Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/259

Rh :I adore Bharma (Bramha) in the roots;
 * Vishnu who is the trunk;
 * Rudra (Mahadēv) pervading the branches;
 * And the Dēvās in every leaf.

"The likening of the Creator's omnipotence to a tree among a people so far impervious to the traditions of Sanskrit lore may not appear very strange to those who will call to mind the Scandinavian tree of Igdrasil so graphically described by Carlyle, and the all-pervading Asvat'tha (pipal) tree of the Bhagavatgīta." It is added in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that "the Lambānis own the Gosayis (Goswāmi) as their priests or gurus. These are the genealogists of the Lambānis, as the Helavas are of the Sīvachars." Of the Sugālis of Punganūr and Palmanēr in the North Arcot district Mr. Stuart writes that " all worship the Tirupati Swāmi, and also two Saktis called Kōsa Sakti and Māni Sakti. Some three hundred years ago, they say that there was a feud between the Bukia and Mūdu Sugālis, and in a combat many were killed on both sides; but the widows of only two of the men who died were willing to perform sāti, in consequence of which they have been deified, and are now worshipped as saktis by all the divisions," It is said* that, near Rolla in the Anantapur district, there is a small community of priests to the Lambādis who call themselves Muhammadans, but cannot intermarry with others of the faith, and that in the south-west of Madakasīra taluk there is another sub-division, called the Mondu Tulukar (who are usually stone-cutters and live in hamlets by themselves), who similarly cannot marry with other Musalmans. It is noted by the Rev. J. Cain † that in some places the Lambādis " fasten small rags torn from