DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2373#0269
mmi^m
242
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CFIA PTER branches of his family live in his house, and cultivate the ground,
tJJ' or carry on trade ; but he himself wanders about, and collects grain,
June 22, &c. and small money, from those who are charitable. They get by rote
a prayer in Telinga poetry, which they constantly bawl out in the
streets, and endeavour farther to attract notice by blowing on a
conch. It seems to be only the Sudras of the Vishnu sect that follow
this idle life, and few of them are able either to read or write.
The Telinga Banijigaru are acknowledged to be true Sudras, and
they allow this to be the case. A few of them learn to read and
write accompts, but they never attempt any higher kind of learn-
ing. They eat sheep, goats, hogs, fowls, and fish, and may use
Bang; but they ought not to drink spirituous liquors. They bury
the dead, and the women formerly used to bury themselves alive
with their deceased husbands; but this custom has fallen into dis-
use. They pray to Vishnu, and all the gods of his family; and also
to Dkarma Raja, an inferior god of a beneficent nature ; but with
the Brdhmans he is not an object of worship. In case of danger, they
offer bloody sacrifices to several destructive spirits; such as Ma-
rima, Putalhna, Mutialima, and Gungoma, which is a lump of mud
made into a sort of temporary image. The Brdhmans of this coun-
try abhor this kind of worship, and call all these gods of the vulgar
evil spirits, Saktis, or ministers of Siva. They never offer sacrifices
at the temples of these deities, and much less ever act as their Bit-
jdris. Influenced, however, by superstition, although they condemn
the practice, they in sickness occasionally send a small offering of
g fruit or money to these deities; but, being ashamed to do it ptib-
lickly, the present is generally conveyed by some child, who may
be supposed to have made the offering by mistake. The small
temples of these deities are very numerous, and the Pujdris are in
general of the impure casts. I am inclined indeed to believe, that
they are the original gods of the country; and that these impure
casts are the remains of the rude tribes that occupied the country
before the origin of the Brdhmans^ or other sects, that introduced
/
242
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
CFIA PTER branches of his family live in his house, and cultivate the ground,
tJJ' or carry on trade ; but he himself wanders about, and collects grain,
June 22, &c. and small money, from those who are charitable. They get by rote
a prayer in Telinga poetry, which they constantly bawl out in the
streets, and endeavour farther to attract notice by blowing on a
conch. It seems to be only the Sudras of the Vishnu sect that follow
this idle life, and few of them are able either to read or write.
The Telinga Banijigaru are acknowledged to be true Sudras, and
they allow this to be the case. A few of them learn to read and
write accompts, but they never attempt any higher kind of learn-
ing. They eat sheep, goats, hogs, fowls, and fish, and may use
Bang; but they ought not to drink spirituous liquors. They bury
the dead, and the women formerly used to bury themselves alive
with their deceased husbands; but this custom has fallen into dis-
use. They pray to Vishnu, and all the gods of his family; and also
to Dkarma Raja, an inferior god of a beneficent nature ; but with
the Brdhmans he is not an object of worship. In case of danger, they
offer bloody sacrifices to several destructive spirits; such as Ma-
rima, Putalhna, Mutialima, and Gungoma, which is a lump of mud
made into a sort of temporary image. The Brdhmans of this coun-
try abhor this kind of worship, and call all these gods of the vulgar
evil spirits, Saktis, or ministers of Siva. They never offer sacrifices
at the temples of these deities, and much less ever act as their Bit-
jdris. Influenced, however, by superstition, although they condemn
the practice, they in sickness occasionally send a small offering of
g fruit or money to these deities; but, being ashamed to do it ptib-
lickly, the present is generally conveyed by some child, who may
be supposed to have made the offering by mistake. The small
temples of these deities are very numerous, and the Pujdris are in
general of the impure casts. I am inclined indeed to believe, that
they are the original gods of the country; and that these impure
casts are the remains of the rude tribes that occupied the country
before the origin of the Brdhmans^ or other sects, that introduced
/