Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Omanaito
Omanaito. — The Omanaitos or Omaitos are an Oriya cultivating caste, for the following account of which I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. According to a tradition, the ancestor of the caste was one Amātya, a minister of Sri Rāma at Ayōdhya. After Rāma had gone to heaven, there was no one to take care of them, and they took to agriculture. The caste is divided into two endogamous sections, called Bodo (big) and Sanno (little). The latter are regarded as illegitimate children of the former by a Bottada, Gaudo, or other woman. The Bodo section is divided into septs, called Sva (parrot), Bhag (tiger), Kochchimo (tortoise), Nāga (cobra), Sila (stone), Dhūdho (milk), Kumda (Cucurbita maxima), and Kukru (dog). The caste headman is called Bhatha Nāyak, whose office is hereditary. He arranges council meetings for settling social questions, and takes a leading part in excommunicating members of the caste. Like the Gōnds, the Omanaitos cannot tolerate a man suffering from sores, and he is formally excommunicated. To be received back into the caste, he has to give a caste feast, of which the Bhatha Nāyak is the first to partake.
Girls are married before or after puberty. A man claims his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage. As soon as a young man's parents think it is time that he should get married, they set out, with some sweets and jaggery (crude sugar), for the house of the paternal aunt, where the hand of her daughter is asked for. A second visit of a similar nature is made later on, when the marriage is decided on. An auspicious day is fixed by the Dēsāri. A messenger is sent to the house of the bride-elect with some rice, three rupees, a sheep, and a new cloth, which are presented to her parents, who invite the bridegroom and his party to come on the appointed day. On that day, the bridegroom is conducted in procession, sometimes on horseback, to the bride's village. There, in front of her hut, a pandal (booth) has been constructed of eight posts of the sāl tree (Shorea robusta), and a central post of the ippa (Bassia) tree, to which seven pieces of turmeric and seven mango leaves are tied. At the auspicious moment, the bridegroom is conducted in procession to the booth, and the messenger says aloud to the paternal aunt "The bridegroom has come. Bring the bride quickly." She stands by the side of the bridegroom, and the Dēsāri links together their little fingers, while the women throw rice coloured with turmeric over them. Water, which has been brought from the village stream at early morn, and coloured with turmeric, is poured over the couple from five pots. They then dress themselves in new cloths presented by their fathers-in-law. A feast is given by the bride's party. On the following day, the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom, at the entrance to which they are met by the bridegroom's mother, who sprinkles rice coloured with turmeric over them, and washes their feet with turmeric-water. Liquor is then distributed, and a meal partaken of. The Dēsāri takes seven grains of rice and seven areca nuts and ties them up in the ends of the cloths of the contracting couple. On the following day, a feast is held, and, next day, the parties of the bride and bridegroom throw turmeric-water over each other. 'All then repair to the stream, and bathe. A feast follows, for which a sheep is killed.
It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam District, that in the course of an Omanaito wedding there is a free fight, with mud for missiles.
The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. Divorce is allowed, and divorcées may marry again.
The Omanaitos worship Tākurāni and Chāmariya Dēvata, as priest of whom a member of the caste officiates. An annual festival is held in the month of Chaitro.
The dead are burnt. Pollution on account of a death in a family lasts for ten days, during which the caste occupation is not carried out, and the mourners are fed by people of another sept. On the eleventh day a feast is held, at which liquor is forbidden.
The caste title is usually Nāyako, but the more prosperous take the title Pātro.