The traditional story of the migration of the Tottiyans to the Madura district is given in several of the Mackenzie manuscripts, and is still repeated by the people of the caste. “Centuries ago, says this legend, the Tottiyans lived to the north of the Tungabhadra river. The Muhammadans there tried to marry their women, and make them eat beef. So one fine night they fled southwards in a body. The Muhammadans pursued them, and their path was blocked by a deep and rapid river. They had just given themselves up for lost when a pongu (Pongamia glabra) tree on either side of the stream leant forward, and, meeting in the middle, made a bridge across it. Over this they hurried, and, as soon as they had passed, the trees stood erect once more, before the Mussulmans could similarly cross by them. The Tottiyans in consequence still reverence the pongu tree, and their marriage pandals (booths) are always made from its wood. They travelled on until they came to the city of Vijayanagar, under whose king they took service, and it was in the train of the Vijayanagar armies that they came to Madura.”[61]
The Tottiyans are most numerous in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts, and include two grades in the social scale. Of these, one consists of those who are engaged in cultivation, and petty Zamindars. The other is made up of those who wander about begging, and doing menial work. Between the two classes there is neither interdining nor intermarriage. In districts other than Madura and Tinnevelly, the name Tottiyan is applied by Tamil-speaking castes to the Jōgis, who are beggars and pig breeders, and, like the Tottiyans, speak Telugu. The following legend is current, to account for the division of the Tottiyans into two sections. They once gave a girl in marriage to a Muhammadan ruler, and all the Tottiyans followed him. A large number went to sleep on one side of a river, while the rest crossed, and went away. The latter are represented today by the respectable section, and the begging class is descended from the former. To this day the Muhammadans and Tottiyans of the Trichinopoly district are said to address each other as if they were relations, and to be on terms of unusual intimacy.
In the Madura district, the Tottiyans are apparently divided into three endogamous sections, viz., Vēkkili, Thokala, and Yerrakolla, of which the last is considered inferior to the other two. Other names for the Vēkkili section are Kambalattar, or Rāja Kambalattar. In some places, e.g., in Tinnevelly, there seem to be six divisions, Thokala, Chilla or Silla, Kolla, Narasilla, Kānthikolla and Pāla. Of these, Pāla may intermarry with Chilla, but the other four are endogamous. As examples of exogamous septs occurring among the Yerrakollas may be noted Chīkala (broom), and Udama (lizard, Varanus), of which the latter also occurs as an exogamous sept of the Kāpus.
In the neighbourhood of Nellakota in the Madura district, the Yerrakollas have a group of seven septs called Rēvala, Gollavīrappa, Kambli-nayudi, Karadi (bear), Uduma, Chīla, and Gelipithi. Intermarriage between these is forbidden, as they are all considered as blood-relations, and they must marry into a group of seven other septs called Gundagala, Būsala, Manni, Sukka, Alivīrappa, Sikka, and Mādha. The names of these septs are remembered by a system of mnemonics.
In a note on the Tottiyans of the Trichinopoly district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows. “Three endogamous sub-divisions exist in the caste, namely, the Erra (red) Gollas or Pedda Inti (big family), the Nalla (black) Gollas or Chinna Inti (small family), and the Vālus, who are also called Kudukuduppai Tottiyans. The Vālus are said to be a restless class of beggars and sorcerers. The red Gollas are, as a rule, fairer than the blacks (whence perhaps the names). The women of the former wear white cloths, while those of the latter do not. Again, they tie their hair in different ways, and their ornaments differ a good deal. The red women carry no emblem of marriage at all, while the black women wear the pottu. The reds allow their widows to remarry, but the blacks do not. Both sections have exogamous sections, called Kambalams—the reds fourteen, and the blacks nine. The reds are divided, for purposes of caste discipline, into nine nādus and the blacks into fourteen mandais. Each village is under a headman called the Ūr-Nāyakan, and each nādu or mandai under a Pattakāran. The former decide petty disputes, and the latter the more serious cases. The Pattakāran is treated with great deference. He is always saluted with clasped hands, ought never to look on a corpse, and is said to be allowed to consort with any married woman of the caste.”
The Tottiyans are supposed to be one of the nine Kambalam (blanket) castes, which, according to one version, are made up of Kāppiliyans, Anappans, Tottiyans, Kurubas, Kummaras, Parivārams, Urumikkārans, Mangalas, and Chakkiliyans. According to another version, the nine castes are Kāppiliyan, Anappan, Tottiyan, Kolla Tottiyan, Kuruba, Kummara, Mēdara, Oddē, and Chakkiliyan. At tribal council-meetings, representatives of each of the nine Kambalams should be present. But, for the nine castes, some have substituted nine septs. The Vekkiliyans seem to have three headmen, called Mettu Nāyakan, Kodia Nāyakan, and Kambli Nāyakan, of whom the first mentioned is the most important, and acts as priest on various ceremonial occasions, such as puberty and marriage rites, and the worship of Jakkamma and Bommakka. The Kambli Nāyakan attends to the purification of peccant or erring members of the community, in connection with which the head of a sheep or goat is taken into the house by the Kambli Nāyakan. It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that “persons charged with offences are invited to prove their innocence by undergoing ordeals. These are now harmless enough, such as attempting to cook rice in a pot which has not been fired, but Turnbull says that he saw the boiling oil ordeal in 1813 in Pudukkōttai territory. Perhaps the most serious caste offence is adultery with a man of another community. Turnbull says that women convicted of this used to be sentenced to be killed by Chakkiliyans, but nowadays rigid excommunication is the penalty.”
The Kambalam caste is so called because, at caste council meetings, a kambli (blanket) is spread, on which is placed a kalasam (brass vessel) filled with water, and containing margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, and decorated with flowers. Its mouth is closed by mango leaves and a cocoanut.
A correspondent writes to me that “the Zamindars in the western parts of Madura, and parts of Tinnevelly, are known as Kambala Palayapat. If a man belongs to a Zamindar’s family, he is said to be of the Rāja Kambala caste. The marriage ceremony is carried out in two temporary huts erected outside the village, one for the bridegroom, the other for the bride. The tāli is tied round the bride’s neck by an elderly female or male belonging to the family. If the marriage is contracted with a woman of an inferior class, the bridegroom’s hut is not made use of, and he does not personally take part in the ceremony. A dagger (kattar), or rude sword, is sent to represent him, and the tāli is tied in the presence thereof.”
In a zamindari suit, details of which are published in the Madras Law Reports, Vol. XVII, 1894, the Judge found that the plaintiff’s mother was married to the plaintiff’s father in the dagger form; that a dagger is used by the Saptūr Zamindars, who are called Kattari Kamaya, in the case of inequality in the caste or social position of the bride; that, though the customary rites of the Kambala caste were also performed, yet the use of the dagger was an essential addition; and that, though she was of a different and inferior caste to that of the plaintiff’s father, yet that did not invalidate the marriage. The defendant’s argument was that the dagger was used to represent the Zamindar bridegroom as he did not attend in person, and that, by his non-attendance, there could have been no joining of hands, or other essential for constituting a valid marriage. The plaintiff argued that the nuptial rites were duly performed, the Zamindar being present; that the dagger was there merely as an ornament; and that it was customary for people of the Zamindar’s caste to have a dagger paraded on the occasion of marriages. The Judge found that the dagger was there for the purpose of indicating that the two ladies, whom the Zamindar married, were of an inferior caste and rank.
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that, when a Tottiyan girl attains maturity, “she is kept in a separate hut, which is watched by a Chakkiliyan. Marriage is either infant or adult. A man has the usual claim to his paternal aunt’s daughter, and so rigorously is this rule followed that boys of tender years are frequently married to grown women. These latter are allowed to consort with their husband’s near relations, and the boy is held to be the father of any children which may be born. Weddings last three days, and involve very numerous ceremonies. They take place in a special pandal erected in the village, on either side of which are smaller pandals for the bride and bridegroom. Two uncommon rites are the slaughtering of a red ram without blemish, and marking the foreheads of the couple with its blood, and the pursuit by the bridegroom, with a bow and arrow, of a man who pretends to flee, but is at length captured and bound. The ram is first sprinkled with water, and, if it shivers, this, as usual, is held to be a good omen. The bride-price is seven kalams of kumbu (Pennisetum typhoideum), and the couple may eat only this grain and horse-gram until the wedding is over. A bottu (marriage badge) is tied round the bride’s neck by the bridegroom’s sister.”