82 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
and supplied her daily with fodder. The great Vaisnava 
reformer, Bhagavat Ramanujacarya, had at the same time 
been dreaming of this Celvapillai image, and the Pariah 
showed it to him. As a reward for this act of piety, Rama- 
nujacarya allowed the Pariahs to enter the temple in future 
for three days of the year. Others say that this favor was 
granted heoause the Pariahs had protected him in their 
paraiceri, when he was pursued. Very likely, the privilege 
is of older origin. A similar custom prevails in Kadiri.^^ 
It is most peculiar that the origin of the famous Jagan- 
natha temple is also closely connected with the low-caste 
Pariahs. A ^avara mountaineer, called Bam, worshipped in 
secret the blue stone image of Jagannatha, to obtain which 
the powerful king of Malva, Indradyumna, had despatched 
Brahmans to all quarters of the world. One of them pene- 
trated at last into the wilderness where Basu lived. Basu 
detained the Brahman, made him marry his daughter, and 
led him after some time blindfolded to the place where the 
image of Jagannatha was Ij'ing concealed. The Brahman 
Compare "Archaeological Notes," ty M. J. Walhouse in the Indmn 
Antiquary, vol. Ill, 1874, p. 191 : " It is well kno-wTi that the servile castes 
in Southern India once held far higher positions, and were indeed masters of 
the land on the arrival of the Brahmanic-al caste. Many curious vestiges of 
their ancient power still survive in the shape of certain privileges, which 
are jealously cherished, and, their origin heing forgotten, are much mis- 
understood. These privileges are remarkable instances of sm-vivals from an 
extinct order of societj' — shadows of long-departed supremacy, bearing wit- 
ness to a period when the present haughty high-caste races were suppliants 
before the ancestors of degraded classes whose touch is now reg;irded as pollu- 
tion. At Melkotta, the chief seat of the followers of Eiimanuja Acharya, 
and at the Brahman temple at Bailur, the Holeyars or Pareyars have the 
right of entering the temple on three days in the year, specially set apart for 
them. At the ' bull-games " at Dindigal, in the Madura district, which have 
some resemblance to Spanish bull-fights, and are very solemn celebrations, 
the Kallar, or robber caste, can alone officiate as priests and consult the pre- 
siding deitj'. On this occasion they hold quite a Saturnalia of lordship and 
arrog'ance over the Brahmans. In the gi'cat festival of Siva at Ti-ivalur, in 
Tan j ore the head-man of the Pareyars is mounted on the elephant -with the 
god, and carries his chauri. In Jladras, at the annual festi^-al of the god- 
dess of the Black Town, when a tdit is tied roiuid the neck of the idol in the 
