It is impossible to identify with certainty the Vishnu Vardhana of the Purāna. There are as many as eleven individuals of that name known in Eastern Chalukyan history. The Purāna refers to Vishnu Vardhana, the son of Vijayarka, who had his capital at Rājamundry. His son, according to the same authority, was Rāja Rāja Narēndra. According to the Mackenzie manuscripts, the town of Rājamundry was founded by a king named Vijayāditya Mahēndra, who has not been identified. Dr. Fleet is of opinion that Vishnu Vardhana VI, who ruled between 918 and 925 A.D., was the first to occupy, and re-name it. He, therefore, called himself Rājamahēndra. Amma II, who ruled between 945 and 970 A.D., bore the same title. His brother and successor was Danarnaya (970—73 A.D.). Passing over the hiatus of thirty years, when the country was in the hands of the Chōlas, we come to the reign of Saktivarman, the eldest son of Danarnaya. If we are to believe the Kanyaka Purāna, then we must identify this Saktivarman with its Vijayarka. Saktivarman’s successor, according to inscriptions, was Vimalāditya, who must be identified with the Vishnu Vardhana of the Purāna. Vimalāditya’s son, according to inscriptions, was Rāja Rāja I, surnamed Vishnu Vardhana VIII. He has been identified with the Rāja Rāja Narēndra of current tradition in the Telugu country, to whom Nannayya Bhatta dedicated his translation of the Mahābhāratha. He must also be the Rāja Rāja Narēndra of the Purāna. If that is so, we must set down the cardinal incidents mentioned in it to the first quarter of the 11th century A.D. The actual spots where the principal events of the tragedy were enacted are still pointed out at Penugonda. Thus, the garden in which king Vishnu Vardhana halted is said to be the site on which the hamlet of Vanampalli (meaning village of gardens) stands at present. The spot where the huge fire-pit for Kanyakamma was dug is pointed out as having been in field Nos. 63/3 and 63/4 to the north of the now non-existent Nagarasamudram tank. The 102 other pits were, it is said, in the fields round the bund (embankment) of this tank. The tank is now under cultivation, but faint traces of the bund are said to be still visible. It is about two furlongs to the north-west of the temple of Nagarēsvaraswāmi. It is locally believed that Kanyakamma’s fire-pit was, on the morning following her tragic end, found to contain, among the ashes, a golden likeness of herself, which was placed by the side of the image of Nagarēswara, to whom she had been married. Long afterwards, the golden image was removed, and one in stone substituted for it, in accordance, it is said, with the direction of Kanyakamma, who appeared to one of the townsmen in a dream.
The temple of Nagarēsvaraswāmi has several inscriptions on slabs, built into its prākāra, and elsewhere. One of these is on the gateway inside the prākāra walls. It opens with a glowing description of the powers of Nagarēsvaraswāmi in giving blessings and gifts, and refers to Penugonda as one of the eighteen towns built by Visvakarma, and presented by Siva to the Kōmatis as a place of residence. The object of the inscription appears to be to record the restoration by one Kothalinga, a Kōmati whose genealogy is given, of the great town (Penugonda), which had been burnt to ashes by a Gajapathi king. He is also stated to have made grants of tanks, wells, and pleasure gardens, for the benefit of Nagarēsvaraswāmi, for whose daily offerings and the celebration of festivals he provided by the grants of the villages of Mummadi, Ninagēpūdi, Vāranāsi, Kālkavēru, and Mathampūdi, all included in the town of Penugonda. Various inscriptions show that, from so early a time as 1488 A.D., if not from still earlier times, the temple had become popular with the Kōmatis, and got intertwined with the statements now found in the Purāna. Rai Bahādur V. Venkayya, Government Epigraphist, writes to say that the Tēki plates found in the Rāmachandrāpuram taluk of the Godāvari district, and published by Dr. E. Hultzsch,[140] may refer to some Kōmatis. The edict contained in it was, according to Dr. Hultzsch, probably issued about 1086 A.D., and records the grant of certain honorary privileges on the descendants of a family of merchants belonging to the Teliki family.
That about the end of the 14th century A.D., the story of Kanyakamma was popular is obvious from the Telugu version of the Markandēya Purāna, which was composed by the poet Mārana, the disciple of Tikkana, the part author of the Telugu Bhārata. In this Purāna, the following episode, which bears a close resemblance to the story narrated in the Kanyaka Purāna, is introduced. A king, named Vrushadha, while on a hunting expedition, killed a cow, mistaking it for a “bison.” He was cursed by Bhābhravya, the son of a Rishi, who was in charge of it, and in consequence became a Sūdra, by name Anaghakāra. He had seven sons, a descendant of one of whom was Nābhāga, who fell in love with a Kōmati girl, and asked her parents to give her in marriage to him. The Kōmatis replied much in the same manner as Kusuma Srēshti and his friends did to the ministers of Vishnu Vardhana in the Kanyaka Purāna. Their answer will be found in canto VII, 223, of the Markandēya Purāna, which contains the earliest authentic literary reference to the name Kōmati. In effect they said “Thou art the ruler of the whole of this universe, Oh! King; we are but poor Kōmatis living by service. Say, then, how can we contract such a marriage?” The king was further dissuaded by his father and the Brāhmans. But all to no purpose. He carried off the girl, and married her in the rākshasa form (by forcible abduction), and, in consequence, in accordance with the law of Manu, became a Kōmati. He then performed penance, and again became a Kshatriya. It would seem that this episode, which is not found in the Sanskrit Markandēya Purāna, is undoubtedly based on the incident recorded in the Kanyaka Purāna.
There remain only three arguments to adduce in support of the suggestion that the chief event narrated in the Kanyaka Purāna is worthy of credence. In the marriage ceremonies as performed by the Kōmatis, some prominence is given to certain of the incidents alleged to have taken place in setting at naught the demands of king Vishnu Vardhana. Such, for instance, is the respect shown to the bāla nagaram boys, which is referred to later on. Secondly, there are certain castes which beg only from Kōmatis, in return for services rendered during this critical period of their history. These are the Mailāris and Vīramushtis. The former still carry round the villages an image of Kanyakamma, sing her story, and beg alms of devotees. The Vīramushtis are wrestlers, who, by acrobatic performances, delayed, by previous arrangement, the second advance of Vishnu Vardhana, before the Kōmatis committed themselves to the flames. Allied to these castes are the Bukka Kōmatis. Originally, it is explained, the Bukkas belonged to the Kōmati caste. When Kanyakamma threw herself into the fire-pit, they, instead of following her example, presented bukka powder, saffron, and kunkumum prepared by them to her. She directed that they should live apart from the faithful Kōmatis, and live by selling the articles which they offered to her. The Kalinga Kōmatis also have a beggar caste attached to them, called Jakkali-vāndlu, who have nothing to do with the Gavara Kōmati beggar castes. Thirdly, if we may place any faith in the stories told by other castes, e.g., the Jains of South Arcot, the Tottiyans, Kāppiliyans, and Bēri Chettis, the persecution of their subjects by their kings, in the manner indicated in the Kanyaka Purāna, seems to have been widely practiced all over the country. And the method adopted by the Kōmatis to evade the king, and maintain the mēnarikam rule, has its counterpart in the popular ballad known as Lakshmammapata, still sung all over the Northern Circars, which gives a graphic description of the murder of his wife by a husband, who would not agree to giving their daughter away from his own sister’s son. Even now, the sentiment on this subject is so strong that a man who goes against the rule of mēnarikam, not only among the Kōmatis, but among all castes observing it, is looked down on. It is usually described as bending the twig from its natural course, and, as the twig would waste away and die in consequence, so would parties to such marriages not prosper. In 1839, according to the Asiatic Journal, a case was taken before the Supreme Court of Madras, in which the plaintiff brought an action against his uncle for giving his daughter away in marriage, without making him an offer of her hand. The Judges were anxious that the matter should be settled out of Court, but the parties disagreed so entirely that nothing less than a public trial would satisfy them. It has not been possible to trace the decision of the Court.
The Kōmatis have for a long time been alleged to be connected with the Mādigas in a variety of ways. “The Kōmatis,” Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes, “do not as a rule deny the fact of this connection. The Mādigas are, indeed, apparently under the protection of the Kōmatis, apply to them for help when in trouble, and obtain loans and other assistance. Some Kōmatis explain the connection with the Mādigas by a story that either Vishnu Vardhana, or his successor Rājarāja Narēndra persecuted the Kōmatis, and that they had to fly for refuge to the Mādigas. The Mādigas took them in, and hid them, and they say that the present favour shown to that caste is only in gratitude for the kindness shown to themselves in the past. The Kōmatis themselves do not admit the title Mid-day Mādigas (applied to them by other castes), but explain it by a story that long ago a Kōmati killed and ate a cow-buffalo, which was really no cow-buffalo, but the wife of a great sage who had transformed her into that shape in order that she might be safe when he was in contemplation. The saint accordingly cursed the caste, and said that they should be Mid-day Mādigas for ever more.” It is possible that the connection between the Kōmatis and Mādigas was originally such as that of the Kammālans, Ambattans, and other castes, with Paraiyans, Vettiyans, and other depressed classes, and that, in later times, weird stories were invented by fertile brains to explain them away. One of these undoubtedly is that which makes the Kōmatis the descendants of the issue of a plain Brāhman and a handsome Mādiga woman. It is said that their children managed a sweetmeat bazar, which the Brāhman kept in a much frequented forest, and, in his absence, pointed with a stick (kōl) to the plates, and thereby told their prices, without polluting the articles with the touch. Hence arose the name Kōlmutti (those who pointed with the stick), which became softened down to Kōmutti. Another story runs to the effect that the Mādiga woman, when she was pregnant with her first child, was gored by a cow, and gave birth to it in the cow-shed. Hence arises the name Gō-mutti, or cow-gored. In days gone by, it was incumbent on the Kōmatis to bear the marriage expenses of the Mādiga families attached to their village, much in the same way that the Chakkiliyan is treated in the Madura district by the Tottiyan caste in return for the services he renders when a Tottiyan girl is under pollution on reaching maturity. In later times, this custom dwindled in some places[141] to the payment of the expenses of the marriage of two Mādigas, and even this was abandoned in favour of inviting the Mādigas to their weddings. In the city of Madras, it would appear to have been customary, in the eighteenth century, for the Kōmatis to get the māngalyam or sathamānam (marriage badge) blessed by an aged Mādiga before it was tied on the bride’s neck. Further, it would appear to have then been customary to give the sacred fire, used at marriages for the performance of hōmam, to a Mādiga, and receive it back from him.
These, and similar customs, traces of which still exist in some places (e.g., North Arcot), show that the Mādiga has some claim on the Kōmatis. What that claim is is not clear. However, it is reported that, if the Mādiga is not satisfied, he can effectually put a stop to a marriage by coming to the house at which it is to be celebrated, chopping away the plantain trunks which decorate the marriage booth, and carrying them off. Similarly, Kammālans invite Vettiyāns (or Paraiyans) to their marriage, and, if this is not done, there is the same right to cut down the plantain trunks. It would seem that the right thus exercised has reference to the right to the soil on which the booth stands. The cutting away of the plantain shows that their right to stand there is not recognised. The invitation to the Mādiga or Vettiyān would thus refer to the recognition by the Kōmatis and Kammālans to the lordship of the soil held in bygone days by these now depressed castes. Writing in 1869 and 1879, respectively, Sir Walter Elliot and Major J. S. F. Mackenzie of the Mysore Commission refer[142] to the presentation of betel and nuts by the Kōmatis to the Mādigas, thereby inviting them to be present at their marriages. Dr. G. Oppert also refers to the same custom.[143] Having risen in the social scale, the Kōmatis would naturally wish to give this invitation covertly. Major Mackenzie says that the Kōmatis in Mysore, in order to covertly invite the Mādigas to the wedding, went to the back of their houses at a time when they were not likely to be seen, and whispered into an iron vessel, such as is commonly used for measuring grain, an invitation in the following words:—“In the house of the small ones (i.e., Kōmatis) a marriage is going to take place. The members of the big house (i.e., Mādigas) are to come.” The Mādigas look on such a secret invitation as an insult, and would, if they saw the inviters, handle them roughly. It is noted, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that “now-a-days the presentation (of betel leaf and nuts) is sometimes veiled by the Kōmati concerned sending his shoes to be mended by the Mādiga a few days before the wedding, deferring payment till the wedding day, and then handing the Mādiga the leaf and nut with the amount of his bill.” According to another account, the Kōmati of set purpose unbinds the toe-ring of his native shoes (chērupu), and summons the Mādiga, whose function it is to make and repair these articles of attire. The Mādiga quietly accepts the job, and is paid more amply than is perhaps necessary in the shape of pān-supāri, flowers, and money. On the acceptance by the Mādiga of the betel and nuts, the Kōmati asks “Chērinda, chērinda”? i.e., has it reached you, and the Mādiga replies “Chērindi, chērindi”, i.e., it has reached. Until he replies thus, the māngalyam cannot, it is said, be tied on the bride’s neck. In the Bellary district, betel leaf and nuts are usually left at night behind the Mādiga’s house, in token of the invitation to the wedding. In the Godāvari district, according to Mr. Hemingway, the Kōmati gives an order for a Mādiga for palmyra leaf baskets before the marriage, and presents him with betel and nut when he brings the baskets. Still another account says that some of the Kōmatis, just before a marriage, leave in the backyard of Mādiga houses a few pice and betel close to the cattle-pen, and that it is whispered that some Kōmatis use chuckler’s (leather-worker’s) tools, made in silver, for worship. It is also reported that chuckler’s work is pretended to be gone through by some Kōmatis, after the completion of the marriage ceremonies, in the backyard of the house at dead of night, in the presence of caste-people only, and by preference under a dānimma chettu (Punica Granatum: pomegranate). This is known as kulāchāram, kuladharmam, or gōtra pūja (custom of the caste, or worship of the gōtras). The figure of a cow is made of flour, and into its stomach they put a mixture of turmeric, lime, and water, called wōkali. This, it has been suggested, is meant to represent blood. After the cow has been worshipped in due form, it is cut up with instruments made of flour, and intended to represent those used by cobblers. To each family is secretly sent that portion of the cow, which, according to custom, they are entitled to receive. Thus, the Kommala-vāru receive the horns, the Gontula the neck, the Karakapāla the hands and temples, the Thonti the hump, the Danta the teeth, the Veligollu the white nails, and so on. Major Mackenzie testified to the performance of this ceremony by the caste in Mysore in 1879, and it is recorded from different parts of the Madras Presidency. The flour, which is thus distributed, is known as nēpāsāni mudda or nēpāsāni unta. The ceremony is still performed in the city of Madras, on the night of the fifth day if the marriage lasts over seven days, or on the night of the third day if it lasts over five days. If the wedding ceremonies are completed in one day, the ceremony is performed even during the day time. The following details are performed. A brass vessel (kalasam) and a cocoanut are set up in the house, and the bride and bridegroom’s parties arrange themselves on each side of it. The vessel is decorated, and the cocoanut is made to represent the face of a woman, with eyes, nose, mouth, etc., and adorned with jewelry, flowers, anilin and turmeric powder marks. A young man of the bridegroom’s party worships the feet of all present. The flour cow is then made, cut up, and distributed. Cocoanuts are broken, and camphor is set on fire, and waved before the vessel. Mr. Muhammad Ibrahim states that families are known by the names of the various organs of the cow in the Godāvari district. There is, he says, a story to the effect that some Kōmatis killed a cow-buffalo, which went about as such by day, but became transformed into a beautiful woman under the miraculous influence of a pious Brāhman. As a redemption for their sin, these Kōmatis were ordered by the Brāhman to take their names after the various parts of the animal, and as, by killing the animal, they proved worse than Mādigas, they were ordered to show respect to these people. In the Kumbum tāluk of the Kurnool district, a flour buffalo is substituted for the cow. In the Markapūr tāluk of the same district, two elephants are made of mud, and the bride and bridegroom sit beside them. Presentations of cloths and jewels are then made to them. The officiating purōhit (priest) worships the elephants, and the bride and bridegroom go round them.
Two further points of connection between the Kōmatis and Mādigas are referred to by Major Mackenzie. “I find,” he writes, “that it is the custom to obtain the fire for burning Kāma, the Indian Cupid, at the end of the Hōli feast from a Mādiga’s house. The Mādigas do not object to giving the fire, in fact they are paid for it.” This appears to be a purely local custom, and no trace of its existence has been found in various parts of the Madras Presidency. The other point refers to the identification of the goddess Mātangi of the Mādigas with the Kōmati goddess Kanyaka Amma. “I cannot,” Major Mackenzie writes, “discover the connection between two such different castes as the Kōmatis and Mādigas, who belong to different divisions. The Kōmatis belong to the 10 pana division, while the Mādigas are members of the 9 pana.[144] One reason has been suggested. The caste goddess of the Kōmatis is the virgin Kannika Amma, who destroyed herself rather than marry a prince, because he was of another caste. She is usually represented by a vessel full of water, and, before the marriage ceremonies are commenced, she is brought in state from the temple, and placed in the seat of honour in the house. The Mādigas claim Kannika as their goddess, worship her under the name of Mātangi and object to the Kōmatis taking their goddess.” The Kōmatis stoutly deny that there is any connection between Mātangi and Kanyaka Amma, and it would seem that they are independent goddesses.
Marriage is always infant. A Brāhman purōhit officiates. Each purōhit has a number of houses attached to his circle, and his sons usually divide the circle among themselves on partition, like any other property. Polygamy is permitted, but only if the first wife produces no offspring. The taking of a second wife is assented to by the first wife, who, in some cases, believes that, as the result of the second marriage, she herself will beget children. Two forms of marriage ceremonial are recognised, one called purānōktha, according to long established custom, and the other called vēdōktha, which follows the Vēdic ritual of Brāhmans. In Madras, on the first day of a marriage, the contracting couple have an oil bath, and the bridegroom goes through the upanayana (sacred thread investiture) ceremony. He then pretends to go off to Kāsi (Benares), and is met by the bride’s party, who take him to the bride’s house, where the māngalyam is tied by the bridegroom before the hōmam (sacrificial fire). On the second day, hōmam is continued, and a caste dinner is given. On the third day, the gōtra pūja is performed. On the fourth day, hōmam is repeated, and, on the following day, the pair are seated on a swing, and rocked to and fro. Presents, called katnam, are made to the bridegroom, but no vōli (bride-price) is paid. In the mofussil,[145] where the purānōktha form of ceremonial is more common, ancestors are invoked on the first day. On the second day, the ashtavarga is observed, and the bride and bridegroom worship eight of the principal gods of the Hindu Pantheon. On this day, the pandal (marriage booth) is erected. On the third day, the māngalyam is tied, sometimes by the officiating Brāhman purōhit, and sometimes by the bridegroom. On the fourth day, the Brāhmans of the place are honoured, and, on the following day, in most places, a festival is held in honour of the goddess Kanyaka Paramēswari. The bride and bridegroom’s mothers go to a tank (pond) or river with copper vessels, and bring back water at the head of a procession. The vessels are placed in a special pandal, and worshipped with flowers, anilin and turmeric powders. Finally, cocoanuts are broken before them. On the next day, or on the same day if the marriage ceremonies conclude thereon, the festival in honour of the Bālanagaram boys, or those who helped the Kōmatis of Penugonda in their trouble with Vishnu Vardhana, is held. Five boys and girls are bathed, decked with jewelry, and taken in procession to the local temple, whence they are conducted to the bride’s house, where they are fed. On the following day, the ceremony called thotlu pūja is performed. A doll is placed in a cradle connected with two poles, and rocked to and fro. The bridegroom gives the doll into the hands of the bride, saying that he has to go on a commercial trip. The bride hands it back to him, with the remark that she has to attend to her kitchen work. On the following day, the bridal couple are taken in procession, and, in the Bellary district, a further day is devoted to the surgi ceremony. The bride and bridegroom bathe together, go to the local temple, and return. Then five girls bathe, the five posts of the marriage pandal are worshipped, and the kankanams (wrist-threads) are removed from the wrists of the newly-married couple.
Kalinga Kōmatis, who live in the northern part of Ganjam, and have forgotten their mother-tongue, have practically adopted the Oriya customs, as they have to depend mainly on Oriya Brāhmans. At their marriages, however, they use the Telugu bottu or sathamānam.
Widow remarriage is not permitted among any sections of the caste, which is very strict in the observance of this rule. Except among the Saivites, a widow is not compelled to have her head shaved, or give up wearing jewelry, or the use of betel. In the south of the Madras Presidency, if a little girl becomes a widow, her māngalyam is not removed, and her head is not shaved till she reaches maturity. Vaishnava widows always retain their hair.