The land belonging to the village comprises 3669 acres, 1955 arable and the rest common pasture, with hedges of milk-bush (Euphorbia tirucalli) enclosing the garden-grounds. The village, which is surrounded by a mud wall with two gates, includes 107 dwelling-houses of sun-dried bricks with terraced roofs, a chowree or town-hall, and three temples. The houses have wosurees or open porticos in front, and the interiors consist of three or four small dark rooms with no windows. The temples are of hewn stone and chunam.
The boundaries and institutions of the village have undergone no alteration from time immemorial, and its offices are hereditary. They consist of that of the Pattel or chief magistrate, his deputy the Chowgulla, the Koolcurny or accountant, and of the Barra Balloota, or twelve subordinate servants.
The Pattel holds his office, which is hereditary and saleable, from Government, under a written obligation specifying his duties, rank, and the ceremonies he is entitled to. He has to collect the Government dues from the cultivators, punish offences, redress wrongs, and settle disputes. In important cases he summons a Punchayet or sort of jury, and when they are of a serious nature he refers them to the Amildar or Collector of revenue.
The Koolcurny or accountant keeps the records and accounts, comprising a general measurement of village-lands, a list of fields, of the inhabitants, and a detailed account of the revenue. He is generally a Brahmin, and has lands or fees allotted to him by Government.
The Barra Balloota offices are hereditary, and the holders, called Ballootadars, are bound to their services to the community for a fixed proportion of the produce of the soil, from each cultivator. They are twelve in number, namely, the Sutar or carpenter, who repairs all wooden instruments; the Lohar or blacksmith, who keeps all iron-work in repair; the Parit or washerman, who washes all the men's clothes; the Nahawi or barber, who shaves and cuts the nails of the villagers, and kneads the muscles and cracks the joints of the Pattel and Koolcurny; the Kumbhar or potter; the Potedar or silversmith; the Goorow or dresser of idols; the Koli or water-carrier; the Mang or ropemaker, who makes ropes of Hibiscus cannabis, and is of very low caste; and the Mhar or Parwarree, an outcast whose dwelling is outside the village—he acts as watchman, carries letters, and gives evidence as to village rights, before Punchayets; the Tsamhar or cobbler, and Gramjosi or astrologer.
Besides the above duties, the Ballootadars have certain perquisites. The carpenter furnishes the stool on which the brides and bridegrooms are bathed in the marriage ceremony; the blacksmith sticks the hook through the flesh of devotees who swing; the barber plays on the pipe and tabor at weddings; and the potter prepares the stewed mutton at harvest-homes. In addition to the Ballootadars there are some other lower officials called Alutadars, consisting of a watchman, gatekeeper, betel-man, gardener, bard, musician, and host of the Ganjams of the Lingayet sect.
The cultivators of the Deccan are lean short men, with black straight hair, kept shorn except on the upper lip, bronze complexions, high cheek-bones, low foreheads, and teeth stained with betel. They are temperate and hard-working, warmly attached to their children, frugal, and not improvident, but deceitful, cunning, and false. Their food consists of grains, pulses, greens, roots, fruits, hot spices, and oil; together with milk and ghee. No liquor is sold in the villages. Their every-day fare is first a cake of bajree,[492] or jowaree,[493] baked on a plate of iron; secondly green pods or fruits cut in pieces, and boiled with pepper, garlic, or turmeric; and thirdly a porridge of coarse-ground jowaree and salt. They have three meals daily. For breakfast they eat a cake with spiced vegetables, and a raw onion; their wives bring them their dinners in the fields at noon, consisting of two cakes and green pods boiled; and porridge and milk form their suppers. The holiday fare is cakes of pulse and sugar, and balls of split gram and spices.[494]
These hard-working people generally wear nothing but a dirty rag between their legs, and another round their heads. On holidays, however, they come out in a white turban, a frock of white cloth coming down to the knees, a cloth round the waist, and a pair of drawers. The furniture of their dwellings generally comprises two wooden pestles and a stone mortar, earthenware and copper utensils, a wooden dish for kneading dough, a flat stone and rolling pin for powdering spices, two iron cups for lamps suspended by a chain, and two couches laced with rope; the total value being about 40 shillings.
The men, as well as the women, are very fond of attending annual pilgrimages at the temples, and several festivals break the monotony of their working days, the chief of which are the Hooli, the Dussera, the Dewallee, and another in honour of the cattle. The Hooli is held at the full moon in April, and lasts five days. The Dussera, to celebrate the destruction of the Demon Mysore by the Goddess Kali, is in October, and the Dewallee twenty days afterwards. The cattle festival is in August, when the oxen are painted and dressed up, fed with sugar, and worshipped by their owners. In the hot dry months the cultivators hunt deer, hares, and wild hogs.