Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/370

BODA DASARI Bōda Dāsari (bald-headed mendicant). — An exogamous sept of Jōgi.  Boddu (navel). — An exogamous sept, or sub-division of Idigas and Asilis. 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. Once a year, in May, just before the sowing season begins, a ceremony takes place in connection with it." (See Bāriki.)  Bodo (big). — A sub-division of Bottada, Māli, Omanaito, Pentia, and other castes. Bodo Nāyak is a title among the Gadabas, and Bodo Odiya occurs as a sub-division of Sondi.  Bōgam.— See Dēvā-dāsi and [[Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Sāni|Sāni.  Bōgāra.— Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as "Canarese brass and copper-smiths: a sub-division of Pānchāla." From a note on the Jains of the Bellary district * I gather that "there is a class of people called Bōgāras in the Harpanahalli tāluk, and in the town of Harpanahalli itself, side by side with the Jains. They are a thriving class, and trade in brass and copper wares. The Bōgāras practice the Jaina religion, have the same gōtras, freely worship in Jain temples, and are accepted into Jaina society. Evidently they are a sub-division of the Jains, though now excluded from inter-marriage." It is said that "arrangements are now being made (through the Jaina Bhattachārya at Kolhapūr) to enable Bōgāras to intermarry with the Jains." 