Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/284

BARANG JHODIA cloth, and a Kēlasi (barber) sprinkles water over them. In this manner, they are freed from pollution. The most common title among the Bants is Chetti or Setti, but many others occur, e.g., Heggade, Nāyaka, Bangēra, Rai, Ballālaru, etc.  Bārang Jhodia.— A sub-division of Poroja.  Bardēshkar (people of twelve countries). — Some families among Konkani Brāhmans go by this name.  Bāriki.— Bāriki is the name for village watchmen in Southern Ganjam, whose duty it further is to guide the traveller on the march from place to place. In the Bellary Manual, Bārika is given as the name for Canarese Kabbēras, who are village servants, who keep the village chāvadi (caste meeting-house) clean, look after the wants of officials halting in the village, and perform various other duties. In the Census Report, 1901, the Bārikas are said to be usually Bōyas. The Bārika of Mysore is defined by Mr. L. Rice as # "a menial among the village servants; a deputy talāri, who is employed to watch the crops from the growing crop to the granary."

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Bellary district, that "in the middle of the threshold of nearly all the gateways of the ruined fortifications round the Bellary villages will be noticed a roughly cylindrical or conical stone, something like a lingam. This is the boddu-rāyi, literally the navel stone, and so the middle stone. It was planted there when the fort was built, and is affectionately regarded as being the boundary of the village site. Once a year, in May, just before the sowing season begins, a ceremony takes place in connection with it. Reverence is first made to the bullocks 