Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/347

Rh are also priests to Balijas and other Sūdra castes of the Vaishnava sects, while the members of the other two have taken to temple service. In their social and religious customs, all the sub-divisions closely imitate the Tengalai Vaishnava Brāhmans. The marriage of girls after puberty, and the remarriage of widows, are strictly prohibited. Most of them employ Brāhman purōhits, but latterly they have taken to getting priests from their own caste. They attach no importance to the Sanskrit Vēdas, or to the ritual sanctioned therein, but revere the sacred hymns of the twelve Vaishnava saints or Ālvārs, called Nālāyira Prabandham (book of the four thousand songs), which is in Tamil. From this their purōhits recite verses during marriages and other ceremonies." At the census, 1901, Rāmānuja was returned as a sub-caste of Sātāni. In the Manual of the North Arcot district, Mr. H. A. Stuart describes the Sātānis as "a mixed religious sect, recruited from time to time from other castes, excepting Paraiyans, leather-workers, and Muhammadans. All the Sātānis are Vaishnavites, but principally revere Bāshyakār (another name for Rāmānuja), whom they assert to have been an incarnation of Vishnu. The Sātānis are almost entirely confined to the large towns. Their legitimate occupations are performing menial services in Vishnu temples, begging, tending flower gardens, selling flower garlands, making fans, grinding sandalwood into powder, and selling perfumes. They are the priests of some Sūdra castes, and in this character correspond to the Saivite Pandārams."

In the Census Report, 1871, the Sātānis are described as being "frequently religious mendicants, priests of inferior temples, minstrels, sellers of flowers used as offerings, etc., and have probably recruited their numbers