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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1914.
The Reddis.
Next to the Tôttiyans, the Reddis01 were the most prominent Telugu colonists. But the Reddis came without their women; and on account of their marrying Tamil women, they became very much denationalised. They are in consequence an almost different community from the Reddis of the North. They occupied chiefly the region covered by the modern Trichinopoly district, and also parts of Coimbatore and Salem. It seems probable that they immigrated in two different waves. One of them married the women of the lower classes called Pongalas, and so came to be known as Pongala Reddis, while the other married dancing girls and came to be known as Panta Reddis. Next to the Vellâlas in social rank, they considered themselves superior to all the other Tamil castes. They are a physically fine class, inaustrious and well behaved. Their chief occupation has been agriculture. Owing to some special social reason they were very friendly to the Chakkiliyans, who were allowed to take part in their marriage negotiations, accompanied their women on journeys, and had the right of receiving alms from them. The Reddis were only partially open to Brahmanical influence. They wore the sacred thread, for example; but this they did only at funerals. They did not allow their widows to marry again; but their ideas of chastity were very loose, except in the case of maids and widows. They had, again, for their deities, Yellamma, Rengaiyamman, Polayamman, and other such non-Brahmanical creations, for propitiating whom they indulged in certain very gruesome
rites.
The Teluguised Saurashtras.
In a survey of the tribal migrations in South India during the Vijayanagar rule the important industrial community of the Teluguised Saurashtras, the clothiers and master-crafts-men of the Peninsula, cannot be ignored. Centuries back the original habitation of this people had been, as their spoken language Patnûli or Khatri shews, in Gujarat, or Sam âshtra. About the 5th Cent. 02 A.D. they, in response to the invitation of Emperor Kumara Gupta, the son of the famous Chandra Gupta Vikramaditya, immigrated to Malwa to practise there their art of silk-weaving. For centuries they stayed there. The Musalman invasion then deprived them of their royal patrons and induced them to cross the Vindhyas. In the kingdom of Devagiri they found welcome, but the Musalmân Nemesis came there also, and the emigrants had to seek protection further South. The Empire of Vijayanagar had just then been formed and begun to attract to its magnificent capital everything that was grand and good in Indian religion, art, industry, and skill. The Saurashtras evidently found themselves a highly patronised community there. Nor is it surprising that they experienced such hospitality. The splendour of the imperial court, the gigantic establishment of the imperial harem, the royal practice of making presents to favourites and officers in gorgeous robes, and the love of luxury common in those days, contributed to the enormous increase in the demand for silk clothes; and the Saurashtras, assured of easy livelihood and substantial recompense, perfected their skill, and satisfied the emperors and the nobles. The period of the Saurashtras' stay in Vijayanagar, in consequence, was a period of unusual prosperity to them. It was evidently during this period that they enlarged their Khatri vocabulary by the addition of a large number of
91 The Reddis cr Kapus were the landlords and agriculturists of the Telugu country. For their customs see Godaveri Gaz. p. 55. For a fairly detailed description of them in the south see Trichi. Gaz., 117-18 and Thurston's Castes and Tribes.
92 Mandasor insc. of 473-4. See Madu. Gaz. p. 110, which beautifully summarises the history of the community.
