Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/446

SILPA corpse, and buried with it. Six small copper plates are made, each containing a syllable of the invocation Ōm na ma Si va ya. Two of these are placed on the thighs of the corpse, one on the head, one on the navel, and two on the shoulders, and stuck on with guggilam paste. The corpse is then tied up in a sack. The relatives offer flowers to it, and burn camphor before it. The grave is dug several feet deep, and a cavity or cell is made on the southern side of it, and lined with bamboo matting. The corpse is placed within the cell, and salt thrown into the grave before it is filled in. A Jangam officiates at the funeral. Monthly and annual death ceremonies are performed. A samāthi or monument is erected over the grave. Such a monument may be either in the form of a square mound (brindavan) with niches for lights and a hole in the top, in which a tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) is planted, or in the form of a small chamber. Relations go occasionally to the grave, whereon they deposit flowers, and place lights in the niches or chamber.

The Sīlavantalu are strict vegetarians and total abstainers. Their titles are Ayya and Lingam.  Silpa (artisan). — A sub-division of the Kammālans, Panchālas or Kamsalas, whose hereditary occupation is that of stone-masons. In the Silpa Sāstra, the measurements necessary in sculpture, the duties of a Silpi, etc., are laid down. I am informed that the carver of a stone idol has to select a male or female stone, according as the idol is to be a god or goddess, and that the sex of a stone can be determined by its ring when struck.  '''Sindhu. —''' The Sindhuvāllu (drummers) are Mādigas, who go about acting scenes from the Ramāyana or Mahābhāratha, and the story of Ankamma. Sindhu also occurs as a gōtra of Kurni. The beating of the drum called sindhu is, I gather, sometimes a nuisance, for a 