Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/289

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
253
KARNATAKA

special hut erected for the occasion. On the third or fifth day, the girl's relations come to her house under a cloth canopy (ulladam), carrying rice soaked in jaggery (crude sugar) water. This rice is called dhadibiyam (wet rice), and is placed in a heap, and, after the waving of coloured water, distributed, with pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts), among those present.

The dead are carried to the burial-ground in a car, and buried, after the manner of Lingāyats, in a sitting posture. Jangams officiate at funerals.

The caste deity is Somēsvara. Some Karna Sālēs wear the lingam, but are not particular about keeping it on their person, leaving it in the house, and wearing it when at meals, and on important occasions. Concerning the Lingāyat section of the community, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, as follows.*[1] "The Lingāyats resemble the Linga Balijas in all their customs, in all respects, except that they recognise sūtakam, or pollution, and bathe to remove it. They freely eat in the houses of all Linga Balijas, but the latter will not eat with them. They entirely disregard the spiritual authority of the Brāhmans, recognising priests among the Linga Balijas, Jangams, or Pandārams. In the exercise of their trade, they are distinguished from the Kaikōlans in that they sometimes weave in silk, which the Kaikōlans never do." Like the Padma Sālēs, the Karna Sālēs usually only weave coarse cotton cloths.

Karnam.— See Korono.

Karnam (accountant). — An exogamous sept of Kamma.

Karnataka.— The territorial name of a sub-division of Handichikka and Uppāra. It is also the name of a

  1. * Manual of the North Arcot district.