Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/218

DONGA DASARI Donga Dāsaris. Sometimes Muhammadan budmāshes (bad-māsh, evil means of livelihood) and the worst characters from other castes, also become Donga Dāsaris. The way an alien is made a Donga Dāsari is as follows. The regular Donga Dāsaris take the party who wants to enter their brotherhood to the side of a river, make him bathe in oil, give him a new cloth, hold a council, and give a feast. They burn a twig of the sami (Prosopis spicigera) or margosa (Melia Azadirachta) tree, and slightly burn the tongue of the party who has joined them. This is the way of purification and acceptance of every new member, who, soon after the tongue-burning ceremony, is given a seat in the general company, and made to partake of the common feast. The Donga Dāsaris talk both Telugu and Kanarese. They have only two bedagas or family names, called Sunna Akki (thin rice) and Ghantelavāru (men of the bell). As the latter is a family name of the Kabbēras, it is an evidence that members of the latter community have joined the Donga Dāsaris. Even now Donga Dāsaris intermarry with Kabbēras, i.e., they accept any girl from a Kabbēra family in marriage to one of their sons, but do not give one of their daughters in marriage to a Kabbēra boy. Hanumān is their chief god. Venkatēsa, an incarnation of Vishnu, is also worshipped by many. But, in every one of their villages, they have a temple dedicated to their village goddess Huligavva or Ellamma, and it is only before these goddesses that they sacrifice sheep or fowls. Vows are undertaken for these village goddesses when children fall ill. In addition to this, these Donga Dāsaris are notorious for taking vows before starting on a thieving expedition, and the way these ceremonies are gone through is as follows. The gang, before starting on a