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CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA

Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant ?tranger, Soci?t? d'Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa, Romana di Anthropologia.

Assisted by

K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum.

Volume IV--K to M

Government Press, Madras

CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA.

Kori .--An exogamous sept of Kuruba.

Koriannayya .--An exogamous sept of Bant.

Korono.--Karnam, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, "includes both Karnam proper, and also Korono, the accountant caste of Ganjam and Orissa. The following remarks relate solely to the Uriya Koronos. The word Korono is said to be derived from kirani, which means a writer or clerk. The origin of the Koronos is uncertain. One writer says that they are Kayasts of Northern India, who are of Kshatriya origin. Mr. R. C. Dutt says, in his History of Ancient India, that, according to Manu, the Koronos belong to the Kshatriya Vratyas, who do not perform the religious rites. And, in the Raghuvamsa, the poet Kalidasa describes Koronos as the offspring of a Vaisya and a Sudra woman, and he is supported by the lexicographer Amara Sinha. It is said that the ancestors of the Koronos were brought from Northern India by Yayatikesari, King of Orissa , to supply the want of writers and clerks in certain parts of Orissa. The Koronos are worshippers of Vishnu. Their ceremonies are performed with the aid of Brahman priests. The remarriage of widows is not permitted. They eat fish, and the flesh of goats and deer. The Uriya Koronos observe the gosha system, and carry it to such an extent that, after a girl attains puberty, she is not allowed to appear before her elder brother. Their titles are Patnaik and Mahanti."

The heads of the Ganjam villages are, Mr. S. P. Rice informs us, "called Korono, the doer, and Karji, the manager. The Korono, who is really only the accountant, but who, by reason of his higher education, is generally the ultimate authority in the village, appropriates to himself the title Potonaiko, as his caste distinction. The word signifies the Naik or head of the town." It has been noted that "in the Telugu districts, the Karnam is usually a Brahman. Being in some respects the most intelligent, and the most unpopular man in the village, he is both feared and hated. Murders of accountants, though infrequent, are not unknown." Of proverbs relating to Karnams, the following may be quoted:--

Even if a thousand pagodas are levied from a village, not even a cash will be levied from the Karnam .

The Karnam is the cause of the Kapu's death.

The hungry Karnam looks into his old accounts .

The co-operation of the Karnam is as necessary as the axles to the wheels of a cart.

One Karnam to one village.

A quiet Karnam is as little cared for as a tame elephant.

If a Karnam trusts another, his end is near.

If an enemy is his neighbour; if another Karnam is his superior; if the Kapu bears complaints against him, a Karnam cannot live on.

The Koronos are divided into various sections, e.g., Sishta or Srishti, Vaisya, Majjula, and Matihansa, some of which wear the sacred thread. The Vaisyas are not allowed to marry their girls after puberty, whereas the others may marry them before or after this event. A woman of the Bhondari caste is employed on the occasion of marriage and other ceremonies, to perform certain duties, for which her services are indispensable.

Korra .--An exogamous sept of Gudala.

Korti.--An occupational name, derived from korto, a saw, of woodsawyers in Ganjam.

Kosalya.--A sub-division of Mali, named after Kosala, the modern Oudh.

Koshti.--Koshti or Koshta is the name of a weaving and cultivating caste of Chota Nagpur, a few members of which have settled in the Madras Presidency . Koshta is also the name by which the Khatris of Conjeeveram call the Patnulkaran silk weavers.

Kota.--According to Dr. Oppert "it seems probable that the Todas and Kotas lived near each other before the settlement of the latter on the Nilagiri. Their dialects betray a great resemblance. According to a tradition of theirs , they lived formerly on Kollimallai, a mountain in Mysore. It is wrong to connect the name of the Kotas with cow-slaying, and to derive it from the Sanskrit go-hatya . The derivation of the term Kota is, as clearly indicated, from the Gauda-dravidian word ko mountain, and the Kotas belong to the Gandian branch." There is a tradition that the Kotas were formerly one with the Todas, with whom they tended the herds of buffaloes in common. But, on one occasion, they were found to be eating the flesh of a buffalo which had died, and the Todas drove them out as being eaters of carrion. A native report before me suggests that "it is probable that, after the migration of the Kotas to the hills, anthropology was at work, and they got into them an admixture of Toda blood."

The Kotas inhabit seven villages , of which six--Kotagiri, Kil Kotagiri, Todanad, Sholur, Kethi and Kunda--are on the Nilgiri plateau, and one is at Gudalur at the north-west base of these hills. They form compact communities, and, at Kotagiri, their village consists of detached huts, and rows of huts arranged in streets. The huts are built of mud, brick, or stone, roofed with thatch or tiles, and divided into living and sleeping apartments. The floor is raised above the ground, and there is a verandah in front with a seat on each side whereon the Kota loves to "take his siesta, and smoke his cheroot in the shade," or sleep off the effects of a drinking bout. The door-posts of some of the huts are ornamented with carving executed by wood-carvers in the plains. A few of the huts, and one of the forges at Kotagiri, have stone pillars sculptured with fishes, lotuses, and floral embellishments by stone-carvers from the low country. It is noted by Breeks that Kurguli is the oldest of the Kota villages, and that the Badagas believe that the Kotas of this village were made by the Todas. At Kurguli there is a temple of the same form as the Toda dairy, and this is said to be the only temple of the kind at any Kota village.

The Kotas speak a mixture of Tamil and Kanarese, and speak Tamil without the foreign accent which is noticeable in the case of the Badagas and Todas. According to orthodox Kota views, a settlement should consist of three streets or keris, in one of which the Terkaran or Devadi, and in the other two the Munthakannans or Pujaris live. At Kotagiri the three streets are named Kilkeri, Nadukeri, and Melkeri, or lower, central, and upper street. People belonging to the same keri may not intermarry, as they are supposed to belong to the same family, and intermarriage would be distasteful. The following examples of marriage between members of different keris are recorded in my notes:--

Husband. Wife. Kilkeri. Nadukeri. Kilkeri. Melkeri. Nadukeri. Melkeri. Melkeri. Nadukeri. Nadukeri. First wife Kilkeri, second wife Melkeri.

The Kota settlement at Sholur is divided into four keris, viz.:--amreri, kikeri, korakeri, and akkeri, or near street, lower street, other street, and that street, which resolve themselves into two exogamous groups. Of these, amreri and kikeri constitute one group, and korakeri and akkeri the other.

On the day following my arrival at Kotagiri, a deputation of Kotas waited on me, which included a very old man bearing a certificate appointing him headman of the community in recognition of his services and good character, and a confirmed drunkard with a grog-blossom nose, who attributed the inordinate size thereof to the acrid juice of a tree, which he was felling, dropping on it. The besetting vice of the Kotas of Kotagiri is a partiality for drink, and they congregate together towards dusk in the arrack shop and beer tavern in the bazar, whence they stagger or are helped home in a state of noisy and turbulent intoxication. It has been said that the Kotas "actually court venereal disease, and a young man who has not suffered from this before he is of a certain age is looked upon as a disgrace."

The Kotas are looked down on as being unclean feeders, and eaters of carrion; a custom which is to them no more filthy than that of eating game when it is high, or using the same tooth-brush week after week, is to a European. They have been described as a very carnivorous race, who "have a great craving for flesh, and will devour animal food of every kind without any squeamish scruples as to how the animal came by its death. The carcase of a bullock which has died of disease, or the remains of a deer half devoured by a tiger, are equally acceptable to him." An unappetising sight, which may be witnessed on roads leading to a Kota village, is that of a Kota carrying the flesh of a dead buffalo, often in an advanced stage of putridity, slung on a stick across his shoulders, with the entrails trailing on the ground. Colonel Ross King narrates how he once saw a Kota carrying home a dead rat, thrown out of a stable a day or two previously. When I repeated this story to my Kota informant, he glared at me, and bluntly remarked in Tamil "The book tells lies." Despite its unpleasant nature, the carrion diet evidently agrees with the Kotas, who are a sturdy set of people, flourishing, it is said, most exceedingly when the hill cattle are dying of epidemic disease, and the supply of meat is consequently abundant.

The missionary Metz narrates that "some years ago the Kotas were anxious to keep buffaloes, but the headmen of the other tribes immediately put their veto upon it, declaring that it was a great presumption on the part of such unclean creatures to wish to have anything to do with the holy occupation of milking buffaloes."

The Kotas are blacksmiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths, carpenters, tanners, rope-makers, potters, washermen, and cultivators. They are the musicians at Toda and Badaga funerals. It is noted by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers that "in addition they provide for the first Toda funeral the cloak in which the body is wrapped, and grain mai) to the amount of five to ten kwa. They give one or two rupees towards the expenses, and, if they should have no grain, their contribution of money is increased. At the marvainolkedr their contributions are more extensive. They provide the putkuli, together with a sum of eight annas, for the decoration of the cloak by the Toda women. They give two to five rupees towards the general expenses, and provide the bow and arrow, basket , knife , and the sieve called kudshmurn. The Kotas receive at each funeral the bodies of the slaughtered buffaloes, and are also usually given food."

Though all classes look down on the Kotas, all are agreed that they are excellent artisans, whose services as smiths, rope and umbrella makers, etc., are indispensable to the other hill tribes. The strong, durable ropes, made out of buffalo hide, are much sought after by Badagas for fastening their cattle. The Kotas at Gudalur have the reputation of being excellent thatchers. The Todas claim that the Kotas are a class of artisans specially brought up from the plains to work for them. Each Toda, Badaga, Irula, and Kurumba settlement has its Muttu Kotas, who work for the inhabitants thereof, and supply them with sundry articles, called muttu, in return for the carcasses of buffaloes and cattle, ney , grain, plantain, etc. The Kotas eat the flesh of the animals which they receive, and sell the horns to Labbai merchants from the plains. Chakkiliyans from the plains collect the bones, and purchase the hides, which are roughly cured by the Kotas with chunam and avaram bark, and pegged out on the ground to dry.

The Kota blacksmiths make hatches, bill-hooks, knives, and other implements for the various hill tribes, especially the Badagas, and also for European planters. Within the memory of men still living, they used to work with iron ore brought up from the low country, but now depend on scrap iron, which they purchase locally in the bazar. The most flourishing smithy in the Kotagiri village is made of bricks of local manufacture, roofed with zinc sheets, and fitted with anvil pincers, etc., of European manufacture.

As agriculturists the Kotas are said to be quite on a par with the Badagas, and they raise on the land adjacent to their villages crops of potatoes, bearded wheat , barley , kirai , samai , korali , mustard, onions, etc.

At the revenue settlement, 1885, the Kotas were treated in the same way as the Badagas and other tribes of the Nilgiris, except the Todas, and the lands in their occupation were assigned to them at rates varying from ten to twenty annas per acre. The bhurty or shifting system of cultivation, under which the Kotas held their lands, was formally, but nominally, abolished in 1862-64; but it was practically and finally done away with at the revenue settlement of the Nilgiri plateau. The Kota lands are now held on puttas under the ordinary ryotwari tenure.

In former days, opium of good quality was cultivated by the Badagas, from whom the Kotas got poppy-heads, which their herbalists used for medicinal purposes. At the present time, the Kotas purchase opium in the bazar, and use it as an intoxicant.

The Kota women have none of the fearlessness and friendliness of the Todas, and, on the approach of a European to their domain, bolt out of sight, like frighted rabbits in a warren, and hide within the inmost recesses of their huts. As a rule they are clad in filthily dirty clothes, all tattered and torn, and frequently not reaching as low as the knees. In addition to domestic duties, the women have to do work in the fields, fetch water and collect firewood, with loads of which, supported on the head by a pad of bracken fern leaves, and bill-hook slung on the shoulder, old and young women, girls and boys, may continually be seen returning to the Kotagiri village. The women also make baskets, and rude earthen pots from a black clay found in swamps on a potter's wheel. This consists of a disc made of dry mud, with an iron spike, by means of which it is made to revolve in a socket in a stone fixed in the space in front of the houses, which also acts as a threshing-floor. The earthenware vessels used by the Todas for cooking purposes, and those used in dairy work, except those of the inner room of the ti , are said by Dr. Rivers to be made by the Kotas.

The Kota priesthood is represented by two classes, Munthakannan or Pujari, and Terkaran or Devadi, of whom the former rank higher than the latter. There may be more than two Terkarans in a village, but the Munthakannans never exceed this number, and they should belong to different keris. These representatives of the priesthood must not be widowers, and, if they lose their wives while holding office, their appointment lapses. They may eat the flesh of buffaloes, but not drink their milk. Cow's flesh, but not its milk, is tabu. The Kotas may not milk cows, or, under ordinary conditions, drink the milk thereof in their own village, but are permitted to do so if it is given to them by a Pujari, or in a village other than their own. The duties of the Munthakannan include milking the cows of the village, service to the god, and participation in the seed-sowing and reaping ceremonial. They must use fire obtained by friction, and should keep a fire constantly burning in a broken pot. In like manner, the Terkarans must not use matches, but take fire from the house of the Munthakannan. The members of the priesthood are not allowed to work for others, but may do so on their own account in the fields or at the forge. They should avoid pollution, and may not attend a Toda or Badaga funeral, or approach the seclusion hut set apart for Kota women. When a vacancy in the office of Munthakannan occurs, the Kotas of the village gather together, and seek the guidance of the Terkaran, who becomes inspired by the deity, and announces the name of the successor. The selected individual has to be fed at the expense of the community for three months, during which time he may not speak to his wife or other woman direct, but only through the medium of a boy, who acts as his assistant. Further, during this period of probation, he may not sleep on a mat or use a blanket, but must lie on the ground or on a plank, and use a dhupati as a covering. At the time of the annual temple festival, neither the Munthakannans nor the Terkarans may live or hold communion with their wives for fear of pollution, and they have to cook their food themselves.

The seed-sowing ceremony is celebrated in the month of Kumbam on a Tuesday or Friday. For eight days the Pujari abstains from meat and lives on vegetable dietary, and may not communicate directly with his wife, a boy acting as spokesman. On the Sunday before the ceremony, a number of cows are penned in a kraal, and milked by the Pujari. The milk is preserved, and, if the omens are favourable, is said not to turn sour. If it does, this is attributed to the Pujari being under pollution from some cause or other. On the day of the ceremony, the Pujari bathes in a stream, and proceeds, accompanied by a boy, to a field or the forest. After worshipping the gods, he makes a small seed-pan in the ground, and sows therein a small quantity of ragi . Meanwhile, the Kotas of the village go to the temple, and clean it. Thither the Pujari and the boy proceed, and the deity is worshipped with offerings of cocoanuts, betel, flowers, etc. Sometimes the Terkaran becomes inspired, and gives expression to oracular utterances. From the temple all go to the house of the Pujari, who gives them a small quantity of milk and food. Three months later, on an auspicious day, the reaping of the crop is commenced with a very similar form of ceremonial.

During the seed-sowing festival, Mr. Harkness, writing in 1832, informs us, "offerings are made in the temples, and, on the day of the full moon, after the whole have partaken of a feast, the blacksmith and the gold and silversmith, constructing separately a forge and furnace within the temple, each makes something in the way of has avocation, the blacksmith a chopper or axe, the silversmith a ring or other kind of ornament."

"Some rude image," Dr. Shortt writes, "of wood or stone, a rock or tree in a secluded locality, frequently forms the Kota's object of worship, to which sacrificial offerings are made; but the recognised place of worship in each village consists of a large square of ground, walled round with loose stones, three feet high, and containing in its centre two pent-shaped sheds of thatch, open before and behind, and on the posts that support them some rude circles and other figures are drawn. No image of any sort is visible here." These sheds, which at Kotagiri are a very short distance apart, are dedicated to Siva and his consort Parvati under the names of Kamataraya and Kalikai. Though no representation thereof is exhibited in the temples at ordinary times, their spirits are believed to pervade the buildings, and at the annual ceremony they are represented by two thin plates of silver, which are attached to the upright posts of the temples. The stones surrounding the temples at Kotagiri are scratched with various quaint devices, and lines for the games of kote and hulikote. The Kotas go, I was told, to the temple once a month, at full moon, and worship the gods. Their belief is that Kamataraya created the Kotas, Todas, and Kurumbas, but not the Irulas. "Tradition says of Kamataraya that, perspiring profusely, he wiped from his forehead three drops of perspiration, and out of them formed the three most ancient of the hill tribes--the Todas, Kurumbas, and Kotas. The Todas were told to live principally upon milk, the Kurumbas were permitted to eat the flesh of buffalo calves, and the Kotas were allowed perfect liberty in the choice of food, being informed that they might eat carrion if they could get nothing better." According to another version of this legend given by Dr. Rivers, Kamataraya "gave to each people a pot. In the Toda pot was calf-flesh, and so the Todas eat the flesh of calves at the erkumptthpimi ceremony; the Kurumba pot contained the flesh of a male buffalo, so this is eaten by the Kurumbas. The pot of the Kotas contained the flesh of a cow-buffalo, which may, therefore, be eaten by this people."

In addition to Kamataraya and Mangkali, the Kotas at Gudalur, which is near the Malabar frontier, worship Vettakaraswami, Adiral and Udiral, and observe the Malabar Onam festival. The Kotas worship further Magali, to whose influence outbreaks of cholera are attributed, and Mariamma, who is held responsible for smallpox. When cholera breaks out among the Kota community, special sacrifices are performed with a view to propitiating the wrath of the goddess. Magali is represented by an upright stone in a rude temple at a little distance from Kotagiri, where an annual ceremony takes place, at which some man becomes possessed, and announces to the people that Magali has come. The Pujari offers up plantains and cocoanuts, and sacrifices a sheep and fowls. My informant was, or pretended to be ignorant of the following legend recorded by Breeks as to the origin of the worship of the smallpox goddess. "A virulent disease carried off a number of Kotas of Peranganoda, and the village was abandoned by the survivors. A Badaga named Munda Jogi, who was bringing his tools to the Kotagiri to be sharpened, saw near a tree something in the form of a tiger, which spoke to him, and told him to summon the run-away Kotas. He obeyed, whereupon the tiger form addressed the Kotas in an unknown tongue, and vanished. For some time, the purport of this communication remained a mystery. At last, however, a Kota came forward to interpret, and declared that the god ordered the Kotas to return to the village on pain of a recurrence of the pestilence. The command was obeyed, and a Swami house was built on the spot where the form appeared to the Badaga ." The Kotas are not allowed to approach Toda or Badaga temples.

It was noted by Lieutenant R. F. Burton that, in some hamlets, the Kotas have set up curiously carved stones, which they consider sacred, and attribute to them the power of curing diseases, if the member affected be only rubbed against the talisman.

A great annual festival is held in honour of Kamataraya with the ostensible object of propitiating him with a view to his giving the Kotas an abundant harvest and general prosperity. The feast commences on the first Monday after the January new moon, and lasts over many days, which are observed as a general holiday. The festival is said to be a continuous scene of licentiousness and debauchery, much indecent dancing taking place between men and women. According to Metz, the chief men among the Badagas must attend, otherwise their absence would be regarded as a breach of friendship and etiquette, and the Kotas would avenge themselves by refusing to make ploughs or earthen vessels for the Badagas. The programme, when the festival is carried out in full detail, is, as far as I have been able to gather, as follows:--

First day. A fire is kindled by one of the priests in the temple, and carried to the Nadukeri section of the village, where it is kept burning throughout the festival. Around the fire men, women, adolescent boys and girls, dance to the weird music of the Kota band, whose instruments consist of clarionet, drum, tambourine, brass horn and flute .

Second day Dance at night. Third day Fourth day Fifth day

Sixth day. The villagers go to the jungle and collect bamboos and rattans, with which to re-roof the temple. Dance at night.

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