Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/245

Rh being made to lie on a bed together, and left there alone for a few moments. Amongst the Māla Pothuvals this is done twice, once on the first and once on the last day, and they apparently also spend the three nights of the ceremony in the same bed-chamber, but not alone, an Enangatti sleeping there as chaperone. In these two castes, as in most if not all others, the ceremony also entails the pollution of the girl and her bridegroom. Amongst the Mārārs, they are purified by a Nambūdiri after they leave their quasi-nuptial couch. Amongst the Māla Pothuvals, they are not allowed to bathe or to touch others during the wedding till the fourth day, when they are given māttu (change of cloths) by the Veluttedan."

Podala occurs as a Canarese form of Poduvāl.  Pōgandan.— A synonym of Pōndan.  Pōkanāti.— Pōkanāti or Pakanāti is a sub-division of Kāpu.  Poladava.—A synonym of Gatti.  Poligar (feudal chief). — A synonym of Pālayakkāran. According to Yule and Burnell,* the Poligars "were properly subordinate feudal chiefs, occupying tracts more or less wild, and generally of predatory habits in former days. They are now much the same as Zemindars (land-owners) in the highest use of that term. The Southern Poligars gave much trouble about a hundred years ago, and the 'Poligar wars' were somewhat serious affairs. In various assaults on Panjalamkurichi, one of their forts in Tinnevelly, between 1799 and 1801, there fell fifteen British officers." The name Poligar was further used for the predatory classes, which served under the chiefs. Thus, in Munro's 'Narrative 