Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/237

Rh feast singing, chatting, and abusing. Indecent language is allowed to be indulged in during the continuance of this jolly occasion. At about 1 A.M. on the full moon day, the image of Holika is burnt, and children sit round the embers, and beat their mouths, making a mock mourning sound. Tender children are swung over the fire for a second by the fond mothers, and this is believed to remove all kinds of danger from the babies."  Lāligonda. — Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as Lingāyats, consisting of Canarese speaking Kāpus or Vakkaligas.  Lambādi.— The Lambādis are also called Lambāni, Brinjāri or Banjāri, Boipāri, Sugāli or Sukāli. By some Sugāli is said to be a corruption of supāri (betel nut), because they formerly traded largely therein.* "The Banjārās," Mr. G. A. Grierson writes,† "are the wellknown tribe of carriers who are found all over Western and Southern India. ‡ One of their principal sub-castes is known under the name of Labhāni, and this name (or some related one) is often applied to the whole tribe. The two names appear each under many variations, such as Banjāri, Vanjāri, Brinjāri, Labhāni, Labāni, Labāna, Lambādi, and Lambānī. The name Banjāra and its congeners is probably derived from the Sanskrit Vānijyakārakas, a merchant, through the Prakrit Vānijjaāraō, a trader. The derivation of Labhāni or Labāni etc., is obscure. It has been suggested that it means salt carrier from the Sanskrit lavanah, salt, because the tribe carried salt, but this explanation goes against several phonetic rules, and does not account for the forms 