Each family has a _got_ or sept and a _varga_ or family name. The
_vargas_ are much more numerous than the _gots_, and marriages are
arranged according to them, unions of members of the same _varga_ only
being forbidden. The sept names are totemistic and the family names
territorial or titular. Among the former are _bachhas_ (calf), _nagas_
(cobra), _hasti_ or _gaj_ (elephant), _harin_ (deer), _mahumachhi_
(bee), _dipas_ (lamp), and others; while instances of the _varga_
names are Pitmundia, Hulbulsingia, Giringia and Dumania, all names of
villages in Angul State; and Nayak (headman), Mahanti (writer), Dehri
(worshipper), Behera (cook), Kandra (bamboo-worker), and others. The
different _gots_ or septs revere their totems by drawing figures
of them on their houses, and abstaining from injuring them in any
way. If they find the footprints of the animal which they worship,
they bow to the marks and obliterate them with the hand, perhaps with
the view of affording protection to the totem animal from hunters
or of preventing the marks from being trampled on by others. They
believe that if they injured the totem animal they would be attacked
by leprosy and their line would die out. Members of the _dipas_ sept
will not eat if a lamp is put out at night, and will not touch a
lamp with unclean hands. Those of the _mahumachhi_ or bee sept will
not take honey from a comb or eat it. Those of the _gaj_ sept will
not join an elephant kheddah. Some of the septs have an Ishta Devata
or tutelary Hindu deity to whom worship is paid. Thus the elephant
sept worship Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, and also do not kill
rats because Ganesh rides on this animal. Similarly the _harin_ or
deer sept have Pawan, the god of the wind, as their Ishta Devata,
because a deer is considered to be as swift as the wind. It would
appear then that the septs, each having its totem, were the original
divisions for the restriction of marriage, but as these increased in
size they were felt to debar the union of persons who had no real
relationship and hence the smaller family groups were substituted
for them; while in the case of the old septs, the substitution of the
Hindu god representing the animal worshipped by the sept for the animal
itself as the object of veneration is an instance of the process of
abandoning totem or animal worship and conforming to Hinduism. In one
or two cases the _vargas_ themselves have been further subdivided for
the purpose of marriage. Thus certain families of the Padhan (leader,
chief) _varga_ were entrusted with the duty of readmitting persons
temporarily put out of caste to social intercourse, for which they
received the remuneration of a rupee and a piece of cloth in each
case. These families were called the Parichha or 'Scrutinisers' and
have now become a separate _varga_, so that a Parichha Padhan may
marry another Padhan. This is a further instance of the process of
subdivision of exogamous groups which must take place as the groups
increase in size and numbers, and the original idea of the common
ancestry of the group vanishes. Until finally the primitive system of
exogamy disappears and is replaced by the modern and convenient method
of prohibition of marriage within certain degrees of relationship.