Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/27

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THANDA PULAYAN

Thādla.— Thādla or Thālla, meaning rope, is an exogamous sept of Dēvānga and Karna Sālē.

Thākur.— About a hundred members of this caste are returned, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as belonging to a Bombay caste of genealogists and cultivators. It is recorded, in the Bombay Gazetteer, that "inferior in rank to Marāthas, the Thākurs are idle and of unclean habits. Though some of them till and twist woollen threads for blankets, they live chiefly by begging and ballad singing. At times they perform plays representing events mentioned in the Purāns and Rāmayan, and showing wooden puppets moved by strings."

Thalakōkala (female cloths). — An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.

Thālam (palmyra palm). — An exogamous sept or illam of Kānikar.

Thāmballa (sword bean : Canavalia ensiformis).— An exogamous sept of Tsākalas, members of which will not eat the bean.

Thambūri.— A class of people in Mysore, who are Muhammadans, dress like Lambādis, but do not intermarry wtih them. {See Lambādi.)

Thanda Pulayan.— For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Ananthakrishna Aiyar.[1] The Thanda Pulayans constitute a small division of the Pulayans, who dwell in South Malabar and Cochin. The name is given to them because of the garment worn by the females, made of the leaves of a sedge, called thanda (apparently Scirpus articulatus), which are cut into lengths, woven at one end, and tied round the waist so that they hang down below the knees. The

  1. Monograph Eth. Survey, Cochin No. I, 1905.