Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/279

Rh well-to-do people of the caste employ Brāhmans as priests, but others content themselves with their own elders. Widows and divorced women may marry again. The dead are either burned or buried. The richer members of the caste perform srāddha (memorial service for the dead). They drink alcohol, and eat fowls,mutton, pork, fish, rats, etc. In social position they come below the Idaiyans, Tottiyans, and Kallans. Their title is Kavandan."

For the following note on the Urālis of the Trichinopoly district, I am indebted to Mr. F. R. Hemingway. "They say that they were originally Kshatriyas living in 'Alipuram near Oudh,' and left that place in search of adventure, or in consequence of disputes at home, leaving their wives behind them, and finally settled in the south, where they married serving women (pulukkachis). They say that they belong to the Mutturāja Kuttam, a phrase they cannot explain, and protest that the Ambalakkārans, who make a similar claim, have no ground for so doing. They seem to eat with no other caste on equal terms, but will, of course, accept separate meals from Vellālans. They are split into seven nādus, which are in effect endogamous sub-divisions. These are called after villages in the country inhabited by the caste, namely, Vadasēri, Pillūru, Sēngudi, Kadavangudi or Virāli, Talakka, Paluvinji or Magali, and Marungi. The members of the first three of these nādus are called Vadasēri Urālis, and those of the other four Nāttu-sīmai Urālis, Kunduva-nāttu-tokkādus, or Nandutindis. All of them will mess together. They say that the nādus were originally intended to facilitate the decision of caste disputes, and they are still the unit of self-government. Each nādu has a headman, who exercises supreme control over the villages included