Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/269

Rh knot converted into a wick, which is fed with ghī (clarified butter). The news of a death in the community is conveyed by the barber. Before the removal of the corpse, all close relations, and at least one pair of Nangudis from every village, must come to the house. Absence on this occasion is considered as a very grave insult. On the second day after death, an Amarantus, called arakkirai, must be cooked.

A special feature in connection with inheritance is that a man should give his daughters some property, and every daughter must be given a house. The husbands have to live in their wives' houses. The property which a woman receives from her father becomes eventually the property of her daughters, and her sons have no claim to it. Sons inherit the property of the father in the usual manner.

Like the Kondaikatti Vellālas, the Nangudis claim that they had the right of placing the crown on the head of the Pāndyan kings. In the village of Korkai, there is a tank (pond) called Kannimar Jonai, because celestial maidens used to bathe there. When one Agni Mahā Rishi was doing penance, three of the celestial maidens are said to have come to bathe. The Rishi fell in love with them, and eventually three sons were born. These children were brought up by the Vellālas of Korkai at the request of the Rishi, who represented that they were likely to become kings. According to the legend, they became Chēra, Chōla, and Pāndya kings.  Nannūru (four hundred). — An exogamous sept of Mādiga.  Nantunikkuruppu.— Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Vātti, a sub-division of Nāyar. 