# Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Kūdan

​Kūdan.—For the following note on the Kūdans,or "Kootans" of the west coast, I am indebted to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Aiyar*:—
The Kootans are agricultural labourers, and take part in every kind of work connected with agriculture, such as turning the soil, ploughing, sowing, manuring, weeding, ​transplanting, and the like. As soon as the monsoon is over, they work in gardens, turning the soil, watering, and fencing. They form one of the divisions of the slave castes, working under some landlord or farmer for a daily wage of an edangazhy of paddy (unhusked rice) during the rainy months of June, July, and August and of two edangazhis during the other months of the year. They receive, for the Ōnam and Vishu festivals, a para of paddy, some salt, cocoanuts, oil, and chillies. On the day of the village festival, every male gets a mundu (cloth) or two, and every female a kacha (cloth) or two,in addition to toddy and arrack (spirituous liquor), and the other articles mentioned above. They dress themselves in their cloths, and are treated to a sumptuous dinner. With shouts of joy, they attend, and take part in the village festival. When they fall ill, they are properly looked after by their masters, both on account of their good feelings towards them, and also of the loss of work they may have to sustain, should they be laid up for a long time. Whenever a landlord or farmer has more men than he can afford to give work and wages to, he generally lends their services to some one else on a pattom of four paras of paddy a year for a male, and three for a female. The new master gives them work and wages, and sends them back when they are no longer wanted. Should a Kootan run away from his master, he is brought back either by threat or mild word; but, should these fail, there is no remedy to force him back. In spite of the abolition of slavery some sixty years ago, the Kootans are in a state of bondage. They live in small huts with insufficient food, plodding on from day to day with no hope of improving their condition.Their huts are erected on four bamboo posts. The roofs are thatched, and the sides protected by mud walls, ​or covered with palm leaves. A bamboo framework, with similar leaves, serves the purpose of a door. There is a verandah in front. The Kootans have a few earthen and bamboo utensils for domestic use. They take rice kanji (gruel) prepared the previous night, with salt and chillies. They have some leisure at midday, during which they go to their huts, and take kanji with a fish or two boiled in it, or sometimes with some vegetable curry. At night, boiled rice, or kanji with fish or curry made of vegetables from their kitchen garden, form their chief food. All their provisions are acquired by exchange of paddy from a petty shop-keeper in their vicinity.
They eat and drink at the hands of all castes except Paraiyans, Pulayans, Ullādans, and Nāyādis. In some parts of the State, they approach the houses of Izhuvas, and no other castes eat with them. They have to keep at a distance of forty-eight feet from all high-caste Hindus. They are polluted by Pulayas, Nāyādis, and Ullādans, who have to stand at some distance from them. They may take water from the wells of Māppillas. They are their own barbers and washermen, and may approach the temple of their village goddess Kali on some special days, while, at other times, they have to stand far away.
When a girl attains puberty, she is lodged in a corner of the hut. The inmates thereof may neither touch nor approach her on the score of pollution. Four or seven girls, who are invited, bathe the girl on the first day. The pollution lasts for seven days, and, on the morning of the seventh day, seven girls take her to a tank (pond) or river to bathe. A kai-bali is waved round her face, and, as she bathes, it is floated on the water. On their return to the hut, the girls are fed, and allowed ​to depart with a present of an anna each. Their relatives, and others who are invited, are well entertained. A kai-bali is an offering held in the hand of a woman, and may take the form of a sacrificed fowl, plantain fruits, boiled rice, etc.
Girls are generally married after puberty. A Kootan can enter into a sambandham (alliance) with a woman of his own caste, or with a Pulaya woman. He has to bathe before he returns to his hut, if he should stay for the night with a woman of the latter caste. This proves that he belongs to a caste superior to that of the Pulayas, and the union resembles that of a Brāhman with a Sūdra woman. Should a woman of the Kootan caste mate with a Pulaya, she is at once turned out of caste. A Kootan, who wishes to enter into a sambandham with a woman of his own or the Pulaya caste, goes to her hut with one or two of his relations or friends, to recommend him to the parents of the woman to permit him to enter into conjugal relations with their daughter, or form kutikuduka. With their permission, they become a kind of husband and wife. In most cases, the will of the man and the woman is sufficient for the union. The woman generally stays with her parents, and very often her lover comes to her with his wages after the day's hard work, and stays with her for the night. Should she wish to accompany him to his hut, she does so with her wages in the evening. They exercise sexual license even before marriage. If a woman who has no open lover becomes pregnant, her fault is condoned when she mentions her lover's name. When one dislikes the other for some reason or other, they separate, and are at liberty to form new unions. Widows may remarry, and may even associate with their brothers-in-law. The Kootans follow the marumakkathāyam law of inheritance ​(in the female line). They have no property, except sometimes a sheep or a few fowls.
The Kootans believe in magic and sorcery. Mannāns and Muhammadan Māppillas are sometimes consulted, and these dupe them. They profess the lower forms of Hinduism, and worship the local village deity (Kāli), and the spirits of their ancestors, whom they represent by means of stones placed on a raised floor under a tree, and to whom boiled rice, parched grain, toddy, plantain fruits, and cocoanuts are offered at the Vishu and Onam festivals, and on Karkatakam, Thulam, and Makara Sankranti. Care is always taken to have the offerings served separately on leaves, lest the ancestors should quarrel with one another, and do them harm. Should illness, such as cholera, small-pox, or fever occur in a family, some fowls and an anna or two are offered at the temple to the goddess Bhagavathi, who is believed to be able to save them from the impending calamity.
When a member of the caste breathes his last, the landlord gives a spade to dig the grave, an axe or knife for cutting wood to serve as fuel if the corpse is to be burned, a piece of cloth for covering the dead body, and also some paddy and millet to meet the funeral expenses. A cocoanut is broken, and placed on the neck of the corpse, which is covered with the cloth, and carried on a bier to the burial-ground, which is sprinkled over with water mixed with turmeric. When the funeral is over, the people who attended it, including the relatives and friends of the deceased, bathe, and go to the hut of the dead person, where they are served with kanji and toddy, after which they depart. The members of the family, and close relatives of the deceased, fast for the night. In the case of a man dying, his nephew is the chief ​mourner, while, in that of a woman, her eldest son and daughter are the chief mourners, who do not go to work for two weeks. The chief mourners bathe in the early morning, cook a small quantity of rice, and offer it to the spirit of the deceased. It is eaten up by the crows. This is continued for fourteen days, and, on the fourteenth night, all fast. On the fifteenth morning, they regard themselves as having been cleansed from the pollution. All the castemen of the kara (settlement)are invited, and bring with them rice, curry-stuffs, and toddy. Their Enangan cleans and sweeps the hut,while the rest go to the grave-yard, turn the earth, and make it level. They bathe, and the Enangans sprinkle cow-dung water on the grave. They return home, and partake of a sumptuous meal, after which they all take leave of the chief mourner, who observes the diksha,bathes in the early morning, and offers the bali (ball of rice) before he goes to work. This he continues for a whole year, after which he gets shaved, and celebrates a feast in honour of the dead.