Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/109

Rh are cooking and sleeping. I am informed that the Puvaththukudi women engage women, presumably with a flow of appropriate language ready for the occasion, to abuse those with whom they have a quarrel. Among the Puvaththukudi Chettis, marriages are, for reasons of economy, only celebrated at intervals of many years. Concerning this custom, a member of the community writes to me as follows. "In our village, marriages are performed only once in ten or fifteen years. My own marriage was celebrated in the year Nandana (1892-93). Then seventy or eighty marriages took place. Since that time, marriages have only taken place in the present year (1906). The god at Avadaiyar kōvil (temple) is our caste god. For marriages, we must receive from that temple garlands, sandal, and palanquins. We pay to the temple thirty-five rupees for every bridegroom through our Nagaraththar (village headmen). The expenses incurred in connection with the employment of washermen, barbers, nāgasaram (musical instrument) players, talayāris (watchmen), carpenters, potters, black-smiths, gurukkals (priests), and garland-makers, are borne collectively and shared by the families in which marriages are to take place." Another Chetti writes that this system of clubbing marriages together is practised at the villages of Puvaththukudi and Mannagudi, and that the marriages of all girls of about seven years of age and upwards are celebrated. The marriages are performed in batches, and the marriage season lasts over several months. Palayasengadam in the Trichinopoly district is the head-quarters of a section of the Chettis called the Pannirendām (twelfth) Chettis. "These are supposed to be descended from eleven youths who escaped long ago from Kāvēripatnam, a ruined city in Tanjore. A