Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/364

VANNAN called Vīrabadran. Having to purify all the filthy linen of the villagers, they are naturally regarded as a low, unclean class of Sūdras, and are always poor. They add to their income by hiring out the clothes of their customers to funeral parties, who lay them on the ground before the pall-bearers, so that these may not step upon the ground, and by letting them out on the sly to persons wishing to use them without having to purchase for themselves. In social standing the Vannāns are placed next below the barbers. They profess to be Saivites in the southern districts, and Vaishnavites in the north. The marriage of girls generally takes place after puberty. Widow remarriage is permitted among some, if not all, sub-divisions. Divorce may be obtained by either party at pleasure on payment of double the bride-price, which is usually Rs. 10-8-0. They are flesh-eaters, and drink liquor. The dead are either burned or buried. The Pothara (or Podora) Vannāns are of inferior status, because they wash only for Paraiyans, Pallans, and other inferior castes." It is noted, in the Madura Manual, that those who have seen the abominable substances, which it is the lot of the Vannāns to make clean, cannot feel any surprise at the contempt with which their occupation is regarded. In the Tanjore Manual, it is recorded that, in the rural parts of the district, the Vannāns are not allowed to enter the house of a Brāhman or a Vellāla; clothes washed by them not being worn or mixed up with other clothes in the house until they have undergone another wash by a caste man.

It is on record that, on one occasion, a party of Europeans, when out shooting, met a funeral procession on its way to the burial-ground. The bier was draped in many folds of clean cloth, which one of the