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OCTOBER, 1906.]
NOTES ON FEMALE TATTOOING.
269
NOTES ON FEMALE TATTOOING FROM OOTACAMUND.
BY B. A. GUPTE, F.Z.s., Personal Assistant to the Director of Ethnography for India.
1. - Tambalas. PEASANT woman from the Madura District has only the pakolam or tank on her arms
(see Plate, fig. 1).
2.- Paluga undars (Herbalists). A woman from Katumbatli in the Coimbatoor (Koimbatûr) District has a ta mare or lotus (see Plate, fig. 12) on the dorsum of the hand, and a number of kole or bunches of nails covering both arms (see Plate, fig. 2). On her forehead she has a tenure pachaka (sacred ashes) to show that she is a Saiva (see Plate, fig. 3).
3. - Kavares (Dealers in Cloth). A woman has both arms covered with a series of tanks (Plate, fig. 1) bordered by a creeper which she calls maligudi-phu or jasmine... On her forehead she has a perpendicular line down the middle to show that she is a Vaishṇava. She repeatedly asserted that only married girls in her caste are tattooed.
4. — Parishs Thirty-three were examined. Of these twenty have a tank (Plate; fig. 1) and shuralbatanu or peas (Plate, fig. 4). Three have a nalapure; a straight line with an arrow-head, and a moon, chandran.
A Christian of Pariah deseent has, in addition to all this, a triangular vingi (armlet) on the biceps (Plate, fig. 5), which is usually worn as a gold or gilt-plated ornament on the back of the hand. She was unable to explain it, but it is well known in the Thana District of Bombay as the tinsel coronet worn by. Hindu brides at the marriage ceremeny. This and the other tattoo-marks are relics of the former. Hindu religion of the family. She is a worshipper of Mari-Ma (MaryMother), but it is to bo noted that another Pariah woman, still a Hindu, with the peas tattooed on her arm, is a worshipper of Vir-Måta (Hero-Mother), an unidentified goddess..
One-section of the Pariahs has the kite depicted in several ways (Plate, figs. 6, 7, 8, 9) and these women assured me that they will not kill a kite at any price. As it is well known that the Pariah will eat anything, this tattoo-mark and the repugnance of the wearers to killing the animal tattooed requries explanation, unless it be accepted that the kite was the sectional totem..
5. - Badugas. A woman has two large circles (Plate, fig. 10) on each temple, together with the usual stars and horizontal line between the brows. On her arms she has large combs (Plate, fig. 11), and one at the wrist with the symbol of the lotus, thamare (Plate, fig. 12). On the dorsum of the hand she has the sun (Plate, fig. 13).
On the left arm the name Murgai is tattooed in Tamil. It is that of the woman who performed the tattooing and is a sign of the influence of civilization. The comb, the lotus, and the sun and due to modern Hindu environment, but on the shoulders she has three dotted horizontal lines, which is the tribal-mark of the Baduga, put there as a means of recognition in case of loss by seizuto or wandering in the junglés. Here the tattoo-marks throw back to the primitive nomadic customs of her tribo.
