Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/346

SATANI regard to their religion, it will suffice to say that they are Tengalai Vaishnavites. They shave their heads completely, and tie their lower cloth like a Brāhman bachelor. In their ceremonies they more or less follow the Brāhmans, but the sacred thread is not worn by them. Though the consumption of alcoholic liquor and animal food is strictly prohibited, they practice both to a considerable extent on all festive occasions, and at srādhs. Drinking and other excesses are common. Some Sātānis bury the dead, and others burn them. The principal occupations of Sātānis are making garlands, carrying the torches during the god's procession, and sweeping the temple floor. They also make umbrellas, flower baskets and boxes of palmyra leaves, and prepare the sacred balls of white clay (for making the Vaishnavite sectarian mark), and saffron powder. Their usual agnomen is Aiya." In the Madras Census Report, 1901, the Sātānis are summed up as being "a Telugu caste of temple servants supposed to have come into existence in the time of the great Valshnavite reformer Sri Rāmānujāchārya (A.D.1100). The principal endogamous sub-divisions of this caste are (1) Ekākshari, (2) Chaturākshari, (3) Ashtākshari, and (4) Kulasēkhara. The Ekāksharis (ēka, one, and akshara, syllable) hope to get salvation by reciting the one mystic syllable Ōm; the Chaturāksharis believe in the religious efficacy of the four syllables Rā-mā-nu-jā; the Ashtāksharis hold that the recitation of the eight syllables Ōm-na-mō-nā-rā-ya-nā-ya (Om! salutation to Nārāyana) will ensure them eternal bliss; and the Kulasēkharas, who wear the sacred thread, claim to be the descendants of the Vaishnava saint Kulasēkhara Ālvār, formerly a king of the Kērala country. The first two sections make umbrellas, flower garlands, etc., and