Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.8.3

c48.s1.8.3

The Kōmaṭi, for instance, wear the sacred thread and are divided into three territorial endogamous subdivisions, following the modern Brāhmanic, not the Vedic, ritual. Their exogamous groups, however, of which there are a great number, are not Brāhmanic but totemistic, derived from trees, plants or articles of food, the use of which is prohibited respectively to the group to which it belongs. Their marriage rules are those peculiar to the South and the ceremony is incomplete without the formal presentation of the friendly and symbolic betel-nut and leaf to a member of the impure leather-working caste, with whom the traders share a common tutelary deity. It is a good example of the growing refinement of modern times, that in order to mitigate the crudity of the above-mentioned act of social intimacy without breaking away from a possibly prophylactic tradition, it is now the habit for the bride's father to send a pair of shoes to be mended a few days before the wedding, and on the day of the ceremony to pay the cobbler with a betel-nut thrown in to the amount of the bill. The largest trading community of the Telugu country is the Balija, which is widely spread over the Tamil districts also, and there called Vaḍugan, or Northerners, or Kavarai, from the caste goddess. They have a great number of subdivisions, which are not, however, endogamous, as a rule, possibly owing to the practice of receiving into the caste refugees from outside who are in disgrace with their own kinsfolk.