Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/91

Rh The following account of the origin of the Moylars was given by Buchanan at the beginning of the nineteenth century.* "In the temples of Tuluva there prevails a very singular custom, which has given origin to a caste named Moylar. Any woman of the four pure castes — Brāhman, Kshatriya, Vaisya or Sudra — who is tired of her husband, or who (being a widow, and consequently incapable of marriage) is tired of a life of celibacy, goes to a temple, and eats some of the rice that is offered to the idol. She is then taken before the officers of Government, who assemble some people of her caste to inquire into the cause of her resolution; and, if she be of the Brāhman caste, to give her an option of living in the temple or out of its precincts. If she chooses the former, she gets a daily allowance of rice, and annually a piece of cloth. She must sweep the temple, fan the idol with a Tibet cow's tail and confine her amours to the Brāhmans. In fact she generally becomes a concubine to some officer of revenue who gives her a trifle in addition to her public allowance, and who will flog her severely if she grants favours to any other person. The male children of these women are called Moylar, but are fond of assuming the title of Stānika, and wear the Brāhmanical thread. As many of them as can procure employment live about the temples, sweep the areas, sprinkle them with an infusion of cow-dung, carry flambeaus before the gods, and perform other similar low offices."

The Moyilis are also called Dēvādigas, and should not be mixed with the Malerus (or Maleyavaru). Both do temple service, but the Maleru females are mostly prostitutes, whereas Moyili women are not. Malerus