Jhadi Telenga. [190]--A small caste in the Bastar State who appear to
be a mixture of Gonds and the lower Telugu castes, the name meaning
'The jungly Telugus.' Those living in the open country are called
Mandar Telengas. In the census of 1901 these Telengas were wrongly
classified under the Balji or Balija caste. They numbered about 5000
persons. The caste have three divisions according to their comparative
purity of descent, which are named Purait, Surait and Pohni. The son
of a Purait by a woman of different caste will be a Surait, and the
son of a Surait by such a woman will be a Pohni. Such alliances are
now, however, infrequent, and most of the Telengas in Bastar belong
to the Purait or legitimate group. A Pohni will take cooked food from
the two higher groups and a Surait from a Purait. The last will take
water from the two lower groups, but not food.