Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/277

Rh the Kurukal or the priestly class. And, in fact, every charity of the orthodox Hindu type finds generous support among them." It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that the gōpurams of the Madura temple "have been repaired of late years at great cost by the Nāttukōttai Chettis. The northern tower used to consist only of the brick and stone-work storeys, and was known in consequence as the mottai (literally bald) gōpuram. Recently, however, a courageous Chetti, who cared nothing for the superstition that it is most unlucky to complete a building left unfinished, placed the usual plaster top upon it."

In recent years, the temple at Chidambaram has been renovated by the Nāttukōttai Chettis, who "have formed for this and similar restorations a fund which is made up of a fee of four annas per cent, levied from their clients on all sums borrowed by the latter. The capital of this is invested, and the interest thereon devoted exclusively to such undertakings."* In 1906, the purificatory ceremony, or kumbabishēkam, of the Sri Pasupathiswara Swāmi temple at Karūr was performed with great pomp. The old temple had been thoroughly overhauled and repaired by the Nāttukōttai Chettis. The ceremony cost about fifty thousand rupees. Many thousands were fed, and presents of money made to a large number of Vaidiki Brāhmans. In the same year, at a public meeting held in Madras to concert measures for establishing a pinjrapole (hospital for animals), one of the resolutions was that early steps should be taken to collect public subscriptions from the Hindu community generally, and in