Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/464

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kOONAPlLLI VANDLU
424

not fowls or beef, and drink liquor. Marriage is infant. Remarriage of widows and divorcées is permitted.

Koonapilli vāndlu. — Beggars attached to Padma Sālēs.

Koppala. — A section of Velamas, who tie the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head, and an exogamous sept of Mutrāchas, whose females do up their hair in a knot when they reach puberty.

Kōra (sun). — A sept of Gadaba, Mūka Dora, and Rōna.

Koracha. — See Korava.

Koraga. — The Koragas are summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as being a wild tribe of basket-makers and labourers, chiefly found in Mudbidri, and in Puttūr in the Uppinangadi tāluk of South Canara. They are, Mr. M. T. Walhouse writes,*[1] "a very quiet and inoffensive race; small and slight, the men seldom exceeding five feet six inches; black-skinned, like most Indian aborigines, thick-lipped, noses broad and flat, and hair rough and bushy. Their principal occupation is basket-making, and they must labour for their masters. They live on the outskirts of villages, and may not dwell in houses of clay or mud, but in huts of leaves, called koppus. Like many of the wild tribes of India, they are distinguished by unswerving truthfulness. The word of a Koragar is proverbial."

The Koragas rank below the Holeyas. In some towns, they are employed by the sanitary department as scavengers. They remove the hide, horns, and bones of cattle and buffaloes, which die in the villages, and sell them mainly to Māppilla merchants. They accept food, which is left over after feasts held by various castes.

  1. • Journ. Anthrop. Inst., IV., 1875.