Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.15

c48.s2.15

In the Dravidian country, the castes are remarkably well demarcated by the linguistic divisions, and whilst there are considerable colonies of the northerners in the Tamil country, the reverse movement appears to have been very trifling. In the Karnatic tableland, the cultivating castes are found under a few general headings, such as Vakkaliga and Liṅgāyat, the former in Mysore, the others further north and east. Under the Liṅgāyat or Liṅgvant, system, caste is supposed to be merged in the general title, and though this rule was followed to a great extent at the Census, in practice, caste is recognised almost as fully as amongst the orthodox Brāhmanists. The community, as a whole, falls under three heads; the original converts of Basava, with a few later additions; the functional group, and, lastly, the impure castes of village menials. Each section has an amazing number of subdivisions, since nearly every one of the local Brāhmanic castes has its Liṅgvant subdivision, endogamous and distinct. The general tendency in the present day is to assimilate the Brāhmanic organisation under the Jaṅgam, though occasionally the upper classes introduce Brāhmans as priests. There has been a movement, indeed, to get the whole community recorded as Vīrs'aiv, subdivided into the mythical four Varṇa of the Puruṣa-Sūkta. Irrespective of the latter refinement, the first suggestion refers to a time anterior to the founder of the sect, and in supersession of the usage of centuries. There are a few Liṅgāyats in the Telugu districts, but the movement on the whole is almost exclusively Kanarese in its extent. The Vakkaliga of Mysore correspond to the Kaṇbī of Gujarāt in being subdivided under a general name meaning simply cultivators. Each of the subdivisions is really a separate endogamous caste. The principal ones are the Gaṅgaḍikāra, the Noṇaba and the Sāda, the second of which is mostly Liṅgāyat, and the third, Jain. There are other sections either functional, like Hālu, the cowherds, or geographical, denoting immigration. Most of them have totemistic exogamous subsections. The Pañcama and Caturtha Jains and the Liṅgāyats mostly employ their own priests, but the rest are orthodox in their relations with the Brāhman. On the coast of Kanara the land is held to a great extent by Havīka or Haiga Brāhmans, who cultivate the bitel-palm largely through predial low castes. There are also many cultivators belonging to the fishing and toddy-drawing classes. The chief caste that can be termed specially agricultural, is the Baṇṭa, or warrior, formerly the rank and file of the militia of the Tulu Chiefs. They have a Jain subdivision which keeps to itself. The rest observe some of the Nāyar or Malabar customs as to inheritance, and have marriage rules of their own, which have the effect, it is said, of making the tie "as loose as it can be". Their neighbours, the Gauḍa, are probably settlers from above the Ghāṭs, where that term is honorifically used of the headmen of a village. Further east, in south Orissa, the caste bearing the same name 'derives it, apparently correctly, from the Sanskrit for cow, as they are of a pastoral character, with traditions of immigration from the north.