Komti, Komati.--The Madras caste of traders corresponding to Banias. In
1911 they numbered 11,000 persons in the Central Provinces, principally
in the Chanda and Yeotmal Districts. The Komtis claim to be of the same
status as Banias and to belong to the Vaishya division of the Aryans,
but this is a very doubtful pretension. Mr. Francis remarks of them:
[586] "Three points which show them to be of Dravidian origin are
their adherence to the custom of obliging a boy to marry his paternal
uncle's daughter, however unattractive she may be, a practice which is
condemned by Manu; their use of the Puranic or lower ritual instead
of the Vedic rites in their ceremonies; and the fact that none of
the 102 gotras into which the caste is divided are those of the
twice-born, while some at any rate seem to be totemistic as they are
the names of trees and plants, and the members of each gotra abstain
from touching or using the plant or tree after which their gotra is
called." They are also of noticeably dark complexion. Komati is said
to be a corruption of Gomati, a tender of cows. [587] The caste have,
however, a great reputation for cunning and astuteness, and hence have
arisen the popular derivations of ko-mati, fox-minded, and go-mati,
cow-minded. The real meaning of the word is obscure. In Mysore the
caste have the title of Setti or Chetty, which is a corruption of
the Sanskrit Sreshtha, good, and in the Central Provinces their names
often terminate with Appa.
The Komtis have the following story about themselves: Long ago,
in the Kaliyuga era, there lived a Rajput king of Rajahmundry, who
on his travels saw a beautiful Vaishya girl and fell in love with
her. Her father refused him, saying that they were of different
castes. But the king persisted and would not be denied. On which
the maiden determined to sacrifice herself to save her honour, and
her clansmen resolved to die with her. So she told the king that she
would marry him if he would agree to the hom sacrifice being performed
at the ceremony. When the fire was kindled the girl threw herself on
it and perished, followed by a hundred and two of her kinsmen. But
the others were cowardly and fled from the fire. Before she died the
girl cursed the king and her caste-fellows who had fled, and they
and their families were cut off from the earth. But from those who
died the hundred and two clans of the Komtis are descended, and they
worship the maiden as Kanika Devi. She is considered to have been an
incarnation of Parvati and is the heroine of the Kanikya Puran. It
is also said that she ordained that henceforth all Komtis should be
black, so that none of their women might come to harm by being desired
for their beauty as she had been. It is said that the caste look out
for a specially dark girl as a bride, and think that she will bring
luck to her husband and cause him to make money. Another explanation
of their dark colour is that they originally lived in Ceylon, and
when the island was set on fire by Rama their faces were blackened
in the smoke. The hundred and two clans have each a particular kind
of flower or tree which they do not grow, eat, touch or burn, and the
explanation they give of this custom is that their ancestors who went
into the fire were transformed into these trees and plants. The names
of the plants revered by each clan in the Central Provinces appear
to be the same as in Mysore. They include the brinjal, the mango,
the cotton-plant, wheat, linseed and others.
The caste have several subcastes, among which are the Yajna, or those
whose ancestors went into the fire; the Patti, who are apparently
thread-sellers; the Jaina, or those who follow the Jain faith; and
the Vidurs, a half-caste section, who are the offspring of a Yajna
father and a mother of some low caste. There is a scarcity of girls,
and a bride-price of Rs. 200 to Rs. 500 is often paid. Perhaps for
the same reason the obligation to give a daughter to a sister's son is
strictly enforced, and a man who refuses to do this is temporarily put
out of caste. The gotras of the mothers of the bride and bridegroom
should not be the same, and there should be no 'Turning back of the
creeper,' as they say, that is, when a girl has married into a family,
the latter cannot give a girl in marriage to that girl's family ever
afterwards. Before the regular betrothal when a girl has been selected,
they appoint a day and the bridegroom's party proceed outside the
village to take the omens. If a bad omen occurs, they give up the
idea of the match and choose another girl. When the bridegroom has
arrived at the bride's village, before the marriage takes place, he
performs the Kashi-Yatra or Going to Benares. He is dressed as for
a journey and carries a small handful of rice and other provisions
tied up in packages in his upper garment. Thus accoutred, he sets
out with a stick and umbrella on a pretended visit to Benares, for
the purpose of devoting his life to study. The parents of the bride
meet him and beg him to give up the journey, promising him their
daughter in marriage. [588] The binding function of the marriage is
the tying of the mangal-sutram or piece of gold strung on a thread
round the bride's neck by the bridegroom. This gold piece is called
pushti and must never be taken off. If a woman loses it, she should
hide herself from everybody until it is replaced. On the way to her
husband's house, the bride should upset with her foot a measure of
rice kept on purpose in the way, perhaps with the idea of showing that
there will be so much grain in her household that she can afford to
waste it. [589] The Komtis did not eat in kitchens in the famines,
but accepted dry rations of food with great reluctance. They wear the
sacred thread and have caste-marks on their foreheads. They usually
rub powdered turmeric on their face and hands, and this lends an
unpleasant greenish tinge to the skin.