Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/366

MADIGA another rishi, named Sānkya, visited Jāmbava's hermitage, where he was hospitably entertained by his son Yugamuni. While taking his meals, the cream that had been served was so savoury that the guest tried to induce Jāmbava's son Yugamuni, to kill the cow and eat her flesh; and, in spite of the latter's refusal, Sānkya killed the animal, and prevailed upon the others to partake of the meat. On his return from Isvara's Court, Jāmbava found the inmates of his hermitage eating the sacred cow's beef; and took both Sānkya and Yugamuni over to Isvara's Court for judgment. Instead of entering, the two offenders remained outside, Sānkya rishi standing on the right side and Yugamuni on the left of the doorway. Isvara seems to have cursed them to become Chandalas or outcasts. Hence, Sānkya's descendants are, from his having stood on the right side, designated right-hand caste or Holayas; whilst those who sprang from Yugamuni and his wife Mātangi are called left-hand caste or Mādigas." The occupation of the latter is said also to be founded on the belief that, by making shoes for people, the sin their ancestors had committed by cow-killing would be expiated. This mode of vicariously atoning for deliberate sin has passed into a facetious proverb, 'So and so has killed the cow in order to make shoes from the skin,' indicating the utter worthlessness and insufficiency of the reparation.

The Mādigas claim to be the children of Mātangi. "There was," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, * "formerly a Mātanga dynasty in the Canarese country, and the Mādigas are believed by some to be descendants of people who were once a ruling race. Mātangi is a