Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/396

MALA marriage to some one else, as he had renounced his worldly ties." At Vānavōlu, in the Hindupūr tāluk of the Anantapūr district, there is a temple to Rangaswāmi, at which the pūjāri (priest) is a Māla. People of the upper castes frequent it, but do their own pūja, the Māla standing aside for the time.*

It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, that the chief object of worship by the Balijas is Gauri, their caste deity. "It is said that the Mālas are the hereditary custodians of the idol of Gauri and her jewels, which the Balijas get from them whenever they want to worship her. The following story is told to account for this. The Kāpus and the Balijas, molested by the Muhammadan invaders on the north of the river Pennār, migrated to the south when the Pennār was in full flood. Being unable to cross the river, they invoked their deity to make a passage for them, for which it demanded the sacrifice of a first-born child. While they stood at a loss what to do, the Mālas, who followed them, boldly offered one of their children to the goddess. Immediately the river divided before them, and the Kāpus and the Balijas crossed it, and were saved from the tyranny of the Muhammadans. Ever since that time, the Mālas have been respected by the Kāpus and Balijas, and the latter even deposited the images of Gauri, the bull and Ganēsa, which they worshipped in the house of a Māla. I am credibly informed that the practice of leaving these images in the custody of Mālas is even now observed in some parts of Cuddapah district and elsewhere."

An expert Māla medicine-man has been known to prescribe for a Brāhman tahsildar (revenue officer),