The affairs of the community are regulated by a council of elders. In every village, or for every group of houses, there is an hereditary Gurukāra or headman of the barbers, who is assisted by four Moktesars. If any of these five authorities receives a complaint, he gives notice to the others, and a meeting is arranged to take place in some house. When there is a difference of opinion, the opinion of the majority decides the issue. When a decision cannot be arrived at, the question is referred to the council of another village. If this does not settle the point at issue, the final appeal lies to the Swāmi of the the Udipi temple. The council inquires into alleged offences against caste, and punishes them. It declares what marriages are valid, and what not. It not only preserves discipline within the community itself, but takes notice of external affairs affecting the well-being of the community. Thus, if the pipers refuse to make music at their marriage processions, the council resolves that no barber shall shave a piper. Disputes concerning civil rights were once submitted to these councils, but, as their decisions are not now binding, aggrieved parties seek justice from courts of law.
Punishments consist of compensation for minor offences affecting individuals, and of fine or excommunication if the offence affects the whole community. If the accused does not attend the trial, he may be excommunicated for contempt of authority. If the person seeks re-admission into the caste, he has to pay a fine, which goes to the treasury of the temple at Udipi. The presiding Swāmi at the shrine accepts the fine, and issues a writ authorising the re-admission of the penitent offender. The headman collects the fine to be forwarded to the Swāmi, and, if he is guilty of any mal-practice, the whole community, generally called the ten, may take cognisance of the offence. Offences against marriage relations, shaving low caste people, and such like, are all visited with fine, which is remitted to the Swāmi, from whom purification is obtained. The power of the village councils, however, has greatly declined in recent years, as the class of cases in which their decision can be enforced is practically very small.
The Tulu barbers, like many other castes on the western coast, follow the aliya santāna system of inheritance (in the female line). The tradition in South Canara is that this, and a number of other customs, were imposed upon certain castes by Bhūtāla Pāndya. The story relates that Dēva Pāndya, a merchant of the Pāndya kingdom, once had some new ships built, but before they put to sea, the demon Kundodara demanded a human sacrifice. The merchant asked his wife to spare one of her seven sons for the purpose, but she refused to be a party to the sacrifice, and went away with her sons to her father’s house. The merchant’s sister thereupon offered her son. Kundodara, however, was so very pleased with the appearance of this son that he spared his life, and made him a king, whose sway extended over Tuluva. This king was called Bhūtāla Pāndya, and he, being directed by Kundodara, imposed upon the people the system of nephew inheritance.
The barber is changing with the times. He now seldom uses the old unfoldable wooden-handled razor forged by the village blacksmith, but has gone in for what he calls Rāja sri (royal fortune; corruption of Rodgers) razors. He believes that he is polluted by the operation which it is his lot to perform, and, on his return home from his morning round, he must bathe and put on washed clothes.
Ken.—Ken (red) and Kenja (red ant) have both been recorded as gōtras of Kurni.
Kenna.—A division of Toda.
Kēpumāri.—It is noted, in the Gazetteer of South Arcot, that “the Kēpumāris are one of the several foreign communities from other districts, who help to swell the total of the criminal classes in South Arcot. Their head-quarters is at Tiruvallūr in the Chingleput district, but there is a settlement of them at Māriyānkuppam (not far from Porto Novo), and another large detachment at Kunisampet in French territory. They commit much the same class of crime as the Donga Dāsaris, frequenting railway trains and crowded gatherings, and they avert suspicion by their respectable appearance and pleasant manners. Their house-language is Telugu. They call themselves Alagiri Kēpumāris. The etymology of the second of these two words is not free from doubt, but the first of them is said to be derived from Alagar, the god of the Kallans, whose temple at the foot of the hills about twelve miles north of Madura town is a well-known place of pilgrimage, and to whom these people, and other criminal fraternities annually offer a share of their ill-gotten gains.” Information concerning the criminal methods of these people, under the name Capemari, will be found in Mr. F. S. Mullaly’s ‘Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency.’
Kērala.—Defined by Mr. Wigram[130] as “the western coast from Gokarnam to Cape Comorin, comprising Travancore, Cochin, Malabar, and part of South Canara.”
Kērē (tank).—A gōtra of Kurni.
Kēsari (lion).—A gōtra of Kurni.