# Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Yānādi

​Yānādi.— The Yānādis are a dark-skinned, platyrhine tribe, short of stature, who inhabit the Telugu country. The name has been the subject of much etymological speculation. Some derive it from a (privative) and nathu (lord or protector), and it may mean those who are not included in the ruling or principal caste. Again, it has been derived from yanam (boat) and adi (means). But the Yānādis are not known to have plied, nor do they now ply boats at Srīharikota, their chief place of residence, which is on the coast. The word would seem to be derived from the Sanskrit anadi, or those whose origin is not traceable. The people perhaps elongated the vowel-sound, so that it became Yānādi. In like manner, the Native graduate of the Madras University talks of himself as being, not a B.A. or M.A., but B.Ya. or M.Ya. And a billiard- marker will call the game yeighty-yeight instead of eighty-eight.
The tradition of the Yānādis as to their origin is very vague. Some call themselves the original inhabitants of the wilds in the neighbourhood of the Pulicat lake, where they hunted and fished at will, until they were enslaved by the Reddis. Others say that the Reddi (or Manchi?) Yānādis were originally Chenchus, a small but superior class, and that they fled from oppression and violence from the mountains in the west, and amalgamated themselves with the common Yānādis. The common deity of both Chenchus and Manchi Yānādis is Chenchu Dēvudu. Between the Yānādi and the Chenchu, however, there is no love lost. They can be seen living close together, but not intermingling, on the Nallamalais, and they differ in their social customs. Yānādi Chenchu is said to be the name given by ​Brāhmans to the Chenchus.* The following legend concerning the Yānādis is narrated by Mackenzie. † "Of old, one named Rāghava brought with him sixty families from Pācanātti district, locating himself with them at Sriharicotta, and, clearing the country, formed Rāghavapuram. The people by degrees spread through a few adjoining districts. A rishi, who came from Benares, and was named Ambikēsvarer, resided in Mad'hyāranya (or the central wilderness), and there, daily bathing in a river, paid homage to Siva. These wild people of their own accord daily brought him fruits and edibles, putting them before him. At length he inquired of them the reason. They replied that their country was infested by a terrible serpent, and they wished to be taught charms to destroy it, as well as charms for other needful purposes. He taught them, and then vanished away."
It is an advantage for a European to have a Yānādi as a camp servant, as he can draw water from any caste well. The Yānādi can also wash, and carry water for Brāhmans.
The animistic nature of their religion; the production of fire by friction; the primitive hunting and fishing stage in which a number remain; the almost raw animal food which they eat, after merely scorching or heating the flesh of the game they kill, indicate that the Yānādis have not yet emerged from a primitive stage of culture. They make fire by friction with sticks from the following trees: —
    Protium caudatum (konda rāgi).
    Bauhinia racemosa (aree chettu).
    Ficus. sp. (kallu jeevee chettu).
    ptereospermum suberifolium (tada).
    A tree belonging to the Nat. Order Laurineae.
    Cordia monoica (female tree). ​Two sticks are prepared, one short, the other long. In the former a square cavity is scooped out, and it is held firmly on the ground, while the long stick is twisted rapidly to and fro in the cavity. No charcoal powder is used, but a rag, or even dried leaves are set fire to.
The head-quarters of the Yānādis is the island of Srīharikota in the Nellore district. Their primitive condition attracted notice in 1835, when the island came into the possession of the Government, which endeavoured to ameliorate their position by supplying them with a liberal allowance of grain, clothing, tobacco, and money, in return for the jungle produce, which they collected. The demand for labour naturally rose, and the Government offered to pay to parents 2 annas 6 pies on the birth of a male, and 1 anna 3 pies on the birth of a female child — a bounty on productivity justified by special local causes. In 1858, the Government opened a school for the teaching of Telugu, which was rendered attractive by offers of rice and clothing to those who attended it. An industrial department gave lessons in basket-making, and land was assigned for the cultivation of chay-root (Oldenlandia umbellata), which yields the beautiful red dye formerly much employed in the dyeing of cotton fabrics, but has had its nose put out of joint by the introduction of aniline and alizarin dyes. But the industries proved unsuccessful, and the strength of the school gradually declined, so that it was abolished in 1877.
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The following are some of the house-names of families living in Nellore, Sriharikota, Tada, and Kāmbakam: —
(a) Manchi Yanadis —
| Bandi, cart. | Illa, of a house. |
| Chembetti, hammer. | Kathtlula, sword. |
| Chilakala, paroquet. | Kānūr, a village. |
| Dhoddi, sheep-fold. | Kotlu, cow-shed. |
| Īgala, house-fly. | Mēkala, goat |
| Enthodu, a village. | Mānikala, measure. |
| Pāmula, snake. | Udamala, water-lizard. |
| Tenkayala, cocoanut. | Jandayi, flag. |
| Totla, garden. | Marrigunta, pond near a |
| Tupakala, gun. | fig-tree. |
    (b) Challa Yanadi —
    Nerigi Mekala, a kind of goat.
    Elugu, bear.
    Thirlasetti, name of a Balija Chetti.
All these names represent exogamous septs. In every case, the house-name was known only to old men and women, and they, as a rule, did not know the house- names of their neighbours or relations. Many of the names are derived from villages, or persons of other castes, on whose land they may. live, and are probably new names adopted instead of the original ones. For the purpose of their register. Forest officers invent prefixes by which Yānādis with the same family name can be distinguished, e.g., Kee Chenchugadu, Permadu Budthagadu, to distinguish them from other Chenchugadus, and Budthagadus. The same practice is resorted to by planters, who give "estate names" to their coolies.
Yānādis will not eat with Mādigas or Paraiyans, and observe some principle in partaking of the refuse of the table. Thus, for a Chinna Yānādi to eat the refuse of the Mondis, Oddes, or Yerukalas, would involve excommunication, which is always pronounced by a Balija Chetti, whose decision is final and binding. Restoration to caste can be secured by undergoing a personal ordeal, by giving a feast, and promising good behaviour in the future. The ordeal takes the form of scalding of the tongue with hot gold by the Balija Chetti. It is curious that there has recently grown up a tendency for members of other castes to join the Yānādi community. There ​are instances of barbers, weavers, fishermen, and even Kōmatis being admitted into the Yānādi fold.
The headman, who goes by the name of Kulampedda or Pedda Yānādi, exercises general social control over a group, known as a guddem, ordinarily of about twenty huts. He decides social questions, sometimes on his own responsibility, by excommunicating or fining; sometimes acting on the advice of a council of his castemen. Until quite recently, the tribe remained under the guidance of a hereditary leader of Srīharikota, who wielded immense power. The Paraiyans have risen superior to the Yānādis as a community, supplying among themselves their own artisans, weavers, carpenters, barbers, priests, teachers, etc., while the Yānādis are only just beginning to move in this direction.
The language of the Yānādis is Telugu, but some words are compounds of Telugu and Tamil, e.g., artichedi for plantain, pandikutti for pig.
The Yānādis know the forest flora well, and the uses of the various trees and shrubs, which yield good firewood, etc. They call the roller (Coracias indica) the milk bird, in the belief that, when a cow goes dry, she will yield milk if a feather of the roller is put in the grass for her to swallow. The crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis) is to them the prickly-pear crow; florikin the ground peacock; the fan-tail snipe the pond snipe; and the pin-tail the rice field snipe.
At the census, 1891, 84,339 Yānādis were returned as Hindus, and 549 as animists. Their places of worship are not temples, but houses, called dēvara indlu (houses of the gods), set apart for every centre. They worship a household god, a village goddess of local importance, and a deity of wider repute and influence. Chenchu Dēvudu is invariably the household god. Poleramma or Ankamma ​is in charge of a local area for weal or woe. Subbarāyudu, Venkatēswaralu, Panchala, Narasimhulu, and others, are the gods who control destinies over a wider area. The Yānādis are their own priests. The objects of worship take various forms: a wooden idol at Srīharikota; bricks; stones; pots of water with margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves; images of gods drawn on the walls of their houses; or mere handfuls of clay-squeezed into shape, and placed on a small platform erected under an aruka tree, which, like other Hindus, they hold sacred. They use a red powder, flowers, turmeric, etc., for worship; burn camphor and incense; and distribute fruit, dhāl (pulse of Cajanus indicus), and the like. In worshipping ancestors, they resemble the Kurumbas. The house of the gods is a sanctum, into which no polluting object is allowed to enter. The most pious perform rites every Friday. At Srīharikota they do so once a fortnight, or once a month. The ordinary Yānādi only worships on occasion of a marriage, funeral, etc. A belief lingers that the pious are en rapport with the deity, who converses with them and even inspires them. The goddess receives animal sacrifices, but Chenchu Dēvudu is a strict vegetarian, whose votaries are bound, at times of worship, to subsist on a single daily meal of roots and fruits. The Yānādis, like Hindus, wear sect marks, and are even divided into Vaishnavites and Saivites. They are supposed, during worship, to endow inanimate objects, and the spirits of geographical features, with life and mind, and supernatural powers. Some Yānādis are converts to Christianity.
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Animals: — Sāmbar deer, wild goat, bear, porcupine, boar, land tortoise, hare, bandicoot and jerboa rat, Varanus (lizard), mungoose, and fish.
Vegetables and fruit: — Dioscorea (yams); pith and fruit of Phœnix sylvestris (date palm); fruit kernel of Cycas circinalis, eaten after thorough soaking in water; and fruits of Eugenia alternifolia and Jambolana (black plum), Carissa Carandas and spinarum, Buchanania acuminata, and Mimusops hexandra . They are, like the Irulas of Chingleput, very partial to sour and fermented rice-water, which is kept by the higher classes for cattle. This they receive in exchange for headloads of fuel. For some time past they have been stopped by the Forest officers from drinking this pulusunīllu, as it makes them lazy, and unfit for work.
The marriage ceremony is no indispensable necessity. The Adavi Yānādis, as a rule, avoid it; the Reddi Yānādis always observe it. The parents rarely arrange alliances, the parties concerned managing for themselves. Maturity generally precedes marriage. Seduction and elopement are common occurrences, and divorce is easily obtained. Adultery is no serious offence; widows may live in concubinage; and pregnancy before marriage is no crime. By nature, however, the Yānādis are jealous of conjugal rights, and attached to their wives. Widow-hood involves no personal disfigurement, or denial of all the emblems of married life.
A widow has been known to take, one after another, as many as seven husbands. The greater the number of her husbands, the more exalted is the status of a widow ​in society, and the stronger her title to settle disputes on questions of adultery, and the like. Polygamy is common, and a Yānādi is known to have had as many as seven wives, whom he housed separately, and with whom he lived by turns. The marriage ceremony is under going change, and the simple routine developing into a costly ceremonial, the details of which (e.g., the "screen scene") are copied from the marriage rites of higher castes in the Telugu country. Until quite recently, the flower of the tangēdu (Cassia auriculata) did duty for the tāli, which is now a turmeric-dyed cotton thread with a gold bottu suspended from it. The auspicious hour is determined by a very simple process. The hour is noon, which arrives when a pole, two feet high, stuck vertically on the marriage platform, ceases to throw a shadow. The pole has superseded the arrow used of old, and sometimes a purōhit is consulted, and gives the hour from his calendar.
As a punishment for adultery, the unfaithful woman is, at Srīharikota, made to stand, with her legs tied, for a whole day in the sun, with a basket full of sand on her head.
The maternal uncle receives a measure of rice, a new cloth, and eight annas, at the head-shaving ceremony of his nephew. At this ceremony, which is a borrowed custom, the uncle plucks a lock of hair from the head of the lad, and ties it to a bough of the aruka tree. The head is shaved, and the lad worships the village goddess, to whom a fowl is offered. The guests are feasted, and the evening is spent in a wild torch-light dance.
At the first menstrual period, a Yānādi girl occupies a hut erected for the purpose, which must have within it at least one stick of Strychnos Nux-vomica, to drive away devils. On the ninth day the hut is burnt down, ​and the girl cleanses herself from pollution by bathing. A woman, after confinement, feeds for three days on the tender leaves, or cabbage of the date palm (Phœnix sylvestris), and then on rice. Margosa leaves, and sometimes the leaves of other trees, and the knife with which the umbilical cord was cut, are placed under the infant's head for six days. A net is hung in front of the door, to keep out devils. The baby is given a name by the soothsayer, who pretends to be in communication on the subject with the god or goddess.
The Yānādis pose as prophets of human destinies, and, like the Nīlgiri Kurumbas, pretend to hold intercourse with gods and goddesses, and to intercede between god and man. Every village or circle has one or more soothsayers, who learn their art from experts under a rigid routine. The period of pupilage is a fortnight spent on a dietary of milk and fruits with no cooked meat, in a cloister in meditation. The god or goddess Ankamma, Poleramma, Venkatēswaralu, Subbaroyadu, or Malakondroyadu, appears like a shadow, and inspires the pupil, who, directly the period of probation has ceased, burns camphor and frankincense. He then sings in praise of the deity, takes a sea bath with his master, gives a sumptuous feast, and becomes an independent soothsayer. The ardent soothsayer of old wrought miracles, so runs the story, by stirring boiling rice with his hand, which was proof against scald or hurt. His modern brother invokes the gods with burning charcoal in his folded hands, to the beat of a drum. People flock in large numbers to know the truth. The word is rangampattedhi in North Arcot and sodi in Nellore. The soothsayer arranges Chenchu Dēvudu and the local gods in a separate dēvara illu or house of god, which ​is always kept scrupulously clean, and where worship is regularly carried on. The auspicious days for soothsaying are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The chief soothsayer is a male. The applicant presents him with betel nuts, fruit, flowers, and money. The soothsayer bathes, and sits in front of his house smeared with black, white, red, and other colours. His wife, or some other female, kindles a fire, and throws frankincense into it. He beats his drum, and sings, while a woman from within repeats the chant in a shrill voice. The songs are in praise of the deity, at whose and the soothsayer's feet the applicant prostrates himself and invokes their aid. The soothsayer feels inspired, and addresses the supplicant thus: "You have neglected me. You do not worship me. Propitiate me adequately, or ruin is yours." The future is predicted in song. In these predictions the rural folk place abundant faith.
The Yānādis bury their dead. The corpse is laid on leaves in front of the hut, washed and clad. Pēlalu (parched rice) is thrown over the corpse by the son and all the agnates. It is eventually placed on a bier, covered with a new cloth, and carried to the burial ground, by the sons, or, in the absence thereof, the sapindas. At a fixed spot near the grave, on which
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at the chatties, and, with the twig, sprinkle themselves first with the ash-water, and then with the turmeric-water. Inside the hut a lighted lamp, fed with gingelly oil, is set up, before which those who enter make obeisance before eating.
The chinnadinamu ceremony, whereof notice is given by the Bathyasthadu, is usually held on the third day-after death. Every group (gudem) or village has its own Bathyasthudu, specially appointed, whose duty it is to convey the news of death, and puberty of girls, to all the relatives. Tupākis will never nominate a Tupāki as their Bathyastha, but will select from a Mēkala or any sept except their own.
On the morning of the chinnadinamu, the eldest son of the deceased cooks rice in a new pot, and makes curries and cakes according to his means. These are made up into six balls, which are placed in a new basket, and taken to the burial-ground. On reaching the spot where the cross-lines were drawn, a ball of rice is placed thereon, together with betel leaves and nuts and a copper coin. The Bathyasthadu remains in charge thereof, while those assembled proceed to the grave, whereon a pot of water is poured, and a stone planted at the spot beneath which the head lies. The stone is anointed with shikai (fruit of Acacia Concinna) and red powder, and milk poured over it, first by the widow or widower and then by the relations. ​This ceremony concluded, the son places a ball of rice at each corner of the grave, together with betel and money. Milk is poured over the remaining ball, which is wrapped in a leaf, and buried over the spot where the abdomen of the deceased is situated. Close to the grave, at the southern or head end, three stones are set up in the form of a triangle, whereon a new pot full of water is placed. A hole is made in the bottom of the pot, and the water trickles out towards the head of the corpse. This concludes the ceremony, and, as on the day of the funeral, purification by bathing, ash-water and turmeric-water, is carried out.
The peddadinamu ceremony is performed on the sixteenth, or some later day after death. As on the chinnadinamu, the son cooks rice in a new pot. Opposite the entrance to the hut a handful of clay is squeezed into a conical mass, representing the soul of the deceased, and stuck up on a platform. The eldest son, taking a portion of the cooked rice, spreads it on a leaf in front of the clay image, before which incense is burnt, and a lamp placed. The image, and the remainder of the food made up into four balls, are then carried by the son to a tank (pond). As soon as the relatives have assembled there, the recumbent effigy of a man is made, close to the edge of the tank, with the feet towards the north. The conical image is set up close to the head of the effigy, which is anointed by the relatives as at the chinnadinamu, except that no milk is poured over it. The four balls of rice are placed close to the hands and feet of the effigy, together with betel and money, and the son salutes it. The agnates then seat themselves in a row between the effigy and the water, with their hands behind their backs, so as to reach the effigy, which is moved slowly towards the water, into which it finally falls, and becomes ​disintegrated. The proceedings conclude with distribution of cloths and cheroots, and purification as before. The more prosperous Yānādis now engage a Brāhman to remove the pollution by sprinkling water over them. During the peddadinamu incessant music and drum- beating has been going on, and is continued till far into the night, and sometimes the ceremonial is made to last over two days, in order that the Yānādis may indulge in a bout of music and dancing.
The Yānādis are expert anglers, catching fish with a triangular net or wicker basket. They also excel in diving for and catching hold of fish concealed in crevices of rocks or buried in mud, and assist European sportsmen by marking down florikin. Those who are unable to count bring in a string with knots tied in it, to indicate the number of birds marked. They catch bandicoot rats by a method known as voodarapettuta. A pot is stuffed with grass, into which fire is thrown. The mouth of the pot is placed against the hole made by the bandicoot, and smoke blown into the hole through a small slit in the pot. The animal becomes suffocated, and tries to escape through the only aperture available, made for the occasion by the Yānādi, and, as it emerges, is killed. They are fearless in catching cobras, which they draw out of their holes without any fear of their fangs. They pretend to be under the protection of a charm, while so doing. A correspondent writes that a cobra was in his grounds, and his servant got a Yānādi, who had charge of the adjoining garden, to dislodge it. The man was anxious to catch it alive, and then, before killing it, carefully removed the poison-sac with a knife, and swallowed it as a protection against snake-bite.
The Yānādis are good shikāris (huntsmen), and devoid of fear in the jungle. They hold licenses under the ​Arms Act, and being good shots, are great at bagging tigers, leopards, porcupines, and other big and small game. After an unsuccessful beat for spotted deer, a friend informs me, the Yānādis engaged therein erected a cairn of twigs and stones several feet high, round which they danced with gradually quickening step, to the refrain in Telugu 'Nothing comes.' Then, to the same tune, they danced round it in the opposite direction. The incantation concluded, the beat was continued and a stag duly appeared on the scene — and was missed!
They gather honey from bee-hives on hill tops and cliffs which are precipitous and almost inaccessible, and perilous to reach. The man climbs down with the help of a plaited rope of pliant bamboo, fastened above to a peg driven firmly into a tree or other hard substance, and takes with him a basket and stick. He drives away the bees at the first swing by burning grass or brushwood beneath the hives. The next swing takes him closer to the hive, which he pokes with the stick. He receives the honey -comb in the basket, and the honey flows out of it into a vessel adjusted to it. When the basket and vessel are full, he shakes the rope, and is drawn up by the person in charge of it, who is almost always his wife's brother, so that there may be no foul play. He thus collects a considerable quantity of honey and wax, for which he receives only a subsistence wage from the contractor, who makes a big profit for himself.
The following list of minor forest products, chiefly collected by Government Yānādis, is given in the Nellore District Gazette: —
    Chay root (Oldenlandia umbellata), which, by a quaint misprint, appears as cheroot.
    Kanuga (Pongamia glabra). ​
    Sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus).
    Nux vomica (Strychnos Nux-vomica).
    Tangēdu (Cassia auriculata).
    Soap nut (Sapindus trifoliatus).
    Achilla weed (lichens).
    Ishwarac (Aristolochia indica).
    Vishabuddi (Sida carpinifolia).
    Kukkapala (Tylophora asthmatica).
    Honey.
    Rattan ( Calamus Rotang).
    Tamarind (Tamarindus indicus).
    Neredu (Eugenia Jambolana).
    Surati bark (Ventilago Madraspatana).
In the interests of the Yānādis it is laid down, in the Gazette, that "the Yānādi villages must be encouraged, and the people paid at least once a week for the produce they collect. This must be done by the maistry (overseer) going up and down the main ride every day during the collection season, checking the collections, and paying for them on the spot. The Yānādis will, of course, camp out in the reserve when collecting produce, and not return, as heretofore, every three days to Srīharikota, thus wasting 45 per cent, of their time in the mere coming and going, apart from the fact that, under the old system, the produce from some parts of the reserves was never collected at all, as no one visited them."
The Yānādis dance on festive occasions, at ceremonies, and occasionally for begging, smearing the body with turmeric, wearing flowers, singing meaningless songs, and drumming in rude fashion "dambukku, dambukku." Their only wind instrument is the bag-pipe, but they play on the snake charmer's reed as an accompaniment. Their dance is full of indecent suggestion. ​They have of late trained themselves for the stage, and there are several troupes of Bhāgavathulu.
To the Rev. G. N. Thomssen, of the Telugu Mission, Bapatla, I am indebted for the following account of a Yānādi dance. "Especially at night, they love to gather in some part of the jungle where they have their huts, and, having gathered a pile of palmyra leaves, burn them one by one as torches, while a number of men and women begin to dance their quaint, weird jungle dance, which is to represent the experiences of the hunters in their wanderings. The chief actors, or dancers, are dressed fantastically. They are almost nude, but dangling from their loins are palmyra baskets, in which they gather edible bulbs and roots, dead rats, snakes, etc., which are prized as something to fill the stomach. Suddenly the actors fell on the ground. One of them cries out ' thēlu ' (scorpion). Then the other asks where, and is shown the place where the scorpion is supposed to have stung the sufferer, while the choir sing: —
    Alas! the scorpion stings.
    O! O! the scorpion stings.
    Which finger? Ah! the middle one.
    As soon as I was stung,
    The poison into my head ascends.
    Ayo! Ayo! What shall I do?
    Bring down the poison with yilledu.
This chant is kept up for a long time, when suddenly another of the actors falls on the ground, and writhes like a snake. The Yānādis are a very supple race, and, when dancing, especially when writhing on the ground, one sees a display of muscular action that makes one believe that the human body is capable of all the twists and turns of a serpent. When the actor is representing the man bitten by a snake, one hears quaint cries while ​the snake is sought in the hair, ears, and nose, basket and loin-cloth. The choir now sings the following: —
    Come down to catch the snake,
    O! snake-charmer, behold the standing snake.
    Be sure the pipe sounds well.
    Come, come, with the big snakes in the basket.
    And the little ones in the lock of your hair.
    When I went down the bank of the Yerracheru,
    And saw the harvest cut.
    The cobra crawled beneath the harvester.
    Ayo! Ayo! Ayo!
To see this action song, and to hear these strange people, is one of the queerest experiences of native aboriginal life. The dancers, and the spectators who form the choir, all become very excited, and even the European, seeing the tamāsha (spectacle), is infected with the excitement. The actors are bathed in perspiration, but the dance is kept up nevertheless, and only when their large stock of palmyra leaf torches is exhausted will they stop and take their rest."
In their nomadic life the Yānādis have learnt by experience the properties and uses of herbs and roots, with which they treat fever, rheumatism, and other diseases. They have their own remedies for cobra bite and scorpion sting. It is said that the Yānādis alone are free from elephantiasis, which affects the remaining population of Srīharikota.
It is noted by the Rev. G. N. Thomssen that "while it has been impossible to gather these people into schools, because of their shyness and jungle wildness. Christian missionaries, especially the American Baptist missionaries, have succeeded in winning the confidence of these degraded children of nature, and many of them have joined the Christian Church. Some read and write well, and a few have even learned English. We have a ​small, but growing settlement of Christianised Yānādis at Bapatla."
To sum up the Yānādi. It is notorious that, in times of scarcity, he avoids the famine relief works, for the simple reason that he does not feel free on them. Nevertheless, a few are in the police service. Some are kāvalgars (watchmen), farm labourers, scavengers, stone-masons or bricklayers, others are pounders of rice, or domestic servants, and are as a rule faithful. They earn a livelihood also in various subsidiary ways, by hunting, fishing, cobra-charming, collecting honey or fuel, rearing and selling pigs, practicing medicine as quacks, and by thieving. " An iron implement," Mr. F. S. Mullaly writes, *called the sikkaloo kōl, is kept by them ostensibly for the purpose of digging roots, but it is really their jemmy, and used in the commission of burglary. It is an ordinary iron tool, pointed at both ends, one end being fitted in a wooden handle. With this they can dig through a wall noiselessly and quickly, and many houses are thus broken into in one night, until a good loot is obtained. House-breakings are usually committed during the first quarter of the moon. Yānādis confess their own crimes readily, but will never implicate accomplices. . . . Women are useful in the disposal of stolen property. At dusk they go round on their begging tours selling mats, which they make, and take the opportunity of dropping a word to the women of cheap things for sale, and the temptation is seldom resisted. Stolen property is also carried in their marketing baskets to the village grocer, the Kōmati. Among the wild (Adavi) Yānādis, women [are told off to acquire information while begging, but they chiefly rely on the liquor-shopkeepers for news, which may be turned to useful account."†
* ↑ * Manual of the Kurnool district.
* ↑ † Catalogue Raisonn6 of Oriental Manuscripts, III, 1862.
* ↑ • Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency, 1892.
* ↑ † This note is based on an article by Mr. Ranga Rao, with additions.