are instances of barbers, weavers, fishermen, and even Kōmatis being admitted into the Yānādi fold.
The headman, who goes by the name of Kulampedda or Pedda Yānādi, exercises general social control over a group, known as a guddem, ordinarily of about twenty huts. He decides social questions, sometimes on his own responsibility, by excommunicating or fining; sometimes acting on the advice of a council of his castemen. Until quite recently, the tribe remained under the guidance of a hereditary leader of Srīharikota, who wielded immense power. The Paraiyans have risen superior to the Yānādis as a community, supplying among themselves their own artisans, weavers, carpenters, barbers, priests, teachers, etc., while the Yānādis are only just beginning to move in this direction.
The language of the Yānādis is Telugu, but some words are compounds of Telugu and Tamil, e.g., artichedi for plantain, pandikutti for pig.
The Yānādis know the forest flora well, and the uses of the various trees and shrubs, which yield good firewood, etc. They call the roller (Coracias indica) the milk bird, in the belief that, when a cow goes dry, she will yield milk if a feather of the roller is put in the grass for her to swallow. The crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis) is to them the prickly-pear crow; florikin the ground peacock; the fan-tail snipe the pond snipe; and the pin-tail the rice field snipe.
At the census, 1891, 84,339 Yānādis were returned as Hindus, and 549 as animists. Their places of worship are not temples, but houses, called dēvara indlu (houses of the gods), set apart for every centre. They worship a household god, a village goddess of local importance, and a deity of wider repute and influence. Chenchu Dēvudu is invariably the household god. Poleramma or Ankamma
