Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/406

SEMBADAVAN and fishers. They have little opportunity of exercising the former profession, but during heavy freshes in big rivers they ferry people from bank to bank in round leather-covered basket coracles, which they push along, swimming or wading by the side, or assist the timid to ford by holding their hands. At such times they make considerable hauls. During the rest of the year they subsist by fishing in the tanks."

"The Sembadavans of the South Arcot district," Mr. Francis writes,* "are fresh-water fishermen and boatmen. Both their occupations being of a restricted character, they have now in some cases taken to agriculture, weaving, and the hawking of salted sea-fish, but almost all of them are poor. They make their own nets, and, when they have to walk any distance for any purpose, they often spin the thread as they go along. Their domestic priests are Panchāngi Brāhmans, and these tie the tāli at weddings, and perform the purificatory ceremonies on the sixteenth day after deaths."

The Sembadavans consider themselves to be superior to Pattanavans, who are sea-fishermen. They usually take the title Nāttan, Kavandan, Maniyakkāran, Paguththar, or Pillai, Some have assumed the title Guha Vellāla, to connect themselves with Guha, who rowed the boat of Rāma to Ceylon. At the census, 1901, Savalakkāran (q.v.) was returned as a sub-caste. Savalalai or saval thadi is the flattened paddle for rowing boats. A large number call themselves Pūjāri,(priest), and wear the lingam enclosed in a silver casket or pink cloth, and the sacred thread. It is the pūjāri who officiates at the temple services to village deities. At Malayanūr, in the South Arcot district, all