Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/398

MALA i.e., their women wore the cloth over the right shoulder, but now there are both right and left paita sections, and this must be taken as the principal division. The righthand (right paita) section is again divided into (a) Reddi Bhūmalavaru, (b) Pōkunātivaru. The left-hand (left paita) section are Murikinātivaru. The following legend professes to account for the existence of the three divisions. When Vīrabahuvu went to the rescue of Harischandra, he promised Kāli that, if she granted him success, he would sacrifice to her his wives, of whom he had three. Accordingly, after his conquest of Vishvamithrudu, he returned, and called his wives that he might take them to the temple in order to fulfil his vow. The wives got some inkling of what was in store for them, and one of them took refuge in the house of a Reddi Bhūmala, another ran away to the eastern country (Pōkunāti), while the third, though recently confined, and still in her dirty (muriki) cloth, determined to abide by the wish of her lord. She was, therefore, sacrificed to Kāli, but the goddess, seeing her devotion, restored her to life, and promised to remain for ever her helper. The reason given for the change in the method of wearing the cloth is that, after the incident described above took place, the women, of the Murikināti section, in order to express their disapproval of the two unfaithful wives, began to wear their cloths on the opposite, viz., the left, shoulder. In marriages, however, whatever the paita of the bride, she must wear the cloth over the right shoulder. "The Reddi Bhūmalu and Pōkunātivaru say that the reason they wear the cloth over the right shoulder is that they are descendants of the gods. According to a legend, the goddess Parvati, whilst on a journey with her lord Paramēshvarudu, discarded one of her unclean