Bandollu, rock.
Bochchollu, hairs.
Cheruku, sugarcane.
Enumala, buffalo.
Goddali, axe.
Gampa, basket.
Idakottu, break-down.
Jambu (Eugenia Jambolana).
Komali, buffoon.
Santha, a fair.
Sivaratri, a festival.
Manchala, cot.
Sampangi (Michelia Champaca).
Thatichettu, palmyra palm.
Bandari (Dodonoea viscosa).
Devala, belonging to god.
Donga, thief.
Malle, jasmine.
Panthipattu, pig-catcher.
Panthikottu, pig-killer.
Upputholuvaru, salt-carrier.
Pitakala, dais on which a priest sits.
Thappata, drum.
At the Mysore census, 1901, a few returned gotras, such as arashina
(turmeric), huvvina (flowers), honna (gold), and akshantala (rice
grain).
"The women of the Vaddevandlu section of the tank-digger caste," the
Rev. J. Cain writes, [178] "only wear the glass bracelets on the left
arm, as, in years gone by (according to their own account), a seller
of these bracelets was one day persuading them to buy, and, leaving
the bracelets on their left arms, went away, promising to return with a
fresh supply for their right arms. As yet he has not re-appeared." But
an old woman explained that they have to use their right arm when at
work, and if they wore bangles on it, they would frequently get broken.
In some places, tattooing on the forehead with a central vertical
line, dots, etc., is universally practiced, because, according to the
Odde, they should bear tattoo marks as a proof of their life on earth
(bhulokam) when they die. Oddes, calling themselves Pachcha Botlu,
are itinerant tattooers in the Ganjam, Vizagapatam and Godavari
districts. While engaged in performing the operation, they sing Telugu
songs, to divert the attention of those who are being operated on.
The office of headman, who is known as Yejamanadu, Samayagadu, or
Pedda (big) Boyadu, is hereditary, and disputes, which cannot be
settled at a council meeting, are referred to a Balija Desai Chetti,
whose decision is final. In some cases, the headman is assisted by
officers called Chinna (little) Boyadu, Sankuthi, and Banthari. An
Odde, coming to a place where people are assembled with shoes on,
is fined, and described as gurram ekki vachchinavu (having come on
a horse). The Oddes are very particular about touching leather, and
beating with shoes brings pollution. Both the beater and the person
beaten have to undergo a purificatory ceremony, and pay a fine. When
in camp at Dimbhum, in the Coimbatore district, I caught hold of a
ladle, to show my friend Dr. Rivers what were the fragrant contents
of a pot, in which an Odde woman was cooking the evening meal. On
returning from a walk, we heard a great noise proceeding from the
Odde men who had meanwhile returned from work, and found the woman
seated apart on a rock and sobbing. She had been excommunicated, not
because I touched the ladle, but because she had afterwards touched
the pot. After much arbitration, I paid up the necessary fine, and
she was received back into her caste.
When a girl reaches puberty, she is confined in a special hut, in
which a piece of iron, margosa leaves (Melia Azadirachta), sticks
of Strychnos Nux-vomica, and the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea)
are placed, to ward off evil spirits. For fear of these spirits she
is not allowed to eat meat, though eggs are permitted. On the seventh
day, a fowl is killed, waved in front of the girl, and thrown away. At
the end of the period of pollution, the hut is burnt down. Sometimes,
when the girl bathes on the first day, a sieve is held over her head,
and water poured through it. In some places, on the eleventh day,
chicken broth, mixed with arrack (liquor), is administered, in order
to make the girl's back and waist strong. The hen, from which the
broth is made, must be a black one, and she must have laid eggs for
the first time. The flesh is placed in a mortar, pounded to a pulp,
and boiled, with the addition of condiments, and finally the arrack.
Both infant and adult marriages are practiced. The marriage ceremony,
in its simplest form, is, according to Mr. F. S. Mullaly, [179]
not a tedious one, the bride and bridegroom walking three times
round a stake placed in the ground. In the more elaborate ritual,
on the betrothal day, the bride-price, etc., are fixed, and an
adjournment is made to the toddy shop. The marriage rites are, as
a rule, very simple, but, in some places, the Oddes have begun to
imitate the marriage ceremonies of the Balijas. On the third day, the
contracting couple go in procession to a tank, where the bridegroom
digs up some mud, and the bride carries three basketfuls thereof to
a distance. The following story is narrated in connection with their
marriage ceremonies. A certain king wanted an Odde to dig a tank,
which was subsequently called Nidimamidi Koththacheruvu, and promised
to pay him in varahalu (gold coins). When the work was completed, the
Odde went to the king for his money, but the king had no measure for
measuring out the coins. A person was sent to fetch one, and on his
way met a shepherd, who had on his shoulders a small bamboo stick,
which could easily be converted into a measure. Taking this stick,
he returned to the king, who measured out the coins, which fell short
of the amount expected by the Oddes, who could not pay the debts,
which they had contracted. So they threw the money into the tank,
saying "Let the tank leak, and the land lie fallow for ever." All
were crying on account of their misery and indebtedness. A Balija,
coming across them, took pity on them, and gave them half the amount
required to discharge their debts. After a time they wanted to marry,
and men were sent to bring the bottu (marriage badge), milk-post,
musicians, etc. But they did not return, and the Balija suggested the
employment of a pestle for the milk-post, a string of black beads
for the bottu, and betel leaves and areca nuts instead gold coins
for the oli (bride-price).
The Oddes are in some places Vaishnavites, in others Saivites,
but they also worship minor deities, such as Ellamma, Ankamma,
etc., to whom goats and sheep are sacrificed, not with a sword or
knife, but by piercing them with a spear or crowbar. Writing at the
commencement of the nineteenth century, Buchanan states [180] that
"although the Woddaru pray to Vishnu, and offer sacrifices to Marima,
Gungama, Durgama, Putalima, and Mutialima, yet the proper object of
worship belonging to the caste is a goddess called Yellama, one of the
destroying spirits. The image is carried constantly with their baggage;
and in her honour there is an annual feast, which lasts three days. On
this occasion they build a shed, under which they place the image,
and one of the tribe officiates as priest or pujari. For these three
days offerings of brandy, palm wine, rice, and flowers are made to the
idol, and bloody sacrifices are performed before the shed. The Woddas
abstain from eating the bodies of the animals sacrificed to their
own deity, but eat those which they sacrifice to the other Saktis."
The dead are generally buried. By some Oddes the corpse is carried
to the burial-ground wrapped up in a new cloth, and carried in a
dhubati (thick coarse cloth) by four men. On the way to the grave,
the corpse is laid on the ground, and rice thrown over its eyes. It is
then washed, and the namam (Vaishnavite sect mark) painted, or vibuthi
(sacred ashes) smeared on the forehead of a man, and kunkumam (coloured
powder) on that of a female. Earth is thrown by those assembled into
the grave before it is filled in. On the karmandhiram day, or last day
of the death ceremonies, the relations repair to a tank or well outside
the village. An effigy is made with mud, to which cooked rice, etc.,
is offered. Some rice is cooked, and placed on an arka (Calotropis)
leaf as an offering to the crows. If a married woman has died, the
widower cuts through his waist thread, whereas a widow is taken to
the water's edge, and sits on a winnow. Her bangles are broken, and
the bottu is snapped by her brother. Water is then poured over her
head three times through the winnow. After bathing, she goes home,
and sits in a room with a lamp, and may see no one till the following
morning. She is then taken to one or more temples, and made to pull
the tail of a cow three times. The Oddes of Coimbatore, in the Tamil
country, have elaborated both the marriage and funeral ceremonies,
and copy those of the Balijas and Vellalas. But they do not call in
the assistance of a Brahman purohit.
A woman, found guilty of immorality, is said to have to carry a
basketful of earth from house to house, before she is re-admitted to
the caste.
The following note on a reputed cure for snake poisoning used by Oddes
was communicated to me by Mr. Gustav Haller. "A young boy, who belonged
to a gang of Oddes, was catching rats, and put his hand into a bamboo
bush, when a cobra bit him, and clung to his finger when he was drawing
his hand out of the bush. I saw the dead snake, which was undoubtedly
a cobra. I was told that the boy was in a dying condition, when a man
of the same gang said that he would cure him. He applied a brown pill
to the wound, to which it stuck without being tied. The man dipped
a root into water, and rubbed it on the lad's arm from the shoulder
downwards. The arm, which was benumbed, gradually became sensitive,
and at last the fingers could move, and the pill dropped off. The
moist root was rubbed on to the boy's tongue and into the corner of
the eye before commencing operations. The man said that a used pill
is quite efficacious, but should be well washed to get rid of the
poison. In the manufacture of the pill, five leaves of a creeper are
dried, and ground to powder. The pill must be inserted for nine days
between the bark and cambium of a margosa tree (Melia Azadirachta)
during the new moon, when the sap ascends." The creeper is Tinospora
cordifolia (gul bel) and the roots are apparently those of the same
climbing shrub. There is a widespread belief that gul bel growing on
a margosa tree is more efficacious as a medicine than that which is
found on other kinds of trees.