VIZAGAPATAM.
husband has to pay a fine called ránd tonka or 'widow-money.' The right to divorce is mutual and is exercised on slight grounds. The husband generally makes the woman a small present first. She often forestalls him by running off to the man she fancies, who then has to pay the expenses of her original wedding and return her jewellery.
The dead are nearly always burnt, but among some castes the ashes are afterwards buried and the spot marked in some way. Children who have not cut their teeth, pregnant women, and people who have died of small-pox are usually buried. Pollution lasts for from three to ten days.
In referring to the various castes we may first take those which talk Uriya and then those which have languages of their own; and within each of these groups we may usually arrange them in the order of their numerical strength.
The Porojas (91,000), the most numerous of the Uriya-speaking castes, form an appropriately difficult beginning to this difficult subject. The name is a generic term (some say it means merely 'ryot') which is loosely applied to a series of castes which differ in appearance, customs and even language. Apparently there are seven kinds of Porojas; namely, (i) Bárang Jódia Porojas, who speak a dialect of Uriya and eat beef; (ii) Pengu Porojas, who comprise two groups one of which will eat buffalo and the other will not, but both speak a tongue of their own which is said[1] to be akin to Khond; (iii) Khondi Porojas, who eat beef, are a section of the Khonds and speak the Khond language; (iv) Parengi Porojas, who are a section of the Gadabas and speak their language; (v) Banda, Nanda or Langla Porojas (all of which words mean 'naked'), also called Banda Gadabas, who are again a section of the Gadabas and apparently speak a dialect of Gadaba; (vi) Tagara Porojas, who are a division of the Kóyas and talk Kóya; and (vii) Dúr Porojas, also called Didáyi Porojas, who speak Uriya.
Only the first and fifth of these are readily distinguishable. The Bárang Jódias, sometimes called merely Jódias, are prominent round Koraput and Jeypore, where their short cerise and white cloths and their left arms covered with a dozen or more brass bracelets render them very conspicuous.[2]
- ↑ Report on Madras census of 1891, para. 272.
- ↑ No sooner, however, has the enquirer congratulated himself on differentiating these people than he is pulled up short by the fact that round Náráyanapatnam are persons calling themselves Jódias who differ altogether in appearance (their characteristic ornament being a pile of necklets of coral and blue beads a foot deep) and say they have no connection with any Porojas.
