The Perike marriage ceremonies are peculiar. On the day of the wedding the bride and groom are made to fast, as are three male relatives whom they call suribhaktas. At the marriage the couple sit on a gunny-bag, and another gunny, on which a representation of the god Mailar is drawn or painted, is spread before them. A figure of the same god is drawn on two pots, and these, and also a third pot, are filled with rice and dholl which are then cooked by two married women of the party. The food is then offered to Mailar. Next the three suribhaktas take 101 cotton threads, fasten them together, and tie seven knots in them. Bride and bridegroom are then given cloths which have been partly immersed in water coloured with saffron and chunam, and they and the suribhaktas are fed with the rice and dholl cooked in the three pots. The couple are then taken round the village in procession, and on their return the knotted cotton threads are tied round the bride's neck instead of a táli.
The Idigas or Indras are very numerous in Gódávari. They are the Telugu toddy-drawing caste. They are commonly called Chettis (Chettigándlu) in this district, but the name Índra is used in the north-east divisions and Ídiga in the central delta. They claim to be descended from Vyása, the traditional compiler of the Mahábhárata. They are still largely employed in toddy-drawing (though some are cultivators) and consequently occupy a low position in the social scale. In some districts, it is said, they bury their dead, prohibit the consumption of alcohol and have endogamous subdivisions, but these things are not so in this district. Some are Saivites and some Vaishnavites, but these are allowed to intermarry.
Two of their marriage ceremonies are peculiar. The couple walk three times round four upright sticks placed so as to make a small square and connected with each other by cotton threads, and then the bridegroom cuts the cotton with a knife. They also make two cakes of rice flour, ghee and sugar, one of which is eaten by themselves and the other by their relatives.
The Ídigas' special god is Káttumai, to whom they annually sacrifice fowls on New Year's Day, and daily offer a few drops of toddy from the first pot taken from the tree.
The Gamallas are ordinarily supposed to be Ídigas who have bettered themselves and separated from that caste. The more wealthy of them are toddy and arrack shop-keepers, but the poorer members of the caste draw toddy like the Ídigas. Both classes worship the Ídiga deity Káttumai. They support a begging caste called Yenútis or Gavuda Jettis.
