The poles are connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be heated and boiled. Seven fire-places are made, beneath the wire. The branches of bamboo, katalati (Achyranthes Emblica), conga (Bauhinea variegata), cocoanut palm, jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavatta indica), are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the forehead enables the possessor to realise anything that is thought of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days, and live on a diet of chama kanji. The deity, whose aid is necessary, is propitiated with offerings.“One of the ceremonies which the Pānāns perform is called Thukil Onarthuka (waking thukil, a kind of drum). In the month of Karkadakam (July-August), a Pānān, with his wife, provided with a drum and kuzhithalam (circular bell-metal cymbals), goes to the houses of Brāhmans and Nāyars after midnight, and sings sacred songs. During the week, they sing standing underneath a banyan tree near the western gate of the Trichūr temple. From the temple authorities they get five measures of paddy, half a measure of rice, some gingelly oil, and a cocoanut. For their services in other houses, they receive a similar remuneration. This is intended to drive evil spirits, if any, from houses. Another of their festivals is known as Pānān Kali. The traditional account therefor is as follows. Once, when a Pānān and his wife went to a forest to bring bamboos for the manufacture of umbrellas, they missed their way, night approached, and they could not return. They began to be frightened by the varieties of noise heard by them in the wilderness. They collected piecesof dry bamboo and leaves of trees, and burned them. In the presence of the light thus obtained, the woman caught hold of a creeper hanging from a tree, and danced in honour of Bhagavathi, while her husband sang songs praising her. The day dawned at last, and they found their way home in safety. In memory of this incident, the Pānāns organise a party for a regular play. There are ten male and two female actors, and the play is acted during the whole night.“The religion of the Pānāns consists of an all-pervading demonology. Their chief gods are Mukkan, Chāthan, Kappiri, Malankorathi, and Kali. Pūjas are performed to them on the first of Medom (April-May), Karkadakam (July-August), Desara, and on Tuesday in Makaram (January-February). These deities are represented by stones placed under a tree. They are washed with water on the aforesaid days, and offerings of sheep and fowls, malar (parched rice), plantains, cocoanuts, and boiled rice are made to them. Their belief is that these deities are ever prone to do harm to them, and should therefore be propitiated with offerings. The Pānāns also worship the spirits of their ancestors, who pass for their household gods, and whose help they seek in all times of danger. They fast on new-moon nights, and on the eleventh night after full-moon or new-moon.“The Pānān is the barber of the polluting castes above Cherumans. By profession he is an umbrella-maker. Pānāns are also engaged in all kinds of agricultural work. In villages, they build mud walls. Their women act as midwives.“As regards social status, the Pānāns eat at the hands of Brāhmans, Nāyars, Kammālans, and Izhuvans. They have to stand at a distance of thirty-two feet fromBrāhmans. Pānāns and Kaniyans pollute one another if they touch, and both bathe should they happen to do so. They are their own barbers and washermen. They live in the vicinity of the Izhuvans, but cannot live in the Nāyar tharas. Nor can they take water from the wells of the Kammālans. They cannot approach the outer walls of Brāhman temples, and are not allowed to enter the Brāhman streets in Palghat.”In the Census Report, 1891, Pānān occurs as a sub-division of the Paraiyans. Their chief occupation as leather-workers is said to be the manufacture of drum-heads.30Panasa.—The Panasas are a class of beggars in the Telugu country, who are said to ask alms only from Kamsalas. The word panasa means constant repetition of words, and, in its application to the Panasa, probably indicates that they, like the Bhatrāzu bards and panegyrists, make up verses eulogising those from whom they beg. It is stated in the Kurnool Manual (1886) that “they take alms from the Bēri Kōmatis and goldsmiths (Kamsalas), and no others. The story goes that, in Golkonda, a tribe of Kōmatis named Bacheluvāru were imprisoned for non-payment of arrears of revenue. Finding certain men of the artificer class who passed by in the street spit betel nut, they got it into their mouths, and begged the artificers to get them released. The artificers, pitying them, paid the arrears, and procured their release. It was then that the Kamsalis fixed a vartana or annual house-fee for the maintenance of the Panasa class, on condition that they should not beg alms from the other castes.” The Panasas appear every year in the Kurnool district to collect their dues.Pāncha.—Pāncha, meaning five, is recorded as a sub-division of the Linga Balijas, and Pānchachāra or Pānchamsāle as a sub-division of Lingāyats. In all these, pāncha has reference to the five ācharas or ceremonial observances of the Lingāyats, which seem to vary according to locality. Wearing the lingam, worshipping it before meals, and paying reverence to the Jangam priests, are included among the observances.Pānchāla.—A synonym for Canarese Kammālans, among whom five (pānch) classes of workers are included, viz., gold and silver, brass and copper, iron, and stone.Pānchalinga(five lingams).—An exogamous sept of Bōya. The lingam is the symbol of Siva.Panchama.—The Panchamas are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste, and described by Buchanan and other writers as the Pancham Bandam.” According to Buchanan,31the Pancham Bandum “consist of four tribes, the Parriar, the Baluan, the Shekliar, and the Toti.” Buchanan further makes mention of Panchama Banijigaru and Panchama Cumbharu (potters). The Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. This classification was replaced, for convenience of reference, by Panchama, which included Chacchadis, Godāris, Pulayas, Holeyas, Mādigas, Mālas, Pallans, Paraiyans, Totis, and Valluvans. “It is,” the Director of Public Instruction wrote in 1902, “for Government to consider whether the various classes concerned should, for the sake of brevity, be described by one simple name. The terms Paraiya, low caste, outcaste, carry with them aderogatory meaning, and are unsuitable. The expression Pancham Banda, or more briefly Panchama, seems more appropriate.” The Government ruled that there is no objection to the proposal that Paraiyas and kindred classes should be designated Panchama Bandham or Panchama in future, but it would be simpler to style them the fifth class.The following educational privileges according to the various classes classified as Panchama may be noted:—(1) They are admitted into schools at half the standard rates of fees.(2) Under the result grant system (recently abolished), grants were passed for Panchama pupils at rates 50 per cent. higher than in ordinary cases, and 15 per cent. higher in backward localities.(3) Panchama schools were exempted from the attendance restriction,i.e., grants were given to them, however small the attendance. Ordinary schools had to have an attendance of ten at least to earn grants.(4) Panchama students under training as teachers get stipends at rates nearly double of those for ordinary Hindus.An interesting account of the system of education at the Olcott Panchama Free Schools has been written by Mrs. Courtright.32Panchama is returned, in the Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as a sub-division of Balija and Banajiga.Panchāramkatti.—A sub-division of Idaiyan, which derives its name from the neck ornament (panchāram) worn by the women.Pandamuttu.—A sub-division of Palli. The name is made by Winslow to mean a number of torchesarranged so as to represent an elephant. The Pallis, however, explain it as referring to the pile of pots, which reaches to the top of the marriage pandal (pandal, booth, mutti, touching). The lowest pot is decorated with figures of elephants and horses.Pandāram.—Pandāram is described by Mr. H. A. Stuart33as being “the name rather of an occupation than a caste, and used to denote any non-Brāhmanical priest. The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Saivite Sūdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety, and wander about begging. They are in reality very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Sūdra. They often serve in Siva temples, where they make garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brazen trumpets when offerings are made, or processions take place. Tirutanni is one of the chief places, in which they congregate.”It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that “the water for the god’s bath at Ratnagiri is brought by a caste of non-Brāhmans known as Tirumanjana Pandārams, who fetch it every day from the Cauvery. They say that they are descended from an Āryan king, who came to the god with the hope of getting rubies from him. The god, in the guise of a Brāhman, tested his devotion by making him fill a magic vessel with Cauvery water. The vessel would not fill, and the Āryan stranger in a fit of anger cut off the Brāhman’s head. The dead body at once turned into a lingam, and the Āryan was ordered to carry water for the temple till eternity.”Pandāram is used both as the name of a caste, and of a class composed of recruits from various castes (e.g.,Vellāla and Palli). The Pandāram caste is composed of respectable people who have settled down as land-holders, and of Sanyāsis and priests of certain matams (religious institutions), and managers of richly endowed temples, such as those at Tiruvādudurai in Tanjore and Mailām in South Arcot. The common name for these managers is Tambirān. The caste Pandārams are staunch Saivites and strict vegetarians. Those who lead a celibate life wear the lingam. They are said to have been originally Sōzhia Vellālas, with whom intermarriage still takes place. They are initiated into the Saivite religion by a rite called Dhīkshai, which is divided into five stages, viz., Samaya, Nirvāna, Visēsha, Kalāsothanai, and Achārya Abhishēkam. Some are temple servants, and supply flowers for the god, while others sing dēvaram (hymns to the god) during the temple service. On this account, they are known as Meikāval (body-guard of the god), and Ōduvar (reader). The caste Pandārams have two divisions, called Abhishēka and Dēsikar, and the latter name is often taken as a title,e.g., Kandasāmi Dēsikar. An Abhishēka Pandāram is one who is made to pass through some ceremonies connected with Saiva Āgama.The mendicant Pandārams, who are recruited from various classes, wear the lingam, and do not abstain from eating flesh. Many villages have a Pandāram as the priest of the shrine of the village deity, who is frequently a Palli who has become a Pandāram by donning the lingam. The females are said to live, in some cases, by prostitution.The Lingāyat Pandārams differ in many respects from the true Lingāyats. The latter respect their Jangam, and use the sacred water, in which the feet of the Jangam are washed, for washing their stone lingam.To the Pandārams, and Tamil Lingāyats in general, this proceeding would amount to sacrilege of the worst type. Canarese and Telugu Lingāyats regard a Jangam as superior to the stone lingam. In the matter of pollution ceremonies the Tamil Lingāyats are very particular, whereas the orthodox Lingāyats observe no pollution. The investiture with the lingam does not take place so early among the Tamil as among the Canarese Lingāyats.For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. “Dr. H. H. Wilson34is of opinion that the word Pandāram is ‘more properly Pānduranga, pale complexioned, from their smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hēmachandrā’s history of Mahāvīra, when speaking of the Saiva Brāhmans.’ A more popular derivation of the name is from Bandāram, a public treasury. A good many well-to-do Pandārams are managers of Siva temples in Southern India, and accordingly have the temple treasuries under their care. It is, however, possible that the name has been acquired by the caste by reason of their keeping a yellow powder, called pandāram, in a little box, and giving it in return for the alms which they receive.Opinions are divided as to whether the Pandārams are Lingāyats or not. The opinion held by F. W. Ellis, the well-known Tamil scholar and translator of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, is thus summarised by Colonel Wilks.35“Mr. Ellis considers the Jangam of the upper countries, and the Pandāram of the lower, to be of the same sect, and both deny in the most unequivocal terms the doctrine of the metempsychosis. A manuscript in the Mackenzie collection ascribes the origin of the Pandārams as asacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation.” Dr. Wilson36also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr. H. A. Stuart37says that they are a class of priests who serve the non-Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.Pandāram is, in fact, a class name rather than the name of a caste, and it consists of priests and beggars. Mr. C. P. Brown38thinks that the Pandārams are not Lingāyats. ‘The Saiva worshippers among the Tamils are called Pandārams: these are not Vira Saivas, nor do they wear the linga or adore Basava. I name them here chiefly because they are often mentioned as being Vira Saivas, whereas in truth they are (like the Smartas) Purva Saivas, and worship the image of Siva in their houses.’ It must be remarked that Mr. Brown appears to have had a confused idea of Pandārams. Pandārams wear the linga on their bodies in one of the usual modes, are priests to others professing the Lingāyat religion, and are fed by them on funeral and other ceremonial occasions. At the same time, it must be added that they are—more especially the begging sections—very lax as regards their food and drink. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more orthodox Lingāyats. Moreover, Lingāyats remarry their widows, whereas the Pandārams, as a caste, will not.“Pandārams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisūlam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandāyudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about thestreets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency,e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvānnāmalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingāyats. A samādhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.“The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandāra Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Āgamas and Purānas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhānta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirāns—a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars.”In the Census Report, 1901, Vairāvi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandāram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pūjāris in village temples. Vairāvi is further used as a name for members of the Mēlakkāran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nāttukōttai Chettis.Pandāram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.A class of people called hill Pandārams are described39by the Rev. S. Mateer as “miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and otherproduce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat,Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayālam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons.” Concerning these hill Pandārams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kāttumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days’ stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Rāman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandārams as being “skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard,Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade,which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like āhlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Urālis.”Pandāriyar.—Pandāriyar or Pandārattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattamān, Malaimān, and Sudarmān.Pāndava-kulam.—A title, indicative “of the caste of the Pāndava kings,” assumed by Jātapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pāndavas. The Pāndava kings were the heroes of the Mahābhārata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pāndavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.Pandi(pig).—Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Bōya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Oddē.Pandito.—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined40as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugucountries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix,e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.”41I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.Pāndya.—The territorial name Pāndya, Pāndiya, Pāndiyan, or Pāndi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes,e.g., Ambattan, Kammālan, Ōcchan, Pallan, Vannān, and Vellāla. Pāndiya is further a title of some Shānāns. In Travancore, Pāndi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pāndiangal occurs as an exogamous sept ofthe Tamil Vallambans, and Pāndu as a Tamil synonym for Kāpu or Reddi.Panikkar.—Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :—1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. “The Panikkans are,” Mr. Francis writes,42“weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, andeach of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams.” The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.Panimagan(work children).—A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.Panisavan.—Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as “a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the thārai or long trumpet.” According to Mr. H. A. Stuart,43Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dāsaris or Tādas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tādas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate andrespectable class. Their priests are Brāhmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and thārai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the thārai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the thārai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak’s hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The thārai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmāndhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tāli (marriage badge) is removed from a widow’s neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separatecaste, and have no connection with the Nōkkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nōkkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brāhman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nāgasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Dēva-dāsis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu vēlai,i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandāram, Pillai, and Mudali.Paniyan.—The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynād, and those portions of the Ernād, Calicut, Kurumbranād and Kottayam tāluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghāts, and the Mudanād, Cherangōd, and Namblakōd amshams of the Nīlgiri district.Paniyan.Paniyan.A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nāyar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out ‘Ippi’! ‘Ippi’! as he runs away, and they believe this to havebeen the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Rāja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:—“Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons.” Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord’s ‘man’; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynād, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyansare not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and rāgi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppādi bazār. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynād is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or dēvasoms (temple property) of the great Nāyar landlords; and Chettis and Māppillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with ‘arrow-root’ leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynād Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the buildingmarked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson44that the section of the Moyar river “stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they arenot effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low.”In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavāni and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.The Paniyan language is a debased Malayālam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kād Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kūli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swāmi (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently ofthe fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days.In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily presentof a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis) dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tāli (or marriage badge) is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said45that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife’s parents; and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry his deceased wife’s sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchāyat (or council) of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan village there is a headman called Kūttan, who has been appointed by Nāyar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kūttan with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at which a bangle is presented to the Kūttan as a badge of authority. Next in rank to the Kūttan is the Mudalior head of the family, and they usually constitute the panchāyat. Both Kūttan and Mudali are called Mūppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of as Mūppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams (the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride, is the usual form of punishment.The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail, it can be filled up by election.No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in underthe roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected, is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who, in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food, which is hence called kāka conji or crow’s rice.The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the tī polay, seven days after death; the kāka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree, an account of the kāka polay will do for all.In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak, take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased,one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who haveallowed their hair to grow long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony, but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions) resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account of a further ceremony was obtained:—At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable amongthe women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest, abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants, holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony, which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright, and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their conduct and morality.The Paniyans “worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kūli, whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering cocoanuts, but no blood.”46They further worship Kāttu Bhagavati, or Bhagavati of the woods. “Shrines in her honour are to be found at most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the Komāran anda kind of priest, called Nolambukāran, take the chief parts. The former dresses in the goddess’ clothing, and the divine afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil.”Games.—A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree, and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching the ground with the feet, spins himself round.Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck, as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers and brass rings in the ears.The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition, bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated, and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is pierced, and plugged with wood.The Paniyans, who dwell in settlements at the base of the ghāts, make fire by what is known as the Malay or sawing method.A piece of bamboo, about a foot in length, in which two nodes are included, is split longitudinally into two equal parts. On one half a sharp edge is cut with a knife. In the other a longitudinal slit is made through about two-thirds of its length, which is stuffed with a piece of cotton cloth. It is then held firmly on the ground with its convex surface upwards, and the cutting edge drawn, with a gradually quickeningsawing motion, rapidly to and fro across it by two men, until the cloth is ignited by theincandescentparticles of wood in the groove cut by the sharp edge. The cloth is then blown with the lips into a blaze, and the tobacco or cooking fire can be lighted.
The poles are connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be heated and boiled. Seven fire-places are made, beneath the wire. The branches of bamboo, katalati (Achyranthes Emblica), conga (Bauhinea variegata), cocoanut palm, jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavatta indica), are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the forehead enables the possessor to realise anything that is thought of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days, and live on a diet of chama kanji. The deity, whose aid is necessary, is propitiated with offerings.“One of the ceremonies which the Pānāns perform is called Thukil Onarthuka (waking thukil, a kind of drum). In the month of Karkadakam (July-August), a Pānān, with his wife, provided with a drum and kuzhithalam (circular bell-metal cymbals), goes to the houses of Brāhmans and Nāyars after midnight, and sings sacred songs. During the week, they sing standing underneath a banyan tree near the western gate of the Trichūr temple. From the temple authorities they get five measures of paddy, half a measure of rice, some gingelly oil, and a cocoanut. For their services in other houses, they receive a similar remuneration. This is intended to drive evil spirits, if any, from houses. Another of their festivals is known as Pānān Kali. The traditional account therefor is as follows. Once, when a Pānān and his wife went to a forest to bring bamboos for the manufacture of umbrellas, they missed their way, night approached, and they could not return. They began to be frightened by the varieties of noise heard by them in the wilderness. They collected piecesof dry bamboo and leaves of trees, and burned them. In the presence of the light thus obtained, the woman caught hold of a creeper hanging from a tree, and danced in honour of Bhagavathi, while her husband sang songs praising her. The day dawned at last, and they found their way home in safety. In memory of this incident, the Pānāns organise a party for a regular play. There are ten male and two female actors, and the play is acted during the whole night.“The religion of the Pānāns consists of an all-pervading demonology. Their chief gods are Mukkan, Chāthan, Kappiri, Malankorathi, and Kali. Pūjas are performed to them on the first of Medom (April-May), Karkadakam (July-August), Desara, and on Tuesday in Makaram (January-February). These deities are represented by stones placed under a tree. They are washed with water on the aforesaid days, and offerings of sheep and fowls, malar (parched rice), plantains, cocoanuts, and boiled rice are made to them. Their belief is that these deities are ever prone to do harm to them, and should therefore be propitiated with offerings. The Pānāns also worship the spirits of their ancestors, who pass for their household gods, and whose help they seek in all times of danger. They fast on new-moon nights, and on the eleventh night after full-moon or new-moon.“The Pānān is the barber of the polluting castes above Cherumans. By profession he is an umbrella-maker. Pānāns are also engaged in all kinds of agricultural work. In villages, they build mud walls. Their women act as midwives.“As regards social status, the Pānāns eat at the hands of Brāhmans, Nāyars, Kammālans, and Izhuvans. They have to stand at a distance of thirty-two feet fromBrāhmans. Pānāns and Kaniyans pollute one another if they touch, and both bathe should they happen to do so. They are their own barbers and washermen. They live in the vicinity of the Izhuvans, but cannot live in the Nāyar tharas. Nor can they take water from the wells of the Kammālans. They cannot approach the outer walls of Brāhman temples, and are not allowed to enter the Brāhman streets in Palghat.”In the Census Report, 1891, Pānān occurs as a sub-division of the Paraiyans. Their chief occupation as leather-workers is said to be the manufacture of drum-heads.30Panasa.—The Panasas are a class of beggars in the Telugu country, who are said to ask alms only from Kamsalas. The word panasa means constant repetition of words, and, in its application to the Panasa, probably indicates that they, like the Bhatrāzu bards and panegyrists, make up verses eulogising those from whom they beg. It is stated in the Kurnool Manual (1886) that “they take alms from the Bēri Kōmatis and goldsmiths (Kamsalas), and no others. The story goes that, in Golkonda, a tribe of Kōmatis named Bacheluvāru were imprisoned for non-payment of arrears of revenue. Finding certain men of the artificer class who passed by in the street spit betel nut, they got it into their mouths, and begged the artificers to get them released. The artificers, pitying them, paid the arrears, and procured their release. It was then that the Kamsalis fixed a vartana or annual house-fee for the maintenance of the Panasa class, on condition that they should not beg alms from the other castes.” The Panasas appear every year in the Kurnool district to collect their dues.Pāncha.—Pāncha, meaning five, is recorded as a sub-division of the Linga Balijas, and Pānchachāra or Pānchamsāle as a sub-division of Lingāyats. In all these, pāncha has reference to the five ācharas or ceremonial observances of the Lingāyats, which seem to vary according to locality. Wearing the lingam, worshipping it before meals, and paying reverence to the Jangam priests, are included among the observances.Pānchāla.—A synonym for Canarese Kammālans, among whom five (pānch) classes of workers are included, viz., gold and silver, brass and copper, iron, and stone.Pānchalinga(five lingams).—An exogamous sept of Bōya. The lingam is the symbol of Siva.Panchama.—The Panchamas are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste, and described by Buchanan and other writers as the Pancham Bandam.” According to Buchanan,31the Pancham Bandum “consist of four tribes, the Parriar, the Baluan, the Shekliar, and the Toti.” Buchanan further makes mention of Panchama Banijigaru and Panchama Cumbharu (potters). The Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. This classification was replaced, for convenience of reference, by Panchama, which included Chacchadis, Godāris, Pulayas, Holeyas, Mādigas, Mālas, Pallans, Paraiyans, Totis, and Valluvans. “It is,” the Director of Public Instruction wrote in 1902, “for Government to consider whether the various classes concerned should, for the sake of brevity, be described by one simple name. The terms Paraiya, low caste, outcaste, carry with them aderogatory meaning, and are unsuitable. The expression Pancham Banda, or more briefly Panchama, seems more appropriate.” The Government ruled that there is no objection to the proposal that Paraiyas and kindred classes should be designated Panchama Bandham or Panchama in future, but it would be simpler to style them the fifth class.The following educational privileges according to the various classes classified as Panchama may be noted:—(1) They are admitted into schools at half the standard rates of fees.(2) Under the result grant system (recently abolished), grants were passed for Panchama pupils at rates 50 per cent. higher than in ordinary cases, and 15 per cent. higher in backward localities.(3) Panchama schools were exempted from the attendance restriction,i.e., grants were given to them, however small the attendance. Ordinary schools had to have an attendance of ten at least to earn grants.(4) Panchama students under training as teachers get stipends at rates nearly double of those for ordinary Hindus.An interesting account of the system of education at the Olcott Panchama Free Schools has been written by Mrs. Courtright.32Panchama is returned, in the Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as a sub-division of Balija and Banajiga.Panchāramkatti.—A sub-division of Idaiyan, which derives its name from the neck ornament (panchāram) worn by the women.Pandamuttu.—A sub-division of Palli. The name is made by Winslow to mean a number of torchesarranged so as to represent an elephant. The Pallis, however, explain it as referring to the pile of pots, which reaches to the top of the marriage pandal (pandal, booth, mutti, touching). The lowest pot is decorated with figures of elephants and horses.Pandāram.—Pandāram is described by Mr. H. A. Stuart33as being “the name rather of an occupation than a caste, and used to denote any non-Brāhmanical priest. The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Saivite Sūdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety, and wander about begging. They are in reality very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Sūdra. They often serve in Siva temples, where they make garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brazen trumpets when offerings are made, or processions take place. Tirutanni is one of the chief places, in which they congregate.”It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that “the water for the god’s bath at Ratnagiri is brought by a caste of non-Brāhmans known as Tirumanjana Pandārams, who fetch it every day from the Cauvery. They say that they are descended from an Āryan king, who came to the god with the hope of getting rubies from him. The god, in the guise of a Brāhman, tested his devotion by making him fill a magic vessel with Cauvery water. The vessel would not fill, and the Āryan stranger in a fit of anger cut off the Brāhman’s head. The dead body at once turned into a lingam, and the Āryan was ordered to carry water for the temple till eternity.”Pandāram is used both as the name of a caste, and of a class composed of recruits from various castes (e.g.,Vellāla and Palli). The Pandāram caste is composed of respectable people who have settled down as land-holders, and of Sanyāsis and priests of certain matams (religious institutions), and managers of richly endowed temples, such as those at Tiruvādudurai in Tanjore and Mailām in South Arcot. The common name for these managers is Tambirān. The caste Pandārams are staunch Saivites and strict vegetarians. Those who lead a celibate life wear the lingam. They are said to have been originally Sōzhia Vellālas, with whom intermarriage still takes place. They are initiated into the Saivite religion by a rite called Dhīkshai, which is divided into five stages, viz., Samaya, Nirvāna, Visēsha, Kalāsothanai, and Achārya Abhishēkam. Some are temple servants, and supply flowers for the god, while others sing dēvaram (hymns to the god) during the temple service. On this account, they are known as Meikāval (body-guard of the god), and Ōduvar (reader). The caste Pandārams have two divisions, called Abhishēka and Dēsikar, and the latter name is often taken as a title,e.g., Kandasāmi Dēsikar. An Abhishēka Pandāram is one who is made to pass through some ceremonies connected with Saiva Āgama.The mendicant Pandārams, who are recruited from various classes, wear the lingam, and do not abstain from eating flesh. Many villages have a Pandāram as the priest of the shrine of the village deity, who is frequently a Palli who has become a Pandāram by donning the lingam. The females are said to live, in some cases, by prostitution.The Lingāyat Pandārams differ in many respects from the true Lingāyats. The latter respect their Jangam, and use the sacred water, in which the feet of the Jangam are washed, for washing their stone lingam.To the Pandārams, and Tamil Lingāyats in general, this proceeding would amount to sacrilege of the worst type. Canarese and Telugu Lingāyats regard a Jangam as superior to the stone lingam. In the matter of pollution ceremonies the Tamil Lingāyats are very particular, whereas the orthodox Lingāyats observe no pollution. The investiture with the lingam does not take place so early among the Tamil as among the Canarese Lingāyats.For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. “Dr. H. H. Wilson34is of opinion that the word Pandāram is ‘more properly Pānduranga, pale complexioned, from their smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hēmachandrā’s history of Mahāvīra, when speaking of the Saiva Brāhmans.’ A more popular derivation of the name is from Bandāram, a public treasury. A good many well-to-do Pandārams are managers of Siva temples in Southern India, and accordingly have the temple treasuries under their care. It is, however, possible that the name has been acquired by the caste by reason of their keeping a yellow powder, called pandāram, in a little box, and giving it in return for the alms which they receive.Opinions are divided as to whether the Pandārams are Lingāyats or not. The opinion held by F. W. Ellis, the well-known Tamil scholar and translator of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, is thus summarised by Colonel Wilks.35“Mr. Ellis considers the Jangam of the upper countries, and the Pandāram of the lower, to be of the same sect, and both deny in the most unequivocal terms the doctrine of the metempsychosis. A manuscript in the Mackenzie collection ascribes the origin of the Pandārams as asacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation.” Dr. Wilson36also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr. H. A. Stuart37says that they are a class of priests who serve the non-Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.Pandāram is, in fact, a class name rather than the name of a caste, and it consists of priests and beggars. Mr. C. P. Brown38thinks that the Pandārams are not Lingāyats. ‘The Saiva worshippers among the Tamils are called Pandārams: these are not Vira Saivas, nor do they wear the linga or adore Basava. I name them here chiefly because they are often mentioned as being Vira Saivas, whereas in truth they are (like the Smartas) Purva Saivas, and worship the image of Siva in their houses.’ It must be remarked that Mr. Brown appears to have had a confused idea of Pandārams. Pandārams wear the linga on their bodies in one of the usual modes, are priests to others professing the Lingāyat religion, and are fed by them on funeral and other ceremonial occasions. At the same time, it must be added that they are—more especially the begging sections—very lax as regards their food and drink. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more orthodox Lingāyats. Moreover, Lingāyats remarry their widows, whereas the Pandārams, as a caste, will not.“Pandārams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisūlam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandāyudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about thestreets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency,e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvānnāmalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingāyats. A samādhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.“The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandāra Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Āgamas and Purānas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhānta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirāns—a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars.”In the Census Report, 1901, Vairāvi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandāram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pūjāris in village temples. Vairāvi is further used as a name for members of the Mēlakkāran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nāttukōttai Chettis.Pandāram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.A class of people called hill Pandārams are described39by the Rev. S. Mateer as “miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and otherproduce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat,Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayālam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons.” Concerning these hill Pandārams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kāttumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days’ stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Rāman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandārams as being “skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard,Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade,which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like āhlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Urālis.”Pandāriyar.—Pandāriyar or Pandārattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattamān, Malaimān, and Sudarmān.Pāndava-kulam.—A title, indicative “of the caste of the Pāndava kings,” assumed by Jātapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pāndavas. The Pāndava kings were the heroes of the Mahābhārata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pāndavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.Pandi(pig).—Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Bōya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Oddē.Pandito.—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined40as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugucountries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix,e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.”41I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.Pāndya.—The territorial name Pāndya, Pāndiya, Pāndiyan, or Pāndi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes,e.g., Ambattan, Kammālan, Ōcchan, Pallan, Vannān, and Vellāla. Pāndiya is further a title of some Shānāns. In Travancore, Pāndi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pāndiangal occurs as an exogamous sept ofthe Tamil Vallambans, and Pāndu as a Tamil synonym for Kāpu or Reddi.Panikkar.—Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :—1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. “The Panikkans are,” Mr. Francis writes,42“weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, andeach of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams.” The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.Panimagan(work children).—A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.Panisavan.—Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as “a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the thārai or long trumpet.” According to Mr. H. A. Stuart,43Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dāsaris or Tādas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tādas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate andrespectable class. Their priests are Brāhmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and thārai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the thārai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the thārai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak’s hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The thārai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmāndhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tāli (marriage badge) is removed from a widow’s neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separatecaste, and have no connection with the Nōkkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nōkkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brāhman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nāgasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Dēva-dāsis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu vēlai,i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandāram, Pillai, and Mudali.Paniyan.—The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynād, and those portions of the Ernād, Calicut, Kurumbranād and Kottayam tāluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghāts, and the Mudanād, Cherangōd, and Namblakōd amshams of the Nīlgiri district.Paniyan.Paniyan.A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nāyar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out ‘Ippi’! ‘Ippi’! as he runs away, and they believe this to havebeen the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Rāja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:—“Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons.” Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord’s ‘man’; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynād, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyansare not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and rāgi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppādi bazār. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynād is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or dēvasoms (temple property) of the great Nāyar landlords; and Chettis and Māppillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with ‘arrow-root’ leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynād Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the buildingmarked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson44that the section of the Moyar river “stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they arenot effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low.”In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavāni and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.The Paniyan language is a debased Malayālam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kād Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kūli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swāmi (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently ofthe fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days.In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily presentof a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis) dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tāli (or marriage badge) is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said45that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife’s parents; and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry his deceased wife’s sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchāyat (or council) of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan village there is a headman called Kūttan, who has been appointed by Nāyar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kūttan with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at which a bangle is presented to the Kūttan as a badge of authority. Next in rank to the Kūttan is the Mudalior head of the family, and they usually constitute the panchāyat. Both Kūttan and Mudali are called Mūppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of as Mūppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams (the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride, is the usual form of punishment.The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail, it can be filled up by election.No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in underthe roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected, is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who, in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food, which is hence called kāka conji or crow’s rice.The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the tī polay, seven days after death; the kāka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree, an account of the kāka polay will do for all.In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak, take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased,one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who haveallowed their hair to grow long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony, but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions) resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account of a further ceremony was obtained:—At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable amongthe women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest, abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants, holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony, which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright, and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their conduct and morality.The Paniyans “worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kūli, whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering cocoanuts, but no blood.”46They further worship Kāttu Bhagavati, or Bhagavati of the woods. “Shrines in her honour are to be found at most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the Komāran anda kind of priest, called Nolambukāran, take the chief parts. The former dresses in the goddess’ clothing, and the divine afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil.”Games.—A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree, and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching the ground with the feet, spins himself round.Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck, as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers and brass rings in the ears.The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition, bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated, and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is pierced, and plugged with wood.The Paniyans, who dwell in settlements at the base of the ghāts, make fire by what is known as the Malay or sawing method.A piece of bamboo, about a foot in length, in which two nodes are included, is split longitudinally into two equal parts. On one half a sharp edge is cut with a knife. In the other a longitudinal slit is made through about two-thirds of its length, which is stuffed with a piece of cotton cloth. It is then held firmly on the ground with its convex surface upwards, and the cutting edge drawn, with a gradually quickeningsawing motion, rapidly to and fro across it by two men, until the cloth is ignited by theincandescentparticles of wood in the groove cut by the sharp edge. The cloth is then blown with the lips into a blaze, and the tobacco or cooking fire can be lighted.
The poles are connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be heated and boiled. Seven fire-places are made, beneath the wire. The branches of bamboo, katalati (Achyranthes Emblica), conga (Bauhinea variegata), cocoanut palm, jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavatta indica), are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the forehead enables the possessor to realise anything that is thought of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days, and live on a diet of chama kanji. The deity, whose aid is necessary, is propitiated with offerings.“One of the ceremonies which the Pānāns perform is called Thukil Onarthuka (waking thukil, a kind of drum). In the month of Karkadakam (July-August), a Pānān, with his wife, provided with a drum and kuzhithalam (circular bell-metal cymbals), goes to the houses of Brāhmans and Nāyars after midnight, and sings sacred songs. During the week, they sing standing underneath a banyan tree near the western gate of the Trichūr temple. From the temple authorities they get five measures of paddy, half a measure of rice, some gingelly oil, and a cocoanut. For their services in other houses, they receive a similar remuneration. This is intended to drive evil spirits, if any, from houses. Another of their festivals is known as Pānān Kali. The traditional account therefor is as follows. Once, when a Pānān and his wife went to a forest to bring bamboos for the manufacture of umbrellas, they missed their way, night approached, and they could not return. They began to be frightened by the varieties of noise heard by them in the wilderness. They collected piecesof dry bamboo and leaves of trees, and burned them. In the presence of the light thus obtained, the woman caught hold of a creeper hanging from a tree, and danced in honour of Bhagavathi, while her husband sang songs praising her. The day dawned at last, and they found their way home in safety. In memory of this incident, the Pānāns organise a party for a regular play. There are ten male and two female actors, and the play is acted during the whole night.“The religion of the Pānāns consists of an all-pervading demonology. Their chief gods are Mukkan, Chāthan, Kappiri, Malankorathi, and Kali. Pūjas are performed to them on the first of Medom (April-May), Karkadakam (July-August), Desara, and on Tuesday in Makaram (January-February). These deities are represented by stones placed under a tree. They are washed with water on the aforesaid days, and offerings of sheep and fowls, malar (parched rice), plantains, cocoanuts, and boiled rice are made to them. Their belief is that these deities are ever prone to do harm to them, and should therefore be propitiated with offerings. The Pānāns also worship the spirits of their ancestors, who pass for their household gods, and whose help they seek in all times of danger. They fast on new-moon nights, and on the eleventh night after full-moon or new-moon.“The Pānān is the barber of the polluting castes above Cherumans. By profession he is an umbrella-maker. Pānāns are also engaged in all kinds of agricultural work. In villages, they build mud walls. Their women act as midwives.“As regards social status, the Pānāns eat at the hands of Brāhmans, Nāyars, Kammālans, and Izhuvans. They have to stand at a distance of thirty-two feet fromBrāhmans. Pānāns and Kaniyans pollute one another if they touch, and both bathe should they happen to do so. They are their own barbers and washermen. They live in the vicinity of the Izhuvans, but cannot live in the Nāyar tharas. Nor can they take water from the wells of the Kammālans. They cannot approach the outer walls of Brāhman temples, and are not allowed to enter the Brāhman streets in Palghat.”In the Census Report, 1891, Pānān occurs as a sub-division of the Paraiyans. Their chief occupation as leather-workers is said to be the manufacture of drum-heads.30Panasa.—The Panasas are a class of beggars in the Telugu country, who are said to ask alms only from Kamsalas. The word panasa means constant repetition of words, and, in its application to the Panasa, probably indicates that they, like the Bhatrāzu bards and panegyrists, make up verses eulogising those from whom they beg. It is stated in the Kurnool Manual (1886) that “they take alms from the Bēri Kōmatis and goldsmiths (Kamsalas), and no others. The story goes that, in Golkonda, a tribe of Kōmatis named Bacheluvāru were imprisoned for non-payment of arrears of revenue. Finding certain men of the artificer class who passed by in the street spit betel nut, they got it into their mouths, and begged the artificers to get them released. The artificers, pitying them, paid the arrears, and procured their release. It was then that the Kamsalis fixed a vartana or annual house-fee for the maintenance of the Panasa class, on condition that they should not beg alms from the other castes.” The Panasas appear every year in the Kurnool district to collect their dues.Pāncha.—Pāncha, meaning five, is recorded as a sub-division of the Linga Balijas, and Pānchachāra or Pānchamsāle as a sub-division of Lingāyats. In all these, pāncha has reference to the five ācharas or ceremonial observances of the Lingāyats, which seem to vary according to locality. Wearing the lingam, worshipping it before meals, and paying reverence to the Jangam priests, are included among the observances.Pānchāla.—A synonym for Canarese Kammālans, among whom five (pānch) classes of workers are included, viz., gold and silver, brass and copper, iron, and stone.Pānchalinga(five lingams).—An exogamous sept of Bōya. The lingam is the symbol of Siva.Panchama.—The Panchamas are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste, and described by Buchanan and other writers as the Pancham Bandam.” According to Buchanan,31the Pancham Bandum “consist of four tribes, the Parriar, the Baluan, the Shekliar, and the Toti.” Buchanan further makes mention of Panchama Banijigaru and Panchama Cumbharu (potters). The Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. This classification was replaced, for convenience of reference, by Panchama, which included Chacchadis, Godāris, Pulayas, Holeyas, Mādigas, Mālas, Pallans, Paraiyans, Totis, and Valluvans. “It is,” the Director of Public Instruction wrote in 1902, “for Government to consider whether the various classes concerned should, for the sake of brevity, be described by one simple name. The terms Paraiya, low caste, outcaste, carry with them aderogatory meaning, and are unsuitable. The expression Pancham Banda, or more briefly Panchama, seems more appropriate.” The Government ruled that there is no objection to the proposal that Paraiyas and kindred classes should be designated Panchama Bandham or Panchama in future, but it would be simpler to style them the fifth class.The following educational privileges according to the various classes classified as Panchama may be noted:—(1) They are admitted into schools at half the standard rates of fees.(2) Under the result grant system (recently abolished), grants were passed for Panchama pupils at rates 50 per cent. higher than in ordinary cases, and 15 per cent. higher in backward localities.(3) Panchama schools were exempted from the attendance restriction,i.e., grants were given to them, however small the attendance. Ordinary schools had to have an attendance of ten at least to earn grants.(4) Panchama students under training as teachers get stipends at rates nearly double of those for ordinary Hindus.An interesting account of the system of education at the Olcott Panchama Free Schools has been written by Mrs. Courtright.32Panchama is returned, in the Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as a sub-division of Balija and Banajiga.Panchāramkatti.—A sub-division of Idaiyan, which derives its name from the neck ornament (panchāram) worn by the women.Pandamuttu.—A sub-division of Palli. The name is made by Winslow to mean a number of torchesarranged so as to represent an elephant. The Pallis, however, explain it as referring to the pile of pots, which reaches to the top of the marriage pandal (pandal, booth, mutti, touching). The lowest pot is decorated with figures of elephants and horses.Pandāram.—Pandāram is described by Mr. H. A. Stuart33as being “the name rather of an occupation than a caste, and used to denote any non-Brāhmanical priest. The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Saivite Sūdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety, and wander about begging. They are in reality very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Sūdra. They often serve in Siva temples, where they make garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brazen trumpets when offerings are made, or processions take place. Tirutanni is one of the chief places, in which they congregate.”It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that “the water for the god’s bath at Ratnagiri is brought by a caste of non-Brāhmans known as Tirumanjana Pandārams, who fetch it every day from the Cauvery. They say that they are descended from an Āryan king, who came to the god with the hope of getting rubies from him. The god, in the guise of a Brāhman, tested his devotion by making him fill a magic vessel with Cauvery water. The vessel would not fill, and the Āryan stranger in a fit of anger cut off the Brāhman’s head. The dead body at once turned into a lingam, and the Āryan was ordered to carry water for the temple till eternity.”Pandāram is used both as the name of a caste, and of a class composed of recruits from various castes (e.g.,Vellāla and Palli). The Pandāram caste is composed of respectable people who have settled down as land-holders, and of Sanyāsis and priests of certain matams (religious institutions), and managers of richly endowed temples, such as those at Tiruvādudurai in Tanjore and Mailām in South Arcot. The common name for these managers is Tambirān. The caste Pandārams are staunch Saivites and strict vegetarians. Those who lead a celibate life wear the lingam. They are said to have been originally Sōzhia Vellālas, with whom intermarriage still takes place. They are initiated into the Saivite religion by a rite called Dhīkshai, which is divided into five stages, viz., Samaya, Nirvāna, Visēsha, Kalāsothanai, and Achārya Abhishēkam. Some are temple servants, and supply flowers for the god, while others sing dēvaram (hymns to the god) during the temple service. On this account, they are known as Meikāval (body-guard of the god), and Ōduvar (reader). The caste Pandārams have two divisions, called Abhishēka and Dēsikar, and the latter name is often taken as a title,e.g., Kandasāmi Dēsikar. An Abhishēka Pandāram is one who is made to pass through some ceremonies connected with Saiva Āgama.The mendicant Pandārams, who are recruited from various classes, wear the lingam, and do not abstain from eating flesh. Many villages have a Pandāram as the priest of the shrine of the village deity, who is frequently a Palli who has become a Pandāram by donning the lingam. The females are said to live, in some cases, by prostitution.The Lingāyat Pandārams differ in many respects from the true Lingāyats. The latter respect their Jangam, and use the sacred water, in which the feet of the Jangam are washed, for washing their stone lingam.To the Pandārams, and Tamil Lingāyats in general, this proceeding would amount to sacrilege of the worst type. Canarese and Telugu Lingāyats regard a Jangam as superior to the stone lingam. In the matter of pollution ceremonies the Tamil Lingāyats are very particular, whereas the orthodox Lingāyats observe no pollution. The investiture with the lingam does not take place so early among the Tamil as among the Canarese Lingāyats.For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. “Dr. H. H. Wilson34is of opinion that the word Pandāram is ‘more properly Pānduranga, pale complexioned, from their smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hēmachandrā’s history of Mahāvīra, when speaking of the Saiva Brāhmans.’ A more popular derivation of the name is from Bandāram, a public treasury. A good many well-to-do Pandārams are managers of Siva temples in Southern India, and accordingly have the temple treasuries under their care. It is, however, possible that the name has been acquired by the caste by reason of their keeping a yellow powder, called pandāram, in a little box, and giving it in return for the alms which they receive.Opinions are divided as to whether the Pandārams are Lingāyats or not. The opinion held by F. W. Ellis, the well-known Tamil scholar and translator of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, is thus summarised by Colonel Wilks.35“Mr. Ellis considers the Jangam of the upper countries, and the Pandāram of the lower, to be of the same sect, and both deny in the most unequivocal terms the doctrine of the metempsychosis. A manuscript in the Mackenzie collection ascribes the origin of the Pandārams as asacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation.” Dr. Wilson36also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr. H. A. Stuart37says that they are a class of priests who serve the non-Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.Pandāram is, in fact, a class name rather than the name of a caste, and it consists of priests and beggars. Mr. C. P. Brown38thinks that the Pandārams are not Lingāyats. ‘The Saiva worshippers among the Tamils are called Pandārams: these are not Vira Saivas, nor do they wear the linga or adore Basava. I name them here chiefly because they are often mentioned as being Vira Saivas, whereas in truth they are (like the Smartas) Purva Saivas, and worship the image of Siva in their houses.’ It must be remarked that Mr. Brown appears to have had a confused idea of Pandārams. Pandārams wear the linga on their bodies in one of the usual modes, are priests to others professing the Lingāyat religion, and are fed by them on funeral and other ceremonial occasions. At the same time, it must be added that they are—more especially the begging sections—very lax as regards their food and drink. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more orthodox Lingāyats. Moreover, Lingāyats remarry their widows, whereas the Pandārams, as a caste, will not.“Pandārams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisūlam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandāyudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about thestreets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency,e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvānnāmalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingāyats. A samādhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.“The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandāra Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Āgamas and Purānas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhānta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirāns—a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars.”In the Census Report, 1901, Vairāvi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandāram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pūjāris in village temples. Vairāvi is further used as a name for members of the Mēlakkāran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nāttukōttai Chettis.Pandāram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.A class of people called hill Pandārams are described39by the Rev. S. Mateer as “miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and otherproduce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat,Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayālam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons.” Concerning these hill Pandārams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kāttumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days’ stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Rāman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandārams as being “skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard,Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade,which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like āhlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Urālis.”Pandāriyar.—Pandāriyar or Pandārattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattamān, Malaimān, and Sudarmān.Pāndava-kulam.—A title, indicative “of the caste of the Pāndava kings,” assumed by Jātapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pāndavas. The Pāndava kings were the heroes of the Mahābhārata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pāndavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.Pandi(pig).—Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Bōya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Oddē.Pandito.—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined40as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugucountries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix,e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.”41I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.Pāndya.—The territorial name Pāndya, Pāndiya, Pāndiyan, or Pāndi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes,e.g., Ambattan, Kammālan, Ōcchan, Pallan, Vannān, and Vellāla. Pāndiya is further a title of some Shānāns. In Travancore, Pāndi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pāndiangal occurs as an exogamous sept ofthe Tamil Vallambans, and Pāndu as a Tamil synonym for Kāpu or Reddi.Panikkar.—Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :—1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. “The Panikkans are,” Mr. Francis writes,42“weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, andeach of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams.” The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.Panimagan(work children).—A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.Panisavan.—Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as “a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the thārai or long trumpet.” According to Mr. H. A. Stuart,43Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dāsaris or Tādas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tādas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate andrespectable class. Their priests are Brāhmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and thārai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the thārai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the thārai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak’s hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The thārai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmāndhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tāli (marriage badge) is removed from a widow’s neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separatecaste, and have no connection with the Nōkkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nōkkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brāhman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nāgasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Dēva-dāsis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu vēlai,i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandāram, Pillai, and Mudali.Paniyan.—The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynād, and those portions of the Ernād, Calicut, Kurumbranād and Kottayam tāluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghāts, and the Mudanād, Cherangōd, and Namblakōd amshams of the Nīlgiri district.Paniyan.Paniyan.A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nāyar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out ‘Ippi’! ‘Ippi’! as he runs away, and they believe this to havebeen the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Rāja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:—“Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons.” Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord’s ‘man’; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynād, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyansare not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and rāgi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppādi bazār. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynād is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or dēvasoms (temple property) of the great Nāyar landlords; and Chettis and Māppillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with ‘arrow-root’ leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynād Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the buildingmarked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson44that the section of the Moyar river “stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they arenot effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low.”In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavāni and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.The Paniyan language is a debased Malayālam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kād Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kūli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swāmi (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently ofthe fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days.In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily presentof a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis) dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tāli (or marriage badge) is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said45that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife’s parents; and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry his deceased wife’s sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchāyat (or council) of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan village there is a headman called Kūttan, who has been appointed by Nāyar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kūttan with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at which a bangle is presented to the Kūttan as a badge of authority. Next in rank to the Kūttan is the Mudalior head of the family, and they usually constitute the panchāyat. Both Kūttan and Mudali are called Mūppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of as Mūppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams (the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride, is the usual form of punishment.The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail, it can be filled up by election.No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in underthe roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected, is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who, in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food, which is hence called kāka conji or crow’s rice.The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the tī polay, seven days after death; the kāka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree, an account of the kāka polay will do for all.In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak, take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased,one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who haveallowed their hair to grow long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony, but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions) resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account of a further ceremony was obtained:—At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable amongthe women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest, abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants, holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony, which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright, and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their conduct and morality.The Paniyans “worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kūli, whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering cocoanuts, but no blood.”46They further worship Kāttu Bhagavati, or Bhagavati of the woods. “Shrines in her honour are to be found at most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the Komāran anda kind of priest, called Nolambukāran, take the chief parts. The former dresses in the goddess’ clothing, and the divine afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil.”Games.—A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree, and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching the ground with the feet, spins himself round.Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck, as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers and brass rings in the ears.The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition, bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated, and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is pierced, and plugged with wood.The Paniyans, who dwell in settlements at the base of the ghāts, make fire by what is known as the Malay or sawing method.A piece of bamboo, about a foot in length, in which two nodes are included, is split longitudinally into two equal parts. On one half a sharp edge is cut with a knife. In the other a longitudinal slit is made through about two-thirds of its length, which is stuffed with a piece of cotton cloth. It is then held firmly on the ground with its convex surface upwards, and the cutting edge drawn, with a gradually quickeningsawing motion, rapidly to and fro across it by two men, until the cloth is ignited by theincandescentparticles of wood in the groove cut by the sharp edge. The cloth is then blown with the lips into a blaze, and the tobacco or cooking fire can be lighted.
The poles are connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be heated and boiled. Seven fire-places are made, beneath the wire. The branches of bamboo, katalati (Achyranthes Emblica), conga (Bauhinea variegata), cocoanut palm, jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavatta indica), are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the forehead enables the possessor to realise anything that is thought of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days, and live on a diet of chama kanji. The deity, whose aid is necessary, is propitiated with offerings.“One of the ceremonies which the Pānāns perform is called Thukil Onarthuka (waking thukil, a kind of drum). In the month of Karkadakam (July-August), a Pānān, with his wife, provided with a drum and kuzhithalam (circular bell-metal cymbals), goes to the houses of Brāhmans and Nāyars after midnight, and sings sacred songs. During the week, they sing standing underneath a banyan tree near the western gate of the Trichūr temple. From the temple authorities they get five measures of paddy, half a measure of rice, some gingelly oil, and a cocoanut. For their services in other houses, they receive a similar remuneration. This is intended to drive evil spirits, if any, from houses. Another of their festivals is known as Pānān Kali. The traditional account therefor is as follows. Once, when a Pānān and his wife went to a forest to bring bamboos for the manufacture of umbrellas, they missed their way, night approached, and they could not return. They began to be frightened by the varieties of noise heard by them in the wilderness. They collected piecesof dry bamboo and leaves of trees, and burned them. In the presence of the light thus obtained, the woman caught hold of a creeper hanging from a tree, and danced in honour of Bhagavathi, while her husband sang songs praising her. The day dawned at last, and they found their way home in safety. In memory of this incident, the Pānāns organise a party for a regular play. There are ten male and two female actors, and the play is acted during the whole night.“The religion of the Pānāns consists of an all-pervading demonology. Their chief gods are Mukkan, Chāthan, Kappiri, Malankorathi, and Kali. Pūjas are performed to them on the first of Medom (April-May), Karkadakam (July-August), Desara, and on Tuesday in Makaram (January-February). These deities are represented by stones placed under a tree. They are washed with water on the aforesaid days, and offerings of sheep and fowls, malar (parched rice), plantains, cocoanuts, and boiled rice are made to them. Their belief is that these deities are ever prone to do harm to them, and should therefore be propitiated with offerings. The Pānāns also worship the spirits of their ancestors, who pass for their household gods, and whose help they seek in all times of danger. They fast on new-moon nights, and on the eleventh night after full-moon or new-moon.“The Pānān is the barber of the polluting castes above Cherumans. By profession he is an umbrella-maker. Pānāns are also engaged in all kinds of agricultural work. In villages, they build mud walls. Their women act as midwives.“As regards social status, the Pānāns eat at the hands of Brāhmans, Nāyars, Kammālans, and Izhuvans. They have to stand at a distance of thirty-two feet fromBrāhmans. Pānāns and Kaniyans pollute one another if they touch, and both bathe should they happen to do so. They are their own barbers and washermen. They live in the vicinity of the Izhuvans, but cannot live in the Nāyar tharas. Nor can they take water from the wells of the Kammālans. They cannot approach the outer walls of Brāhman temples, and are not allowed to enter the Brāhman streets in Palghat.”In the Census Report, 1891, Pānān occurs as a sub-division of the Paraiyans. Their chief occupation as leather-workers is said to be the manufacture of drum-heads.30Panasa.—The Panasas are a class of beggars in the Telugu country, who are said to ask alms only from Kamsalas. The word panasa means constant repetition of words, and, in its application to the Panasa, probably indicates that they, like the Bhatrāzu bards and panegyrists, make up verses eulogising those from whom they beg. It is stated in the Kurnool Manual (1886) that “they take alms from the Bēri Kōmatis and goldsmiths (Kamsalas), and no others. The story goes that, in Golkonda, a tribe of Kōmatis named Bacheluvāru were imprisoned for non-payment of arrears of revenue. Finding certain men of the artificer class who passed by in the street spit betel nut, they got it into their mouths, and begged the artificers to get them released. The artificers, pitying them, paid the arrears, and procured their release. It was then that the Kamsalis fixed a vartana or annual house-fee for the maintenance of the Panasa class, on condition that they should not beg alms from the other castes.” The Panasas appear every year in the Kurnool district to collect their dues.Pāncha.—Pāncha, meaning five, is recorded as a sub-division of the Linga Balijas, and Pānchachāra or Pānchamsāle as a sub-division of Lingāyats. In all these, pāncha has reference to the five ācharas or ceremonial observances of the Lingāyats, which seem to vary according to locality. Wearing the lingam, worshipping it before meals, and paying reverence to the Jangam priests, are included among the observances.Pānchāla.—A synonym for Canarese Kammālans, among whom five (pānch) classes of workers are included, viz., gold and silver, brass and copper, iron, and stone.Pānchalinga(five lingams).—An exogamous sept of Bōya. The lingam is the symbol of Siva.Panchama.—The Panchamas are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste, and described by Buchanan and other writers as the Pancham Bandam.” According to Buchanan,31the Pancham Bandum “consist of four tribes, the Parriar, the Baluan, the Shekliar, and the Toti.” Buchanan further makes mention of Panchama Banijigaru and Panchama Cumbharu (potters). The Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. This classification was replaced, for convenience of reference, by Panchama, which included Chacchadis, Godāris, Pulayas, Holeyas, Mādigas, Mālas, Pallans, Paraiyans, Totis, and Valluvans. “It is,” the Director of Public Instruction wrote in 1902, “for Government to consider whether the various classes concerned should, for the sake of brevity, be described by one simple name. The terms Paraiya, low caste, outcaste, carry with them aderogatory meaning, and are unsuitable. The expression Pancham Banda, or more briefly Panchama, seems more appropriate.” The Government ruled that there is no objection to the proposal that Paraiyas and kindred classes should be designated Panchama Bandham or Panchama in future, but it would be simpler to style them the fifth class.The following educational privileges according to the various classes classified as Panchama may be noted:—(1) They are admitted into schools at half the standard rates of fees.(2) Under the result grant system (recently abolished), grants were passed for Panchama pupils at rates 50 per cent. higher than in ordinary cases, and 15 per cent. higher in backward localities.(3) Panchama schools were exempted from the attendance restriction,i.e., grants were given to them, however small the attendance. Ordinary schools had to have an attendance of ten at least to earn grants.(4) Panchama students under training as teachers get stipends at rates nearly double of those for ordinary Hindus.An interesting account of the system of education at the Olcott Panchama Free Schools has been written by Mrs. Courtright.32Panchama is returned, in the Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as a sub-division of Balija and Banajiga.Panchāramkatti.—A sub-division of Idaiyan, which derives its name from the neck ornament (panchāram) worn by the women.Pandamuttu.—A sub-division of Palli. The name is made by Winslow to mean a number of torchesarranged so as to represent an elephant. The Pallis, however, explain it as referring to the pile of pots, which reaches to the top of the marriage pandal (pandal, booth, mutti, touching). The lowest pot is decorated with figures of elephants and horses.Pandāram.—Pandāram is described by Mr. H. A. Stuart33as being “the name rather of an occupation than a caste, and used to denote any non-Brāhmanical priest. The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Saivite Sūdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety, and wander about begging. They are in reality very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Sūdra. They often serve in Siva temples, where they make garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brazen trumpets when offerings are made, or processions take place. Tirutanni is one of the chief places, in which they congregate.”It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that “the water for the god’s bath at Ratnagiri is brought by a caste of non-Brāhmans known as Tirumanjana Pandārams, who fetch it every day from the Cauvery. They say that they are descended from an Āryan king, who came to the god with the hope of getting rubies from him. The god, in the guise of a Brāhman, tested his devotion by making him fill a magic vessel with Cauvery water. The vessel would not fill, and the Āryan stranger in a fit of anger cut off the Brāhman’s head. The dead body at once turned into a lingam, and the Āryan was ordered to carry water for the temple till eternity.”Pandāram is used both as the name of a caste, and of a class composed of recruits from various castes (e.g.,Vellāla and Palli). The Pandāram caste is composed of respectable people who have settled down as land-holders, and of Sanyāsis and priests of certain matams (religious institutions), and managers of richly endowed temples, such as those at Tiruvādudurai in Tanjore and Mailām in South Arcot. The common name for these managers is Tambirān. The caste Pandārams are staunch Saivites and strict vegetarians. Those who lead a celibate life wear the lingam. They are said to have been originally Sōzhia Vellālas, with whom intermarriage still takes place. They are initiated into the Saivite religion by a rite called Dhīkshai, which is divided into five stages, viz., Samaya, Nirvāna, Visēsha, Kalāsothanai, and Achārya Abhishēkam. Some are temple servants, and supply flowers for the god, while others sing dēvaram (hymns to the god) during the temple service. On this account, they are known as Meikāval (body-guard of the god), and Ōduvar (reader). The caste Pandārams have two divisions, called Abhishēka and Dēsikar, and the latter name is often taken as a title,e.g., Kandasāmi Dēsikar. An Abhishēka Pandāram is one who is made to pass through some ceremonies connected with Saiva Āgama.The mendicant Pandārams, who are recruited from various classes, wear the lingam, and do not abstain from eating flesh. Many villages have a Pandāram as the priest of the shrine of the village deity, who is frequently a Palli who has become a Pandāram by donning the lingam. The females are said to live, in some cases, by prostitution.The Lingāyat Pandārams differ in many respects from the true Lingāyats. The latter respect their Jangam, and use the sacred water, in which the feet of the Jangam are washed, for washing their stone lingam.To the Pandārams, and Tamil Lingāyats in general, this proceeding would amount to sacrilege of the worst type. Canarese and Telugu Lingāyats regard a Jangam as superior to the stone lingam. In the matter of pollution ceremonies the Tamil Lingāyats are very particular, whereas the orthodox Lingāyats observe no pollution. The investiture with the lingam does not take place so early among the Tamil as among the Canarese Lingāyats.For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. “Dr. H. H. Wilson34is of opinion that the word Pandāram is ‘more properly Pānduranga, pale complexioned, from their smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hēmachandrā’s history of Mahāvīra, when speaking of the Saiva Brāhmans.’ A more popular derivation of the name is from Bandāram, a public treasury. A good many well-to-do Pandārams are managers of Siva temples in Southern India, and accordingly have the temple treasuries under their care. It is, however, possible that the name has been acquired by the caste by reason of their keeping a yellow powder, called pandāram, in a little box, and giving it in return for the alms which they receive.Opinions are divided as to whether the Pandārams are Lingāyats or not. The opinion held by F. W. Ellis, the well-known Tamil scholar and translator of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, is thus summarised by Colonel Wilks.35“Mr. Ellis considers the Jangam of the upper countries, and the Pandāram of the lower, to be of the same sect, and both deny in the most unequivocal terms the doctrine of the metempsychosis. A manuscript in the Mackenzie collection ascribes the origin of the Pandārams as asacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation.” Dr. Wilson36also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr. H. A. Stuart37says that they are a class of priests who serve the non-Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.Pandāram is, in fact, a class name rather than the name of a caste, and it consists of priests and beggars. Mr. C. P. Brown38thinks that the Pandārams are not Lingāyats. ‘The Saiva worshippers among the Tamils are called Pandārams: these are not Vira Saivas, nor do they wear the linga or adore Basava. I name them here chiefly because they are often mentioned as being Vira Saivas, whereas in truth they are (like the Smartas) Purva Saivas, and worship the image of Siva in their houses.’ It must be remarked that Mr. Brown appears to have had a confused idea of Pandārams. Pandārams wear the linga on their bodies in one of the usual modes, are priests to others professing the Lingāyat religion, and are fed by them on funeral and other ceremonial occasions. At the same time, it must be added that they are—more especially the begging sections—very lax as regards their food and drink. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more orthodox Lingāyats. Moreover, Lingāyats remarry their widows, whereas the Pandārams, as a caste, will not.“Pandārams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisūlam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandāyudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about thestreets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency,e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvānnāmalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingāyats. A samādhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.“The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandāra Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Āgamas and Purānas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhānta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirāns—a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars.”In the Census Report, 1901, Vairāvi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandāram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pūjāris in village temples. Vairāvi is further used as a name for members of the Mēlakkāran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nāttukōttai Chettis.Pandāram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.A class of people called hill Pandārams are described39by the Rev. S. Mateer as “miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and otherproduce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat,Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayālam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons.” Concerning these hill Pandārams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kāttumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days’ stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Rāman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandārams as being “skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard,Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade,which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like āhlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Urālis.”Pandāriyar.—Pandāriyar or Pandārattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattamān, Malaimān, and Sudarmān.Pāndava-kulam.—A title, indicative “of the caste of the Pāndava kings,” assumed by Jātapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pāndavas. The Pāndava kings were the heroes of the Mahābhārata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pāndavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.Pandi(pig).—Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Bōya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Oddē.Pandito.—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined40as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugucountries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix,e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.”41I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.Pāndya.—The territorial name Pāndya, Pāndiya, Pāndiyan, or Pāndi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes,e.g., Ambattan, Kammālan, Ōcchan, Pallan, Vannān, and Vellāla. Pāndiya is further a title of some Shānāns. In Travancore, Pāndi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pāndiangal occurs as an exogamous sept ofthe Tamil Vallambans, and Pāndu as a Tamil synonym for Kāpu or Reddi.Panikkar.—Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :—1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. “The Panikkans are,” Mr. Francis writes,42“weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, andeach of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams.” The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.Panimagan(work children).—A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.Panisavan.—Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as “a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the thārai or long trumpet.” According to Mr. H. A. Stuart,43Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dāsaris or Tādas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tādas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate andrespectable class. Their priests are Brāhmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and thārai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the thārai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the thārai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak’s hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The thārai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmāndhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tāli (marriage badge) is removed from a widow’s neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separatecaste, and have no connection with the Nōkkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nōkkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brāhman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nāgasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Dēva-dāsis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu vēlai,i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandāram, Pillai, and Mudali.Paniyan.—The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynād, and those portions of the Ernād, Calicut, Kurumbranād and Kottayam tāluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghāts, and the Mudanād, Cherangōd, and Namblakōd amshams of the Nīlgiri district.Paniyan.Paniyan.A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nāyar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out ‘Ippi’! ‘Ippi’! as he runs away, and they believe this to havebeen the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Rāja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:—“Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons.” Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord’s ‘man’; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynād, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyansare not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and rāgi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppādi bazār. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynād is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or dēvasoms (temple property) of the great Nāyar landlords; and Chettis and Māppillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with ‘arrow-root’ leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynād Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the buildingmarked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson44that the section of the Moyar river “stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they arenot effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low.”In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavāni and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.The Paniyan language is a debased Malayālam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kād Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kūli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swāmi (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently ofthe fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days.In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily presentof a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis) dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tāli (or marriage badge) is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said45that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife’s parents; and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry his deceased wife’s sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchāyat (or council) of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan village there is a headman called Kūttan, who has been appointed by Nāyar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kūttan with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at which a bangle is presented to the Kūttan as a badge of authority. Next in rank to the Kūttan is the Mudalior head of the family, and they usually constitute the panchāyat. Both Kūttan and Mudali are called Mūppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of as Mūppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams (the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride, is the usual form of punishment.The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail, it can be filled up by election.No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in underthe roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected, is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who, in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food, which is hence called kāka conji or crow’s rice.The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the tī polay, seven days after death; the kāka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree, an account of the kāka polay will do for all.In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak, take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased,one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who haveallowed their hair to grow long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony, but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions) resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account of a further ceremony was obtained:—At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable amongthe women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest, abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants, holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony, which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright, and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their conduct and morality.The Paniyans “worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kūli, whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering cocoanuts, but no blood.”46They further worship Kāttu Bhagavati, or Bhagavati of the woods. “Shrines in her honour are to be found at most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the Komāran anda kind of priest, called Nolambukāran, take the chief parts. The former dresses in the goddess’ clothing, and the divine afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil.”Games.—A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree, and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching the ground with the feet, spins himself round.Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck, as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers and brass rings in the ears.The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition, bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated, and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is pierced, and plugged with wood.The Paniyans, who dwell in settlements at the base of the ghāts, make fire by what is known as the Malay or sawing method.A piece of bamboo, about a foot in length, in which two nodes are included, is split longitudinally into two equal parts. On one half a sharp edge is cut with a knife. In the other a longitudinal slit is made through about two-thirds of its length, which is stuffed with a piece of cotton cloth. It is then held firmly on the ground with its convex surface upwards, and the cutting edge drawn, with a gradually quickeningsawing motion, rapidly to and fro across it by two men, until the cloth is ignited by theincandescentparticles of wood in the groove cut by the sharp edge. The cloth is then blown with the lips into a blaze, and the tobacco or cooking fire can be lighted.
The poles are connected by a strong wire, from which is suspended the pot to be heated and boiled. Seven fire-places are made, beneath the wire. The branches of bamboo, katalati (Achyranthes Emblica), conga (Bauhinea variegata), cocoanut palm, jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), and pavatta (Pavatta indica), are used in forming a bright fire. The mixture in the pot soon boils and becomes oily, at which stage it is passed through a fine cloth. The oil is preserved, and a mark made with it on the forehead enables the possessor to realise anything that is thought of. The sorcerer must be in a state of vow for twenty-one days, and live on a diet of chama kanji. The deity, whose aid is necessary, is propitiated with offerings.
“One of the ceremonies which the Pānāns perform is called Thukil Onarthuka (waking thukil, a kind of drum). In the month of Karkadakam (July-August), a Pānān, with his wife, provided with a drum and kuzhithalam (circular bell-metal cymbals), goes to the houses of Brāhmans and Nāyars after midnight, and sings sacred songs. During the week, they sing standing underneath a banyan tree near the western gate of the Trichūr temple. From the temple authorities they get five measures of paddy, half a measure of rice, some gingelly oil, and a cocoanut. For their services in other houses, they receive a similar remuneration. This is intended to drive evil spirits, if any, from houses. Another of their festivals is known as Pānān Kali. The traditional account therefor is as follows. Once, when a Pānān and his wife went to a forest to bring bamboos for the manufacture of umbrellas, they missed their way, night approached, and they could not return. They began to be frightened by the varieties of noise heard by them in the wilderness. They collected piecesof dry bamboo and leaves of trees, and burned them. In the presence of the light thus obtained, the woman caught hold of a creeper hanging from a tree, and danced in honour of Bhagavathi, while her husband sang songs praising her. The day dawned at last, and they found their way home in safety. In memory of this incident, the Pānāns organise a party for a regular play. There are ten male and two female actors, and the play is acted during the whole night.
“The religion of the Pānāns consists of an all-pervading demonology. Their chief gods are Mukkan, Chāthan, Kappiri, Malankorathi, and Kali. Pūjas are performed to them on the first of Medom (April-May), Karkadakam (July-August), Desara, and on Tuesday in Makaram (January-February). These deities are represented by stones placed under a tree. They are washed with water on the aforesaid days, and offerings of sheep and fowls, malar (parched rice), plantains, cocoanuts, and boiled rice are made to them. Their belief is that these deities are ever prone to do harm to them, and should therefore be propitiated with offerings. The Pānāns also worship the spirits of their ancestors, who pass for their household gods, and whose help they seek in all times of danger. They fast on new-moon nights, and on the eleventh night after full-moon or new-moon.
“The Pānān is the barber of the polluting castes above Cherumans. By profession he is an umbrella-maker. Pānāns are also engaged in all kinds of agricultural work. In villages, they build mud walls. Their women act as midwives.
“As regards social status, the Pānāns eat at the hands of Brāhmans, Nāyars, Kammālans, and Izhuvans. They have to stand at a distance of thirty-two feet fromBrāhmans. Pānāns and Kaniyans pollute one another if they touch, and both bathe should they happen to do so. They are their own barbers and washermen. They live in the vicinity of the Izhuvans, but cannot live in the Nāyar tharas. Nor can they take water from the wells of the Kammālans. They cannot approach the outer walls of Brāhman temples, and are not allowed to enter the Brāhman streets in Palghat.”
In the Census Report, 1891, Pānān occurs as a sub-division of the Paraiyans. Their chief occupation as leather-workers is said to be the manufacture of drum-heads.30
Panasa.—The Panasas are a class of beggars in the Telugu country, who are said to ask alms only from Kamsalas. The word panasa means constant repetition of words, and, in its application to the Panasa, probably indicates that they, like the Bhatrāzu bards and panegyrists, make up verses eulogising those from whom they beg. It is stated in the Kurnool Manual (1886) that “they take alms from the Bēri Kōmatis and goldsmiths (Kamsalas), and no others. The story goes that, in Golkonda, a tribe of Kōmatis named Bacheluvāru were imprisoned for non-payment of arrears of revenue. Finding certain men of the artificer class who passed by in the street spit betel nut, they got it into their mouths, and begged the artificers to get them released. The artificers, pitying them, paid the arrears, and procured their release. It was then that the Kamsalis fixed a vartana or annual house-fee for the maintenance of the Panasa class, on condition that they should not beg alms from the other castes.” The Panasas appear every year in the Kurnool district to collect their dues.
Pāncha.—Pāncha, meaning five, is recorded as a sub-division of the Linga Balijas, and Pānchachāra or Pānchamsāle as a sub-division of Lingāyats. In all these, pāncha has reference to the five ācharas or ceremonial observances of the Lingāyats, which seem to vary according to locality. Wearing the lingam, worshipping it before meals, and paying reverence to the Jangam priests, are included among the observances.
Pānchāla.—A synonym for Canarese Kammālans, among whom five (pānch) classes of workers are included, viz., gold and silver, brass and copper, iron, and stone.
Pānchalinga(five lingams).—An exogamous sept of Bōya. The lingam is the symbol of Siva.
Panchama.—The Panchamas are, in the Madras Census Report, 1871, summed up as being “that great division of the people, spoken of by themselves as the fifth caste, and described by Buchanan and other writers as the Pancham Bandam.” According to Buchanan,31the Pancham Bandum “consist of four tribes, the Parriar, the Baluan, the Shekliar, and the Toti.” Buchanan further makes mention of Panchama Banijigaru and Panchama Cumbharu (potters). The Panchamas were, in the Department of Public Instruction, called “Paraiyas and kindred classes” till 1893. This classification was replaced, for convenience of reference, by Panchama, which included Chacchadis, Godāris, Pulayas, Holeyas, Mādigas, Mālas, Pallans, Paraiyans, Totis, and Valluvans. “It is,” the Director of Public Instruction wrote in 1902, “for Government to consider whether the various classes concerned should, for the sake of brevity, be described by one simple name. The terms Paraiya, low caste, outcaste, carry with them aderogatory meaning, and are unsuitable. The expression Pancham Banda, or more briefly Panchama, seems more appropriate.” The Government ruled that there is no objection to the proposal that Paraiyas and kindred classes should be designated Panchama Bandham or Panchama in future, but it would be simpler to style them the fifth class.
The following educational privileges according to the various classes classified as Panchama may be noted:—
(1) They are admitted into schools at half the standard rates of fees.
(2) Under the result grant system (recently abolished), grants were passed for Panchama pupils at rates 50 per cent. higher than in ordinary cases, and 15 per cent. higher in backward localities.
(3) Panchama schools were exempted from the attendance restriction,i.e., grants were given to them, however small the attendance. Ordinary schools had to have an attendance of ten at least to earn grants.
(4) Panchama students under training as teachers get stipends at rates nearly double of those for ordinary Hindus.
An interesting account of the system of education at the Olcott Panchama Free Schools has been written by Mrs. Courtright.32
Panchama is returned, in the Census Reports, 1891 and 1901, as a sub-division of Balija and Banajiga.
Panchāramkatti.—A sub-division of Idaiyan, which derives its name from the neck ornament (panchāram) worn by the women.
Pandamuttu.—A sub-division of Palli. The name is made by Winslow to mean a number of torchesarranged so as to represent an elephant. The Pallis, however, explain it as referring to the pile of pots, which reaches to the top of the marriage pandal (pandal, booth, mutti, touching). The lowest pot is decorated with figures of elephants and horses.
Pandāram.—Pandāram is described by Mr. H. A. Stuart33as being “the name rather of an occupation than a caste, and used to denote any non-Brāhmanical priest. The Pandārams seem to receive numerous recruits from the Saivite Sūdra castes, who choose to make a profession of piety, and wander about begging. They are in reality very lax in their modes of life, often drinking liquor and eating animal food furnished by any respectable Sūdra. They often serve in Siva temples, where they make garlands of flowers to decorate the lingam, and blow brazen trumpets when offerings are made, or processions take place. Tirutanni is one of the chief places, in which they congregate.”
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Trichinopoly district, that “the water for the god’s bath at Ratnagiri is brought by a caste of non-Brāhmans known as Tirumanjana Pandārams, who fetch it every day from the Cauvery. They say that they are descended from an Āryan king, who came to the god with the hope of getting rubies from him. The god, in the guise of a Brāhman, tested his devotion by making him fill a magic vessel with Cauvery water. The vessel would not fill, and the Āryan stranger in a fit of anger cut off the Brāhman’s head. The dead body at once turned into a lingam, and the Āryan was ordered to carry water for the temple till eternity.”
Pandāram is used both as the name of a caste, and of a class composed of recruits from various castes (e.g.,Vellāla and Palli). The Pandāram caste is composed of respectable people who have settled down as land-holders, and of Sanyāsis and priests of certain matams (religious institutions), and managers of richly endowed temples, such as those at Tiruvādudurai in Tanjore and Mailām in South Arcot. The common name for these managers is Tambirān. The caste Pandārams are staunch Saivites and strict vegetarians. Those who lead a celibate life wear the lingam. They are said to have been originally Sōzhia Vellālas, with whom intermarriage still takes place. They are initiated into the Saivite religion by a rite called Dhīkshai, which is divided into five stages, viz., Samaya, Nirvāna, Visēsha, Kalāsothanai, and Achārya Abhishēkam. Some are temple servants, and supply flowers for the god, while others sing dēvaram (hymns to the god) during the temple service. On this account, they are known as Meikāval (body-guard of the god), and Ōduvar (reader). The caste Pandārams have two divisions, called Abhishēka and Dēsikar, and the latter name is often taken as a title,e.g., Kandasāmi Dēsikar. An Abhishēka Pandāram is one who is made to pass through some ceremonies connected with Saiva Āgama.
The mendicant Pandārams, who are recruited from various classes, wear the lingam, and do not abstain from eating flesh. Many villages have a Pandāram as the priest of the shrine of the village deity, who is frequently a Palli who has become a Pandāram by donning the lingam. The females are said to live, in some cases, by prostitution.
The Lingāyat Pandārams differ in many respects from the true Lingāyats. The latter respect their Jangam, and use the sacred water, in which the feet of the Jangam are washed, for washing their stone lingam.To the Pandārams, and Tamil Lingāyats in general, this proceeding would amount to sacrilege of the worst type. Canarese and Telugu Lingāyats regard a Jangam as superior to the stone lingam. In the matter of pollution ceremonies the Tamil Lingāyats are very particular, whereas the orthodox Lingāyats observe no pollution. The investiture with the lingam does not take place so early among the Tamil as among the Canarese Lingāyats.
For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. “Dr. H. H. Wilson34is of opinion that the word Pandāram is ‘more properly Pānduranga, pale complexioned, from their smearing themselves with ashes. It is so used in Hēmachandrā’s history of Mahāvīra, when speaking of the Saiva Brāhmans.’ A more popular derivation of the name is from Bandāram, a public treasury. A good many well-to-do Pandārams are managers of Siva temples in Southern India, and accordingly have the temple treasuries under their care. It is, however, possible that the name has been acquired by the caste by reason of their keeping a yellow powder, called pandāram, in a little box, and giving it in return for the alms which they receive.
Opinions are divided as to whether the Pandārams are Lingāyats or not. The opinion held by F. W. Ellis, the well-known Tamil scholar and translator of the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, is thus summarised by Colonel Wilks.35“Mr. Ellis considers the Jangam of the upper countries, and the Pandāram of the lower, to be of the same sect, and both deny in the most unequivocal terms the doctrine of the metempsychosis. A manuscript in the Mackenzie collection ascribes the origin of the Pandārams as asacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation.” Dr. Wilson36also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr. H. A. Stuart37says that they are a class of priests who serve the non-Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.Pandāram is, in fact, a class name rather than the name of a caste, and it consists of priests and beggars. Mr. C. P. Brown38thinks that the Pandārams are not Lingāyats. ‘The Saiva worshippers among the Tamils are called Pandārams: these are not Vira Saivas, nor do they wear the linga or adore Basava. I name them here chiefly because they are often mentioned as being Vira Saivas, whereas in truth they are (like the Smartas) Purva Saivas, and worship the image of Siva in their houses.’ It must be remarked that Mr. Brown appears to have had a confused idea of Pandārams. Pandārams wear the linga on their bodies in one of the usual modes, are priests to others professing the Lingāyat religion, and are fed by them on funeral and other ceremonial occasions. At the same time, it must be added that they are—more especially the begging sections—very lax as regards their food and drink. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more orthodox Lingāyats. Moreover, Lingāyats remarry their widows, whereas the Pandārams, as a caste, will not.
“Pandārams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisūlam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandāyudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about thestreets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency,e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvānnāmalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingāyats. A samādhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.
“The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandāra Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Āgamas and Purānas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhānta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirāns—a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars.”
In the Census Report, 1901, Vairāvi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandāram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pūjāris in village temples. Vairāvi is further used as a name for members of the Mēlakkāran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nāttukōttai Chettis.
Pandāram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.
A class of people called hill Pandārams are described39by the Rev. S. Mateer as “miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and otherproduce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat,Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayālam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons.” Concerning these hill Pandārams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kāttumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days’ stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Rāman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.
In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandārams as being “skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard,Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade,which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like āhlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Urālis.”
Pandāriyar.—Pandāriyar or Pandārattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattamān, Malaimān, and Sudarmān.
Pāndava-kulam.—A title, indicative “of the caste of the Pāndava kings,” assumed by Jātapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pāndavas. The Pāndava kings were the heroes of the Mahābhārata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pāndavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.
Pandi(pig).—Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Bōya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Oddē.
Pandito.—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined40as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugucountries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix,e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.
Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.”41I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.
Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.
Pāndya.—The territorial name Pāndya, Pāndiya, Pāndiyan, or Pāndi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes,e.g., Ambattan, Kammālan, Ōcchan, Pallan, Vannān, and Vellāla. Pāndiya is further a title of some Shānāns. In Travancore, Pāndi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pāndiangal occurs as an exogamous sept ofthe Tamil Vallambans, and Pāndu as a Tamil synonym for Kāpu or Reddi.
Panikkar.—Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :—
1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.
1518. “And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars.”—Barbosa.
1553. “And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them.”—Barros.
1583. “The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes.”—Castaneda.
A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. “The Panikkans are,” Mr. Francis writes,42“weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, andeach of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams.” The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.
Panimagan(work children).—A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.
Panisavan.—Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as “a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the thārai or long trumpet.” According to Mr. H. A. Stuart,43Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dāsaris or Tādas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tādas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate andrespectable class. Their priests are Brāhmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.
There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and thārai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the thārai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the thārai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak’s hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The thārai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmāndhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tāli (marriage badge) is removed from a widow’s neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separatecaste, and have no connection with the Nōkkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nōkkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brāhman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nāgasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Dēva-dāsis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu vēlai,i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandāram, Pillai, and Mudali.
Paniyan.—The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynād, and those portions of the Ernād, Calicut, Kurumbranād and Kottayam tāluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghāts, and the Mudanād, Cherangōd, and Namblakōd amshams of the Nīlgiri district.
Paniyan.Paniyan.
Paniyan.
A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nāyar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out ‘Ippi’! ‘Ippi’! as he runs away, and they believe this to havebeen the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Rāja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.
The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:—“Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons.” Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord’s ‘man’; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.
In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynād, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nīlgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyansare not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.
In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and rāgi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppādi bazār. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.
Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynād is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or dēvasoms (temple property) of the great Nāyar landlords; and Chettis and Māppillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with ‘arrow-root’ leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.
Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynād Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the buildingmarked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.
The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.
They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.
It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson44that the section of the Moyar river “stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they arenot effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low.”
In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavāni and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.
The Paniyan language is a debased Malayālam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.
Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kād Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kūli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swāmi (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently ofthe fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.
Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed, dies in the course of two or three days.
In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Māppilla (Muhammadan) to murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime, and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Māppilla and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans and the Māppilla were sentenced to be hanged.
Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can afford to support.
Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and, in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed a daily presentof a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis) dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tāli (or marriage badge) is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said45that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife’s parents; and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry his deceased wife’s sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchāyat (or council) of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan village there is a headman called Kūttan, who has been appointed by Nāyar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kūttan with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at which a bangle is presented to the Kūttan as a badge of authority. Next in rank to the Kūttan is the Mudalior head of the family, and they usually constitute the panchāyat. Both Kūttan and Mudali are called Mūppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of as Mūppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams (the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride, is the usual form of punishment.
The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail, it can be filled up by election.
No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.
The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in underthe roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected, is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who, in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food, which is hence called kāka conji or crow’s rice.
The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the tī polay, seven days after death; the kāka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree, an account of the kāka polay will do for all.
In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak, take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased,one is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but, should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand a professional corresponding to the Komāran or Vellichipād of other Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykāran. With a new cloth (mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste made of rice flour and ghī (clarified butter), he enters on the scene with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance, and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and ghī. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen and Chemmi; and the Patalykāran, from whose legs the bells have been removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands, and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and the kāka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make up for lost time, and relatives, who haveallowed their hair to grow long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony, but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions) resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.
The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett, Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account of a further ceremony was obtained:—
At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable amongthe women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest, abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants, holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony, which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright, and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their conduct and morality.
The Paniyans “worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kūli, whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering cocoanuts, but no blood.”46They further worship Kāttu Bhagavati, or Bhagavati of the woods. “Shrines in her honour are to be found at most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the Komāran anda kind of priest, called Nolambukāran, take the chief parts. The former dresses in the goddess’ clothing, and the divine afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil.”
Games.—A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree, and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching the ground with the feet, spins himself round.
Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck, as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers and brass rings in the ears.
The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition, bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated, and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is pierced, and plugged with wood.
The Paniyans, who dwell in settlements at the base of the ghāts, make fire by what is known as the Malay or sawing method.A piece of bamboo, about a foot in length, in which two nodes are included, is split longitudinally into two equal parts. On one half a sharp edge is cut with a knife. In the other a longitudinal slit is made through about two-thirds of its length, which is stuffed with a piece of cotton cloth. It is then held firmly on the ground with its convex surface upwards, and the cutting edge drawn, with a gradually quickeningsawing motion, rapidly to and fro across it by two men, until the cloth is ignited by theincandescentparticles of wood in the groove cut by the sharp edge. The cloth is then blown with the lips into a blaze, and the tobacco or cooking fire can be lighted.