OF BHARATAVARSA OR INDIA. 
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labourers in the country, were^ like our rustics, peasants or 
boors, while the inhabitants of a village or small town (palli, 
pa///, ])ri//e, &c.), assuming the same name as the place they 
inhabited, became gradually urbane and polite citizens.^" 
The Pallis generally worship in temples dedicated to 
Dlmrmanlja. In these temples are found the images of 
Yudhisthira (or Dharmaraja) and of his four brothers Bhima, 
Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva, of DraupadT, of Krsna, and 
occasionally of Potaraja (also Poturdja in Telugu and Potappn 
in Kanarese). The head of Travat, the son of Arjuna and 
Ulupi, who, according to popular tradition, was killed on 
the day preceding the battle as an oblation to the battle-field, 
and whose head looked on the fight for eighteen days, is 
often exhibited on a pole during the festival. The Maha- 
bharata fixes the death of Ira vat on the eighth day of the 
battle. A Palli is, as a rule, the pitjdri or priest of the 
shrine. The above-mentioned Potaraja is a rustic god 
revered especially in the Telugu, Kanarese, and Marathi 
districts, and his wives are known as Grahgamma, Polakamma 
or Poleramma (the goddess of small-pox), &c. 
At the great annual festival in honor of Dharmaraja, or 
the local god or goddess, people walk over burning coals, 
in order to testify their purity of mind. 
The worship of Dharmaraja is very popular ; it is, per- 
haps, the most widely spread in this country. Over 500 
Dharmaraja temples exist in South- Arcot alone. The 
village goddess is occasionally called Draupadi, and, even 
where she has a name of her own, she is often merely a sub- 
stitute for the wife of the Pandavas. The popularity which 
the latter enjoy among the lower classes of the inhabitants 
througrhout India is very significant, inasmuch as it is in 
opposition to Rama, the favorite hei'o and divine represent- 
Compare the meaning of ndgam and ndgaralca, citizen, polite, clever, 
from town, in Sanskrit; with TroA-irittrfs from ttoAi'j in Greek ; and 
urban lis from iirbs in Latin. 
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