Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/371

Rh anecdote, recorded by Buchanan,* supplies the raison d'étre for the concession, which is said to have also been earned by their forebears having guarded the sacred mūrti or idol. On Rāmānujāchārya going to Melkōta to perform his devotions at that celebrated shrine, he was informed that the place had been attacked by the Turk King of Delhi, who had carried away the idol. The Brāhman immediately set out for that capital, and on arrival found that the King had made a present of the image to his daughter, for it is said to be very handsome, and she asked for it as a plaything. All day the princess played with the image, and at night the god assumed his own beautiful form, and enjoyed her bed, for Krishna is addicted to such forms of adventures. Rāmānujāchārya, by virtue of certain mantras, obtained possession of the image, and wished to carry it off. He asked the Brāhmans to assist him, but they refused; on which the Holeyas volunteered, provided the right of entering the temple was granted to them. Rāmānujāchārya accepted their proposal, and the Holeyas, having posted themselves between Delhi and Mēlkōta, the image of the god was carried down in twenty-four hours. The service also won for the outcastes the envied title of Tiru-kulam or the sacred race. In 1799, however, when the Dewān (prime minister) Pūrnaiya visited the holy place, the right of the outcastes to enter the temple was stopped at the dhvaja stambham, the consecrated monolithic column, from which point alone can they now obtain a view of the god. On the day of the car procession, the Tiru-kulam people, men, women and children, shave their heads and bathe with the higher castes in the kalyāni or large reservoir, and carry on their head small