_Mannewar._ [197]--A small tribe belonging to the south or
Telugu-speaking portion of the Chanda District, where they mustered
about 1600 persons in 1911. The home of the tribe is the Hyderabad
State, where it numbers 22,000 persons, and the Mannewars are said
to have once been dominant over a part of that territory. The name
is derived from a Telugu word _mannem_, meaning forest, while _war_
is the plural termination in Telugu, Mannewar thus signifying 'the
people of the forest.' The tribe appear to be the inferior branch
of the Koya Gonds, and they are commonly called Mannewar Koyas as
opposed to the Koya Doras or the superior branch, Dora meaning 'lord'
or master. The Koya Doras thus correspond to the Raj-Gonds of the
north of the Province and the Mannewar Koyas to the Dhur or 'dust'
Gonds. [198] The tribe is divided into three exogamous groups: the
Nalugu Velpulu worshipping four gods, the Ayidu Velpulu worshipping
five, and the Anu Velpulu six. A man must marry a woman of one of
the divisions worshipping a different number of gods from his own,
but the Mannewars do not appear to know the names of these gods, and
consequently no veneration can be paid to them at present, and they
survive solely for the purpose of regulating marriage. When a betrothal
is made a day is fixed for taking an omen. In the early morning the
boy who is to be married has his face washed and turmeric smeared
on his feet, and is seated on a wooden seat inside the house. The
elders of the village then proceed outside it towards the rising
sun and watch for any omen given by an animal or bird crossing their
path. If this is good the marriage is celebrated, and if bad the match
is broken off. In the former case five of the elders take their food on
returning from the search for the omen and immediately proceed to the
bride's village. Here they are met by the Pesamuda or village priest,
and stay for three days, when the amount of the dowry is settled and
a date fixed for the wedding. The marriage ceremony resembles that
of the low Telugu castes. The couple are seated on a plough-yoke,
and coloured rice is thrown on to their heads, and the bridegroom
ties the _mangalya_ or bead necklace, which is the sign of marriage,
round the neck of the bride. If a girl is deformed, or has some other
drawback which prevents her from being sought in marriage, she is
given away with her sister to a first cousin [199] or some other near
relative, the two sisters being married to him together. A widow may
marry any man of the tribe except her first husband's brothers. If
a man takes a widow to his house without marrying her he is fined
three rupees, while for adultery with a married woman the penalty is
twenty rupees. A divorce can always be obtained, but if the husband
demands it he is mulcted of twenty rupees by the caste committee,
while a wife who seeks a divorce must pay ten rupees. The Mannewars
make an offering of a fowl and some liquor to the ploughshare on the
festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. After the picking of the flowers of
the mahua [200] they worship that tree, offering to it some of the
liquor distilled from the new flowers, with a fowl and a goat. This
is known as the Burri festival. At the Holi feast the Mannewars make
two human figures to represent Kami and Rati, or the god of love and
his wife. The male figure is then thrown on to the Holi fire with a
live chicken or an egg. This may be a reminiscence of a former human
sacrifice, which was a common custom in many parts of the world at the
spring festival. The caste usually bury the dead, but are beginning
to adopt cremation. They do not employ Brahmans for their ceremonies
and eat all kinds of food, including the flesh of pigs, fowls and
crocodiles, but in view of their having nominally adopted Hinduism,
they abstain from beef.