Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/222

TOTTIYAN their innocence by undergoing ordeals. These are now harmless enough, such as attempting to cook rice in a pot which has not been fired, but Turnbull says that he saw the boiling oil ordeal in 1813 in Pudukkōttai territory. Perhaps the most serious caste offence is adultery with a man of another community. Turnbull says that women convicted of this used to be sentenced to be killed by Chakkiliyans, but nowadays rigid excommunication is the penalty."

The Kambalam caste is so called because, at caste council meetings, a kambli (blanket) is spread, on which is placed a kalasam (brass vessel) filled with water, and containing margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, and decorated with flowers. Its mouth is closed by mango leaves and a cocoanut.

A correspondent writes to me that "the Zamindars in the western parts of Madura, and parts of Tinnevelly, are known as Kambala Palayapat. If a man belongs to a Zamindar's family, he is said to be of the Rāja Kambala caste. The marriage ceremony is carried out in two temporary huts erected outside the village, one for the bridegroom, the other for the bride. The tāli is tied round the bride's neck by an elderly female or male belonging to the family. If the marriage is contracted with a woman of an inferior class, the bridegroom's hut is not made use of, and he does not personally take part in the ceremony. A dagger (kattar), or rude sword, is sent to represent him, and the tāli is tied in the presence thereof." In a zamindari suit, details of which are published in the Madras Law Reports, Vol. XVII, 1894, the Judge found that the plaintiffs mother was married to the plaintiff's father in the dagger form; that a dagger is used by the Saptūr Zamindars, who are called Kattari