The Ethnology of India. 129 



dynasty) arc principally inhabited by races alien to the Canarese, 

 more akin to the Marattas in the extreme north, and akin to the 

 Malayala people in the south. About and under the Ghats, the 

 Marattas and Northern Bramins run farther south than they do on 

 the plains of the Deccan. 



On the other side of the Peninsula, the Carnatic, wholly Non- 

 Canarese, will always be called the Carnatic, because a dynasty seated 

 in the Canarese country once had authority there. 



The real Canarese country is, the southern part of the Bombay 

 Presidency, part of the adjoining Nizam's territory, part of Bellary, 

 and nearly the whole of Mysore. The Canarese can scarcely be said 

 to be Hindus, the Lingamite sect so much prevails, and those Linga- 

 mit2s so entirely ignore Bramins, and so completely make their Lingam 

 worship a separate faith. Most of the people are called ' Lingamites' 

 or ' Sibahtagars,' a name which conceals various castes and races; for 

 it is only a religious designation, and Lingamites are of many castes, 

 So far as I can gather, the chief people of the Canarese country 

 are the Banijagas who both trade and hold laud, and are very 

 numerous. 



In the north of this couutry the Reddies, whom I have already men- 

 tioned, are described as a tine handsome powerful race, capital culti- 

 vators, living together in large villages, and raising much cotton, which 

 with other produce they often export as well as grow. They pay their 

 revenue well, but are jealous of interference in their village concerns, 

 and somewhat litigious. This is an old account, and it seems very 

 like what might be said of Jats. I do not know what is the present 

 condition of these communities. The widows of the Reddies re- 

 marry. They are much superior to their southern Maratta neighbours 

 in an industrial and personal point of view. 



Farther south the chief castes of Hindu cultivators are l Wokuls' or 

 ■ Ooculagas,' said to be called by the Mahommedans ' Koonbees,' and 

 whom the Abbe Dubois considers to be in essentials the same as or 

 similar to the Tamul Vellallers, though they will not eat or marry 

 together. Whatever they may originally have been, they are evidently 

 now a different caste from both Koonbees and Vellallers. I have few 

 particulars regarding their character, but they seem to be on the 

 whole good cultivators. The headmen of Canarese villages are called 



