Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.The Vēdars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer35as “living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves. They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence.”For the following note on the Mala (hill) Vēdans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J. W. Evans.36“They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile’s fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvātiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vēdar fashion, he grinned, and said ‘What beauty I was born with is enough for me.’ Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or, may be, he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and areca nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied that it was to distinguish their caste, and thegod Chāttan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kādirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. One woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys—these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sāmbar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vēdans find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vēdans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chāttan, or Sāttan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vēdans are, there is he in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vēdans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kānakars), and, like the Kānakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc.”The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vēdans examined by myself were—Max.Min.Average.Stature (cm.)163.8140.8154.2Cephalic index80.968.873.4Nasal index102.671.185.0The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine.Mala Vēdan.Mala Vēdan.The following menstrual ceremony has been described37as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. “The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife.”Vēdunollu.—A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cutNyctanthes Arbor-tristis. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.Vēginādu.—A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.Vekkāli Puli(cruel-legged tiger).—An exogamous section of Kallan.Vēl(lance).—A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars inTravancore. Vēlanmar (spearmen) occurs as a name for the hill tribes of Travancore.Velakkattalavan.—Velakkattalavan or Vilakkattalavan is stated in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, to indicate chieftains among barbers, and to be the name for members of families, from which persons are selected to shave kings or nobles. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, Velakkattalavan is said to be “the name in South Malabar of the caste that shaves Nāyars and higher castes. The same man is called in North Malabar Valinchiyan, Nāvidan, or Nāsiyan. In dress and habits the caste resembles Nāyars, and they call themselves Nāyars in the south. Many returned their main caste as Nāyar. The females of this caste frequently act as midwives to Nāyars. In North Malabar, the Valinchiyan and Nāsiyan follow the Nāyar system of inheritance, whereas the Nāvidan has inheritance in the male line; but, even amongst the latter, tāli-kettu and sambandham are performed separately by different bridegrooms. In South Malabar the caste generally follows descent in the male line, but in some places the other system is also found.” Sūdra Kāvutiyan is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Velakkatalavan.Velama.—The Velamas, or, as they are sometimes called, Yelamas, are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows.38“Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Gūna Sākala (or Tsākala) vāndlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu castes wasamusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kālahasti. The Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of the name Gūni Sākalavāndlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes, and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for, in the Godāvari district, the name is Gūna Sākalavāndlu, gūna being the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of a difference of opinion on the subject of gōsha, most Velama females being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that the Velama women are supposed to be gōsha, but, owing to poverty, the rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they divided, are said to have adopted gōsha from the Muhammadans, but, finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they took this name. The dissentients retained gōsha, and were therefore called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split on the subject of gōsha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made Menkāvalgars, from whichposition some rose to be Poligars. Now they are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish them from the Vellālas in the southern tāluks, they call themselves Telugu Vellālas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and Vellālas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled Naidus.” [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellālas, not because of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the top of the Telugu castes as the Vellālas are of the Tamil castes. For the same reason, Vellālas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the census, 1891, were Kāpu, Koppala, Padma, Ponnēti, and Yānādi. “It is,” the Census Superintendent writes, “curious to find the Yānādi sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yānādis” (a Telugu forest tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called Yānādulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is recorded that entries under the name Yānāti “were clubbed with Yānādi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack tāluk of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yānāti or Yēnēti Dora which is distinct from Yānādi.” It would appear that, as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellālas, so in the north they call themselves Yānātis.Concerning the Gūna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes39that “in years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli (fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a net inthe house during the time of the marriage ceremony.” The custom had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their boats, and carried all the Gūna Velamas to a place of safety. The Gūna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were “formerly regarded as quite an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gūnas). The term Gūna Tsākala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called Velamalu to the great disgust of the Rāca (Rāja) Velamalu.” To the Rāca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the Rājas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapūr, and Nuzvīd. At the annual Samasthānam meeting, in 1906, the Mahārāja of Bobbili announced that “none of the Velamavāru were working in any of the offices at the time when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the office, and induced to read at the High School.”For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:—(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili tāluk. Those composing it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and dependents of Pedda Rājudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who received a territorial grant in 1652 from Shēr Muhammad Khān, theMoghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme refers, when he says40that they “esteem themselves the highest blood of Native Indians, next to the Brāhmans, equal to the Rajpoots, and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a second, but burn with the husband of their virginity.” The remarriage of widows is forbidden, and women remain gōsha (in seclusion), and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early Rājas of Vizianāgram. They are met with almost solely in the town of Vizianāgram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are gōsha. The title is Nāyudu.(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided into sections,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell,Turbinella rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tābēlu (tortoise). These have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are further divided into exogamous septs, or intipērulu, of which the following are examples:—Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kāpu). The custom of mēnarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. A Brāhman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven times, and, by an unusualcustom, an elder brother is allowed to marry the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two bangles called sandēlu, between which are black glass bangles, which are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nāyudu.In a note on the Velamas of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that they “admit that they always arrange for a Māla couple to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that they provide the necessary funds for the Māla marriage. They explain the custom by a story to the effect that a Māla once allowed a Velama to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives41a similar custom among the Velamas of Bhadrāchalam in the Godāvari district, only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married.”There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kāpus, as follows:—Velama Dora = Velama Esquire.Kamma Vāru = Mr. Kamma.Kāpu.A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed), a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Vāru.It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast42that the custom of sending a sword to represent an unavoidablyabsent bridegroom at a wedding is not uncommon among the Telugu Rāzus and Velamas.Vēlampan(rope-dancer).—Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar, who perform feats on the tight-rope.Vēlan.—As a diminutive form of Vellāla, Vēlan occurs as a title assumed by some Kusavans. Vēlan is also recorded as a title of Paraiyans in Travancore. (SeePānan.)For the following note on the Vēlans of the Cochin State, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.43The Vēlans, like the Pānans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called Perumannāns or Mannāns (washermen). My informant, a Perumannān at Trichūr, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannūr bridge, about ten miles south of Trichūr, are called Vēlans, and that they neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give māttu (a washed cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannāns, who give the māttu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammālans (artisan classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Vēlans at Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannāns of the Trichūr tāluk. The Perumannāns of the Chittūrtālukhave no knowledge of this illam division existing among them.The following story was given regarding the origin of the Vēlans and Mannāns. Once upon a time, when Paramēswara and his wife Parvati were amusing themselves,the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth, which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannān because he came out of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth day of a girl’s first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to free her from pollution.The Vēlans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannāns occupy similar dwellings in small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant they may be.When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o’clock, when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o’clock next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to the day of the girl’s marriage. Very poor people dispense with them altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home, leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god Paramēswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water, a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more, which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man, to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.When a young man of the Vēlan caste has attained the marriageable age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife, after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of the bride’s price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl’s hut, in front of which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride’s hut, where they are welcomed, and seatedon mats spread on the floor in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom’s enangan (relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding suit, the bride’s price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts to the bride’s enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to be given to the bride’s mother, and returns the plate to the same man. The bridegroom’s sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit, when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast, after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer to the marriage of Sīta, the wife of Rāma, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, and of Panchali, wife of the Pāndavas. Next morning, the bride’s party is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o’clock, and to a sumptuous meal at twelve o’clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom’s hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also, and the bride’s party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride’s hut, where they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments, a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the husbandand wife live with the parents of the former in their family.Among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State, the following marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom’s father, his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed in front of the bride’s hut, the bridegroom’s father takes up a metal plate containing the wedding dress, the bride’s price (twelve fanams), and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a formula, of which the substance runs thus. “A lighted lamp is placed in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east, west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man’s father, maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes, and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They havenegotiatedfor the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride’s family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Ōnam festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in Dhanu,i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come for the celebration of the wedding. Therehave been times when he has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51 fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will, pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl’s parents?” “Shall I,” answers the girl’s father, “accept it?” Receiving it, he gives it to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the bridegroom’s enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom’s sister, to have the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittūr tāluk, the following declaration is made. “According to the customary traditions of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride’s parents?” “Shall these be accepted?” says the bride’s enangan. When the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal statement is made. “Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears, breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank (to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own.”Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Vēlans and Mannāns. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children, bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry does not prevail among the Vēlans, but is common among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State. A Vēlan woman who loses her husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her husband’s death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property of her former husband. Among the Mannāns, a widow may marry any one of her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant, and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among the Vēlans and Mannāns, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In bothcases, the woman is at liberty to marry again.When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her duringthe ninth month at the hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindusindica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutāli (neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman’s brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this, a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head, to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, usingAcacia Intsiaas soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women, who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which are believed to help the formation of the mother’s milk. For the next three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds, and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa (Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva (Trigonella fœnum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day, her enangathi (enangan’s wife) cleans her room with water mixed withcow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a māttu (washed cloth) brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.Among Vēlans and Mannāns, the sons inherit the property of their fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.Vēlans and Mannāns practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes), in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.(1) Ōm, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders, and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand, that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown, dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!(2) Malign influence of birds on children.Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while, a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure will be equally effective.(3) To cure fits and fever.Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears), be under my possession so long as I serve thee.This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown on the body of the patient.(4) Oh! Bhadrakali, thou hast drunk the full cup. Oh! thou that holdest the sword of royalty in thy right hand, and that half sittest on a high seat. Place under control, as I am piously uttering the mantrams to serve thee, all demons, namely Yakshi, Gandharvan, Poomalagandharvan, Chutali, Nīrali, Nīlankari, Chuzali, and many others who cause all kinds of illness that flesh is heir to. Oh! holy mother, Bhadrakali, I vow by my preceptor.(5) For devil driving.Oh! thou, Karinkutti (black dwarf) of Vedapuram in Vellanad, that pluckest the fruits of the right hand branch of the strychnine tree (Strychnos Nux-vomica), and keepest toddy in its shell, drinking the blood of the black domestic fowl, drumming and keeping time on the rind of the fruit, filling and blowing thy pipe or horn through the nose. Oh! thou primeval black dwarf, so long as I utter the proper mantrams, I beg thee to cause such demons as would not dance to dance, and others to jump and drive them out. Oh! thou, Karinkutti, come, come, and enable me to succeed in my attempts.(6) Oh! thou goddess with face. Oh! thou with face like that of a bear, and thou, a hunter. I utter thy mantrams and meditate upon thee, and therefore request thee to tread upon my enemies, burst open their bodies to drink their blood, and yawn to take complete rest; drive out such demons as cause convulsions of the body both from within and without, and all kinds of fever. Scatter them as dust. I swear by thee and my preceptor. Swahah.(7) For the evil eye.Salutations to thee, Oh! God. Even as the moon wanes in its brightness at the sight of the sun, even as the bird chakora (Eraya) disappears at the sight of the moon; even as the great Vasuki (king of serpents) vanishes at the sight of chakora; even as the poison vanishes from his head; so may the potency of his evil eye with thy aid vanish.(8) To cause delay in the occurrence of menses.Salutation to thee, Oh! Mars (the son of the goddess Earth).If this mantram is muttered on a thread dyed yellow with turmeric, and if the thread be placed on both thepalms joined together, and if the number of days to which the occurrence of the menses should be delayed be thought of, the postponement will be procured by wearing it either round the neck or the loins. The thread with a ring attached to it, and worn round the neck is equally effective.(9) To prevent cows from giving milk.Ōm, Koss, dry up the liquid, kindly present me with thy gracious aspect. Oh! thou with the great sword in thy hands, the great trident, dry up the cow’s udder even as a tiger, I swear by thee and my preceptor.(10) To cause cows to give milk.Even as the swelling on the holy feet of Mahādēva due to the bite of a crocodile has subsided and gone down, so go down. I swear by my preceptor.(11) To remove a thorn from the sole of the foot.When Paramēswara and Parvathi started on their hunting expedition, a thorn entered the foot of her lady-ship. It was doubted whether it was the thorn of a bamboo, an ant, or a strychnine tree. Even so may this poison cease to hurt, Oh! Lord. I swear by my preceptor.(12) To effect metamorphosis.Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.(13) Before a stick of the Malankara plant, worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom. Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluckthe whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk, string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear. Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The house will soon take fire.(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe illness will attack them.The Vēlans and Mannāns are animists, and worship demoniacal gods, such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chāthan. All of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls, plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the senior male members of the local Nāyar, Kammālan and Izhuvan families to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their ancestors, are located ina room of their huts, and worshipped with offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.The Vēlans and Mannāns either burn or bury the dead. The son is the chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the māttu (a washed cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations, are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the end of the year.The chief occupation of the Vēlans and Mannāns is the giving of māttu to Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Anthalarajātis, Nāyars, Kammālans and Izhuvans, for wearing before going to bathe on the day on which they are freed from pollution. A girl or woman in her courses on the morning of the fourth day, a woman in confinement on the fifth, ninth, eleventh and sixteenth days, and all the members of a family under death pollution on the sixteenth day, have to use it. They bathe wearing the washed cloth, and return it as soon as the bath is over. It may either belong to the washerman, or have been previously given to him by the members of the family. He gets an anna or a measure of paddy for his service to a woman in her menses, and a para of paddy or six annas for birth and death pollutions. The Vēlans give the māttu to all the castes above mentioned, while the Mannāns refuse to give it to the Kammālans, and thereby profess themselves to be superior in status to them. They wash clothes to dress the idols in some of the highcaste temples. Their washing consists in first plunging the dirty cloths in water mixed with cowdung, and beating them on a stone by the side of a tank (pond), canal or river, and again immersing them in water mixed with wood ashes or charamannu, after which they are exposed to steam for a few hours, and again beaten on the stone, slightly moistening in water now and then, until they are quite clean. They are then dried in the sun, and again moistened with a solution of starch and indigo, when they are exposed to the air to dry. When dry, they are folded, and beaten with a heavy club, so as to be like those ironed. The Vēlans of the Cranganore, Cochin, and Kanayannūr tāluks, climb cocoanut trees to pluck cocoanuts, and get about eight to ten annas for every hundred trees they go up. They make umbrellas. Some among them practice magic and sorcery, and some are quack doctors, who treat sickly children. Some are now engaged in agricultural operations, while a few make beds, pillows, and coats. There are also a few of them in every village who are songsters, and whose services are availed of on certain ceremonial occasions, namely, on the bathing day of a girl in her first menses, on the wedding night, and when religious ceremonies are performed, and sacrifices offered to their gods. Some are experts in drum-beating, and are invited by low caste people of the rural parts. The Mannāns also follow the same occupations.The Vēlans and Mannāns eat at the hands of all castes above them, namely, Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Nāyars, and Izhuvans. The former take food from Kammālans, while the latter abstain from so doing. They do not eat the food prepared by Kaniyans, Pānans, Vilkurups, or other castes of equal or inferior status. They have to stand at a distance of twenty-four feet fromBrāhmans. They have their own barbers, and are their own washermen. They stand far away from the outer wall of the temples of high castes. They are not allowed to take water from the wells of high caste Sūdras, nor are they allowed to live in their midst.The following note on the Vēlans of Travancore has been furnished by Mr. N. Subramani Iyer.The word Vēlan has been derived from vel a spear, and also from vela work. The usual title of the Vēlans is Panikkan. They are believed to be divided into four classes, viz., Bharata Vēlan, Vaha Vēlan, Pana Vēlan, and Manna Vēlan. While the last of these sections, in addition to their traditional occupation, are washermen and climbers of areca palm trees, the Pana Vēlans take sawing as a supplementary employment. Some of the members of the first and second classes are also physicians. This classification is gradually going out of vogue.The Vēlans are said traditionally to have been descended from Siva, who, on one occasion, is believed to have removed the evil effects of the sorcery of demons upon Vishnu by means of exorcism. As this kind of injury began to increase among men, a man and woman were created by this deity, to prevent its dire consequences. In the Kēralolpatti, this caste is mentioned as Velakkuruppu. But at present the Puranadis, who are the barbers and priests of this class, are known by this name. A Puranadi means one who stands outside, and is not admitted as of equal rank with the Vēlans proper. The Puranadis are not washermen. Commensal relations exist only between the male members of the Vēlans and Puranitis (Puranadi females).The Vēlans perform a number of useful services in the body politic of Malabar. In the Kēralolpatti theirduty is said to be the nursing of women in their confinement. In the Kērala-Visesha-Mahatmya, exorcism, climbing of trees, and washing clothes, are mentioned as their occupations. There are various kinds of exorcism, the chief being Vēlan Tullal and Vēlan Pravarti. The former is a kind of masque performed by the Vēlans for warding off the effects of the evil eye, and preventing the injurious influences of demons and spirits. Atavi is a peculiar female divinity worshipped by the caste, by whose help these feats are believed to be performed in the main. She, and a host of minor gods and goddesses, are represented by them, and a dance commences. After it is over, all the characters receive presents. Vēlan Pravarti, or Otuka, may either last for eleven days, or may be finished on a minor scale within three days, and in emergent cases even in one day. A Puranadi acts as buffoon, and serves the purpose of a domestic servant on the occasion. This is called Pallipana when performed in temples, Pallipperu when in palaces, and Vēlan Pravarti or Satru-eduppu in the case of ordinary people. This is also done with a view to prevent the effect of the evil eye. On the first day, a person representing the enchanted man or woman is placed in a temporary shed built for the purpose, and lights are waved before him. On the third day, a pit is dug, and a cock sacrificed. On the fourth day, the Pattata Bali, or human sacrifice, takes place. A person is thrown into a pit which is covered with a plank of wood, upon which sacrifices are offered. The buried person soon resuscitates himself, and, advancing as if possessed, explains the cause of the disease or calamity. On the eighth day, figures of snakes, in gold or silver, are enclosed in small copper vessels, and milk and fruit are offered to them. On the ninth day, the Vēlans worship the lords of the eightdirections, with Brahma or the creator in the midst of them. On the tenth day, there is much festivity and amusement, and the Mahābhārata is sung in a condensed form. The chief of the Vēlans becomes possessed, and prays that, as the Pāndavas emerged safely from the sorcery of the Kauravas, the person affected by the calamity may escape unhurt. On the last day, animals are sacrificed at the four corners of the compound surrounding the house. No special rite is performed on the first day, but the Ituvanabali, Kuzhibali, Pattatabali, Kitangubali, Patalabali, Sarakutabali, Pithabali, Azhibali, Digbali, and Kumpubali, are respectively observed during the remaining ten days. The Pana, of which rite the breaking of cocoanuts is the most important item, completes this long ceremony. It was once supposed that the Bharata Vēlans exorcised spirits in the homes of high caste Hindus, the same work being done among the middle classes by the Vaha Vēlans, and among the low by the Manna Vēlans. This rule does not hold good at the present day. The Vēlans are also engaged in the event of bad crops.Besides standing thirty-two feet apart from Hindu temples, and worshipping the divinities therein, the Vēlans erect small sanctuaries for Siva within their own compounds, called Kuriyala. They worship this deity in preference to others, and offer tender cocoanuts, fried rice, sugar, and plantain fruits to him on the Uttradam day in the month of August.Velanāti(foreign).—A sub-division of Kāpus, and other Telugu castes, and of Telugu Brāhmans.Velanga(wood apple:Feronia elephantum).—An exogamous sept of Mūka Dora.Velichchapād.—Of the Velichchapāds, or oracles, of Malabar, the following account is given byMr. F. Fawcett.44“Far away in rural Malabar, I witnessed the ceremony in which the Velichchapād exhibited his quality. It was in the neighbourhood of a Nāyar house, to which thronged all the neighbours (Nāyars), men and women, boys and girls. The ceremony lasts about an hour. The Nāyar said it was the custom in his family to have it done once a year, but could give no account of how the custom originated; most probably in a vow, some ancestor having vowed that, if such or such benefit be received, he would for ever after have an annual performance of this ceremony in his house. It involved some expenditure, as the Velichchapād had to be paid, and the neighbours had to be fed. Somewhere about the middle of the little courtyard, always as clean as a dinner table, the Velichchapād placed a lamp (of the Malabar pattern) having a lighted wick, a kalasam (brass vessel), some flowers, camphor, saffron (turmeric) and other paraphernalia. Bhagavati was the deity invoked, and the business involved offering flowers, and waving a lighted wick round the kalasam. The Velichchapād’s movements became quicker, and, suddenly seizing his sword (nāndakam), he ran round the courtyard (against the sun, as sailors say) shouting wildly. He is under the influence of the deity who has been introduced into him, and he gives oracular utterances to the deity’s commands. What he said I know not, and no one else seemed to know or care in the least, much interested though they were in the performance. As he ran, every now and then he cut his forehead with the sword, pressing it against the skin and sawing vertically up and down. The blood streamed all over his face. Presently he became wilder and wilder, and whizzed round the lamp, bending forwardtowards the kalasam. Evidently some deity, some spirit was present here, and spoke through the mouth of the Velichchapād. This, I think, undoubtedly represents the belief of all who were present. When he had done whizzing round the kalasam, he soon became a normal being, and stood before my camera. The fee for the self-inflicted laceration is one rupee, some rice, etc. I saw the Velichchapād about three days afterwards, going to perform elsewhere. The wound on his forehead had healed. The careful observer can always identify a Velichchapād by the triangular patch over the forehead, where the hair will not grow, and where the skin is somewhat indurated.”
Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.The Vēdars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer35as “living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves. They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence.”For the following note on the Mala (hill) Vēdans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J. W. Evans.36“They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile’s fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvātiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vēdar fashion, he grinned, and said ‘What beauty I was born with is enough for me.’ Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or, may be, he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and areca nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied that it was to distinguish their caste, and thegod Chāttan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kādirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. One woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys—these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sāmbar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vēdans find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vēdans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chāttan, or Sāttan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vēdans are, there is he in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vēdans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kānakars), and, like the Kānakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc.”The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vēdans examined by myself were—Max.Min.Average.Stature (cm.)163.8140.8154.2Cephalic index80.968.873.4Nasal index102.671.185.0The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine.Mala Vēdan.Mala Vēdan.The following menstrual ceremony has been described37as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. “The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife.”Vēdunollu.—A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cutNyctanthes Arbor-tristis. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.Vēginādu.—A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.Vekkāli Puli(cruel-legged tiger).—An exogamous section of Kallan.Vēl(lance).—A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars inTravancore. Vēlanmar (spearmen) occurs as a name for the hill tribes of Travancore.Velakkattalavan.—Velakkattalavan or Vilakkattalavan is stated in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, to indicate chieftains among barbers, and to be the name for members of families, from which persons are selected to shave kings or nobles. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, Velakkattalavan is said to be “the name in South Malabar of the caste that shaves Nāyars and higher castes. The same man is called in North Malabar Valinchiyan, Nāvidan, or Nāsiyan. In dress and habits the caste resembles Nāyars, and they call themselves Nāyars in the south. Many returned their main caste as Nāyar. The females of this caste frequently act as midwives to Nāyars. In North Malabar, the Valinchiyan and Nāsiyan follow the Nāyar system of inheritance, whereas the Nāvidan has inheritance in the male line; but, even amongst the latter, tāli-kettu and sambandham are performed separately by different bridegrooms. In South Malabar the caste generally follows descent in the male line, but in some places the other system is also found.” Sūdra Kāvutiyan is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Velakkatalavan.Velama.—The Velamas, or, as they are sometimes called, Yelamas, are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows.38“Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Gūna Sākala (or Tsākala) vāndlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu castes wasamusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kālahasti. The Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of the name Gūni Sākalavāndlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes, and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for, in the Godāvari district, the name is Gūna Sākalavāndlu, gūna being the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of a difference of opinion on the subject of gōsha, most Velama females being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that the Velama women are supposed to be gōsha, but, owing to poverty, the rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they divided, are said to have adopted gōsha from the Muhammadans, but, finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they took this name. The dissentients retained gōsha, and were therefore called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split on the subject of gōsha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made Menkāvalgars, from whichposition some rose to be Poligars. Now they are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish them from the Vellālas in the southern tāluks, they call themselves Telugu Vellālas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and Vellālas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled Naidus.” [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellālas, not because of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the top of the Telugu castes as the Vellālas are of the Tamil castes. For the same reason, Vellālas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the census, 1891, were Kāpu, Koppala, Padma, Ponnēti, and Yānādi. “It is,” the Census Superintendent writes, “curious to find the Yānādi sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yānādis” (a Telugu forest tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called Yānādulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is recorded that entries under the name Yānāti “were clubbed with Yānādi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack tāluk of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yānāti or Yēnēti Dora which is distinct from Yānādi.” It would appear that, as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellālas, so in the north they call themselves Yānātis.Concerning the Gūna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes39that “in years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli (fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a net inthe house during the time of the marriage ceremony.” The custom had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their boats, and carried all the Gūna Velamas to a place of safety. The Gūna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were “formerly regarded as quite an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gūnas). The term Gūna Tsākala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called Velamalu to the great disgust of the Rāca (Rāja) Velamalu.” To the Rāca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the Rājas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapūr, and Nuzvīd. At the annual Samasthānam meeting, in 1906, the Mahārāja of Bobbili announced that “none of the Velamavāru were working in any of the offices at the time when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the office, and induced to read at the High School.”For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:—(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili tāluk. Those composing it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and dependents of Pedda Rājudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who received a territorial grant in 1652 from Shēr Muhammad Khān, theMoghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme refers, when he says40that they “esteem themselves the highest blood of Native Indians, next to the Brāhmans, equal to the Rajpoots, and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a second, but burn with the husband of their virginity.” The remarriage of widows is forbidden, and women remain gōsha (in seclusion), and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early Rājas of Vizianāgram. They are met with almost solely in the town of Vizianāgram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are gōsha. The title is Nāyudu.(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided into sections,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell,Turbinella rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tābēlu (tortoise). These have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are further divided into exogamous septs, or intipērulu, of which the following are examples:—Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kāpu). The custom of mēnarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. A Brāhman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven times, and, by an unusualcustom, an elder brother is allowed to marry the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two bangles called sandēlu, between which are black glass bangles, which are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nāyudu.In a note on the Velamas of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that they “admit that they always arrange for a Māla couple to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that they provide the necessary funds for the Māla marriage. They explain the custom by a story to the effect that a Māla once allowed a Velama to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives41a similar custom among the Velamas of Bhadrāchalam in the Godāvari district, only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married.”There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kāpus, as follows:—Velama Dora = Velama Esquire.Kamma Vāru = Mr. Kamma.Kāpu.A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed), a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Vāru.It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast42that the custom of sending a sword to represent an unavoidablyabsent bridegroom at a wedding is not uncommon among the Telugu Rāzus and Velamas.Vēlampan(rope-dancer).—Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar, who perform feats on the tight-rope.Vēlan.—As a diminutive form of Vellāla, Vēlan occurs as a title assumed by some Kusavans. Vēlan is also recorded as a title of Paraiyans in Travancore. (SeePānan.)For the following note on the Vēlans of the Cochin State, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.43The Vēlans, like the Pānans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called Perumannāns or Mannāns (washermen). My informant, a Perumannān at Trichūr, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannūr bridge, about ten miles south of Trichūr, are called Vēlans, and that they neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give māttu (a washed cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannāns, who give the māttu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammālans (artisan classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Vēlans at Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannāns of the Trichūr tāluk. The Perumannāns of the Chittūrtālukhave no knowledge of this illam division existing among them.The following story was given regarding the origin of the Vēlans and Mannāns. Once upon a time, when Paramēswara and his wife Parvati were amusing themselves,the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth, which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannān because he came out of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth day of a girl’s first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to free her from pollution.The Vēlans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannāns occupy similar dwellings in small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant they may be.When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o’clock, when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o’clock next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to the day of the girl’s marriage. Very poor people dispense with them altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home, leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god Paramēswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water, a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more, which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man, to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.When a young man of the Vēlan caste has attained the marriageable age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife, after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of the bride’s price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl’s hut, in front of which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride’s hut, where they are welcomed, and seatedon mats spread on the floor in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom’s enangan (relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding suit, the bride’s price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts to the bride’s enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to be given to the bride’s mother, and returns the plate to the same man. The bridegroom’s sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit, when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast, after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer to the marriage of Sīta, the wife of Rāma, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, and of Panchali, wife of the Pāndavas. Next morning, the bride’s party is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o’clock, and to a sumptuous meal at twelve o’clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom’s hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also, and the bride’s party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride’s hut, where they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments, a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the husbandand wife live with the parents of the former in their family.Among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State, the following marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom’s father, his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed in front of the bride’s hut, the bridegroom’s father takes up a metal plate containing the wedding dress, the bride’s price (twelve fanams), and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a formula, of which the substance runs thus. “A lighted lamp is placed in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east, west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man’s father, maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes, and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They havenegotiatedfor the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride’s family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Ōnam festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in Dhanu,i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come for the celebration of the wedding. Therehave been times when he has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51 fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will, pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl’s parents?” “Shall I,” answers the girl’s father, “accept it?” Receiving it, he gives it to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the bridegroom’s enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom’s sister, to have the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittūr tāluk, the following declaration is made. “According to the customary traditions of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride’s parents?” “Shall these be accepted?” says the bride’s enangan. When the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal statement is made. “Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears, breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank (to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own.”Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Vēlans and Mannāns. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children, bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry does not prevail among the Vēlans, but is common among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State. A Vēlan woman who loses her husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her husband’s death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property of her former husband. Among the Mannāns, a widow may marry any one of her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant, and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among the Vēlans and Mannāns, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In bothcases, the woman is at liberty to marry again.When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her duringthe ninth month at the hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindusindica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutāli (neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman’s brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this, a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head, to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, usingAcacia Intsiaas soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women, who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which are believed to help the formation of the mother’s milk. For the next three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds, and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa (Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva (Trigonella fœnum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day, her enangathi (enangan’s wife) cleans her room with water mixed withcow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a māttu (washed cloth) brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.Among Vēlans and Mannāns, the sons inherit the property of their fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.Vēlans and Mannāns practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes), in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.(1) Ōm, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders, and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand, that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown, dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!(2) Malign influence of birds on children.Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while, a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure will be equally effective.(3) To cure fits and fever.Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears), be under my possession so long as I serve thee.This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown on the body of the patient.(4) Oh! Bhadrakali, thou hast drunk the full cup. Oh! thou that holdest the sword of royalty in thy right hand, and that half sittest on a high seat. Place under control, as I am piously uttering the mantrams to serve thee, all demons, namely Yakshi, Gandharvan, Poomalagandharvan, Chutali, Nīrali, Nīlankari, Chuzali, and many others who cause all kinds of illness that flesh is heir to. Oh! holy mother, Bhadrakali, I vow by my preceptor.(5) For devil driving.Oh! thou, Karinkutti (black dwarf) of Vedapuram in Vellanad, that pluckest the fruits of the right hand branch of the strychnine tree (Strychnos Nux-vomica), and keepest toddy in its shell, drinking the blood of the black domestic fowl, drumming and keeping time on the rind of the fruit, filling and blowing thy pipe or horn through the nose. Oh! thou primeval black dwarf, so long as I utter the proper mantrams, I beg thee to cause such demons as would not dance to dance, and others to jump and drive them out. Oh! thou, Karinkutti, come, come, and enable me to succeed in my attempts.(6) Oh! thou goddess with face. Oh! thou with face like that of a bear, and thou, a hunter. I utter thy mantrams and meditate upon thee, and therefore request thee to tread upon my enemies, burst open their bodies to drink their blood, and yawn to take complete rest; drive out such demons as cause convulsions of the body both from within and without, and all kinds of fever. Scatter them as dust. I swear by thee and my preceptor. Swahah.(7) For the evil eye.Salutations to thee, Oh! God. Even as the moon wanes in its brightness at the sight of the sun, even as the bird chakora (Eraya) disappears at the sight of the moon; even as the great Vasuki (king of serpents) vanishes at the sight of chakora; even as the poison vanishes from his head; so may the potency of his evil eye with thy aid vanish.(8) To cause delay in the occurrence of menses.Salutation to thee, Oh! Mars (the son of the goddess Earth).If this mantram is muttered on a thread dyed yellow with turmeric, and if the thread be placed on both thepalms joined together, and if the number of days to which the occurrence of the menses should be delayed be thought of, the postponement will be procured by wearing it either round the neck or the loins. The thread with a ring attached to it, and worn round the neck is equally effective.(9) To prevent cows from giving milk.Ōm, Koss, dry up the liquid, kindly present me with thy gracious aspect. Oh! thou with the great sword in thy hands, the great trident, dry up the cow’s udder even as a tiger, I swear by thee and my preceptor.(10) To cause cows to give milk.Even as the swelling on the holy feet of Mahādēva due to the bite of a crocodile has subsided and gone down, so go down. I swear by my preceptor.(11) To remove a thorn from the sole of the foot.When Paramēswara and Parvathi started on their hunting expedition, a thorn entered the foot of her lady-ship. It was doubted whether it was the thorn of a bamboo, an ant, or a strychnine tree. Even so may this poison cease to hurt, Oh! Lord. I swear by my preceptor.(12) To effect metamorphosis.Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.(13) Before a stick of the Malankara plant, worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom. Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluckthe whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk, string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear. Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The house will soon take fire.(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe illness will attack them.The Vēlans and Mannāns are animists, and worship demoniacal gods, such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chāthan. All of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls, plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the senior male members of the local Nāyar, Kammālan and Izhuvan families to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their ancestors, are located ina room of their huts, and worshipped with offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.The Vēlans and Mannāns either burn or bury the dead. The son is the chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the māttu (a washed cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations, are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the end of the year.The chief occupation of the Vēlans and Mannāns is the giving of māttu to Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Anthalarajātis, Nāyars, Kammālans and Izhuvans, for wearing before going to bathe on the day on which they are freed from pollution. A girl or woman in her courses on the morning of the fourth day, a woman in confinement on the fifth, ninth, eleventh and sixteenth days, and all the members of a family under death pollution on the sixteenth day, have to use it. They bathe wearing the washed cloth, and return it as soon as the bath is over. It may either belong to the washerman, or have been previously given to him by the members of the family. He gets an anna or a measure of paddy for his service to a woman in her menses, and a para of paddy or six annas for birth and death pollutions. The Vēlans give the māttu to all the castes above mentioned, while the Mannāns refuse to give it to the Kammālans, and thereby profess themselves to be superior in status to them. They wash clothes to dress the idols in some of the highcaste temples. Their washing consists in first plunging the dirty cloths in water mixed with cowdung, and beating them on a stone by the side of a tank (pond), canal or river, and again immersing them in water mixed with wood ashes or charamannu, after which they are exposed to steam for a few hours, and again beaten on the stone, slightly moistening in water now and then, until they are quite clean. They are then dried in the sun, and again moistened with a solution of starch and indigo, when they are exposed to the air to dry. When dry, they are folded, and beaten with a heavy club, so as to be like those ironed. The Vēlans of the Cranganore, Cochin, and Kanayannūr tāluks, climb cocoanut trees to pluck cocoanuts, and get about eight to ten annas for every hundred trees they go up. They make umbrellas. Some among them practice magic and sorcery, and some are quack doctors, who treat sickly children. Some are now engaged in agricultural operations, while a few make beds, pillows, and coats. There are also a few of them in every village who are songsters, and whose services are availed of on certain ceremonial occasions, namely, on the bathing day of a girl in her first menses, on the wedding night, and when religious ceremonies are performed, and sacrifices offered to their gods. Some are experts in drum-beating, and are invited by low caste people of the rural parts. The Mannāns also follow the same occupations.The Vēlans and Mannāns eat at the hands of all castes above them, namely, Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Nāyars, and Izhuvans. The former take food from Kammālans, while the latter abstain from so doing. They do not eat the food prepared by Kaniyans, Pānans, Vilkurups, or other castes of equal or inferior status. They have to stand at a distance of twenty-four feet fromBrāhmans. They have their own barbers, and are their own washermen. They stand far away from the outer wall of the temples of high castes. They are not allowed to take water from the wells of high caste Sūdras, nor are they allowed to live in their midst.The following note on the Vēlans of Travancore has been furnished by Mr. N. Subramani Iyer.The word Vēlan has been derived from vel a spear, and also from vela work. The usual title of the Vēlans is Panikkan. They are believed to be divided into four classes, viz., Bharata Vēlan, Vaha Vēlan, Pana Vēlan, and Manna Vēlan. While the last of these sections, in addition to their traditional occupation, are washermen and climbers of areca palm trees, the Pana Vēlans take sawing as a supplementary employment. Some of the members of the first and second classes are also physicians. This classification is gradually going out of vogue.The Vēlans are said traditionally to have been descended from Siva, who, on one occasion, is believed to have removed the evil effects of the sorcery of demons upon Vishnu by means of exorcism. As this kind of injury began to increase among men, a man and woman were created by this deity, to prevent its dire consequences. In the Kēralolpatti, this caste is mentioned as Velakkuruppu. But at present the Puranadis, who are the barbers and priests of this class, are known by this name. A Puranadi means one who stands outside, and is not admitted as of equal rank with the Vēlans proper. The Puranadis are not washermen. Commensal relations exist only between the male members of the Vēlans and Puranitis (Puranadi females).The Vēlans perform a number of useful services in the body politic of Malabar. In the Kēralolpatti theirduty is said to be the nursing of women in their confinement. In the Kērala-Visesha-Mahatmya, exorcism, climbing of trees, and washing clothes, are mentioned as their occupations. There are various kinds of exorcism, the chief being Vēlan Tullal and Vēlan Pravarti. The former is a kind of masque performed by the Vēlans for warding off the effects of the evil eye, and preventing the injurious influences of demons and spirits. Atavi is a peculiar female divinity worshipped by the caste, by whose help these feats are believed to be performed in the main. She, and a host of minor gods and goddesses, are represented by them, and a dance commences. After it is over, all the characters receive presents. Vēlan Pravarti, or Otuka, may either last for eleven days, or may be finished on a minor scale within three days, and in emergent cases even in one day. A Puranadi acts as buffoon, and serves the purpose of a domestic servant on the occasion. This is called Pallipana when performed in temples, Pallipperu when in palaces, and Vēlan Pravarti or Satru-eduppu in the case of ordinary people. This is also done with a view to prevent the effect of the evil eye. On the first day, a person representing the enchanted man or woman is placed in a temporary shed built for the purpose, and lights are waved before him. On the third day, a pit is dug, and a cock sacrificed. On the fourth day, the Pattata Bali, or human sacrifice, takes place. A person is thrown into a pit which is covered with a plank of wood, upon which sacrifices are offered. The buried person soon resuscitates himself, and, advancing as if possessed, explains the cause of the disease or calamity. On the eighth day, figures of snakes, in gold or silver, are enclosed in small copper vessels, and milk and fruit are offered to them. On the ninth day, the Vēlans worship the lords of the eightdirections, with Brahma or the creator in the midst of them. On the tenth day, there is much festivity and amusement, and the Mahābhārata is sung in a condensed form. The chief of the Vēlans becomes possessed, and prays that, as the Pāndavas emerged safely from the sorcery of the Kauravas, the person affected by the calamity may escape unhurt. On the last day, animals are sacrificed at the four corners of the compound surrounding the house. No special rite is performed on the first day, but the Ituvanabali, Kuzhibali, Pattatabali, Kitangubali, Patalabali, Sarakutabali, Pithabali, Azhibali, Digbali, and Kumpubali, are respectively observed during the remaining ten days. The Pana, of which rite the breaking of cocoanuts is the most important item, completes this long ceremony. It was once supposed that the Bharata Vēlans exorcised spirits in the homes of high caste Hindus, the same work being done among the middle classes by the Vaha Vēlans, and among the low by the Manna Vēlans. This rule does not hold good at the present day. The Vēlans are also engaged in the event of bad crops.Besides standing thirty-two feet apart from Hindu temples, and worshipping the divinities therein, the Vēlans erect small sanctuaries for Siva within their own compounds, called Kuriyala. They worship this deity in preference to others, and offer tender cocoanuts, fried rice, sugar, and plantain fruits to him on the Uttradam day in the month of August.Velanāti(foreign).—A sub-division of Kāpus, and other Telugu castes, and of Telugu Brāhmans.Velanga(wood apple:Feronia elephantum).—An exogamous sept of Mūka Dora.Velichchapād.—Of the Velichchapāds, or oracles, of Malabar, the following account is given byMr. F. Fawcett.44“Far away in rural Malabar, I witnessed the ceremony in which the Velichchapād exhibited his quality. It was in the neighbourhood of a Nāyar house, to which thronged all the neighbours (Nāyars), men and women, boys and girls. The ceremony lasts about an hour. The Nāyar said it was the custom in his family to have it done once a year, but could give no account of how the custom originated; most probably in a vow, some ancestor having vowed that, if such or such benefit be received, he would for ever after have an annual performance of this ceremony in his house. It involved some expenditure, as the Velichchapād had to be paid, and the neighbours had to be fed. Somewhere about the middle of the little courtyard, always as clean as a dinner table, the Velichchapād placed a lamp (of the Malabar pattern) having a lighted wick, a kalasam (brass vessel), some flowers, camphor, saffron (turmeric) and other paraphernalia. Bhagavati was the deity invoked, and the business involved offering flowers, and waving a lighted wick round the kalasam. The Velichchapād’s movements became quicker, and, suddenly seizing his sword (nāndakam), he ran round the courtyard (against the sun, as sailors say) shouting wildly. He is under the influence of the deity who has been introduced into him, and he gives oracular utterances to the deity’s commands. What he said I know not, and no one else seemed to know or care in the least, much interested though they were in the performance. As he ran, every now and then he cut his forehead with the sword, pressing it against the skin and sawing vertically up and down. The blood streamed all over his face. Presently he became wilder and wilder, and whizzed round the lamp, bending forwardtowards the kalasam. Evidently some deity, some spirit was present here, and spoke through the mouth of the Velichchapād. This, I think, undoubtedly represents the belief of all who were present. When he had done whizzing round the kalasam, he soon became a normal being, and stood before my camera. The fee for the self-inflicted laceration is one rupee, some rice, etc. I saw the Velichchapād about three days afterwards, going to perform elsewhere. The wound on his forehead had healed. The careful observer can always identify a Velichchapād by the triangular patch over the forehead, where the hair will not grow, and where the skin is somewhat indurated.”
Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.The Vēdars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer35as “living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves. They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence.”For the following note on the Mala (hill) Vēdans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J. W. Evans.36“They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile’s fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvātiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vēdar fashion, he grinned, and said ‘What beauty I was born with is enough for me.’ Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or, may be, he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and areca nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied that it was to distinguish their caste, and thegod Chāttan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kādirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. One woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys—these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sāmbar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vēdans find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vēdans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chāttan, or Sāttan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vēdans are, there is he in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vēdans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kānakars), and, like the Kānakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc.”The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vēdans examined by myself were—Max.Min.Average.Stature (cm.)163.8140.8154.2Cephalic index80.968.873.4Nasal index102.671.185.0The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine.Mala Vēdan.Mala Vēdan.The following menstrual ceremony has been described37as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. “The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife.”Vēdunollu.—A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cutNyctanthes Arbor-tristis. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.Vēginādu.—A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.Vekkāli Puli(cruel-legged tiger).—An exogamous section of Kallan.Vēl(lance).—A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars inTravancore. Vēlanmar (spearmen) occurs as a name for the hill tribes of Travancore.Velakkattalavan.—Velakkattalavan or Vilakkattalavan is stated in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, to indicate chieftains among barbers, and to be the name for members of families, from which persons are selected to shave kings or nobles. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, Velakkattalavan is said to be “the name in South Malabar of the caste that shaves Nāyars and higher castes. The same man is called in North Malabar Valinchiyan, Nāvidan, or Nāsiyan. In dress and habits the caste resembles Nāyars, and they call themselves Nāyars in the south. Many returned their main caste as Nāyar. The females of this caste frequently act as midwives to Nāyars. In North Malabar, the Valinchiyan and Nāsiyan follow the Nāyar system of inheritance, whereas the Nāvidan has inheritance in the male line; but, even amongst the latter, tāli-kettu and sambandham are performed separately by different bridegrooms. In South Malabar the caste generally follows descent in the male line, but in some places the other system is also found.” Sūdra Kāvutiyan is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Velakkatalavan.Velama.—The Velamas, or, as they are sometimes called, Yelamas, are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows.38“Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Gūna Sākala (or Tsākala) vāndlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu castes wasamusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kālahasti. The Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of the name Gūni Sākalavāndlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes, and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for, in the Godāvari district, the name is Gūna Sākalavāndlu, gūna being the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of a difference of opinion on the subject of gōsha, most Velama females being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that the Velama women are supposed to be gōsha, but, owing to poverty, the rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they divided, are said to have adopted gōsha from the Muhammadans, but, finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they took this name. The dissentients retained gōsha, and were therefore called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split on the subject of gōsha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made Menkāvalgars, from whichposition some rose to be Poligars. Now they are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish them from the Vellālas in the southern tāluks, they call themselves Telugu Vellālas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and Vellālas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled Naidus.” [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellālas, not because of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the top of the Telugu castes as the Vellālas are of the Tamil castes. For the same reason, Vellālas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the census, 1891, were Kāpu, Koppala, Padma, Ponnēti, and Yānādi. “It is,” the Census Superintendent writes, “curious to find the Yānādi sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yānādis” (a Telugu forest tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called Yānādulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is recorded that entries under the name Yānāti “were clubbed with Yānādi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack tāluk of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yānāti or Yēnēti Dora which is distinct from Yānādi.” It would appear that, as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellālas, so in the north they call themselves Yānātis.Concerning the Gūna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes39that “in years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli (fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a net inthe house during the time of the marriage ceremony.” The custom had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their boats, and carried all the Gūna Velamas to a place of safety. The Gūna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were “formerly regarded as quite an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gūnas). The term Gūna Tsākala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called Velamalu to the great disgust of the Rāca (Rāja) Velamalu.” To the Rāca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the Rājas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapūr, and Nuzvīd. At the annual Samasthānam meeting, in 1906, the Mahārāja of Bobbili announced that “none of the Velamavāru were working in any of the offices at the time when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the office, and induced to read at the High School.”For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:—(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili tāluk. Those composing it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and dependents of Pedda Rājudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who received a territorial grant in 1652 from Shēr Muhammad Khān, theMoghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme refers, when he says40that they “esteem themselves the highest blood of Native Indians, next to the Brāhmans, equal to the Rajpoots, and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a second, but burn with the husband of their virginity.” The remarriage of widows is forbidden, and women remain gōsha (in seclusion), and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early Rājas of Vizianāgram. They are met with almost solely in the town of Vizianāgram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are gōsha. The title is Nāyudu.(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided into sections,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell,Turbinella rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tābēlu (tortoise). These have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are further divided into exogamous septs, or intipērulu, of which the following are examples:—Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kāpu). The custom of mēnarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. A Brāhman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven times, and, by an unusualcustom, an elder brother is allowed to marry the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two bangles called sandēlu, between which are black glass bangles, which are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nāyudu.In a note on the Velamas of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that they “admit that they always arrange for a Māla couple to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that they provide the necessary funds for the Māla marriage. They explain the custom by a story to the effect that a Māla once allowed a Velama to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives41a similar custom among the Velamas of Bhadrāchalam in the Godāvari district, only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married.”There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kāpus, as follows:—Velama Dora = Velama Esquire.Kamma Vāru = Mr. Kamma.Kāpu.A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed), a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Vāru.It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast42that the custom of sending a sword to represent an unavoidablyabsent bridegroom at a wedding is not uncommon among the Telugu Rāzus and Velamas.Vēlampan(rope-dancer).—Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar, who perform feats on the tight-rope.Vēlan.—As a diminutive form of Vellāla, Vēlan occurs as a title assumed by some Kusavans. Vēlan is also recorded as a title of Paraiyans in Travancore. (SeePānan.)For the following note on the Vēlans of the Cochin State, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.43The Vēlans, like the Pānans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called Perumannāns or Mannāns (washermen). My informant, a Perumannān at Trichūr, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannūr bridge, about ten miles south of Trichūr, are called Vēlans, and that they neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give māttu (a washed cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannāns, who give the māttu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammālans (artisan classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Vēlans at Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannāns of the Trichūr tāluk. The Perumannāns of the Chittūrtālukhave no knowledge of this illam division existing among them.The following story was given regarding the origin of the Vēlans and Mannāns. Once upon a time, when Paramēswara and his wife Parvati were amusing themselves,the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth, which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannān because he came out of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth day of a girl’s first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to free her from pollution.The Vēlans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannāns occupy similar dwellings in small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant they may be.When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o’clock, when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o’clock next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to the day of the girl’s marriage. Very poor people dispense with them altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home, leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god Paramēswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water, a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more, which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man, to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.When a young man of the Vēlan caste has attained the marriageable age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife, after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of the bride’s price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl’s hut, in front of which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride’s hut, where they are welcomed, and seatedon mats spread on the floor in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom’s enangan (relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding suit, the bride’s price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts to the bride’s enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to be given to the bride’s mother, and returns the plate to the same man. The bridegroom’s sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit, when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast, after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer to the marriage of Sīta, the wife of Rāma, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, and of Panchali, wife of the Pāndavas. Next morning, the bride’s party is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o’clock, and to a sumptuous meal at twelve o’clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom’s hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also, and the bride’s party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride’s hut, where they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments, a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the husbandand wife live with the parents of the former in their family.Among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State, the following marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom’s father, his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed in front of the bride’s hut, the bridegroom’s father takes up a metal plate containing the wedding dress, the bride’s price (twelve fanams), and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a formula, of which the substance runs thus. “A lighted lamp is placed in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east, west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man’s father, maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes, and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They havenegotiatedfor the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride’s family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Ōnam festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in Dhanu,i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come for the celebration of the wedding. Therehave been times when he has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51 fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will, pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl’s parents?” “Shall I,” answers the girl’s father, “accept it?” Receiving it, he gives it to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the bridegroom’s enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom’s sister, to have the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittūr tāluk, the following declaration is made. “According to the customary traditions of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride’s parents?” “Shall these be accepted?” says the bride’s enangan. When the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal statement is made. “Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears, breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank (to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own.”Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Vēlans and Mannāns. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children, bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry does not prevail among the Vēlans, but is common among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State. A Vēlan woman who loses her husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her husband’s death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property of her former husband. Among the Mannāns, a widow may marry any one of her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant, and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among the Vēlans and Mannāns, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In bothcases, the woman is at liberty to marry again.When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her duringthe ninth month at the hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindusindica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutāli (neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman’s brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this, a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head, to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, usingAcacia Intsiaas soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women, who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which are believed to help the formation of the mother’s milk. For the next three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds, and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa (Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva (Trigonella fœnum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day, her enangathi (enangan’s wife) cleans her room with water mixed withcow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a māttu (washed cloth) brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.Among Vēlans and Mannāns, the sons inherit the property of their fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.Vēlans and Mannāns practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes), in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.(1) Ōm, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders, and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand, that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown, dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!(2) Malign influence of birds on children.Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while, a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure will be equally effective.(3) To cure fits and fever.Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears), be under my possession so long as I serve thee.This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown on the body of the patient.(4) Oh! Bhadrakali, thou hast drunk the full cup. Oh! thou that holdest the sword of royalty in thy right hand, and that half sittest on a high seat. Place under control, as I am piously uttering the mantrams to serve thee, all demons, namely Yakshi, Gandharvan, Poomalagandharvan, Chutali, Nīrali, Nīlankari, Chuzali, and many others who cause all kinds of illness that flesh is heir to. Oh! holy mother, Bhadrakali, I vow by my preceptor.(5) For devil driving.Oh! thou, Karinkutti (black dwarf) of Vedapuram in Vellanad, that pluckest the fruits of the right hand branch of the strychnine tree (Strychnos Nux-vomica), and keepest toddy in its shell, drinking the blood of the black domestic fowl, drumming and keeping time on the rind of the fruit, filling and blowing thy pipe or horn through the nose. Oh! thou primeval black dwarf, so long as I utter the proper mantrams, I beg thee to cause such demons as would not dance to dance, and others to jump and drive them out. Oh! thou, Karinkutti, come, come, and enable me to succeed in my attempts.(6) Oh! thou goddess with face. Oh! thou with face like that of a bear, and thou, a hunter. I utter thy mantrams and meditate upon thee, and therefore request thee to tread upon my enemies, burst open their bodies to drink their blood, and yawn to take complete rest; drive out such demons as cause convulsions of the body both from within and without, and all kinds of fever. Scatter them as dust. I swear by thee and my preceptor. Swahah.(7) For the evil eye.Salutations to thee, Oh! God. Even as the moon wanes in its brightness at the sight of the sun, even as the bird chakora (Eraya) disappears at the sight of the moon; even as the great Vasuki (king of serpents) vanishes at the sight of chakora; even as the poison vanishes from his head; so may the potency of his evil eye with thy aid vanish.(8) To cause delay in the occurrence of menses.Salutation to thee, Oh! Mars (the son of the goddess Earth).If this mantram is muttered on a thread dyed yellow with turmeric, and if the thread be placed on both thepalms joined together, and if the number of days to which the occurrence of the menses should be delayed be thought of, the postponement will be procured by wearing it either round the neck or the loins. The thread with a ring attached to it, and worn round the neck is equally effective.(9) To prevent cows from giving milk.Ōm, Koss, dry up the liquid, kindly present me with thy gracious aspect. Oh! thou with the great sword in thy hands, the great trident, dry up the cow’s udder even as a tiger, I swear by thee and my preceptor.(10) To cause cows to give milk.Even as the swelling on the holy feet of Mahādēva due to the bite of a crocodile has subsided and gone down, so go down. I swear by my preceptor.(11) To remove a thorn from the sole of the foot.When Paramēswara and Parvathi started on their hunting expedition, a thorn entered the foot of her lady-ship. It was doubted whether it was the thorn of a bamboo, an ant, or a strychnine tree. Even so may this poison cease to hurt, Oh! Lord. I swear by my preceptor.(12) To effect metamorphosis.Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.(13) Before a stick of the Malankara plant, worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom. Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluckthe whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk, string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear. Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The house will soon take fire.(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe illness will attack them.The Vēlans and Mannāns are animists, and worship demoniacal gods, such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chāthan. All of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls, plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the senior male members of the local Nāyar, Kammālan and Izhuvan families to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their ancestors, are located ina room of their huts, and worshipped with offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.The Vēlans and Mannāns either burn or bury the dead. The son is the chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the māttu (a washed cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations, are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the end of the year.The chief occupation of the Vēlans and Mannāns is the giving of māttu to Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Anthalarajātis, Nāyars, Kammālans and Izhuvans, for wearing before going to bathe on the day on which they are freed from pollution. A girl or woman in her courses on the morning of the fourth day, a woman in confinement on the fifth, ninth, eleventh and sixteenth days, and all the members of a family under death pollution on the sixteenth day, have to use it. They bathe wearing the washed cloth, and return it as soon as the bath is over. It may either belong to the washerman, or have been previously given to him by the members of the family. He gets an anna or a measure of paddy for his service to a woman in her menses, and a para of paddy or six annas for birth and death pollutions. The Vēlans give the māttu to all the castes above mentioned, while the Mannāns refuse to give it to the Kammālans, and thereby profess themselves to be superior in status to them. They wash clothes to dress the idols in some of the highcaste temples. Their washing consists in first plunging the dirty cloths in water mixed with cowdung, and beating them on a stone by the side of a tank (pond), canal or river, and again immersing them in water mixed with wood ashes or charamannu, after which they are exposed to steam for a few hours, and again beaten on the stone, slightly moistening in water now and then, until they are quite clean. They are then dried in the sun, and again moistened with a solution of starch and indigo, when they are exposed to the air to dry. When dry, they are folded, and beaten with a heavy club, so as to be like those ironed. The Vēlans of the Cranganore, Cochin, and Kanayannūr tāluks, climb cocoanut trees to pluck cocoanuts, and get about eight to ten annas for every hundred trees they go up. They make umbrellas. Some among them practice magic and sorcery, and some are quack doctors, who treat sickly children. Some are now engaged in agricultural operations, while a few make beds, pillows, and coats. There are also a few of them in every village who are songsters, and whose services are availed of on certain ceremonial occasions, namely, on the bathing day of a girl in her first menses, on the wedding night, and when religious ceremonies are performed, and sacrifices offered to their gods. Some are experts in drum-beating, and are invited by low caste people of the rural parts. The Mannāns also follow the same occupations.The Vēlans and Mannāns eat at the hands of all castes above them, namely, Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Nāyars, and Izhuvans. The former take food from Kammālans, while the latter abstain from so doing. They do not eat the food prepared by Kaniyans, Pānans, Vilkurups, or other castes of equal or inferior status. They have to stand at a distance of twenty-four feet fromBrāhmans. They have their own barbers, and are their own washermen. They stand far away from the outer wall of the temples of high castes. They are not allowed to take water from the wells of high caste Sūdras, nor are they allowed to live in their midst.The following note on the Vēlans of Travancore has been furnished by Mr. N. Subramani Iyer.The word Vēlan has been derived from vel a spear, and also from vela work. The usual title of the Vēlans is Panikkan. They are believed to be divided into four classes, viz., Bharata Vēlan, Vaha Vēlan, Pana Vēlan, and Manna Vēlan. While the last of these sections, in addition to their traditional occupation, are washermen and climbers of areca palm trees, the Pana Vēlans take sawing as a supplementary employment. Some of the members of the first and second classes are also physicians. This classification is gradually going out of vogue.The Vēlans are said traditionally to have been descended from Siva, who, on one occasion, is believed to have removed the evil effects of the sorcery of demons upon Vishnu by means of exorcism. As this kind of injury began to increase among men, a man and woman were created by this deity, to prevent its dire consequences. In the Kēralolpatti, this caste is mentioned as Velakkuruppu. But at present the Puranadis, who are the barbers and priests of this class, are known by this name. A Puranadi means one who stands outside, and is not admitted as of equal rank with the Vēlans proper. The Puranadis are not washermen. Commensal relations exist only between the male members of the Vēlans and Puranitis (Puranadi females).The Vēlans perform a number of useful services in the body politic of Malabar. In the Kēralolpatti theirduty is said to be the nursing of women in their confinement. In the Kērala-Visesha-Mahatmya, exorcism, climbing of trees, and washing clothes, are mentioned as their occupations. There are various kinds of exorcism, the chief being Vēlan Tullal and Vēlan Pravarti. The former is a kind of masque performed by the Vēlans for warding off the effects of the evil eye, and preventing the injurious influences of demons and spirits. Atavi is a peculiar female divinity worshipped by the caste, by whose help these feats are believed to be performed in the main. She, and a host of minor gods and goddesses, are represented by them, and a dance commences. After it is over, all the characters receive presents. Vēlan Pravarti, or Otuka, may either last for eleven days, or may be finished on a minor scale within three days, and in emergent cases even in one day. A Puranadi acts as buffoon, and serves the purpose of a domestic servant on the occasion. This is called Pallipana when performed in temples, Pallipperu when in palaces, and Vēlan Pravarti or Satru-eduppu in the case of ordinary people. This is also done with a view to prevent the effect of the evil eye. On the first day, a person representing the enchanted man or woman is placed in a temporary shed built for the purpose, and lights are waved before him. On the third day, a pit is dug, and a cock sacrificed. On the fourth day, the Pattata Bali, or human sacrifice, takes place. A person is thrown into a pit which is covered with a plank of wood, upon which sacrifices are offered. The buried person soon resuscitates himself, and, advancing as if possessed, explains the cause of the disease or calamity. On the eighth day, figures of snakes, in gold or silver, are enclosed in small copper vessels, and milk and fruit are offered to them. On the ninth day, the Vēlans worship the lords of the eightdirections, with Brahma or the creator in the midst of them. On the tenth day, there is much festivity and amusement, and the Mahābhārata is sung in a condensed form. The chief of the Vēlans becomes possessed, and prays that, as the Pāndavas emerged safely from the sorcery of the Kauravas, the person affected by the calamity may escape unhurt. On the last day, animals are sacrificed at the four corners of the compound surrounding the house. No special rite is performed on the first day, but the Ituvanabali, Kuzhibali, Pattatabali, Kitangubali, Patalabali, Sarakutabali, Pithabali, Azhibali, Digbali, and Kumpubali, are respectively observed during the remaining ten days. The Pana, of which rite the breaking of cocoanuts is the most important item, completes this long ceremony. It was once supposed that the Bharata Vēlans exorcised spirits in the homes of high caste Hindus, the same work being done among the middle classes by the Vaha Vēlans, and among the low by the Manna Vēlans. This rule does not hold good at the present day. The Vēlans are also engaged in the event of bad crops.Besides standing thirty-two feet apart from Hindu temples, and worshipping the divinities therein, the Vēlans erect small sanctuaries for Siva within their own compounds, called Kuriyala. They worship this deity in preference to others, and offer tender cocoanuts, fried rice, sugar, and plantain fruits to him on the Uttradam day in the month of August.Velanāti(foreign).—A sub-division of Kāpus, and other Telugu castes, and of Telugu Brāhmans.Velanga(wood apple:Feronia elephantum).—An exogamous sept of Mūka Dora.Velichchapād.—Of the Velichchapāds, or oracles, of Malabar, the following account is given byMr. F. Fawcett.44“Far away in rural Malabar, I witnessed the ceremony in which the Velichchapād exhibited his quality. It was in the neighbourhood of a Nāyar house, to which thronged all the neighbours (Nāyars), men and women, boys and girls. The ceremony lasts about an hour. The Nāyar said it was the custom in his family to have it done once a year, but could give no account of how the custom originated; most probably in a vow, some ancestor having vowed that, if such or such benefit be received, he would for ever after have an annual performance of this ceremony in his house. It involved some expenditure, as the Velichchapād had to be paid, and the neighbours had to be fed. Somewhere about the middle of the little courtyard, always as clean as a dinner table, the Velichchapād placed a lamp (of the Malabar pattern) having a lighted wick, a kalasam (brass vessel), some flowers, camphor, saffron (turmeric) and other paraphernalia. Bhagavati was the deity invoked, and the business involved offering flowers, and waving a lighted wick round the kalasam. The Velichchapād’s movements became quicker, and, suddenly seizing his sword (nāndakam), he ran round the courtyard (against the sun, as sailors say) shouting wildly. He is under the influence of the deity who has been introduced into him, and he gives oracular utterances to the deity’s commands. What he said I know not, and no one else seemed to know or care in the least, much interested though they were in the performance. As he ran, every now and then he cut his forehead with the sword, pressing it against the skin and sawing vertically up and down. The blood streamed all over his face. Presently he became wilder and wilder, and whizzed round the lamp, bending forwardtowards the kalasam. Evidently some deity, some spirit was present here, and spoke through the mouth of the Velichchapād. This, I think, undoubtedly represents the belief of all who were present. When he had done whizzing round the kalasam, he soon became a normal being, and stood before my camera. The fee for the self-inflicted laceration is one rupee, some rice, etc. I saw the Velichchapād about three days afterwards, going to perform elsewhere. The wound on his forehead had healed. The careful observer can always identify a Velichchapād by the triangular patch over the forehead, where the hair will not grow, and where the skin is somewhat indurated.”
Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.The Vēdars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer35as “living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves. They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence.”For the following note on the Mala (hill) Vēdans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J. W. Evans.36“They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile’s fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvātiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vēdar fashion, he grinned, and said ‘What beauty I was born with is enough for me.’ Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or, may be, he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and areca nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied that it was to distinguish their caste, and thegod Chāttan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kādirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. One woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys—these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sāmbar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vēdans find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vēdans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chāttan, or Sāttan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vēdans are, there is he in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vēdans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kānakars), and, like the Kānakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc.”The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vēdans examined by myself were—Max.Min.Average.Stature (cm.)163.8140.8154.2Cephalic index80.968.873.4Nasal index102.671.185.0The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine.Mala Vēdan.Mala Vēdan.The following menstrual ceremony has been described37as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. “The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife.”Vēdunollu.—A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cutNyctanthes Arbor-tristis. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.Vēginādu.—A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.Vekkāli Puli(cruel-legged tiger).—An exogamous section of Kallan.Vēl(lance).—A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars inTravancore. Vēlanmar (spearmen) occurs as a name for the hill tribes of Travancore.Velakkattalavan.—Velakkattalavan or Vilakkattalavan is stated in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, to indicate chieftains among barbers, and to be the name for members of families, from which persons are selected to shave kings or nobles. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, Velakkattalavan is said to be “the name in South Malabar of the caste that shaves Nāyars and higher castes. The same man is called in North Malabar Valinchiyan, Nāvidan, or Nāsiyan. In dress and habits the caste resembles Nāyars, and they call themselves Nāyars in the south. Many returned their main caste as Nāyar. The females of this caste frequently act as midwives to Nāyars. In North Malabar, the Valinchiyan and Nāsiyan follow the Nāyar system of inheritance, whereas the Nāvidan has inheritance in the male line; but, even amongst the latter, tāli-kettu and sambandham are performed separately by different bridegrooms. In South Malabar the caste generally follows descent in the male line, but in some places the other system is also found.” Sūdra Kāvutiyan is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Velakkatalavan.Velama.—The Velamas, or, as they are sometimes called, Yelamas, are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows.38“Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Gūna Sākala (or Tsākala) vāndlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu castes wasamusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kālahasti. The Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of the name Gūni Sākalavāndlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes, and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for, in the Godāvari district, the name is Gūna Sākalavāndlu, gūna being the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of a difference of opinion on the subject of gōsha, most Velama females being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that the Velama women are supposed to be gōsha, but, owing to poverty, the rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they divided, are said to have adopted gōsha from the Muhammadans, but, finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they took this name. The dissentients retained gōsha, and were therefore called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split on the subject of gōsha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made Menkāvalgars, from whichposition some rose to be Poligars. Now they are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish them from the Vellālas in the southern tāluks, they call themselves Telugu Vellālas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and Vellālas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled Naidus.” [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellālas, not because of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the top of the Telugu castes as the Vellālas are of the Tamil castes. For the same reason, Vellālas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the census, 1891, were Kāpu, Koppala, Padma, Ponnēti, and Yānādi. “It is,” the Census Superintendent writes, “curious to find the Yānādi sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yānādis” (a Telugu forest tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called Yānādulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is recorded that entries under the name Yānāti “were clubbed with Yānādi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack tāluk of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yānāti or Yēnēti Dora which is distinct from Yānādi.” It would appear that, as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellālas, so in the north they call themselves Yānātis.Concerning the Gūna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes39that “in years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli (fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a net inthe house during the time of the marriage ceremony.” The custom had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their boats, and carried all the Gūna Velamas to a place of safety. The Gūna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were “formerly regarded as quite an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gūnas). The term Gūna Tsākala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called Velamalu to the great disgust of the Rāca (Rāja) Velamalu.” To the Rāca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the Rājas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapūr, and Nuzvīd. At the annual Samasthānam meeting, in 1906, the Mahārāja of Bobbili announced that “none of the Velamavāru were working in any of the offices at the time when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the office, and induced to read at the High School.”For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:—(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili tāluk. Those composing it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and dependents of Pedda Rājudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who received a territorial grant in 1652 from Shēr Muhammad Khān, theMoghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme refers, when he says40that they “esteem themselves the highest blood of Native Indians, next to the Brāhmans, equal to the Rajpoots, and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a second, but burn with the husband of their virginity.” The remarriage of widows is forbidden, and women remain gōsha (in seclusion), and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early Rājas of Vizianāgram. They are met with almost solely in the town of Vizianāgram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are gōsha. The title is Nāyudu.(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided into sections,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell,Turbinella rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tābēlu (tortoise). These have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are further divided into exogamous septs, or intipērulu, of which the following are examples:—Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kāpu). The custom of mēnarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. A Brāhman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven times, and, by an unusualcustom, an elder brother is allowed to marry the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two bangles called sandēlu, between which are black glass bangles, which are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nāyudu.In a note on the Velamas of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that they “admit that they always arrange for a Māla couple to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that they provide the necessary funds for the Māla marriage. They explain the custom by a story to the effect that a Māla once allowed a Velama to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives41a similar custom among the Velamas of Bhadrāchalam in the Godāvari district, only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married.”There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kāpus, as follows:—Velama Dora = Velama Esquire.Kamma Vāru = Mr. Kamma.Kāpu.A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed), a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Vāru.It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast42that the custom of sending a sword to represent an unavoidablyabsent bridegroom at a wedding is not uncommon among the Telugu Rāzus and Velamas.Vēlampan(rope-dancer).—Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar, who perform feats on the tight-rope.Vēlan.—As a diminutive form of Vellāla, Vēlan occurs as a title assumed by some Kusavans. Vēlan is also recorded as a title of Paraiyans in Travancore. (SeePānan.)For the following note on the Vēlans of the Cochin State, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.43The Vēlans, like the Pānans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called Perumannāns or Mannāns (washermen). My informant, a Perumannān at Trichūr, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannūr bridge, about ten miles south of Trichūr, are called Vēlans, and that they neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give māttu (a washed cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannāns, who give the māttu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammālans (artisan classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Vēlans at Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannāns of the Trichūr tāluk. The Perumannāns of the Chittūrtālukhave no knowledge of this illam division existing among them.The following story was given regarding the origin of the Vēlans and Mannāns. Once upon a time, when Paramēswara and his wife Parvati were amusing themselves,the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth, which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannān because he came out of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth day of a girl’s first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to free her from pollution.The Vēlans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannāns occupy similar dwellings in small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant they may be.When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o’clock, when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o’clock next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to the day of the girl’s marriage. Very poor people dispense with them altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home, leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god Paramēswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water, a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more, which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man, to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.When a young man of the Vēlan caste has attained the marriageable age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife, after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of the bride’s price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl’s hut, in front of which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride’s hut, where they are welcomed, and seatedon mats spread on the floor in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom’s enangan (relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding suit, the bride’s price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts to the bride’s enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to be given to the bride’s mother, and returns the plate to the same man. The bridegroom’s sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit, when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast, after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer to the marriage of Sīta, the wife of Rāma, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, and of Panchali, wife of the Pāndavas. Next morning, the bride’s party is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o’clock, and to a sumptuous meal at twelve o’clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom’s hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also, and the bride’s party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride’s hut, where they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments, a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the husbandand wife live with the parents of the former in their family.Among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State, the following marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom’s father, his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed in front of the bride’s hut, the bridegroom’s father takes up a metal plate containing the wedding dress, the bride’s price (twelve fanams), and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a formula, of which the substance runs thus. “A lighted lamp is placed in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east, west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man’s father, maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes, and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They havenegotiatedfor the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride’s family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Ōnam festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in Dhanu,i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come for the celebration of the wedding. Therehave been times when he has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51 fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will, pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl’s parents?” “Shall I,” answers the girl’s father, “accept it?” Receiving it, he gives it to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the bridegroom’s enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom’s sister, to have the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittūr tāluk, the following declaration is made. “According to the customary traditions of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride’s parents?” “Shall these be accepted?” says the bride’s enangan. When the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal statement is made. “Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears, breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank (to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own.”Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Vēlans and Mannāns. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children, bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry does not prevail among the Vēlans, but is common among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State. A Vēlan woman who loses her husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her husband’s death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property of her former husband. Among the Mannāns, a widow may marry any one of her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant, and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among the Vēlans and Mannāns, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In bothcases, the woman is at liberty to marry again.When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her duringthe ninth month at the hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindusindica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutāli (neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman’s brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this, a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head, to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, usingAcacia Intsiaas soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women, who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which are believed to help the formation of the mother’s milk. For the next three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds, and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa (Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva (Trigonella fœnum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day, her enangathi (enangan’s wife) cleans her room with water mixed withcow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a māttu (washed cloth) brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.Among Vēlans and Mannāns, the sons inherit the property of their fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.Vēlans and Mannāns practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes), in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.(1) Ōm, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders, and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand, that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown, dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!(2) Malign influence of birds on children.Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while, a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure will be equally effective.(3) To cure fits and fever.Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears), be under my possession so long as I serve thee.This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown on the body of the patient.(4) Oh! Bhadrakali, thou hast drunk the full cup. Oh! thou that holdest the sword of royalty in thy right hand, and that half sittest on a high seat. Place under control, as I am piously uttering the mantrams to serve thee, all demons, namely Yakshi, Gandharvan, Poomalagandharvan, Chutali, Nīrali, Nīlankari, Chuzali, and many others who cause all kinds of illness that flesh is heir to. Oh! holy mother, Bhadrakali, I vow by my preceptor.(5) For devil driving.Oh! thou, Karinkutti (black dwarf) of Vedapuram in Vellanad, that pluckest the fruits of the right hand branch of the strychnine tree (Strychnos Nux-vomica), and keepest toddy in its shell, drinking the blood of the black domestic fowl, drumming and keeping time on the rind of the fruit, filling and blowing thy pipe or horn through the nose. Oh! thou primeval black dwarf, so long as I utter the proper mantrams, I beg thee to cause such demons as would not dance to dance, and others to jump and drive them out. Oh! thou, Karinkutti, come, come, and enable me to succeed in my attempts.(6) Oh! thou goddess with face. Oh! thou with face like that of a bear, and thou, a hunter. I utter thy mantrams and meditate upon thee, and therefore request thee to tread upon my enemies, burst open their bodies to drink their blood, and yawn to take complete rest; drive out such demons as cause convulsions of the body both from within and without, and all kinds of fever. Scatter them as dust. I swear by thee and my preceptor. Swahah.(7) For the evil eye.Salutations to thee, Oh! God. Even as the moon wanes in its brightness at the sight of the sun, even as the bird chakora (Eraya) disappears at the sight of the moon; even as the great Vasuki (king of serpents) vanishes at the sight of chakora; even as the poison vanishes from his head; so may the potency of his evil eye with thy aid vanish.(8) To cause delay in the occurrence of menses.Salutation to thee, Oh! Mars (the son of the goddess Earth).If this mantram is muttered on a thread dyed yellow with turmeric, and if the thread be placed on both thepalms joined together, and if the number of days to which the occurrence of the menses should be delayed be thought of, the postponement will be procured by wearing it either round the neck or the loins. The thread with a ring attached to it, and worn round the neck is equally effective.(9) To prevent cows from giving milk.Ōm, Koss, dry up the liquid, kindly present me with thy gracious aspect. Oh! thou with the great sword in thy hands, the great trident, dry up the cow’s udder even as a tiger, I swear by thee and my preceptor.(10) To cause cows to give milk.Even as the swelling on the holy feet of Mahādēva due to the bite of a crocodile has subsided and gone down, so go down. I swear by my preceptor.(11) To remove a thorn from the sole of the foot.When Paramēswara and Parvathi started on their hunting expedition, a thorn entered the foot of her lady-ship. It was doubted whether it was the thorn of a bamboo, an ant, or a strychnine tree. Even so may this poison cease to hurt, Oh! Lord. I swear by my preceptor.(12) To effect metamorphosis.Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.(13) Before a stick of the Malankara plant, worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom. Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluckthe whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk, string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear. Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The house will soon take fire.(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe illness will attack them.The Vēlans and Mannāns are animists, and worship demoniacal gods, such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chāthan. All of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls, plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the senior male members of the local Nāyar, Kammālan and Izhuvan families to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their ancestors, are located ina room of their huts, and worshipped with offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.The Vēlans and Mannāns either burn or bury the dead. The son is the chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the māttu (a washed cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations, are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the end of the year.The chief occupation of the Vēlans and Mannāns is the giving of māttu to Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Anthalarajātis, Nāyars, Kammālans and Izhuvans, for wearing before going to bathe on the day on which they are freed from pollution. A girl or woman in her courses on the morning of the fourth day, a woman in confinement on the fifth, ninth, eleventh and sixteenth days, and all the members of a family under death pollution on the sixteenth day, have to use it. They bathe wearing the washed cloth, and return it as soon as the bath is over. It may either belong to the washerman, or have been previously given to him by the members of the family. He gets an anna or a measure of paddy for his service to a woman in her menses, and a para of paddy or six annas for birth and death pollutions. The Vēlans give the māttu to all the castes above mentioned, while the Mannāns refuse to give it to the Kammālans, and thereby profess themselves to be superior in status to them. They wash clothes to dress the idols in some of the highcaste temples. Their washing consists in first plunging the dirty cloths in water mixed with cowdung, and beating them on a stone by the side of a tank (pond), canal or river, and again immersing them in water mixed with wood ashes or charamannu, after which they are exposed to steam for a few hours, and again beaten on the stone, slightly moistening in water now and then, until they are quite clean. They are then dried in the sun, and again moistened with a solution of starch and indigo, when they are exposed to the air to dry. When dry, they are folded, and beaten with a heavy club, so as to be like those ironed. The Vēlans of the Cranganore, Cochin, and Kanayannūr tāluks, climb cocoanut trees to pluck cocoanuts, and get about eight to ten annas for every hundred trees they go up. They make umbrellas. Some among them practice magic and sorcery, and some are quack doctors, who treat sickly children. Some are now engaged in agricultural operations, while a few make beds, pillows, and coats. There are also a few of them in every village who are songsters, and whose services are availed of on certain ceremonial occasions, namely, on the bathing day of a girl in her first menses, on the wedding night, and when religious ceremonies are performed, and sacrifices offered to their gods. Some are experts in drum-beating, and are invited by low caste people of the rural parts. The Mannāns also follow the same occupations.The Vēlans and Mannāns eat at the hands of all castes above them, namely, Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Nāyars, and Izhuvans. The former take food from Kammālans, while the latter abstain from so doing. They do not eat the food prepared by Kaniyans, Pānans, Vilkurups, or other castes of equal or inferior status. They have to stand at a distance of twenty-four feet fromBrāhmans. They have their own barbers, and are their own washermen. They stand far away from the outer wall of the temples of high castes. They are not allowed to take water from the wells of high caste Sūdras, nor are they allowed to live in their midst.The following note on the Vēlans of Travancore has been furnished by Mr. N. Subramani Iyer.The word Vēlan has been derived from vel a spear, and also from vela work. The usual title of the Vēlans is Panikkan. They are believed to be divided into four classes, viz., Bharata Vēlan, Vaha Vēlan, Pana Vēlan, and Manna Vēlan. While the last of these sections, in addition to their traditional occupation, are washermen and climbers of areca palm trees, the Pana Vēlans take sawing as a supplementary employment. Some of the members of the first and second classes are also physicians. This classification is gradually going out of vogue.The Vēlans are said traditionally to have been descended from Siva, who, on one occasion, is believed to have removed the evil effects of the sorcery of demons upon Vishnu by means of exorcism. As this kind of injury began to increase among men, a man and woman were created by this deity, to prevent its dire consequences. In the Kēralolpatti, this caste is mentioned as Velakkuruppu. But at present the Puranadis, who are the barbers and priests of this class, are known by this name. A Puranadi means one who stands outside, and is not admitted as of equal rank with the Vēlans proper. The Puranadis are not washermen. Commensal relations exist only between the male members of the Vēlans and Puranitis (Puranadi females).The Vēlans perform a number of useful services in the body politic of Malabar. In the Kēralolpatti theirduty is said to be the nursing of women in their confinement. In the Kērala-Visesha-Mahatmya, exorcism, climbing of trees, and washing clothes, are mentioned as their occupations. There are various kinds of exorcism, the chief being Vēlan Tullal and Vēlan Pravarti. The former is a kind of masque performed by the Vēlans for warding off the effects of the evil eye, and preventing the injurious influences of demons and spirits. Atavi is a peculiar female divinity worshipped by the caste, by whose help these feats are believed to be performed in the main. She, and a host of minor gods and goddesses, are represented by them, and a dance commences. After it is over, all the characters receive presents. Vēlan Pravarti, or Otuka, may either last for eleven days, or may be finished on a minor scale within three days, and in emergent cases even in one day. A Puranadi acts as buffoon, and serves the purpose of a domestic servant on the occasion. This is called Pallipana when performed in temples, Pallipperu when in palaces, and Vēlan Pravarti or Satru-eduppu in the case of ordinary people. This is also done with a view to prevent the effect of the evil eye. On the first day, a person representing the enchanted man or woman is placed in a temporary shed built for the purpose, and lights are waved before him. On the third day, a pit is dug, and a cock sacrificed. On the fourth day, the Pattata Bali, or human sacrifice, takes place. A person is thrown into a pit which is covered with a plank of wood, upon which sacrifices are offered. The buried person soon resuscitates himself, and, advancing as if possessed, explains the cause of the disease or calamity. On the eighth day, figures of snakes, in gold or silver, are enclosed in small copper vessels, and milk and fruit are offered to them. On the ninth day, the Vēlans worship the lords of the eightdirections, with Brahma or the creator in the midst of them. On the tenth day, there is much festivity and amusement, and the Mahābhārata is sung in a condensed form. The chief of the Vēlans becomes possessed, and prays that, as the Pāndavas emerged safely from the sorcery of the Kauravas, the person affected by the calamity may escape unhurt. On the last day, animals are sacrificed at the four corners of the compound surrounding the house. No special rite is performed on the first day, but the Ituvanabali, Kuzhibali, Pattatabali, Kitangubali, Patalabali, Sarakutabali, Pithabali, Azhibali, Digbali, and Kumpubali, are respectively observed during the remaining ten days. The Pana, of which rite the breaking of cocoanuts is the most important item, completes this long ceremony. It was once supposed that the Bharata Vēlans exorcised spirits in the homes of high caste Hindus, the same work being done among the middle classes by the Vaha Vēlans, and among the low by the Manna Vēlans. This rule does not hold good at the present day. The Vēlans are also engaged in the event of bad crops.Besides standing thirty-two feet apart from Hindu temples, and worshipping the divinities therein, the Vēlans erect small sanctuaries for Siva within their own compounds, called Kuriyala. They worship this deity in preference to others, and offer tender cocoanuts, fried rice, sugar, and plantain fruits to him on the Uttradam day in the month of August.Velanāti(foreign).—A sub-division of Kāpus, and other Telugu castes, and of Telugu Brāhmans.Velanga(wood apple:Feronia elephantum).—An exogamous sept of Mūka Dora.Velichchapād.—Of the Velichchapāds, or oracles, of Malabar, the following account is given byMr. F. Fawcett.44“Far away in rural Malabar, I witnessed the ceremony in which the Velichchapād exhibited his quality. It was in the neighbourhood of a Nāyar house, to which thronged all the neighbours (Nāyars), men and women, boys and girls. The ceremony lasts about an hour. The Nāyar said it was the custom in his family to have it done once a year, but could give no account of how the custom originated; most probably in a vow, some ancestor having vowed that, if such or such benefit be received, he would for ever after have an annual performance of this ceremony in his house. It involved some expenditure, as the Velichchapād had to be paid, and the neighbours had to be fed. Somewhere about the middle of the little courtyard, always as clean as a dinner table, the Velichchapād placed a lamp (of the Malabar pattern) having a lighted wick, a kalasam (brass vessel), some flowers, camphor, saffron (turmeric) and other paraphernalia. Bhagavati was the deity invoked, and the business involved offering flowers, and waving a lighted wick round the kalasam. The Velichchapād’s movements became quicker, and, suddenly seizing his sword (nāndakam), he ran round the courtyard (against the sun, as sailors say) shouting wildly. He is under the influence of the deity who has been introduced into him, and he gives oracular utterances to the deity’s commands. What he said I know not, and no one else seemed to know or care in the least, much interested though they were in the performance. As he ran, every now and then he cut his forehead with the sword, pressing it against the skin and sawing vertically up and down. The blood streamed all over his face. Presently he became wilder and wilder, and whizzed round the lamp, bending forwardtowards the kalasam. Evidently some deity, some spirit was present here, and spoke through the mouth of the Velichchapād. This, I think, undoubtedly represents the belief of all who were present. When he had done whizzing round the kalasam, he soon became a normal being, and stood before my camera. The fee for the self-inflicted laceration is one rupee, some rice, etc. I saw the Velichchapād about three days afterwards, going to perform elsewhere. The wound on his forehead had healed. The careful observer can always identify a Velichchapād by the triangular patch over the forehead, where the hair will not grow, and where the skin is somewhat indurated.”
Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.
Mala Vēdan with filed teeth.
The Vēdars of Travancore are summed up by the Rev. S. Mateer35as “living in jungle clearings or working in the rice fields, and formerly sold and bought as slaves. They have to wander about in seasons of scarcity in search of wild yams, which they boil and eat on the spot, and are thorough gluttons, eating all they can get at any time, then suffering want for days. Polygamy is common, as men are not required to provide for the support of their wives. Some, who have been converted to Christianity, show wonderful and rapid improvement in moral character, civilisation and diligence.”
For the following note on the Mala (hill) Vēdans of Travancore, I am indebted to Mrs. J. W. Evans.36“They live in wretched huts amid the rice-flats at the foot of the hills, and are employed by farmers to guard the crops from the ravages of wild beasts. The upper incisor teeth of both men and women are filed to a sharp point, like crocodile’s fangs. One ugly old man, Tiruvātiran by name (the name of a star), had the four teeth very slightly filed. On being pressed for the reason why he had not conformed to Mala Vēdar fashion, he grinned, and said ‘What beauty I was born with is enough for me.’ Probably the operation had been more painful than he could bear, or, may be, he could not afford to pay the five betel leaves and areca nuts, which are the customary fee of the filer. Any man may perform the operation. A curved bill-hook, with serrated edge, is the instrument used. On being asked whether they had any tradition about the custom of tooth-filing, they replied that it was to distinguish their caste, and thegod Chāttan would be angry if they neglected the custom. It may be noted that tooth-filing is also practiced by the jungle Kādirs (q.v.). Both males and females wore a cotton loin-cloth, mellowed by wear and weather to a subtle greenish hue. Red and blue necklaces, interstrung with sections of the chank shell (Turbinella rapa) adorned the necks and chests. One woman was of special interest. Her neck and breasts were literally concealed by a medley of beads, shells, brass bells, and two common iron keys—these last, she said, for ornament. Around her hips, over her cloth, hung several rows of small bones of pig and sāmbar (Cervus unicolor). The Mala Vēdans find these bones in the jungle. An aged priest said that he used to perform devil-dancing, but was now too stiff to dance, and had to labour like the younger men. The Mala Vēdans apparently possess no temples or shrines, but Hindus permit them to offer money at the Hindu shrines from a distance, at times of sudden sickness or during other seasons of panic. Their god Chāttan, or Sāttan, has no fixed abode, but, where the Mala Vēdans are, there is he in the midst of them. They bury their dead in a recumbent posture, near the hut of the deceased. The Mala Vēdans practice the primitive method of kindling fire by the friction of wood (also practiced by the Kānakars), and, like the Kānakars, they eat the black monkey. Their implements are bill-hooks, and bows and arrows. They weave grass baskets, which are slung to their girdles, and contain betel, etc.”
The more important measurements of twenty-five Mala Vēdans examined by myself were—
Max.Min.Average.Stature (cm.)163.8140.8154.2Cephalic index80.968.873.4Nasal index102.671.185.0
The figures show that, like other primitive jungle tribes in Southern India, the Mala Vēdans are short of stature, dolichocephalic, and platyrhine.
Mala Vēdan.Mala Vēdan.
Mala Vēdan.
The following menstrual ceremony has been described37as occurring among the Vēdans of Travancore. “The wife at menstruation is secluded for five days in a hut a quarter of a mile from her home, which is also used by her at childbirth. The next five days are passed in a second hut, half way between the first and her house. On the ninth day her husband holds a feast, sprinkles his floor with wine, and invites his friends to a spread of rice and palm wine. Until this evening, he has not dared to eat anything but roots, for fear of being killed by the devil. On the tenth day he must leave his house, to which he may not return until the women, his and her sister have bathed his wife, escorted her home, and eaten rice together. For four days after his return, however, he may not eat rice in his own house, or have connection with his wife.”
Vēdunollu.—A gōtra of Gānigas, members of which may not cutNyctanthes Arbor-tristis. The flowers thereof are much used in Hindu worship, as the plant is supposed to have been brought from heaven by Krishna for his wife Satyābhāma.
Vēginādu.—A sub-division of Kōmatis, who belong to the Vēgi or Vengi country, the former name of part of the modern Kistna district. The Vēgina Kōmatis are said to have entered the fire-pits with the caste goddess Kanyakamma.
Vekkāli Puli(cruel-legged tiger).—An exogamous section of Kallan.
Vēl(lance).—A sub-division of Malayālam Paraiyans, and an exogamous sept or sub-division of Kānikars inTravancore. Vēlanmar (spearmen) occurs as a name for the hill tribes of Travancore.
Velakkattalavan.—Velakkattalavan or Vilakkattalavan is stated in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, to indicate chieftains among barbers, and to be the name for members of families, from which persons are selected to shave kings or nobles. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, Velakkattalavan is said to be “the name in South Malabar of the caste that shaves Nāyars and higher castes. The same man is called in North Malabar Valinchiyan, Nāvidan, or Nāsiyan. In dress and habits the caste resembles Nāyars, and they call themselves Nāyars in the south. Many returned their main caste as Nāyar. The females of this caste frequently act as midwives to Nāyars. In North Malabar, the Valinchiyan and Nāsiyan follow the Nāyar system of inheritance, whereas the Nāvidan has inheritance in the male line; but, even amongst the latter, tāli-kettu and sambandham are performed separately by different bridegrooms. In South Malabar the caste generally follows descent in the male line, but in some places the other system is also found.” Sūdra Kāvutiyan is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Velakkatalavan.
Velama.—The Velamas, or, as they are sometimes called, Yelamas, are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows.38“Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Gūna Sākala (or Tsākala) vāndlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu castes wasamusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kālahasti. The Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of the name Gūni Sākalavāndlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes, and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for, in the Godāvari district, the name is Gūna Sākalavāndlu, gūna being the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of a difference of opinion on the subject of gōsha, most Velama females being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that the Velama women are supposed to be gōsha, but, owing to poverty, the rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they divided, are said to have adopted gōsha from the Muhammadans, but, finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they took this name. The dissentients retained gōsha, and were therefore called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split on the subject of gōsha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made Menkāvalgars, from whichposition some rose to be Poligars. Now they are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish them from the Vellālas in the southern tāluks, they call themselves Telugu Vellālas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and Vellālas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled Naidus.” [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellālas, not because of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the top of the Telugu castes as the Vellālas are of the Tamil castes. For the same reason, Vellālas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]
The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the census, 1891, were Kāpu, Koppala, Padma, Ponnēti, and Yānādi. “It is,” the Census Superintendent writes, “curious to find the Yānādi sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yānādis” (a Telugu forest tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called Yānādulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, it is recorded that entries under the name Yānāti “were clubbed with Yānādi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack tāluk of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yānāti or Yēnēti Dora which is distinct from Yānādi.” It would appear that, as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellālas, so in the north they call themselves Yānātis.
Concerning the Gūna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes39that “in years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli (fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a net inthe house during the time of the marriage ceremony.” The custom had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their boats, and carried all the Gūna Velamas to a place of safety. The Gūna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were “formerly regarded as quite an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gūnas). The term Gūna Tsākala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called Velamalu to the great disgust of the Rāca (Rāja) Velamalu.” To the Rāca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the Rājas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapūr, and Nuzvīd. At the annual Samasthānam meeting, in 1906, the Mahārāja of Bobbili announced that “none of the Velamavāru were working in any of the offices at the time when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the office, and induced to read at the High School.”
For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:—
(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili tāluk. Those composing it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and dependents of Pedda Rājudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who received a territorial grant in 1652 from Shēr Muhammad Khān, theMoghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme refers, when he says40that they “esteem themselves the highest blood of Native Indians, next to the Brāhmans, equal to the Rajpoots, and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a second, but burn with the husband of their virginity.” The remarriage of widows is forbidden, and women remain gōsha (in seclusion), and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.
(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early Rājas of Vizianāgram. They are met with almost solely in the town of Vizianāgram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are gōsha. The title is Nāyudu.
(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided into sections,e.g., Nāga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell,Turbinella rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tābēlu (tortoise). These have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are further divided into exogamous septs, or intipērulu, of which the following are examples:—Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kāpu). The custom of mēnarikam, by which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is observed. A Brāhman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven times, and, by an unusualcustom, an elder brother is allowed to marry the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two bangles called sandēlu, between which are black glass bangles, which are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nāyudu.
In a note on the Velamas of the Godāvari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that they “admit that they always arrange for a Māla couple to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that they provide the necessary funds for the Māla marriage. They explain the custom by a story to the effect that a Māla once allowed a Velama to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives41a similar custom among the Velamas of Bhadrāchalam in the Godāvari district, only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married.”
There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kāpus, as follows:—
A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed), a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Vāru.
It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast42that the custom of sending a sword to represent an unavoidablyabsent bridegroom at a wedding is not uncommon among the Telugu Rāzus and Velamas.
Vēlampan(rope-dancer).—Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar, who perform feats on the tight-rope.
Vēlan.—As a diminutive form of Vellāla, Vēlan occurs as a title assumed by some Kusavans. Vēlan is also recorded as a title of Paraiyans in Travancore. (SeePānan.)
For the following note on the Vēlans of the Cochin State, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer.43
The Vēlans, like the Pānans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called Perumannāns or Mannāns (washermen). My informant, a Perumannān at Trichūr, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannūr bridge, about ten miles south of Trichūr, are called Vēlans, and that they neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give māttu (a washed cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannāns, who give the māttu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammālans (artisan classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Vēlans at Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannāns of the Trichūr tāluk. The Perumannāns of the Chittūrtālukhave no knowledge of this illam division existing among them.
The following story was given regarding the origin of the Vēlans and Mannāns. Once upon a time, when Paramēswara and his wife Parvati were amusing themselves,the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth, which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannān because he came out of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth day of a girl’s first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to free her from pollution.
The Vēlans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannāns occupy similar dwellings in small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant they may be.
When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o’clock, when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o’clock next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to the day of the girl’s marriage. Very poor people dispense with them altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.
One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home, leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god Paramēswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water, a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more, which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man, to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.
When a young man of the Vēlan caste has attained the marriageable age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife, after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of the bride’s price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl’s hut, in front of which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride’s hut, where they are welcomed, and seatedon mats spread on the floor in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom’s enangan (relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding suit, the bride’s price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts to the bride’s enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to be given to the bride’s mother, and returns the plate to the same man. The bridegroom’s sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit, when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast, after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer to the marriage of Sīta, the wife of Rāma, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna, and of Panchali, wife of the Pāndavas. Next morning, the bride’s party is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o’clock, and to a sumptuous meal at twelve o’clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom’s hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also, and the bride’s party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride’s hut, where they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments, a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the husbandand wife live with the parents of the former in their family.
Among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State, the following marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom’s father, his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed in front of the bride’s hut, the bridegroom’s father takes up a metal plate containing the wedding dress, the bride’s price (twelve fanams), and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a formula, of which the substance runs thus. “A lighted lamp is placed in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east, west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man’s father, maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes, and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They havenegotiatedfor the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride’s family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Ōnam festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in Dhanu,i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come for the celebration of the wedding. Therehave been times when he has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51 fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will, pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl’s parents?” “Shall I,” answers the girl’s father, “accept it?” Receiving it, he gives it to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the bridegroom’s enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom’s sister, to have the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittūr tāluk, the following declaration is made. “According to the customary traditions of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride’s parents?” “Shall these be accepted?” says the bride’s enangan. When the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal statement is made. “Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears, breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank (to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own.”
Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Vēlans and Mannāns. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children, bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry does not prevail among the Vēlans, but is common among the Mannāns of the northern parts of the State. A Vēlan woman who loses her husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her husband’s death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property of her former husband. Among the Mannāns, a widow may marry any one of her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant, and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among the Vēlans and Mannāns, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In bothcases, the woman is at liberty to marry again.
When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her duringthe ninth month at the hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindusindica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutāli (neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman’s brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this, a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head, to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, usingAcacia Intsiaas soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.
A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women, who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which are believed to help the formation of the mother’s milk. For the next three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds, and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa (Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva (Trigonella fœnum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day, her enangathi (enangan’s wife) cleans her room with water mixed withcow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a māttu (washed cloth) brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.
Among Vēlans and Mannāns, the sons inherit the property of their fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.
Vēlans and Mannāns practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes), in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.
(1) Ōm, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders, and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand, that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown, dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!
(2) Malign influence of birds on children.
Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.
If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while, a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure will be equally effective.
(3) To cure fits and fever.
Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears), be under my possession so long as I serve thee.
This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown on the body of the patient.
(4) Oh! Bhadrakali, thou hast drunk the full cup. Oh! thou that holdest the sword of royalty in thy right hand, and that half sittest on a high seat. Place under control, as I am piously uttering the mantrams to serve thee, all demons, namely Yakshi, Gandharvan, Poomalagandharvan, Chutali, Nīrali, Nīlankari, Chuzali, and many others who cause all kinds of illness that flesh is heir to. Oh! holy mother, Bhadrakali, I vow by my preceptor.
(5) For devil driving.
Oh! thou, Karinkutti (black dwarf) of Vedapuram in Vellanad, that pluckest the fruits of the right hand branch of the strychnine tree (Strychnos Nux-vomica), and keepest toddy in its shell, drinking the blood of the black domestic fowl, drumming and keeping time on the rind of the fruit, filling and blowing thy pipe or horn through the nose. Oh! thou primeval black dwarf, so long as I utter the proper mantrams, I beg thee to cause such demons as would not dance to dance, and others to jump and drive them out. Oh! thou, Karinkutti, come, come, and enable me to succeed in my attempts.
(6) Oh! thou goddess with face. Oh! thou with face like that of a bear, and thou, a hunter. I utter thy mantrams and meditate upon thee, and therefore request thee to tread upon my enemies, burst open their bodies to drink their blood, and yawn to take complete rest; drive out such demons as cause convulsions of the body both from within and without, and all kinds of fever. Scatter them as dust. I swear by thee and my preceptor. Swahah.
(7) For the evil eye.
Salutations to thee, Oh! God. Even as the moon wanes in its brightness at the sight of the sun, even as the bird chakora (Eraya) disappears at the sight of the moon; even as the great Vasuki (king of serpents) vanishes at the sight of chakora; even as the poison vanishes from his head; so may the potency of his evil eye with thy aid vanish.
(8) To cause delay in the occurrence of menses.
Salutation to thee, Oh! Mars (the son of the goddess Earth).
If this mantram is muttered on a thread dyed yellow with turmeric, and if the thread be placed on both thepalms joined together, and if the number of days to which the occurrence of the menses should be delayed be thought of, the postponement will be procured by wearing it either round the neck or the loins. The thread with a ring attached to it, and worn round the neck is equally effective.
(9) To prevent cows from giving milk.
Ōm, Koss, dry up the liquid, kindly present me with thy gracious aspect. Oh! thou with the great sword in thy hands, the great trident, dry up the cow’s udder even as a tiger, I swear by thee and my preceptor.
(10) To cause cows to give milk.
Even as the swelling on the holy feet of Mahādēva due to the bite of a crocodile has subsided and gone down, so go down. I swear by my preceptor.
(11) To remove a thorn from the sole of the foot.
When Paramēswara and Parvathi started on their hunting expedition, a thorn entered the foot of her lady-ship. It was doubted whether it was the thorn of a bamboo, an ant, or a strychnine tree. Even so may this poison cease to hurt, Oh! Lord. I swear by my preceptor.
(12) To effect metamorphosis.
Take the head of a dog and burn it, and plant on it vellakutti plant. Burn camphor and frankincense, and adore it. Then pluck the root. Mix it with the milk of a dog and the bones of a cat. A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.
(13) Before a stick of the Malankara plant, worship with a lighted wick and incense. Then chant the Sakti mantram 101 times, and mutter the mantram to give life at the bottom. Watch carefully which way the stick inclines. Proceed to the south of the stick, and pluckthe whiskers of a live tiger, and make with them a ball of the veerali silk, string it with silk, and enclose it within the ear. Stand on the palms of the hand to attain the disguise of a tiger, and, with the stick in hand, think of a cat, white bull, or other animal. Then you will, in the eyes of others, appear as such.
(14) Take the nest of a crow from a margosa tree, and bury it at the cremation ground. Then throw it into the house of your enemy. The house will soon take fire.
(15) Take the ashes of the burial-ground on which an ass has been rolling on a Saturday or Sunday, and put it in the house of your enemy. The members of the family will soon quit the house, or a severe illness will attack them.
The Vēlans and Mannāns are animists, and worship demoniacal gods, such as Chandan, Mundian, Kandakaranan, Karinkutti, and Chāthan. All of them are separately represented by stones located underneath a tree in the corners of their compounds. Offerings of sheep, fowls, plantain fruits, cocoanuts, parched rice and beaten rice, are made to them on the tenth of Dhanu (last week in December), on a Tuesday in Makaram (January-February), and on Kumbham Bharani (second asterism in March-April). They also adore the goddess Bhagavathi and the spirits of their departed ancestors, who are believed to exercise their influence in their families for good or evil. Sometimes, when they go to Cranganore to worship the goddess there, they visit the senior male members of the local Nāyar, Kammālan and Izhuvan families to take leave of them, when they are given a few annas with which they purchase fowls, etc., to be given as offerings to the local goddess. Wooden or metal images, representing the spirits of their ancestors, are located ina room of their huts, and worshipped with offerings on New Moon and Sankranti nights.
The Vēlans and Mannāns either burn or bury the dead. The son is the chief mourner who performs the funeral rites, and the nephews and brothers take part in them. Their priests are known as Kurup, and they preside at the ceremonies. Death pollution lasts for sixteen days, and on the morning of the sixteenth day the hut of the dead person is well swept and cleansed by sprinkling water mixed with cowdung. The members of the family, dressed in the māttu (a washed cloth worn before bathing) brought by the washerman, bathe to be free from pollution. The castemen, including their friends and relations, are invited and feasted. A similar funeral feast is also held at the end of the year.
The chief occupation of the Vēlans and Mannāns is the giving of māttu to Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Anthalarajātis, Nāyars, Kammālans and Izhuvans, for wearing before going to bathe on the day on which they are freed from pollution. A girl or woman in her courses on the morning of the fourth day, a woman in confinement on the fifth, ninth, eleventh and sixteenth days, and all the members of a family under death pollution on the sixteenth day, have to use it. They bathe wearing the washed cloth, and return it as soon as the bath is over. It may either belong to the washerman, or have been previously given to him by the members of the family. He gets an anna or a measure of paddy for his service to a woman in her menses, and a para of paddy or six annas for birth and death pollutions. The Vēlans give the māttu to all the castes above mentioned, while the Mannāns refuse to give it to the Kammālans, and thereby profess themselves to be superior in status to them. They wash clothes to dress the idols in some of the highcaste temples. Their washing consists in first plunging the dirty cloths in water mixed with cowdung, and beating them on a stone by the side of a tank (pond), canal or river, and again immersing them in water mixed with wood ashes or charamannu, after which they are exposed to steam for a few hours, and again beaten on the stone, slightly moistening in water now and then, until they are quite clean. They are then dried in the sun, and again moistened with a solution of starch and indigo, when they are exposed to the air to dry. When dry, they are folded, and beaten with a heavy club, so as to be like those ironed. The Vēlans of the Cranganore, Cochin, and Kanayannūr tāluks, climb cocoanut trees to pluck cocoanuts, and get about eight to ten annas for every hundred trees they go up. They make umbrellas. Some among them practice magic and sorcery, and some are quack doctors, who treat sickly children. Some are now engaged in agricultural operations, while a few make beds, pillows, and coats. There are also a few of them in every village who are songsters, and whose services are availed of on certain ceremonial occasions, namely, on the bathing day of a girl in her first menses, on the wedding night, and when religious ceremonies are performed, and sacrifices offered to their gods. Some are experts in drum-beating, and are invited by low caste people of the rural parts. The Mannāns also follow the same occupations.
The Vēlans and Mannāns eat at the hands of all castes above them, namely, Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Nāyars, and Izhuvans. The former take food from Kammālans, while the latter abstain from so doing. They do not eat the food prepared by Kaniyans, Pānans, Vilkurups, or other castes of equal or inferior status. They have to stand at a distance of twenty-four feet fromBrāhmans. They have their own barbers, and are their own washermen. They stand far away from the outer wall of the temples of high castes. They are not allowed to take water from the wells of high caste Sūdras, nor are they allowed to live in their midst.
The following note on the Vēlans of Travancore has been furnished by Mr. N. Subramani Iyer.
The word Vēlan has been derived from vel a spear, and also from vela work. The usual title of the Vēlans is Panikkan. They are believed to be divided into four classes, viz., Bharata Vēlan, Vaha Vēlan, Pana Vēlan, and Manna Vēlan. While the last of these sections, in addition to their traditional occupation, are washermen and climbers of areca palm trees, the Pana Vēlans take sawing as a supplementary employment. Some of the members of the first and second classes are also physicians. This classification is gradually going out of vogue.
The Vēlans are said traditionally to have been descended from Siva, who, on one occasion, is believed to have removed the evil effects of the sorcery of demons upon Vishnu by means of exorcism. As this kind of injury began to increase among men, a man and woman were created by this deity, to prevent its dire consequences. In the Kēralolpatti, this caste is mentioned as Velakkuruppu. But at present the Puranadis, who are the barbers and priests of this class, are known by this name. A Puranadi means one who stands outside, and is not admitted as of equal rank with the Vēlans proper. The Puranadis are not washermen. Commensal relations exist only between the male members of the Vēlans and Puranitis (Puranadi females).
The Vēlans perform a number of useful services in the body politic of Malabar. In the Kēralolpatti theirduty is said to be the nursing of women in their confinement. In the Kērala-Visesha-Mahatmya, exorcism, climbing of trees, and washing clothes, are mentioned as their occupations. There are various kinds of exorcism, the chief being Vēlan Tullal and Vēlan Pravarti. The former is a kind of masque performed by the Vēlans for warding off the effects of the evil eye, and preventing the injurious influences of demons and spirits. Atavi is a peculiar female divinity worshipped by the caste, by whose help these feats are believed to be performed in the main. She, and a host of minor gods and goddesses, are represented by them, and a dance commences. After it is over, all the characters receive presents. Vēlan Pravarti, or Otuka, may either last for eleven days, or may be finished on a minor scale within three days, and in emergent cases even in one day. A Puranadi acts as buffoon, and serves the purpose of a domestic servant on the occasion. This is called Pallipana when performed in temples, Pallipperu when in palaces, and Vēlan Pravarti or Satru-eduppu in the case of ordinary people. This is also done with a view to prevent the effect of the evil eye. On the first day, a person representing the enchanted man or woman is placed in a temporary shed built for the purpose, and lights are waved before him. On the third day, a pit is dug, and a cock sacrificed. On the fourth day, the Pattata Bali, or human sacrifice, takes place. A person is thrown into a pit which is covered with a plank of wood, upon which sacrifices are offered. The buried person soon resuscitates himself, and, advancing as if possessed, explains the cause of the disease or calamity. On the eighth day, figures of snakes, in gold or silver, are enclosed in small copper vessels, and milk and fruit are offered to them. On the ninth day, the Vēlans worship the lords of the eightdirections, with Brahma or the creator in the midst of them. On the tenth day, there is much festivity and amusement, and the Mahābhārata is sung in a condensed form. The chief of the Vēlans becomes possessed, and prays that, as the Pāndavas emerged safely from the sorcery of the Kauravas, the person affected by the calamity may escape unhurt. On the last day, animals are sacrificed at the four corners of the compound surrounding the house. No special rite is performed on the first day, but the Ituvanabali, Kuzhibali, Pattatabali, Kitangubali, Patalabali, Sarakutabali, Pithabali, Azhibali, Digbali, and Kumpubali, are respectively observed during the remaining ten days. The Pana, of which rite the breaking of cocoanuts is the most important item, completes this long ceremony. It was once supposed that the Bharata Vēlans exorcised spirits in the homes of high caste Hindus, the same work being done among the middle classes by the Vaha Vēlans, and among the low by the Manna Vēlans. This rule does not hold good at the present day. The Vēlans are also engaged in the event of bad crops.
Besides standing thirty-two feet apart from Hindu temples, and worshipping the divinities therein, the Vēlans erect small sanctuaries for Siva within their own compounds, called Kuriyala. They worship this deity in preference to others, and offer tender cocoanuts, fried rice, sugar, and plantain fruits to him on the Uttradam day in the month of August.
Velanāti(foreign).—A sub-division of Kāpus, and other Telugu castes, and of Telugu Brāhmans.
Velanga(wood apple:Feronia elephantum).—An exogamous sept of Mūka Dora.
Velichchapād.—Of the Velichchapāds, or oracles, of Malabar, the following account is given byMr. F. Fawcett.44“Far away in rural Malabar, I witnessed the ceremony in which the Velichchapād exhibited his quality. It was in the neighbourhood of a Nāyar house, to which thronged all the neighbours (Nāyars), men and women, boys and girls. The ceremony lasts about an hour. The Nāyar said it was the custom in his family to have it done once a year, but could give no account of how the custom originated; most probably in a vow, some ancestor having vowed that, if such or such benefit be received, he would for ever after have an annual performance of this ceremony in his house. It involved some expenditure, as the Velichchapād had to be paid, and the neighbours had to be fed. Somewhere about the middle of the little courtyard, always as clean as a dinner table, the Velichchapād placed a lamp (of the Malabar pattern) having a lighted wick, a kalasam (brass vessel), some flowers, camphor, saffron (turmeric) and other paraphernalia. Bhagavati was the deity invoked, and the business involved offering flowers, and waving a lighted wick round the kalasam. The Velichchapād’s movements became quicker, and, suddenly seizing his sword (nāndakam), he ran round the courtyard (against the sun, as sailors say) shouting wildly. He is under the influence of the deity who has been introduced into him, and he gives oracular utterances to the deity’s commands. What he said I know not, and no one else seemed to know or care in the least, much interested though they were in the performance. As he ran, every now and then he cut his forehead with the sword, pressing it against the skin and sawing vertically up and down. The blood streamed all over his face. Presently he became wilder and wilder, and whizzed round the lamp, bending forwardtowards the kalasam. Evidently some deity, some spirit was present here, and spoke through the mouth of the Velichchapād. This, I think, undoubtedly represents the belief of all who were present. When he had done whizzing round the kalasam, he soon became a normal being, and stood before my camera. The fee for the self-inflicted laceration is one rupee, some rice, etc. I saw the Velichchapād about three days afterwards, going to perform elsewhere. The wound on his forehead had healed. The careful observer can always identify a Velichchapād by the triangular patch over the forehead, where the hair will not grow, and where the skin is somewhat indurated.”