Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/37

Rh The religion of the Kādirs is a crude polytheism, and vague worship of stone images or invisible gods. It is, as Mr. Bensley expresses it, an ejaculatory religion, finding vent in uttering the names of the gods and demons. The gods, as enumerated and described to me, were as follows: —
 * (1) Paikutlātha, a projecting rock overhanging a slab of rock, on which are two stones set up on end.Two miles east of Mount Stuart.


 * (2) Athuvisariamma, a stone enclosure, ten to fifteen feet square, almost level with the ground. It is believed that the walls were originally ten feet high, and that the mountain has grown up round it. Within the enclosure there is a representation of the god. Eight miles north of Mount Stuart.


 * (3) Vanathavāthi. Has no shrine, but is worshipped anywhere as an invisible god.


 * (4) lyappaswāmi, a stone set up beneath a teak tree, and worshipped as a protector against various forms of sickness and disease. In the act of worshipping, a mark is made on the stone with ashes. Two miles and a half from Mount Stuart, on the ghāt road to Sēthumadai.


 * (5) Māsanyātha, a female recumbent figure in stone on a masonry wall in an open plain near the village of Ānaimalai, before which trial by ordeal is carried out. The goddess has a high repute for her power of detecting thieves or rogues. Chillies are thrown into a fire in her name, and the guilty person suffers from vomiting and diarrhoea.

According to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer,* the Kādirs are "worshippers of Kāli. On the occasion of