Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/196

PRTNULKARAN wealth acquired by (the exercise of their) craft.] On the destruction of Mandasōr by the Mussalmans, the Pattavāyas seem to have travelled south to Dēvagiri, the modern Daulatābād, the then capital of the Yādavas, and thence, when the Mussalmans again appeared on the scene at the beginning of the fourteenth century, to Vijayanagar, and eventually to Madura. A curious ceremony confirming this conjecture is performed to this day at Patnūlkāran weddings in South India. Before the date of the wedding, the bridegroom's party go to the bride's house, and ask formally for the girl's hand. Her relations ask them in a set form of words who they are, and whence they come, and they reply that they are from Sōrath (the old name for Saurāshtra or Kathiawar), resided in Dēvagiri, travelled south (owing to Mussalman oppression) to Vijayanagar, and thence came to Madura. They then ask the bride's party the same question, and receive the same reply. A Marāthi MS., prepared in 1822 at Salem under the direction of the then Collector, Mr. M. D. Cockburn, contains the same tradition. Mr.Sewell's 'A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar' shows how common silk clothing and trappings were at Vijayanagar in the days of its glory. Most of the Patnūlkārans can still speak Telugu, which raises the inference that they must have resided a long time in the Telugu country, while their Patnūli contains many Canarese and Telugu words, and they observe the feast of Basavanna (or Boskanna), which is almost peculiar to the Bellary country. After the downfall of Vijayanagar, some of the caste seem to have gone to Bangalore, for a weaving community called Patvēgars, who speak a dialect similar to Patnūli, still reside there." Concerning the Patnūlis who have settled in the Mysore Province, it is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, that "with silk they