a very interesting note on the leather industry of the Madras Presidency, Mr. A. Chatterton writes as follows. [8] "The position of the Chakkiliyan in the south differs greatly from that of the Madiga of the north, and many of his privileges are enjoyed by a 'sub-sect' of the Pariahs called Vettiyans. These people possess the right of removing dead cattle from villages, and in return have to supply leather for agricultural purposes. The majority of Chakkiliyans are not tanners, but leather-workers, and, instead of getting the hides or skins direct from the Vettiyan, they prefer to purchase them ready-tanned from traders, who bring them from the large tanning centres. When the Chuckler starts making shoes or sandals, he purchases the leather and skin which he requires in the bazar, and, taking it home, first proceeds with a preliminary currying operation. The leather is damped and well stretched, and dyed with aniline, the usual colour being scarlet R.R. of the Badische Anilin Soda Fabrik. This is purchased in the bazar in packets, and is dissolved in water, to which a little oxalic acid has been added. The dye is applied with a piece of rag on the grain side, and allowed to dry. After drying, tamarind paste is applied to the flesh side of the skin, and the latter is then rolled between the hands, so as to produce a coarse graining on the outer side. In making the shoes, the leather is usually wetted, and moulded into shape on wooden moulds or lasts. As a rule, nothing but cotton is used for sewing, and the waxed ends of the English cobbler are entirely unknown. The largest consumption of leather in this Presidency is for water-bags or kavalais, which are used for raising water from wells, and for oil and ghee (clarified butter) pots, in which the liquids are transported from one place to another. Of irrigation wells there are in the Presidency more than 600,000, and, though some of them are fitted with iron buckets, nearly all of them have leather bags with leather discharging trunks. The buckets hold from ten to fifty gallons of water, and are generally made from fairly well tanned cow hides, though for very large buckets buffalo hides are sometimes used. The number of oil and ghee pots in use in the country is very large. The use of leather vessels for this purpose is on the decline, as it is found much cheaper and more convenient to store oil in the ubiquitous kerosine-oil tin, and it is not improbable that eventually the industry will die out, as it has done in other countries. The range of work of the country Chuckler is not very extensive. Besides leather straps for wooden sandals, he makes crude harness for the ryot's cattle, including leather collars from which numerous bells are frequently suspended, leather whips for the cattle drivers, ornamental fringes for the bull's forehead, bellows for the smith, and small boxes for the barber, in which to carry his razors. In some places, leather ropes are used for various purposes, and it is customary to attach big coir (cocoanut fibre) ropes to the bodies of the larger temple cars by leather harness, when they are drawn in procession through the streets. Drum-heads and tom-toms are made from raw hides by Vettiyans and Chucklers. The drums are often very large, and are transported upon the back of elephants, horses, bulls and camels. For them raw hides are required, but for the smaller instruments sheep-skins are sufficient. The raw hides are shaved on the flesh side, and are then dried. The hair is removed by rubbing with wood-ashes. The use of lime in unhairing is not permissible, as it materially decreases the elasticity of the parchment." The Chakkiliyans beat the tom-tom for Kammalans, Pallis and Kaikolans, and for other castes if desired to do so.

The Chakkiliyans do not worship Matangi, who is the special deity of the Madigas. Their gods include Madurai Viran, Mariamma, Muneswara, Draupadi and Gangamma. Of these, the last is the most important, and her festival is celebrated annually, if possible. To cover the expenses thereof, a few Chakkiliyans dress up so as to represent men and women of the Marathi bird-catching caste, and go about begging in the streets for nine days. On the tenth day the festival terminates. Throughout it, Gangamma, represented by three decorated pots under a small pandal (booth) set up on the bank of a river or tank beneath a margosa (Melia azadirachta), or pipal (Ficus religiosa) tree, is worshipped. On the last day, goats and fowls are sacrificed, and limes cut.

During the first menstrual period, the Chakkiliyan girl is kept under pollution in a hut made of fresh green boughs, which is erected by her husband or maternal uncle. Meat, curds, and milk are forbidden. On the last day, the hut is burnt down. At marriages a Chakkiliyan usually officiates as priest, or the services of a Valluvan priest may be enlisted. The consent of the girl's maternal uncle to the marriage is essential. The marriage ceremony closely resembles that of the Paraiyans. And, at the final death ceremonies of a Chakkiliyan, as of a Paraiyan, two bricks are worshipped, and thrown into a tank or stream.

Lean children, especially of the Mala, Madiga, and Chakkiliyan classes, are made to wear a leather strap, specially made for them by a Chakkiliyan, which is believed to help their growth.

At times of census, some Chakkiliyans have returned themselves as Pagadaiyar, Madari (conceit or arrogance), and Ranaviran (brave warrior).

Chakkiyar.--The Chakkiyars are a class of Ambalavasis, of whom the following account is given in the Travancore Census Report, 1901. The name is generally derived from Slaghyavakkukar (those with eloquent words), and refers to the traditional function of the caste in Malabar society. According to the Jatinirnaya, the Chakkiyars represent a caste growth of the Kaliyuga. The offence to which the first Chakkiyar owes his position in society was, it would appear, brought to light after the due performance of the upanayanasamskara. Persons, in respect of whom the lapse was detected before that spiritualizing ceremony took place, became Nambiyars. Manu derives Suta, whose functions are identical with the Malabar Chakkiyar, from a pratiloma union, i.e., of a Brahman wife with a Kshatriya husband. [9] The girls either marry into their own caste, or enter into the sambandham form of alliance with Nambutiris. They are called Illottammamar. Their jewelry resembles that of the Nambutiris. The Chakkiyar may choose a wife for sambandham from among the Nambiyars. They are their own priests, but the Brahmans do the purification (punyaham) of house and person after birth or death pollution. The pollution itself lasts for eleven days. The number of times the Gayatri (hymn) may be repeated is ten.

The traditional occupation of the Chakkiyans is the recitation of Puranic stories. The accounts of the Avataras have been considered the highest form of scripture of the non-Brahmanical classes, and the early Brahmans utilised the intervals of their Vedic rites, i.e., the afternoons, for listening to their recitation by castes who could afford the leisure to study and narrate them. Special adaptations for this purpose have been composed by writers like Narayana Bhattapada, generally known as the Bhattatirippat, among whose works Dutavakya, Panchalisvayamvara, Subhadrahana and Kaunteyashtaka are the most popular. In addition to these, standard works like Bhogachampu and Mahanataka are often pressed into the Chakkiyar's service. Numerous upakathas or episodes are brought in by way of illustration, and the marvellous flow of words, and the telling humour of the utterances, keep the audience spell-bound. On the utsavam programme of every important temple, especially in North Travancore, the Chakkiyarkuttu (Chakkiyar's performance) is an essential item. A special building, known as kuttampalam, is intended for this purpose. Here the Chakkiyar instructs and regales his hearers, antiquely dressed, and seated on a three-legged stool. He wears a peculiar turban with golden rim and silk embossments. A long piece of cloth with coloured edges, wrapped round the loins in innumerable vertical folds with an elaborateness of detail difficult to describe, is the Chakkiyar's distinctive apparel. Behind him stands the Nambiyar, whose traditional kinship with the Chakkiyar has been referred to, with a big jar-shaped metal drum in front of him called milavu, whose bass sound resembles the echo of distant thunder. The Nambiyar is indispensable for the Chakkiyarkuttu, and sounds his mighty instrument at the beginning, at the end, and also during the course of his recitation, when the Chakkiyar arrives at the middle and end of a Sanskrit verse. The Nangayar, a female of the Nambiyar caste, is another indispensable element, and sits in front of the Chakkiyar with a cymbal in hand, which she sounds occasionally. It is interesting to note that, amidst all the boisterous merriment into which the audience may be thrown, there is one person who has to sit motionless like a statue. If the Nangayar is moved to a smile, the kuttu must stop, and there are cases where, in certain temples, the kuttu has thus become a thing of the past. The Chakkiyar often makes a feint of representing some of his audience as his characters for the scene under depictment. But he does it in such a genteel way that rarely is offence taken. It is an unwritten canon of Chakkiyarkuttu that the performance should stop at once if any of the audience so treated should speak out in answer to the Chakkiyar, who, it may be added, would stare at an admiring listener, and thrust questions on him with such directness and force as to need an extraordinary effort to resist a reply. And so realistic is his performance that a tragic instance is said to have occurred when, by a cruel irony of fate, his superb skill cost a Chakkiyar his life. While he was explaining a portion of the Mahabharata with inimitable theatrical effect, a desperate friend of the Pandavas rose from his seat in a fit of uncontrollable passion, and actually knocked the Chakkiyar dead when, in an attitude of unmistakable though assumed heartlessness, he, as personating Duryodhana, inhumanely refused to allow even a pin-point of ground to his exiled cousins. This, it is believed, occurred in a private house, and thereafter kuttu was prohibited except at temples.

It is noted, in the Gazetteer of Malabar, that "Chakkiyars or Slaghyar-vakukar are a caste following makkattayam (inheritance from father to son), and wear the punul (thread). They are recruited from girls born to a Nambudiri woman found guilty of adultery, after the date at which such adultery is found to have commenced, and boys of similar origin, who have been already invested with the sacred thread. Boys who have not been invested with the punul when their mother is declared an adulteress, join the class known as Chakkiyar Nambiyars, who follow marumakkattayam (inheritance in the female line), and do not wear the thread. The girls join either caste indifferently. Chakkiyars may marry Nangiyars, but Chakkiyar Nambiyars may not marry Illotammamar."

Chaliyan.--The Chaliyans are a caste of Malayalam cotton weavers, concerning whom Mr. Francis writes as follows [10]:--"In dress and manners they resemble the artisan castes of Malabar, but, like the Pattar Brahmans, they live in streets, which fact probably points to their being comparatively recent settlers from the east coast. They have their own barbers called Potuvans, who are also their purohits. They do not wear the sacred thread, as the Sale weavers of the east coast do. They practise ancestor worship, but without the assistance of Brahman priests. This is the only Malabar caste which has anything to do with the right and left-hand faction disputes, and both divisions are represented in it, the left hand being considered the superior. Apparently, therefore, it settled in Malabar some time after the beginnings of this dispute on the east coast, that is, after the eleventh century A. D. Some of them follow the marumakkatayam and others the makkatayam law of inheritance, which looks as if the former were earlier settlers than the latter."

The Chaliyans are so called because, unlike most of the west coast classes, they live in streets, and Teruvan (teru, a street) occurs as a synonym for the caste name. The right-hand section are said to worship the elephant god Ganesa, and the left Bhagavati.

The following account of the Chaliyans is given in the Gazetteer of the Malabar district: "Chaliyans are almost certainly a class of immigrants from the east coast. They live in regular streets, a circumstance strongly supporting this view. The traditional account is to the same effect. It is said that they were originally of a high caste, and were imported by one of the Zamorins, who wished to introduce the worship of Ganapathi, to which they are much addicted. The latter's minister, the Mangatt Acchan, who was entrusted with the entertainment of the new arrivals, and was nettled by their fastidiousness and constant complaints about his catering, managed to degrade them in a body by the trick of secretly mixing fish with their food. They do not, like their counterparts on the east coast, wear the thread; but it is noticeable that their priests, who belong to their own caste, wear it over the right shoulder instead of over the left like the Brahman's punul, when performing certain pujas (worship). In some parts, the place of the regular punul is taken by a red scarf or sash worn in the same manner. They are remarkable for being the only caste in Malabar amongst whom any trace of the familiar east coast division into right-hand and left-hand factions is to be found. They are so divided; and those belonging to the right-hand faction deem themselves polluted by the touch of those belonging to the left-hand sect, which is numerically very weak. They are much addicted to devil-dancing, which rite is performed by certain of their numbers called Komarams in honour of Bhagavathi and the minor deities Vettekkorumagan and Gulikan (a demon). They appear to follow makkatayam (descent from father to son) in some places, and marumakkatayam (inheritance in the female line) in others. Their pollution period is ten days, and their purification is performed by the Talikunnavan (sprinkler), who belongs to a somewhat degraded section of the caste."

The affairs of the caste are managed by headmen called Uralans, and the caste barber, or Pothuvan, acts as the caste messenger. Council meetings are held at the village temple, and the fines inflicted on guilty persons are spent in celebrating puja (worship) thereat.

When a girl reaches puberty, the elderly females of Uralan families take her to a tank, and pour water over her head from small cups made of the leaves of the jak (Artocarpus integrifolia) tree. She is made to sit apart on a mat in a room decorated with young cocoanut leaves. Round the mat raw rice and paddy (unhusked rice) are spread, and a vessel containing cocoanut flowers and cocoanuts is placed near her. On the third evening, the washerman (Peruvannan) brings some newly-washed cloths (mattu). He is presented with some rice and paddy, which he ties up in a leaf, and does puja. He then places the cloths on a plank, which he puts on his head. After repeating some songs or verses, he sets it down on the floor. Some of the girl's female relations take a lighted lamp, a pot of water, a measure of rice, and go three times round the plank. On the following day, the girl is bathed, and the various articles which have been kept in her room are thrown into a river or tank.

Like many other Malabar castes, the Chaliyans perform the tali kettu ceremony. Once in several years, the girls of the village who have to go through this ceremony are brought to the house of one of the Uralans, where a pandal (booth) has been set up. Therein a plank, made of the wood of the pala tree (Alstonia scholaris), a lighted lamp, betel leaves and nuts, a measure of raw rice, etc., are placed. The girl takes her seat on the plank, holding in her right hand a mimic arrow (shanthulkol). The Pothuvan, who receives a fanam (coin) and three bundles of betel leaves for his services, hands the tali to a male member of an Uralan family, who ties it on the girl's neck.

On the day before the wedding-day the bridegroom, accompanied by his male relations, proceeds to the house of the bride, where a feast is held. On the following day the bride is bathed, and made to stand before a lighted lamp placed on the floor. The bridegroom's father or uncle places two gold fanams (coins) in her hands, and a further feast takes place.

In the seventh month of pregnancy, the ceremony called puli kudi (or drinking tamarind) is performed. The woman's brother brings a twig of a tamarind tree, and, after the leaves have been removed, plants it in the yard of the house. The juice is extracted from the leaves, and mixed with the juice of seven cocoanuts. The elderly female relations of the woman give her a little of the mixture. The ceremony is repeated during three days. Birth pollution is removed by a barber woman sprinkling water on the ninth day.

The dead are buried. The son carries a pot of water to the grave, round which he takes it three times. The barber makes a hole in the pot, which is then thrown down at the head of the grave. The barber also tears off a piece of the cloth, in which the corpse is wrapped. This is, on the tenth day, taken by the son and barber to the sea or a tank, and thrown into it. Three stones are set up over the grave.

Chaliyan also occurs as an occupational title or sub-division of Nayars, and Chaliannaya as an exogamous sept of Bant. In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Chaliyan is given as a sub-caste of Vaniyan (oil-pressers). Some Chaliyans are, however, oilmongers by profession.

Challa.--Challa, meaning apparently eaters of refuse, occurs as a sub-division of Yanadis, and meaning buttermilk as an exogamous sept of Devanga. Challakuti, meaning those who eat old or cold food, is an exogamous sept of Kapus.