Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/365

Rh offered to it. Everything, except the pot, is left on the spot. The Mādigas sometimes call themselves Jāmbavas, and claim to be descended from Jāmbu or Adi Jāmbuvadu, who is perhaps the Jāmbuvan of the Rāmayana. Some Mādigas, called Sindhuvallu, go about acting scenes from the Mahābaratha and Rāmayana, or the story of Ankalamma. They also assert that they fell to their present low position as the result of a curse, and tell the following story. Kāmadhenu, the sacred cow of the Purānas, was yielding plenty of milk, which the Dēvas alone used. Vellamānu, a Mādiga boy, was anxious to taste the milk, but was advised by Adi Jāmbuvadu to abstain from it. He, however, secured some by stealth, and thought that the flesh would be sweeter still. Learning this, Kāmadhenu died. The Dēvas cut its carcase into four parts, of which they gave one to Adi Jāmbuvadu. But they wanted the cow brought back to life, and each brought his share of it for the purpose of reconstruction. But Vellamānu had cut a bit of the flesh, boiled it, and breathed on it, so that, when the animal was recalled to life, its chin sank, as the flesh thereof had been defiled. This led to the sinking of the Mādigas in the social scale. The following variant of this legend is given in the Mysore Census Report, 1891. "At a remote period, Jāmbava Rishi, a sage, was one day questioned by Isvara (Siva) why the former was habitually late at the Divine Court. The rishi replied that he had personally to attend to the wants of his children every day, which consequently made his attendance late: whereupon Isvara, pitying the children, gave the rishi a cow (Kāmadhenu), which instantaneously supplied their every want. Once upon a time, while Jāmbava was absent at Isvara's Court,