All these names represent exogamous septs. In every case, the house-name was known only to old men and women, and they, as a rule, did not know the house-names of their neighbours or relations. Many of the names are derived from villages, or persons of other castes, on whose land they may live, and are probably new names adopted instead of the original ones. For the purpose of their register, Forest officers invent prefixes by which Yānādis with the same family name can be distinguished, e.g., Kee Chenchugadu, Permadu Budthagadu, to distinguish them from other Chenchugadus, and Budthagadus. The same practice is resorted to by planters, who give “estate names” to their coolies.
Yānādis will not eat with Mādigas or Paraiyans, and observe some principle in partaking of the refuse of the table. Thus, for a Chinna Yānādi to eat the refuse of the Mondis, Oddes, or Yerukalas, would involve excommunication, which is always pronounced by a Balija Chetti, whose decision is final and binding. Restoration to caste can be secured by undergoing a personal ordeal, by giving a feast, and promising good behaviour in the future. The ordeal takes the form of scalding of the tongue with hot gold by the Balija Chetti. It is curious that there has recently grown up a tendency for members of other castes to join the Yānādi community. There are instances of barbers, weavers, fishermen, and even Kōmatis being admitted into the Yānādi fold.
The headman, who goes by the name of Kulampedda or Pedda Yānādi, exercises general social control over a group, known as a guddem, ordinarily of about twenty huts. He decides social questions, sometimes on his own responsibility, by excommunicating or fining; sometimes acting on the advice of a council of his castemen. Until quite recently, the tribe remained under the guidance of a hereditary leader of Srīharikota, who wielded immense power. The Paraiyans have risen superior to the Yānādis as a community, supplying among themselves their own artisans, weavers, carpenters, barbers, priests, teachers, etc., while the Yānādis are only just beginning to move in this direction.
The language of the Yānādis is Telugu, but some words are compounds of Telugu and Tamil, e.g., artichedi for plantain, pandikutti for pig.
The Yānādis know the forest flora well, and the uses of the various trees and shrubs, which yield good firewood, etc. They call the roller (Coracias indica) the milk bird, in the belief that, when a cow goes dry, she will yield milk if a feather of the roller is put in the grass for her to swallow. The crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis) is to them the prickly-pear crow; florikin the ground peacock; the fan-tail snipe the pond snipe; and the pin-tail the rice field snipe.
At the census, 1891, 84,339 Yānādis were returned as Hindus, and 549 as animists. Their places of worship are not temples, but houses, called dēvara indlu (houses of the gods), set apart for every centre. They worship a household god, a village goddess of local importance, and a deity of wider repute and influence. Chenchu Dēvudu is invariably the household god. Poleramma or Ankamma is in charge of a local area for weal or woe. Subbarāyudu, Venkatēswaralu, Panchala, Narasimhulu, and others, are the gods who control destinies over a wider area. The Yānādis are their own priests. The objects of worship take various forms: a wooden idol at Srīharikota; bricks; stones; pots of water with margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves; images of gods drawn on the walls of their houses; or mere handfuls of clay squeezed into shape, and placed on a small platform erected under an aruka tree, which, like other Hindus, they hold sacred. They use a red powder, flowers, turmeric, etc., for worship; burn camphor and incense; and distribute fruit, dhāl (pulse of Cajanus indicus), and the like. In worshipping ancestors, they resemble the Kurumbas. The house of the gods is a sanctum, into which no polluting object is allowed to enter. The most pious perform rites every Friday. At Srīharikota they do so once a fortnight, or once a month. The ordinary Yānādi only worships on occasion of a marriage, funeral, etc. A belief lingers that the pious are en rapport with the deity, who converses with them and even inspires them. The goddess receives animal sacrifices, but Chenchu Dēvudu is a strict vegetarian, whose votaries are bound, at times of worship, to subsist on a single daily meal of roots and fruits. The Yānādis, like Hindus, wear sect marks, and are even divided into Vaishnavites and Saivites. They are supposed, during worship, to endow inanimate objects, and the spirits of geographical features, with life and mind, and supernatural powers. Some Yānādis are converts to Christianity.
The Yānādis live in low conical huts, rudely built of bamboo and palmyra leaves, grass, or millet stalks, with a small entrance, through which grown-up people have to creep. The hut affords protection from the sun and rain, but the Yānādis generally cook, eat, and sleep outside. The staple food of the Yānādis, apart from bazar purchases, consists of the following:—
Animals:—Sāmbar deer, wild goat, bear, porcupine, boar, land tortoise, hare, bandicoot and jerboa rat, Varanus (lizard), mungoose, and fish.
Vegetables and fruit:—Dioscorea (yams); pith and fruit of Phœnix sylvestris (date palm); fruit kernel of Cycas circinalis, eaten after thorough soaking in water; and fruits of Eugenia alternifolia and Jambolana (black plum), Carissa Carandas and spinarum, Buchanania acuminata, and Mimusops hexandra.
