Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 57

CASTES PECULIAR TO CERTAIN PROVINCES
not
consummated the family would consider
honoured
itself
17
dis-
\
The caste of Kullars, or robbers, who exercise their
an hereditary right, is found only in the Marava
country, which borders on the coast, or fishing, districts.
The rulers of the country are of the same caste. They
calling as
regard a robber's occupation as discreditable neither to
themselves nor to their fellow castemen, for the simple
reason that they consider robbery a duty and a right
sanctioned by descent. They are not ashamed of their
caste or occupation, and if one were to ask of a Kullar to
what people he belonged he would coolly answer, I am
This caste is looked upon in the district of
a robber
Madura, where it is widely diffused, as one of the most
distinguished among the Sudras.
There exists in the same part of the country another
caste, known as the Totiyars, in which brothers, uncles,
nephews, and other near relations are all entitled to possess
their wives in common.
In Eastern Mysore there is a caste called Morsa-Okkala-
Makkalu, in which, when the mother of a family gives her
eldest daughter in marriage, she is obliged to submit to
the amputation of two joints of the middle finger and of
And if the bride's mother
the ring finger of the right hand.
be dead, the bridegroom's mother, or in default of her the
'
'
!
Whatever may have been the case
days of the Abbe, these
Mr. W. Logan, in his Manual
To make tardy retribution if it deserves
of Malabar, writes thus
such a name to women who die unmarried, the corpse, it is said,
cannot be burnt till a tali string (the Hindu equivalent of the wedding-
ring of Europe) is tied round the neck of the corpse, while lying on the
Nambudiris are exceedingly
funeral pile, by a competent relative.
reticent in regard to their funeral ceremonies and observances, and the
related
to him regarding other
Abbe Dubois' account of what was
observances at this strange funeral-pile marriage requires confirmation.'
Careful inquiries made of the leading members of the Nambudiri com-
munity and of others in Malabar who have an intimate knowledge of
Nambudiri customs have convinced me that the Abbe must have mis-
understood his informant in regard to the practice which he records
here.
What is done in such a case is merely to perform the religious
rites, usually associated with Hindu marriages, over the dead body of
the woman before the corpse is cremated.
By marriage here is meant
merely the tying of the tali (the emblem of marriage) and not the act
of consummation of marriage.
Ed.
1
customs no longer
In regard to
exist.
'
—
:
in the
this,
—