421 
MYSORE, CANARY, AND MALABAR, 
women, and other heinous offenders, and reprimanding those who CHAPTER 
1 . VI. 
have been guilty of less enormous faults. By religion they are 
divided into three classes, those who worship Jama , those who wor- Au S- 1 
ship Siva, and those who worship Vishnu under the form of Vencaty 
Ramana; hut this does not prevent intermarriages, and the woman 
always adopts the religion of her husband. They are also divided 
into a number of families analagous to the Gotrams of the Brahmans ; 
and a man never intermarries with a woman of the same family. 
They have among them a bastard race, descended from widows, who 
have become the kind of concubines called Cutigas ; but they are 
not numerous, and are held in great contempt by the others. The 
Gauda whom I have so often mentioned is the person that gives me 
the information concerning the cast. He is a worshipper of Ven- 
caty Ramana , and denies any belief in a future state ; his worship 
of the gods being performed with a view of obtaining temporal 
blessings. This sect take the vow of Daseri, and bury the dead. 
They can write accompts, but have no books nor science. They eat 
no animal food, and ought not to drink spirituous liquors. They 
are allowed as many wives as they can obtain ; but do not divorce 
them for any cause except adultery. Girls continue to be mar- 
riageable even after the age of puberty ; and widows are not ex- 
pected to bury themselves with their husbands bodies ; but their 
becoming concubines of the kind called Cutigas is considered as 
very disgraceful to all their connections. Their Guru is Tata Acha- 
rya, an hereditary chief of the Sri Vaishnavam Brahmans. He bestows 
on his followers holy- water and consecrated victuals, and accepts 
their charity. The Panchdnga, or village astrologer, is their Puro- 
hita , and attends at marriages, births, the building of a new house, 
and at Mala-paksha, the ceremony which the Sudras annually per- 
form in commemoration of their deceased parents. The Sadru who 
worship Siva are but few in number, and wear the Linga. The third 
sect of Sadru worship only the god Jaina, but do not intermarry 
with the true Jainaru , These burn the dead. The Gauda says, that 
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