Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/236

PIDAKALA The caste beggars of the Tottiyans are known as Pichiga-vādu.  Pidakala (cow-dung cakes or bratties). — An exogamous sept of Dēvānga. Dried cow-dung cakes are largely used by natives as fuel, and may be seen stuck on to the walls of houses.  '''Pidāran. —''' A section of Ambalavāsis, who, according to Mr. Logan* "drink liqour, exorcise devils, and are worshippers of Bhadrakāli or of Sakti. The name is also applied to snake-catchers, and it was probably conferred on the caste owing to the snake being an emblem of the human passion embodied in the deities they worship."  '''Pilapalli. —''' The Pilapallis are a small caste or community in Travancore, concerning which Mr. S. Subramanya Aiyar writes as follows. † "The following sketch will show what trifling circumstances are sufficient in this land of Parasurāma to call a new caste into existence. The word Pilapally is supposed to be a corruption of Belāl Thalli, meaning forcibly ejected. It therefore contains, as though in a nutshell, the history of the origin of this little community, which it is used to designate. In the palmy days of the Chempakasseri Rājas, about the year 858 M.E., there lived at the court of the then ruling Prince at Ambalappuzha a Nambūri Brāhman who stood high in the Prince's favour, and who therefore became an eye-sore to all his fellow courtiers. The envy and hatred of the latter grew to such a degree that one day they put their heads together to devise a plan which should at once strip him of all influence at court, and humble him in the eyes of the public. The device hit upon was a strange one, and characteristic of that dim and distant 