Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/43

Rh Tiperum (tī, fire). — A sub-division of Kollan blacksmiths.  Tiragati Gantlavallu (wandering bell hunters) — Stated, in the Manual of the Vizagapatam district, to repair hand-mills, catch antelopes, and sell the skins thereof. In hunting, they use lights and bells.  Tirlasetti (the name of a Balija Chetti).— An exogamous sept of Yānādi.  Tirumalpād.— Tirumalpād has been summed up as "one of the four divisions of Kshatriyas in Travancore. The term, in its literal sense, conveys the idea of those who wait before kings. In mediæval times the Tirumalpāds were commanders of armies." By Mr. Wigram Tirumalpād is defined as a member of a Royal Family. In the Madras Census Report, 1891, it is stated that "there are two Tirumalpāds, one a Sāmanta, and the other a so-called Kshatriya. The former observes customs and manners exactly similar to Erādis and Nedungādis. In fact, these are all more or less interchangeable terms, members of the same family calling themselves indifferently Erādi or Tirumalpād. The Kshatriya Tirumalpād wears the sacred thread, and the rites he performs are similar to those of Brāhmans, whose dress he has also adopted. He has, however, like Nāyars, tāli-kettu and sambandham separately. His females take Nambūdiri consorts by preference, but may have husbands of their own caste. Their inheritance is in the female line, as among Nāyars and Sāmantas. Generally the females of this caste furnish wives to Nambūdiris. The touch of these females does not pollute a Nambūdiri as does that of Nāyars and Sāmantas, and, what is more, Nambūdiris 