Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 3.djvu/68

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KALINGI AND KALINJI
48


them in Vizagapatam also. The word means a native of Kālinga, the name of the sea-board of the Telugu country; the word Telugu itself is supposed by Dr. Caldwell to be a corruption of Tri-Kalinga. The three large sub-divisions of the caste are Buragam, Kintala, and Odiya. In the Kintala sub-division, a widow may remarry if she has no male issue, but the remarriage of widows is not allowed in other sub-divisions. The use of flesh and alcoholic liquor is permitted. Naidu and Chaudari are their titles." Further, in the Census Report, 1901, the Kālingis are described as follows: " A caste of temple priests and cultivators, found mainly in Ganjam and Vizagapatam, whither they are supposed to have been brought by the Kalinga kings to do service in the Hindu temples, before the advent of the Brāhmans. They speak either Oriya or Telugu. They have two sub-divisions, the Kintali Kālingas, who live south of the Langulya river, and the Buragam Kālingis, who reside to the north of it, and the customs of the two differ a great deal. There is also a third section, called Pandiri or Bevarani, which is composed of outcastes from the other two. Except the Kālingis of Mokhalingam in Vizagapatam,*[1] they have headmen called Nayakabalis or Sāntos. They also have priests called Kularazus, each of whom sees to the spiritual needs of a definite group of villages. They are divided into several exogamous gōtras, each comprising a number of families or vamsas, some of which, such as Arudra, a lady-bird, and Revi-chettu, the Ficus religiosatree, are of totemistic origin. Each section is said to worship its totem. Marriage before puberty is the rule, and the caste is remarkable for the proportion of its girls under twelve years of age who are married or widowed.

  1. * Mokhalingam is in Ganjam, not Vizagapatam.