Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/365

Rh party recognised by the initials as one of his bed-sheets. Another identified as his sheet the cloth on which the corpse was lying. He cut off the corner with the initials, and a few days later the sheet was returned by the washerman, who pretended ignorance of the mutilation, and gave as an explanation that it must have been done, in his absence, by one of his assistants. On another occasion, a European met an Eurasian, in a village not far from his bungalow, wearing a suit of clothes exactly similar to his own, and, on close examination, found they were his. They had been newly washed and dressed. The most important divisions numerically returned by Vannāns at times of census are Pāndiyan, Peru (big), Tamil, and Vaduga (notherner). It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that Vannān "is rather an occupational term than a caste title, and, besides the Pāndya Vannāns or Vannāns proper, includes the Vaduga Vannāns or Tsākalas of the Telugu country, and the Palla, Pudara, and Tulukka Vannāns, who wash for the Pallans, Paraiyans, and Musalmans respectively. The Pāndya Vannāns have a headman called the Periya Manishan (big man). A man can claim the hand of his paternal aunt's daughter. At weddings, the bridegroom's sister ties the tāli (marriage badge). Nambis officiate. Divorce is freely allowed to either party on payment of twice the bride-price, and divorcees may marry again. The caste god is Gurunāthan, in whose temples the pūjāri (priest) is usually a Vannān. The dead are generally burnt, and, on the sixteenth day, the house is purified from pollution by a Nambi."

Some Vannāns have assumed the name Irkuli Vellāla, and Rājakan and Kāttavarāya vamsam have also been recorded as synonyms of the caste name.