Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/146

ARYA As it is being lowered into the grave, the Mollana recites formulae, and those present throw earth over it before the grave is filled in. They then take their departure,and the Mollana, standing on one leg, recites further formulae. On the following day, bitter food, consisting of rice and margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, is prepared, and given to the agnates. On the third day after death, the burial-ground is visited, and, after water has been poured over the grave, a cloth is spread thereon. On this relations of the deceased throw earth and food.A purificatory ceremony, in which ghi (clarified butter)is touched, is performed on the fifteenth day. On the fortieth day, the Mollana officiates at a ceremony in which food is offered to the dead person.

The Aruvas do not take part in any Muhammadan ceremonial, and do not worship in mosques. Most of them are Paramarthos, and all worship various Hindu deities and Tākurānis (village gods). At their houses, the god is represented by a mass of mud of conical shape, with an areca nut on the top of it. In recent times, a number of Aruva families, owing to a dispute with the Mollana, do not employ him for their ceremonials, in which they follow the standard Oriya type. They neither interdine nor intermarry with other sections of the community, and have become an independent section thereof.  Ārya.—Ārya or Āriya (noble) occurs as a class of Pattar Brahmans, a division of Sāmagāras, and an exogamous sept of Kurubas. Some Pattanavans call themselves Āriya Nāttu Chetti (Chettis of the country of chiefs) Āriyar, or Ayyāyirath Thalaivar (the five thousand chiefs).  Āsādi.—The Āsādis of the Bellary district are summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as "a 