Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/287

Rh of her mouth. The boys became the progenitors of the caste, the members of which now wear the thread. The descendants of the one brother are tailors, and of the other, the most numerous, dyers. Their chief feasts are the Dassara and Kāman, the former celebrated in honour of the goddess Tuljabhavani and the latter of Manmada, the Indian Cupid, fabled to have been destroyed by the flame of Siva's third eye. During the Kāman feast, fires of combustible materials are lighted, round which the votaries gather, and, beating their mouths, exclaim ' laba, laba', lamenting the death of Cupid. In this feast Rājputs, Mahrāttas, Bondilis, and Guzerātis also join. The Rangāris speak Marāthi, which they write in the northern character, and name Poona and Sholāpur as the places in which they originally resided. In appearance they do not at all resemble the other claimants to Kshatriya descent, the Rāzus and Rājputs, for they are poorly developed and by no means handsome. Widow remarriage is permitted where children have not been born, but remarried widows are prohibited from taking part in religious processions, which seems a sign that the concession has been reluctantly permitted. In most of their customs they differ but little from the Rāzus, eating meat and drinking spirits, but not keeping their women gosha." All the Rangāris examined by me at Adoni in the Bellary district were tailors. Like other Marātha classes they had a high cephalic index (av. 79; max.92), and it was noticeable that the breadth of the head exceeded 15 cm. in nine out of thirty individuals.

In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Bahusāgara, Malla or Mulla, and Nāmdēv are given as synonyms, and Chimpiga (tailor) and Unupulavādu (dyer) as sub-castes of Rangāri.