Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/300

LINGAYAT soapstone brought from Parvatgiri (Srisaila) in the Kurnool district. It is brought by a class of people called Kambi Jangams, because, besides the linga stone, they bring on a kāvadi or shoulder-bamboo the holy water of the Pātālganga, a pool on Parvatgiri, whose water Lingāyats hold as sacred as Brāhmans the water of the Ganges.

The following description of the lingam is taken from the Bombay Gazetteer for Bījapur. "It consists of two discs, the lower one circular about one-eighth of an inch thick, the upper slightly elongated. Each disc is about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and is separated by a deep groove about an eighth of an inch broad. From the centre of the upper disc, which is slightly rounded, rises a pea-like knob about a quarter of an inch long and three-quarters of an inch round, giving the stone lingam a total height of nearly three- quarters of an inch. This knob is called the ban or arrow. The upper disc is called jalhāri, that is the water carrier, because this part of a full-sized lingam is grooved to carry off the water which is poured over the central knob. It is also called pīta, that is the seat, and pithak the little seat. Over the lingam, to keep it from harm, is plastered a black mixture of clay, cowdung ashes, and marking-nut juice. This coating, which is called kauthi or the cover, entirely hides the shape of the enclosed lingam. It forms a smooth black slightly truncated cone, not unlike a dark betel nut, about three-quarters of an inch high, and narrowing from three-quarters of an inch at the base to half an inch across the top."

The Jangam cannot as a rule be distinguished from other Lingāyats. All male members of the community have a clean-shaved head, without the top-knot common to the Brāhmans. All, male as well as female, daub