Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/41

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KOTI

Woman—Glass necklet ornamented with cowry shells, and charm pendant from it, consisting of a fragment of the root of some tree rolled up in a ball of cloth. She put it on when her baby was quite young, to protect it against devils. The baby had a similar charm round its neck.

In the course of his investigation of the Todas, Dr. Rivers found that of 320 males 41 or 8 per cent, and of 183 females only two or 1.1 per cent, were typical examples of red-green colour-blindness. The percentage in the males is quite remarkable. The result of examination of Badaga and Kota males by myself with Holmgren's wools was that red-green colour-blindness was found to be present in 6 out of 246 Badagas, or 2.5 per cent, and there was no suspicion of such colour-blindness in 121 Kotas.

Kōta (a fort).—A sub-division of Balija, and an exogamous sept of Padma Sālē. The equivalent Kōtala occurs as an exogamous sept of Bōya. There are, in Mysore, a few Kōtas, who are said to be immigrants from South Canara, and to be confined to the Kadūr district. According to a current legend, they were originally of the Kōta community, but their ancestors committed perjury in a land-case, and were cursed to lose their rank as Brāhmans for seven hundred years.*[1] Kōta is also the name of a section of Brāhmans.

Kotāri.— A class of domestic servants in South Canara, who claim to be an independent caste, though some regard them as a sub-caste of Bant.†[2]

Kōtēgara or Kōtēyava.—See Sērvēgāra.

Koti (monkey).—The name for Koravas, who travel about the country exhibiting monkeys.

  1. * Mysore Census Report, 1891.
  2. † Madras Census Report, 1901.