In the Fort St. George Gazette, 1906, applications were invited from
persons who have passed the Matriculation examination of the Madras
University for the post of Mucchi on Rs. 8 per mensem in the office
of a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
In the District Manuals, the various occupations of the Mucchis are
summed up as book-binding, working in leather, making saddles and
trunks, painting, making toys, and pen-making. At the present day,
Mucchis (designers) are employed by piece-goods merchants in Madras
in devising and painting new patterns for despatch to Europe, where
they are engraved on copper cylinders. When, as at the present day,
the bazars of Southern India are flooded with imported piece-goods
of British manufacture, it is curious to look back and reflect that
the term piece-goods was originally applied in trade to the Indian
cotton fabrics exported to England.
The term Mucchi is applied to two entirely different sets of people. In
Mysore and parts of the Ceded Districts, it refers to Marathi-speaking
workers in leather. But it is further applied to Telugu-speaking
people, called Raju, Jinigara, or Chitrakara, who are mainly engaged in
painting, making toys, etc., and not in leather-work. (See Rachevar.)
Mucherikala.--Recorded by Mr. F. S. Mullaly [57] as a synonym of a
thief class in the Telugu country.
Mudali.--The title Mudali is used chiefly by the offspring of
Deva-dasis (dancing-girls), Kaikolans, and Vellalas. The Vellalas
generally take the title Mudali in the northern, and Pillai in
the southern districts. By some Vellalas, Mudali is considered
discourteous, as it is also the title of weavers. [58] Mudali further
occurs as a title of some Jains, Gadabas, Occhans, Pallis or Vanniyans,
and Panisavans. Some Pattanavans style themselves Varunakula Mudali.
Mudavandi.--The Mudavandis are said [59] to be "a special begging
class, descended from Vellala Goundans, since they had the immemorial
privilege of taking possession, as of right, of any Vellala child that
was infirm or maimed. The Modivandi made his claim by spitting into the
child's face, and the parents were then obliged, even against their
will, to give it up. Thenceforward it was a Modivandi, and married
among them. The custom has fallen into desuetude for the last forty
or fifty years, as a complaint of abduction would entail serious
consequences. Their special village is Modivandi Satyamangalam near
Erode. The chief Modivandi, in 1887, applied for sanction to employ
peons (orderlies) with belts and badges upon their begging tours,
probably because contributions are less willingly made nowadays to
idle men. They claim to be entitled to sheep and grain from the ryats."
In a note on the Mudavandis, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes that it is
stated to be the custom that children born blind or lame in the Konga
Vellala caste are handed over by their parents to become Mudavandis. If
the parents hesitate to comply with the custom, the Mudavandis tie a
red cloth round the head of the child, and the parents can then no
longer withhold their consent. They have to give the boy a bullock
to ride on if he is lame, or a stick if he is blind.
A Revenue Officer writes (1902) that, at the village of Andipalayam
in the Salem district, there is a class of people called Modavandi,
whose profession is the adoption of the infirm members of the Konga
Vellalas. Andis are professional beggars. They go about among the
Konga Vellalas, and all the blind and maimed children are pounced
upon by them, and carried to their village. While parting with their
children, the parents, always at the request of the children, give a
few, sometimes rising to a hundred, rupees. The infirm never loses
his status. He becomes the adopted child of the Andi, and inherits
half of his property invariably. They are married among the Andis,
and are well looked after. In return for their services, the Andis
receive four annas a head from the Konga Vellala community annually,
and the income from this source alone amounts to Rs. 6,400. A
forty-first part share is given to the temple of Arthanariswara at
Trichengodu. None of the Vellalas can refuse the annual subscription,
on pain of being placed under the ban of social excommunication, and
the Andi will not leave the Vellala's house until the infirm child is
handed over to him. One Tahsildar (revenue officer) asked himself why
the Andi's income should not be liable to income-tax, and the Andis
were collectively assessed. Of course, it was cancelled on appeal.
Mudi (knot).--An exogamous sept of Mala.
Mudiya.--The name, derived from mudi, a preparation of fried rice,
of a sub-division of Chuditiya.
Muduvar.--The Muduvars or Mudugars are a tribe of hill cultivators in
Coimbatore, Madura, Malabar, and Travancore. For the following note
on those who inhabit the Cardamom hills, I am indebted to Mr. Aylmer
Ff. Martin.
The name of the tribe is usually spelt Muduvar in English, and in
Tamil pronounced Muthuvar, or Muthuvanal. Outsiders sometimes call the
tribe Thagappanmargal (a title sometimes used by low-caste people in
addressing their masters). The Muduvars have a dialect of their own,
closely allied to Tamil, with a few Malayalam words. Their names for
males are mostly those of Hindu gods and heroes, but Kanjan (dry or
stingy), Karupu Kunji (black chick), Kunjita (chicken) and Kar Megam
(black cloud) are distinctive and common. For females, the names of
goddesses and heroines, Karapayi (black), Koopi (sweepings), and Paychi
(she-devil) are common. Boy twins are invariably Lutchuman and Raman,
girl twins Lutchmi and Ramayi. Boy and girl twins are named Lutchman
and Ramayi, or Lutchmi and Raman.
The Muduvars do not believe themselves to be indigenous to the hills;
the legend, handed down from father to son, is that they originally
lived in Madura. Owing to troubles, or a war in which the Pandyan
Raja of the times was engaged, they fled to the hills. When at
Bodinayakanur, the pregnant women (or, as some say, a pregnant
woman) were left behind, and eventually went with the offspring to
the Nilgiris, while the bulk of the tribe came to the High Range
of North Travancore. There is supposed to be enmity between these
rather vague Nilgiri people and the Muduvars. The Nilgiri people
are said occasionally to visit Bodinayakanur, but, if by chance they
are met by Muduvars, there is no speech between them, though each is
supposed instinctively or intuitively to recognise the presence of
the other. Those that came to the High Range carried their children
up the ghats on their backs, and it was thereupon decided to name
the tribe Muduvar, or back people. According to another tradition,
when they left Madura, they carried with them on their back the
image of the goddess Minakshi, and brought it to Neriyamangalam. It
is stated by Mr. P. E. Conner [60] that the Muduvars "rank high
in point of precedency among the hill tribes. They were originally
Vellalas, tradition representing them as having accompanied some of
the Madura princes to the Travancore hills." The approximate time of
the exodus from Madura cannot even be guessed by any of the tribe,
but it was possibly at the time when the Pandyan Rajas entered the
south, or more probably when the Telugu Naickers took possession of
Bodinayakanur in the fourteenth century. It has also been suggested
that the Muduvars were driven to the hills by the Muhammadan invaders
in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Judging from the two
distinct types of countenance, their language, and their curious
mixture of customs, I hazard the conjecture that, when they arrived
on the hills, they found a small tribe in possession, with whom they
subsequently intermarried, this tribe having affinities with the west
coast, while the new arrivals were connected with the east.
The tribe is settled on the northern and western portion of the
Cardamom Hills, and the High Range of Travancore, known as the Kanan
Devan hills, and there is, I believe, one village on the Anaimalai
hills. They wander to some extent, less so now than formerly, owing
to the establishment of the planting community in their midst. The
head-quarters at present may be said to be on the western slopes of
the High Range. The present Mel Vaken or headman lives in a village
on the western slope of the High Range at about 2,000 feet elevation,
but villages occur up to 6,000 feet above sea level, the majority of
villages being about 4,000 feet above the sea. The wandering takes
place between the reaping of the final crop on one piece of land,
and the sowing of the next. About November sees the breaking up of
the old village, and February the establishment of the new. On the
plateau of the High Range their dwellings are small rectangular,
rather flat-roofed huts, made of jungle sticks or grass (both walls
and root), and are very neat in appearance. On the western slopes,
although the materials lend themselves to even neater building, their
houses are usually of a rougher type. The materials used are the stems
and leaves of the large-leaved ita (bamboo: Ochlandra travancorica)
owing to the absence of grass-land country. The back of the house has
no wall, the roof sloping on to the hillside behind, and the other
walls are generally made of a rough sort of matting made by plaiting
split ita stems.
Outsiders are theoretically not received into the caste, but a weaver
caste boy and girl who were starving (in the famine of 1877, as far as
I can make out), and deserted on the hills, were adopted, and, when
they grew up, were allowed the full privileges of the caste. Since
then, a 'Thotiya Naicker' child was similarly adopted, and is now a
full-blown Muduvar with a Muduvar wife. On similar occasions, adoptions
from similar or higher castes might take place, but the adoption of
Pariahs or low-caste people would be quite impossible. In a lecture
delivered some years ago by Mr. O. H. Bensley, it was stated that
the Muduvars permit the entry of members of the Vellala caste into
their community, but insist upon a considerable period of probation
before finally admitting the would-be Muduvar into their ranks.
If any dispute arises in the community, it is referred to the men of
the village, who form an informal panchayat (council), with the eldest
or most influential man at its head. References are sometimes, but
only seldom, made to the Muppen, a sort of sub-headman of the tribe,
except, perhaps, in the particular village in which he resides. The
office of both Muppen and Mel Vaken is hereditary, and follows
the marumakkatayam custom, i.e., descent to the eldest son of the
eldest sister. The orders of the panchayat, or of the headman,
are not enforceable by any specified means. A sort of sending a
delinquent to Coventry exists, but falls through when the matter has
blown over. Adjudications only occur at the request of the parties
concerned, or in the case of cohabitation between the prohibited
degrees of consanguinity, when, on it becoming known, the guilty
pair are banished to the jungle, but seem nevertheless to be able to
visit the village at will. When disputes between parties are settled
against any one, he may be fined, generally in kind--a calf, a cow,
a bull, or grain. There is no trial by ordeal. Oaths by the accuser,
the accused, and partisans of both, are freely taken. The form of oath
is to call upon God that the person swearing, or his child, may die
within so many days if the oath is untrue, at the same time stepping
over the Rama kodu, which consists of lines drawn on the ground, one
line for each day. It may consist of any number of lines, but three,
five, or seven are usual. Increasing the number of lines indefinitely
would be considered to be trifling with the subject.
There do not seem to be any good omens, but evil omens are
numerous. The barking of 'jungle sheep' (barking deer) or sambar,
the hill robin crossing the path when shifting the village, are
examples. Oracles, magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and especially the
evil eye, are believed in very firmly, but are not practiced by
Muduvars. I was myself supposed to have exercised the evil eye at
one time. It once became my duty to apportion to Muduvars land for
their next year's cultivation, and I went round with some of them for
this purpose, visiting the jungle they wished to clear. A particular
friend of mine, called Kanjan, asked for a bit of secondary growth
very close to a cinchona estate; it was, in fact, situated between
Lower Nettigudy and Upper Nettigudy, and the main road passed quite
close. I told him that there was no objection, except that it was most
unusual, and that probably the estate coolies would rob the place;
and I warned him very distinctly that, if evil came of his choice,
he was not to put the blame on me. Shortly afterwards I left India,
and was absent about three months, and, when I returned, I found that
small-pox had practically wiped out that village, thirty-seven out of
forty inhabitants having died, including Kanjan. I was, of course,
very sorry; but, as I found a small bit of the land in question
had been felled, and there being no claimants, I planted it up with
cinchona. As the smallpox had visited all the Muduvar villages, and
had spread great havoc among them, I was not surprised at their being
scarce, but I noticed, on the few occasions when I did see them, that
they were always running away. When I got the opportunity, I cornered
a man by practically riding him down, and asked for an explanation. He
then told me that, of course, the tribe had been sorely troubled,
because I told Kanjan in so many words that evil would come. I had
then disappeared (to work my magic, no doubt), and returned just in
time to take that very bit of land for myself. That was nearly five
years ago, and confidence in me is only now being gradually restored.