Part 16

Navva.--Drawn in ashes of cow-dung on a new cloth, and tied round the waist. It relieves a woman in labour.

Asvarudha (to climb a horse).--A person wearing it is able to cover long distances easily on horseback, and he can make the most refractory horse amenable by tying it round its neck. It will also help to cure cattle.

"The charms," Mr. Fawcett explains, "are entirely inoperative, unless accompanied in the first place with the mystic rite, which is the secret of the Panikkar."

Many Kaniyans used formerly to be village schoolmasters, but, with the abolition of the old methods of teaching, their number is steadily decreasing. Some of them are clever physicians. Those who have no pretension to learning live by making palm-leaf umbrellas, which gives occupation to the women. But the industry is fast declining before the competition of umbrellas imported from foreign countries.

The Kaniyans worship the sun, the planets, the moon, Ganesa and Subramanya, Vishnu, Siva, and Baghavati. On each day of the week, the planet, which is believed to preside over it, is specially worshipped by an elaborate process, which is compulsorily gone through for at least three weeks after a Kaniyan has become proficient in astrology, and able to make calculations for himself.

It is generally believed that the supreme authority in all social matters affecting the Kaniyan rests in British Malabar with the Yogi already referred to, in Cochin and North Travancore with the head of the Pazhur house, and in South Travancore with the eldest member of a house at Manakkad in Trivandrum, known by the name of Sankili. Practically, however, the spiritual headmen, called Kannalmas, are independent. These Kannalmas are much respected, and well paid on festive occasions by every Kaniyan house. They and other elders sit in judgment on persons guilty of adultery, commensality with lower castes, and other offences, and inflict punishments.

The Kaniyans observe both the tali-kettu ceremony before puberty, and sambandham after that event. Inheritance is through the father, and the eldest male of a family has the management of the ancestral estate. Fraternal polyandry is said to have been common in olden times, and Mr. Logan observes that, "like the Pandava brothers, as they proudly point out, the Kanisans used formerly to have one wife in common among several brothers, and this custom is still observed by some of them." There is no restriction to the marriage of widows.

Concerning polyandry, Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer states that "among the Kaniyans, as well as among Panikkans, polyandry largely prevails. If the young woman is intended to be the wife of several brothers, the eldest brother goes to the bride's house, and gives her the cloth, and takes her home the next day along with her parents and relations, who are all well entertained. The young woman and the brothers are seated together, and a sweet preparation is given to them, which signifies that she has become the common wife of all. The Kalari Muppan (Nayar headman of the village) also declares her to be such. The guests depart, and the bridegroom (the eldest brother) and the bride are invited to what they call virunnu-oon (sumptuous meal) in the house of the latter, where they stay for a few days. The bridegroom then returns home with the wife. The other brothers, one after another, are similarly entertained along with the bride at her house. The brothers cannot afford to live together for a long time, and they go from place to place, earning their livelihood by astrology. Each brother is at home only for a few days in each month; hence practically the woman has only one husband at a time. If several of them happen to be at home together for a few weeks, each in turn associates with the woman, in accordance with the directions given by their mother."

The Kaniyans follow high-caste Hindus as regards many of their ceremonies. They have their name-bestowing, food-giving and tuft-making ceremonies, and also a superstitious rite called ittaluzhiyuka, or exorcism in child-birth on the seventh or ninth day after the birth of a child. A Kaniyan's education begins in his seventh year. In the sixteenth year a ceremony, corresponding to the upanayana of the higher castes, is performed. For forty-one days after, the Kannalma initiates the young Kaniyan into the mysteries of astrology and witchcraft. He is obliged to worship Subramanya, the tutelary god of the caste, and abstains from meat and liquor. This may be taken as the close of his Brahmacharya stage or Samavartana, as marriage cannot take place before the observance of this ceremony.

On the subject of religion, Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer writes that "the Kalari Panikkans and the Kaniyans are generally Saivite worshippers, but are not disinclined to the worship of Vishnu also. It is said that their kalaris are forty-two feet long, and contain the images of forty-two deities. The following are the most important of them:--Subrahmanya, Sastha, Ganapati, Virabhadran, Narasimha, Ashtabairavas, Hanuman, and Bhadrakali. Some of their kalaris, which were seen by me, contained stone and metal images of these gods. Every night a lamp is lighted in front of them for their worship. During the Mandalam (forty days) from the first of Vrischikam to the tenth of Dhanu (14th November to 25th December), the senior member of the Panikkan's family bathes early in the morning, and performs his pujas to all the gods, making offerings of boiled rice, plantains and cocoanuts. On the fortieth day, i.e., the last day of the Mandalam, a grand puja is performed individually to every one of the deities in the kalari, and this lasts for twenty-four hours, from sunrise to sunrise, when offerings of boiled rice, parched rice, sheep and fowls are also given. This is the grand puja performed once in the course of the year. Besides this, some of their deities command their special reverence. For instance, Subrahmanya is adored for the sake of astrology, Sastha for wealth and offspring. They are also worshippers of Sakti in any of her following manifestations, namely, Bala, Thripura, Mathangi, Ambika, Durga, Bhadrakali, the object of which is to secure accuracy in their astrological predictions. Further, every member of the caste proficient in astrology daily offers, after an early bath, his prayers to the seven planets. Among the minor deities whom they worship, are also Mallan, Mundian, Muni and Ayutha Vadukan, the first three of which they worship for the prosperity of their cattle, and the last four for their success in the training of young men in athletic feats. These deities are represented by stones placed at the root of some shady tree in their compounds. They also worship the spirits of their ancestors, on the new-moon nights in Karkadakam (July-August), Thulam (October-November), and Makaram (December-January). The Kalari Panikkans celebrate a kind of feast to the spirits of their female ancestors. This is generally done a few days before the celebration of a wedding in their houses, and is probably intended to obtain their blessings for the happy married life of the bride. This corresponds to the performance of Sumangalia Prarthana (feast for the spirits of departed virgins and married women) performed by Brahmans in their families. At times when small-pox, cholera, and other pestilential diseases prevail in a village, special pujas are offered to Mariamma (the small-pox demon) and Bhadrakali, who should be propitiated. On these occasions, their priest turns Velichapad (oracle), and speaks to the village men as if by inspiration, telling them when and how the maladies will subside."

Kaniyans were formerly buried, but are now, excepting young children, cremated in a portion of the grounds of the habitation, or in a spot adjacent thereto. The ashes are collected on the fourth day, and deposited under water. In memory of the deceased, an annual offering of food is made, and an oblation of water offered on every new moon.

The Potuvans or Kani Kuruppus are the barbers of the Kaniyans, and have the privilege of being in attendance during marriages and funerals. It is only after they have sprinkled water in the houses of polluted Kaniyans that they again become pure. In fact, the Potuvans stand in the same relation to the Kaniyans as the Marans to the Nayars. The Potuvans are not expected to shave the Tinta Kaniyans.

The Kaniyans are said to keep at a distance of twenty-four feet from a Brahman or Kshatriya, and half that distance from a Sudra. The corresponding distances for a Tinta Kaniyan are thirty-six and eighteen feet. This restriction is not fully observed in Trivandrum, and south of it. It is noted by Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer that, on marriage occasions, a Nayar gives a gift of a few annas and betel leaves to the astrologer, standing close beside him, and yet there is no pollution. The Malayalam proverb "On marriage occasions the Nayars give dakshina (gift), almost touching the hand," refers to this fact. The Kaniyans cannot enter Brahmanical temples. They will not receive food from Izhavans, except in a few villages in central Travancore, but this is a regular practice with the Tinta Kaniyans. It is believed that the Kaniyans proper have no objection to receiving sweetmeats from Kammalans.

The Kaniyans have been summed up as a law-abiding people, who not infrequently add agriculture to their avocations of village doctor, prophet, or demon-driver, and are popular with Christians and Muhammadans as well as with Hindus. [98]

The late Mr. Pogson, when Government astronomer, used to say that his principal native assistant was an astronomer from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. and an astrologer from 5 P.M. to 10 A.M.

Kannada.--Kannada (Kanarese) has, at recent times of census, been returned as a linguistic or territorial division of various classes, e.g., Agasa, Bedar, Devanga, Holeya, Koracha, Kumbara, Samagara, Rachewar, and Uppiliyan.

Kanna Pulayan.--Described by the Rev. W. J. Richards [99] as Pulayans of Travancore, who wear rather better and more artistically made aprons than the Thanda Pulayan women.

Kannaku.--A prefix to the name of Nanchinat Vellalas in Travancore.

Kannan.--A sub-division of Kammalans, the members of which do braziers' work.

Kannadiyan.--The Kannadiyans have been summed up [100] as "immigrants from the province of Mysore. Their traditional occupation is said to have been military service, although they follow, at the present day, different pursuits in different districts. They are usually cattle-breeders and cultivators in North and South Arcot and Chingleput, and traders in the southern districts. Most of them are Lingayats, but a few are Vaishnavites." "They are," it is stated, [101] "in the Mysore State known as Gaulis. At their weddings, five married women are selected, who are required to bathe as each of the most important of the marriage ceremonies is performed, and are alone allowed to cook for, or to touch the happy couple. Weddings last eight days, during which time the bride and bridegroom must not sit on anything but woollen blankets." Some Kannadiyans in the Tanjore district are said to be weavers. For the following account of the Kannadiyans of the Chingleput district I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao.

About twenty miles from the city of Madras is a big tank (lake) named after the village of Chembrambakam, which is close by. The fertile land surrounding this tank is occupied, among others, by a colony of Lingayats, of whom each household, as a rule, owns several acres of land. With the cultivation thereof, they have the further occupation of cattle grazing. They utilize the products of the cow in various ways, and it supplies them with milk, butter and curds, in the last two of which they carry on a lucrative trade in the city of Madras. The curds sold by them are very highly appreciated by Madras Brahmans, as they have a sour taste caused by keeping them till fermentation has set in. So great is the demand for their curds that advances of money are made to them, and regular delivery is thus secured. Their price is higher than that of the local Madras curds, and if a Lingayat buys the latter and sells them at the higher rate, he is decisively stigmatised as being a "local." They will not even touch sheep and goats, and believe that even the smell of these animals will make cows and buffaloes barren.

Though the chief settlement of the Lingayats is at Chembrambakam, they are also to be found in the adjacent villages and in the Conjeeveram taluk, and, in all, they number, in the Chingleput district, about four thousand.

The Lingayats have no idea how their forefathers came to the Chingleput district. Questioned whether they have any relatives in Mysore, many answered in the affirmative, and one even pointed to one in a high official position as a close relation. Another said that the Gurukkal or Jangam (priest) is one and the same man for the Mysore Lingayats and themselves. A third told me of his grandfather's wanderings in Mysore, Bellary, and other places of importance to the Lingayats. I have also heard the story that, on the Chembrambakam Lingayats being divided into two factions through disputes among the local caste-men, a Lingayat priest came from Mysore, and brought about their union. These few facts suffice to show that the Lingayats are emigrants from Mysore, and not converts from the indigenous populations of the district. But what as to the date of their immigration? The earliest date which can, with any show of reason, be ascribed thereto seems to be towards the end of the seventeenth century, when Chikka Deva Raja ruled over Mysore. He adopted violent repressive measures against the Lingayats for quelling a widespread insurrection, which they had fomented against him throughout the State. His measures of financial reform deprived the Lingayat priesthood of its local leadership and much of its pecuniary profit. What followed may best be stated in the words of Colonel Wilks, [102] the Mysore historian. "Everywhere the inverted plough, suspended from the tree at the gate of the village, whose shade forms a place of assembly for its inhabitants, announced a state of insurrection. Having determined not to till the land, the husbandmen deserted their villages, and assembled in some places like fugitives seeking a distant settlement; in others as rebels breathing revenge. Chikka Deva Raja, however, was too prompt in his measures to admit of any very formidable combination. Before proceeding to measures of open violence, he adopted a plan of perfidy and horror, yielding to nothing which we find recorded in the annals of the most sanguinary people. An invitation was sent to all the Jangam priests to meet the Raja at the great temple of Nunjengod, ostensibly to converse with him on the subject of the refractory conduct of their followers. Treachery was apprehended, and the number which assembled was estimated at about four hundred only. A large pit had been previously prepared in a walled enclosure, connected by a series of squares composed of tent walls with the canopy of audience, at which they were received one at a time, and, after making their obeisance, were desired to retire to a place where, according to custom, they expected to find refreshments prepared at the expense of the Raja. Expert executioners were in waiting in the square, and every individual in succession was so skilfully beheaded and tumbled into the pit as to give no alarm to those who followed, and the business of the public audience went on without interruption or suspicion. Circular orders had been sent for the destruction on the same day of all the Jangam Mutts (places of residence and worship) in his dominions, and the number reported to have been destroyed was upwards of seven hundred.... This notable achievement was followed by the operations of the troops, chiefly cavalry. The orders were distinct and simple--to charge without parley into the midst of the mob; to cut down every man wearing an orange-coloured robe (the peculiar garb of the Jangam priests)."

How far the husbandmen carried out their threat of seeking a distant settlement it is impossible, at this distance of time, to determine. If the theory of religious persecution as the cause of their emigration has not an air of certainty about it, it is at least plausible.

If the beginning of the eighteenth century is the earliest, the end of that century is the latest date that can be set down for the Lingayat emigration. That century was perhaps the most troublous one in the modern history of India. Armies were passing and repassing the ghats, and I have heard from some old gentlemen that the Chingleput Lingayats, who are mostly shepherds, accompanied the troops in the humble capacity of purveyors of milk and butter.

Whatever the causes of their emigration, we find them in the Chingleput district ordinarily reckoning the Mysore, Salem and Bellary Lingayats as of their own stock. They freely mix with each other, and I hear contract marital alliances with one another. They speak the Kannada (Kanarese) language--the language of Mysore and Bellary. They call themselves by the name of Kannadiyans or Kannadiyars, after the language they speak, and the part of the village they inhabit--Kannadipauliem, or village of the Kannadiyars. In parts of Madras they are known as Kavadi and Kavadiga (=bearers of head-loads).

Both men and women are possessed of great stamina. Almost every other day they walk to and fro, in all seasons, more than twenty miles by road to sell their butter and curds in Madras. While so journeying, they carry on their heads a curd pot in a rattan basket containing three or four Madras measures of curds, besides another pot containing a measure or so of butter. Some of the men are good acrobats and gymnasts, and I have seen a very old man successively break in two four cocoanuts, each placed on three or four crystals of common salt, leaving the crystals almost intact. And I have heard that there are men who can so break fifty cocoanuts--perhaps an exaggeration for a considerable number. In general the women may be termed beautiful, and, in Mysore, the Lingayat women are, by common consent, regarded as models of feminine beauty.

These Lingayats are divided into two classes, viz., Gauliyars of Damara village, and Kadaperi or Kannadiyars proper, of Chembrambakam and other places. The Gauliyars carry their curd pots in rattan baskets; the Kannadiyars in bamboo baskets. Each class has its own beat in the city of Madras, and, while the majority of the rattan basket men traffic mainly in Triplicane, the bamboo basket men carry on their business in Georgetown and other localities. The two classes worship the same gods, feed together, but do not intermarry. The rattan is considered superior to the bamboo section. Both sections are sub-divided into a large number of exogamous septs or bedagagulu, of which the meaning, with a few exceptions, e.g., split cane, bear, and fruit of Eugenia Jambolana, is not clear.

Monogamy appears to be the general rule among them, but polygamy to the extent of having two wives, the second to counteract the sterility of the first, is not rare. Marriage before puberty is the rule, which must not be transgressed. And it is a common thing to see small boys grazing the cattle, who are married to babies hardly more than a year old. Marriages are arranged by the parents, or through intermediaries, with the tacit approval of the community as a whole. The marriage ceremony generally lasts about nine or ten days, and, to lessen the expenses for the individual, several families club together and celebrate their marriages simultaneously. All the preliminaries such as inviting the wedding guests, etc., are attended to by the agent of the community, who is called Chaudri. The appointment of agent is hereditary.

The first day of the marriage ceremony is employed in the erection of the booth or pandal. On the following day, the bodice-wearing ceremony is performed. The bride and bridegroom are presented with new clothes, which they put on amid general merriment. In connection with this ceremony, the following Mysore story may not be out of place. When Tipu Sultan once saw a Lingayat woman selling curds in the street without a body cloth, he ordered the cutting off of her breasts. Since then the wearing of long garments has come into use among the whole female population of Mysore.

The third day is the most important, as it is on that day that the Muhurtham, or tali-tying ceremony, takes place, and an incident of quite an exceptional character comes off amid general laughter. A Brahman (generally a Saivite) is formally invited to attend, and pretends that he is unable to do so. But he is, with mock gravity, pressed hard to do so, and, after repeated guarantees of good faith, he finally consents with great reluctance and misgivings. On his arrival at the marriage booth, the headman of the family in which the marriage is taking place seizes him roughly by the head, and ties as tightly as possible five cocoanuts to the kudumi, or lock of hair at the back of the head, amidst the loud, though not real, protestations of the victim. All those present, with all seriousness, pacify him, and he is cheered by the sight of five rupees, which are presented to him. This gift he readily accepts, together with a pair of new cloths and pan-supari (betel leaves and areca nuts). Meanwhile the young folk have been making sport of him by throwing at his new and old clothes big empty brinjal fruits (Solanum Melongena) filled with turmeric powder and chunam (lime). He goes for the boys, who dodge him, and at last the elders beat off the youngsters with the remark that "after all he is a Brahman, and ought not to be trifled with in this way." The Brahman then takes leave, and is heard of no more in connection with the wedding rites. The whole ceremony has a decided ring of mockery about it, and leads one to the conclusion that it is celebrated more in derision than in honour of the Brahmans. It is a notorious fact that the Lingayats will not even accept water from a Brahman's hands, and do not, like many other castes, require his services in connection with marriage or funeral ceremonies. The practice of tying cocoanuts to the hair of the Brahman seems to be confined to the bamboo section. But an equally curious custom is observed by the rattan section. The village barber is invited to the wedding, and the infant bride and bridegroom are seated naked before him. He is provided with some ghi(clarified butter) in a cocoanut shell, and has to sprinkle some of it on the head of the couple with a grass or reed. He is, however, prevented from doing so by a somewhat cruel contrivance. A big stone (representing the linga) is suspended from his neck by a rope, and he is kept nodding to and fro by another rope which is pulled by young lads behind him. Eventually they leave off, and he sprinkles the ghi, and is dismissed with a few annas, pan-supari, and the remains of the ghi. By means of the stone the barber is for the moment turned into a Lingayat.

The officiating priest at the marriage ceremony is a man of their own sect, and is known as the Gurukkal. They address him as Ayyanavaru, a title generally reserved for Brahmans in Kannada-speaking districts. The main items of expenditure at a wedding are the musician, presents of clothes, and pan-supari, especially the areca nuts. One man, who was not rich, told me that it cost him, for a marriage, three maunds of nuts, and that guests come more for them than for the meals, which he characterised as not fit for dogs.