_Kuramwar_. [48]--The shepherd caste of southern India, who are
identical with the Tamil Kurumba and the Telugu Kuruba. The caste is an
important one in Madras, but in the Central Provinces is confined to
the Chanda District where it numbered some 4000 persons in 1911. The
Kuramwars are considered to be the modern representatives of the
ancient Pallava tribe whose kings were powerful in southern India in
the seventh century. [49]
The marriage rules of the Kuramwars are interesting. If a girl
reaches adolescence while still single, she is finally expelled
from the caste, her parents being also subjected to a penalty for
readmission. Formerly it is said that such a girl was sacrificed to
the river-goddess by being placed in a small hut on the river-bank
till a flood came and swept her away. Now she is taken to the river
and kept in a hut, while offerings are made to the river-goddess,
and she may then return and live in the village though she is out of
caste. In Madras, as a preliminary to the marriage, the bridegroom's
father observes certain marks or 'curls' on the head or hair of the
bride proposed. Some of these are believed to forecast prosperity
and others misery to the family into which she enters. They are
therefore very cautious in selecting only such girls as possess curls
(_suli_) of good fortune. The writer of the _North Arcot Manual_ [50]
after recording the above particulars, remarks: "This curious custom
obtaining among this primitive tribe is observed by others only in
the case of the purchase of cows, bulls and horses." In the Central
Provinces, however, at least one parallel instance can be given from
the northern Districts where any mark resembling the V on the head
of a cobra is considered to be very inauspicious. And it is told
that a girl who married into one well-known family bore it, and to
this fact the remarkable succession of misfortunes which has attended
the family is locally attributed. Among the Kuramwars marriages can
be celebrated only on four days in the year, the fifth day of both
fortnights of Phagun (February), the tenth day of the second fortnight
of the same month and the third day of Baisakh (April). At the marriage
the bride and bridegroom are seated together under the canopy, with
the shuttle which is used for weaving blankets between them, and they
throw coloured rice at each other. After this a miniature swing is put
up and a doll is placed in it in imitation of a child and swung to and
fro. The bride then takes the doll out and gives it to the bridegroom,
saying: 'Here, take care of it, I am now going to cook food'; while
after a time the boy returns the doll to the girl, saying, 'I must
now weave the blanket and go to tend the flock.' The proceeding
seems a symbolic enactment of the cares of married life and the
joint tending of the baby, this sort of symbolism being particularly
noticeable in the marriage ceremonies of the people of Madras. Divorce
is not permitted even though the wife be guilty of adultery, and if
she runs away to her father's house her husband cannot use force to
bring her back if she refuses to return to him. The Kuramwars worship
the implements of their calling at the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi,
and if any family fails to do this it is put out of caste. They also
revere annually Mallana Deva and Mallani Devi who guard their flocks
respectively from attacks of tigers and epidemics of murrain. The
shrines of these deities are generally built under a banyan tree
and open to the east. The caste are shepherds and graziers and also
make blankets. They are poor and ignorant, and the Abbé Dubois [51]
says of them: "Being confined to the society of their woolly charge,
they seem to have contracted the stupid nature of the animal, and from
the rudeness of their nature they are as much beneath the other castes
of Hindus as the sheep by their simplicity and imperfect instruction
are beneath the other quadrupeds." Hence the proverbial comparison
'As stupid as a Kuramwar.' When out of doors the Kuramwar retains the
most primitive method of eating and drinking; he takes his food in a
leaf and licks it up with his tongue, and sucks up water from a tank
or river with his mouth. They justify this custom by saying that on one
occasion their god had taken his food out of the house on a leaf-plate
and was proceeding to eat it with his hands when his sheep ran away
and he had to go and fetch them back. In the meantime a crow came and
pecked at the food and so spoilt it. It was therefore ordained that
all the caste should eat their food straight off the leaf, in order
to do which they would have to take it from the cooking-pot in small
quantities and there would be no chance of leaving any for the crows
to spoil. The story is interesting as showing how very completely
the deity of the Kuramwars is imagined on the principle that god
made man in his own image. Or, as a Frenchman has expressed the idea,
'_Dieu a fait l'homme à son image, mais l'homme le lui a bein rendu._'
The caste are dark in colour and may be distinguished by their caps
made from pieces of blankets, and by their wearing a woollen cord
round the waist over the loin-cloth. They speak a dialect of Canarese.