Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/68

MEDA The lowest castes with which the Mēdaras will eat are, they say, Kōmatis and Velamas. Some say that they will eat with Sātānis. In the Coorg country, the Mēdaras are said to subsist by umbrella-making. They are the drummers at Coorg festivals, and it is their privilege to receive annually at harvest-time from each Coorg house of their district as much reaped paddy as they can bind up with a rope twelve cubits in length. They dress like the Coorgs, but in poorer style.*

It is recorded by Bishop Whitehead † that, "in Mercāra tāluk, in Ippanivolavade, and in Kadikeri in Halerinad, the villagers sacrifice a kōna or male buffalo. Tied to a tree in a gloomy grove near the temple, the beast is killed by a Mēda, who cuts off its head with a large knife, but no Coorgs are present at the time. The blood is spilled on a stone under a tree, and the flesh eaten by Mēdas."

At the Census, 1901, Gauriga was returned as a sub-caste by some Mēdaras. The better classes are taking to call themselves Balijas, and affix the title Chetti to their names. The Godagula workers in split bamboo sometimes call themselves Oddē (Oriya) Mēdara.‡  Mēda (raised mound). — An exogamous sept of Padma Sālē.  Medam (fight). — An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.  Mehtar.— A few Mehtars are returned, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a Central Provinces caste of scavengers. " This name," Yule and Burnell write, § " is usual in Bengal, especially for the domestic 