Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/211

Rh Pōlērigādu, a Reddi Dommara, so pleased the king that he was presented with a ring, and a royal edict was passed that the wearer of the ring and his descendants should be the head of the Dommara class. The ring then given is said to be the same that is now worn by the head of the tribe at Chitvēl, which bears an inscription in Telugu declaring that the wearer is the high-priest or guru of all the Dommaras. The office is hereditary. The dwellings of the Dommaras are somewhat similar to those of the Koravars and Joghis, made of palmyra leaves plaited into mats with seven strands. These huts, or gudisays, are located on the outskirts of villages, and carried on the backs of donkeys when on the march. Stolen cloths, unless of value, are not as a rule sold, but concealed in the packs of their donkeys, and after a time worn. The Dommaras are addicted to dacoity, robbery, burglary, and thefts. The instrument used by them is unlike those used by other criminal classes: it is of iron, about a foot long, and with a chisel-shaped point. As cattle and sheep lifters they are expert, and they have their regular receivers at most of the cattle fairs throughout the Presidency."

It is noted, in the Nellore Manual, that the Dommaras "are stated by the Nellore Tahsildar to possess mirāsi rights in some villages; that I take to mean that there is, in some villages, a customary contribution for tumblers and mendicants, which, according to Wilson, was made in Mysore the pretext for a tax named Dombar-lingada-vira-kaniki. This tax, under the name Dombar tafrik, was levied in Venkatagiri in 1801." In the Madura district, Dommaras are found in some villages formerly owned by zamindars, and they call themselves children of the zamindars, by whom they were probably patronised.