Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/22

CHALLA On the day before the wedding-day the bridegroom, accompanied by his male relations, proceeds to the house of the bride, where a feast is held. On the following day the bride is bathed, and made to stand before a lighted lamp placed on the floor. The bridegroom's father or uncle places two gold fanams (coins)in her hands, and a further feast takes place. In the seventh month of pregnancy, the ceremony called puli kudi (or drinking tamarind) is performed. The woman's brother brings a twig of a tamarind tree, and, after the leaves have been removed, plants it in the yard of the house. The juice is extracted from the leaves, and mixed with the juice of seven cocoanuts. The elderly female relations of the woman give her a little of the mixture. The ceremony is repeated during three days. Birth pollution is removed by a barber woman sprinkling water on the ninth day.

The dead are buried. The son carries a pot of water to the grave, round which he takes it three times. The barber makes a hole in the pot, which is then thrown down at the head of the grave. The barber also tears off a piece of the cloth, in which the corpse is wrapped. This is, on the tenth day, taken by the son and barber to the sea or a tank, and thrown into it. Three stones are set up over the grave.

Chāliyan also occurs as an occupational title or sub-division of Nāyars, and Chāliannaya as an exogamous sept of Bant. In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Chāliyan is given as a sub-caste of Vāniyan (oil-pressers). Some Chāliyans are, however, oilmongers by profession.  Challa. — Challa, meaning apparently eaters of refuse, occurs as a sub-division of Yānādis, and meaning butter-milk as an exogamous sept of Dēvānga. Challakūti, 