Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/295

Rh followed by the Nagartās, who are said to have been coemigrants with the Gānigas, Mallarāj made Sattis and Yajamāns (headmen) of the principal members of the two castes, and exempted. them from the house-tax. The Gānigas are both Vaishnavites and Saivites. Their guru is known as Dharmasivāchārsvāmi in the Madras Presidency, and certain gōtras (family names) are said to be common to the Gānigas and Nagartās, but they never eat together or intermarry. The Gānigas claim the peculiar privilege of following the Vishnu image or car processions, throughout the province, with flags exhibiting the figures of Hanumān and Garuda, and torches. These insignia are alleged to have been aboriginally given to an ancestor, named Siriyāla Satti, by Rāma, as a reward for a valuable gem presented by him. The Gānigas call themselves Dharmasivāchār Vaisyās like the Nagartās, and the feud between them used often to culminate in much bitter unpleasantness. The order includes a small division of the linga-wearing oilmongers, known as Sajjanā (good men), whose population is a small fraction of the community. The Sajjanās, however, hold no social intercourse of any kind with the other sub-divisions." The Gānigas of Sandūr, in the little Marātha State of that name, returned Yenne (oil) and Kallu (stone) as sub-divisions. The average cephalic index of these Gānigas was very high, being 80.5 as against 77.6 for the Gānigas of Mysore city. "The oil-mill of the Gānigas is," Mr. W. Francis writes,* " a sort of large wooden mortar, usually formed out of the heart of a tamarind tree, and firmly imbedded in the ground. A wooden cylinder, shod with iron, fits