# Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Oddē

​Oddē.— The Oddēs or Voddas, who are commonly called Wudders, are summed up by Mr. H. A. Stuart * as being "the navvies of the country, quarrying stone, sinking wells, constructing tank bunds, and executing other kinds of earthwork more rapidly than any other class, so that they have got almost a monopoly of the trade. They are Telugu people, who came originally from Orissa, whence their name. Were they more temperate, they might be in very good circumstances, but, as soon as they have earned a small sum, they strike work and have a merry-making, in which all get much intoxicated, and the carouse continues as long as funds last. They are very ignorant, not being able even to calculate how much work they have done, and trusting altogether to their employer's honesty. They are an open-hearted, ​good-natured lot, with loose morals, and no restrictions regarding food, but they are proud, and will only eat in the houses of the higher castes, though most Sūdras look down upon them. Polygamy and divorce are freely allowed to men, and women are only restricted from changing partners after having had eighteen. Even this limit is not set to the men."
Women who have had seven husbands are said to be much respected, and their blessing on a bridal pair is greatly praised. There is a common saying that a widow may mount the marriage dais seven times.
In the Census Report, 1871, the Oddēs are described as being "the tank-diggers, well-sinkers, and road-makers of the country who live in detached settlements, building their huts in conical or bee-hive form, with only a low door of entrance. They work in gangs on contract, and every one, except very old and very young, takes a share in the work. The women carry the earth in baskets, while the men use the pick and spade. The babies are usually tied up in cloths, which are suspended, hammock fashion, from the boughs of trees. They are employed largely in the Public Works Department, and in the construction and maintenance of railways. They are rather a fine-looking race, and all that I have come across are Vaishnavites in theory, wearing the trident prominently on their foreheads, arms, and breasts. The women are tall and straight. They eat every description of animal food, and especially pork and field-rats, and all drink spirituous liquors."
Of the Oddēs, the following brief accounts are given in the Nellore, Coimbatore, and Madura Manuals: —
Nellore. — " These people are the tank-diggers. They sometimes engage in the carrying trade, but beyond this, they only move about from place to place ​as they have work. The word Voddē or Oddē is said to be a corruption of the Sanskrit Odhra, the name for the country now called Orissa, and the people are ordinarily supposed to have emigrated from the Uriya country. Besides Telugu, they are said to speak a peculiar dialect among themselves; and, if this should turn out to be Uriya, the question might be regarded as settled. The laborious occupation of the men tends to develop their muscles. I have seen some very fine men among the tribe."
Coimbatore. — " Numerous, owing to the hard nature of the subsoil and the immense and increasing number of irrigation wells, which demand the labour of strong men accustomed to the use of the crowbar, pick-axe, and powder. They are black, strong, and of good physique, highly paid, and live on strong meat and drink."
Madura. — "An itinerant caste of tank-diggers and earth-workers. They are Telugus, and are supposed to have come southward in the time of the Nāyyakkans. Possibly Tirumala sent for them to dig out his great teppakulam, and assist in raising gopuras. They are a strong, hard-working class, but also drunken, gluttonous, and vicious. And but little faith can be placed in their most solemn promises. They will take advances from half a dozen employers within a week, and work for none of them, if they can possibly help it."
ODDĒS.
some are very prosperous. For example, there are a few Oddēs near Kuppam in the North Arcot district, whose credit is so good that any rich merchant would advance them large sums of money. A wealthy Oddē, worth nearly a lakh of rupees, worried my assistant for half an anna, wherewith to purchase some betel leaf. It is recorded by Bishop Whitehead,* in the diary of a tour in the Nizam's Dominions, that, at Khammamett, "the Waddas who have become Christians have for some time past possessed land and cattle of their own, and are well-to-do people. One of the headmen, who was presented to me after service, said that he had 80 acres of land of his own."
Some of the timber work in the Nallamalai hills, in the Kurnool district, is done by Oddēs, who fell trees, and keep bulls for dragging the timber out of the forests. Under the heading "Uppara and Vadde Vandlu," the Rev. J. Cain gives † the following account of the distribution of wages. "The tank-diggers had been paid for their work, and, in apportioning the share of each labourer, a bitter dispute arose because one of the women had not received what she deemed her fair amount. On enquiry it turned out that she was in an interesting condition, and therefore could claim not only her own, but also a share for the expected child."
A legend is current to the effect that, long ago, the Oddēs were ordered to dig a tank, to enable the Dēvatas ​and men to obtain water. This was done, and they demanded payment, which was made in the form of a pinch of the sacred ashes of Siva to each workman, in lieu of money. When they reached home, the ashes turned into money, but they were not satisfied with the amount, and clamoured for more. The god, growing angry, cursed them thus: " What you obtain in the forests by digging shall be lost as soon as you reach high ground." Parvati, taking pity on them, asked Siva to give them large sums of money. Whereon Siva, hollowing out a measuring-rod, filled it with varāhans (gold coins), and gave it to the maistry. He also filled a large pumpkin with money, and buried it in a field, where the Oddēs were working. The measuring-rod was pawned by the maistry for toddy. The Oddēs, noticing the raised mound caused by the burying of the pumpkin, left it untouched to show the depth that they had dug. A buffalo, which was grazing in a field close by, exposed the pumpkin, which the Oddēs, not suspecting its contents, sold to a Kōmati.
According to another legend, the Oddēs were employed by God, who had assumed a human form, and was living amongst them. On one occasion, God had to perform a certain ceremony, so he gave the Oddēs an advance of three days' pay, and ordered them not to worry him. This they failed to do, and were accordingly laid under a curse to remain poor for ever.
A further legend is current among the Oddēs to the effect that, when Siva and Parvati were walking one sultry day upon the earth, they got very hot and thirsty. The drops of perspiration which fell from Siva were changed by him into a man with a pick and crowbar, while those falling from Parvati turned into a woman carrying a basket. The man and woman quickly sunk ​a well, with the cooling waters of which the god and goddess refreshed themselves, and in gratitude promised the labourers certain gifts, the nature of which is not now known, but neither was satisfied, and both grumbled, which so incensed Siva that he cursed them, and vowed that they and their descendants should live by the sweat of their brows.
Among the Oddēs, the following sayings are current: —
The Oddēs live with their huts on their heads (i.e., low huts), with light made from gathered sticks, on thin conji (gruel), blessing those who give, and cursing those who do not.
Cobras have poison in their fangs, and Oddēs in their tongues.
Though wealth accumulates like a mountain, it soon disappears like mist.
At recent times of census, the following occupational sub-divisions were returned: — Kallu or Rāti (stoneworkers) and Mannu (earth-workers), Manti or Bailu (open space), between which there is said to be no intermarriage. The endogamous sub-divisions Nātapūram and Ūrū (village men), Bidāru (wanderers), and Konga (territorial) were also returned. Bēri was given as a sub-caste, and Oddērāzu as a synonym for the caste name. In Ganjam, Bolāsi is said to be a sub-division of the Oddēs. The caste titles are Nāyakan and Boyan. The similarity of the latter word to Boer was fatal, for, at the time of my visit to the Oddēs, the South African war was just over, and they were afraid that I was going to get them transported, to replace the Boers who had been exterminated. Being afraid, too, of my evil eye, they refused to fire a new kiln of bricks for the new club chambers at Coimbatore until I had taken my departure. ​It is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, that "the caste divides itself into two main branches, the Kallu and Mannu Vaddas, between whom there is no social intercourse of any kind, or intermarriage. The former are stone-workers and builders, and more robust than the latter, and are very dexterous in moving large masses of stone by rude and elementary mechanical appliances. They are hardy, and capable of great exertion and endurance. The Kallu Vaddas consider themselves superior to the Mannu Vaddas (earth diggers). Unlike the Kallu Vaddas, the Mannu Vaddas or Bailu Vaddas are a nomadic tribe, squatting wherever they can find any large earthwork, such as deepening and repairing tanks, throwing up embankments, and the like. They are expert navvies, turning out within a given time more hard work than any other labouring class." The Mannu Oddēs eat rats, porcupines, and scaly ant-eaters or pangolins (Manis pentadactyla).
Of exogamous septs, the following may be cited: —
| Bandollu, rock. | Sampangi (Michelia |
| Bochchollu, hairs. | Champaca). |
| Cheruku, sugarcane. | Thātichettu, palmyra palm. |
| Enumala, buffalo. | Bandāri (Dodonœa viscosa). |
| Goddali, axe. | Dēvala, belonging to god. |
| Gampa, basket. | Donga, thief. |
| Idakottu, break-down. | Malle, jasmine. |
| Jambu (Eugenia | Panthipattu, pig-catcher. |
| Jambolana). | Panthikottu, pig-killer. |
| Kōmāli, buffoon. | Upputhōluvaru, salt-carrier. |
| Santha, a fair. | Pitakāla, dais on which a |
| Sivarātri, a festival, | priest sits, |
| Manchāla, cot. | Thappata, drum. |
At the Mysore census, 1901, a few returned gōtras, such as arashina (turmeric), huvvina (flowers), honna (gold), and akshantala (rice grain). ​"The women of the Vaddevandlu section of the tank-digger caste," the Rev. J. Cain writes,* "only wear the glass bracelets on the left arm, as, in years gone by (according to their own account), a seller of these bracelets was one day persuading them to buy, and, leaving the bracelets on their left arms, went away, promising to return with a fresh supply for their right arms. As yet he has not re-appeared." But an old woman explained that they have to use their right arm when at work, and if they wore bangles on it, they would frequently get broken.
In some places, tattooing on the forehead with a central vertical line, dots, etc., is universally practiced, because, according to the Oddē, they should bear tattoo marks as a proof of their life on earth (bhulōkam) when they die. Oddēs, calling themselves Pachcha Botlu, are itinerant tattooers in the Ganjam, Vizagapatam and Godāvari districts. While engaged in performing the operation, they sing Telugu songs, to divert the attention of those who are being operated on.
The office of headman, who is known as Yejamānadu, Samayagādu, or Pedda (big) Bōyadu, is hereditary, and disputes, which cannot be settled at a council meeting, are referred to a Balija Dēsai Chetti, whose decision is final. In some cases, the headman is assisted by officers called Chinna (little) Bōyadu, Sankūthi, and Banthari. An Oddē, coming to a place where people are assembled with shoes on, is fined, and described as gurram ekki vachchinavu (having come on a horse). The Oddēs are very particular about touching leather, and beating with shoes brings pollution. Both the beater and the person beaten have to undergo a purificatory ceremony, and ​pay a fine. When in camp at Dimbhum, in the Coimbatore district, I caught hold of a ladle, to show my friend Dr. Rivers what were the fragrant contents of a pot, in which an Oddē woman was cooking the evening meal. On returning from a walk, we heard a great noise pro- ceeding from the Oddē men who had meanwhile returned from work, and found the woman seated apart on a rock, and sobbing. She had been excommunicated, not because I touched the ladle, but because she had afterwards touched the pot. After much arbitration, I paid up the necessary fine, and she was received back into her caste.
When a girl reaches puberty, she is confined in a special hut, in which a piece of iron, margosa leaves (Melia Azadirachta), sticks of Strychnos Nux-vomica, and the arka plant (Calotropis gigantea) are placed, to ward off evil spirits. For fear of these spirits she is not allowed to eat meat, though eggs are permitted. On the seventh day, a fowl is killed, waved in front of the girl, and thrown away. At the end of the period of pollution, the hut is burnt down. Sometimes, when the girl bathes on the first day, a sieve is held over her head, and water poured through it. In some places, on the eleventh day, chicken broth, mixed with arrack (liquor), is administered, in order to make the girl's back and waist strong. The hen, from which the broth is made, must be a black one, and she must have laid eggs for the first time. The flesh is placed in a mortar, pounded to a pulp, and boiled, with the addition of condiments, and finally the arrack.
Both infant and adult marriages are practiced. The marriage ceremony, in its simplest form, is, according to Mr. F. S. Mullaly,* not a tedious one, the bride and ​bridegroom walking three times round a stake placed in the ground. In the more elaborate ritual, on the betrothal day, the bride-price, etc., are fixed, and an adjournment is made to the toddy shop. The marriage rites are, as a rule, very simple, but, in some places, the Oddēs have begun to imitate the marriage ceremonies of the Balijas. On the third day, the contracting couple go in procession to a tank, where the bridegroom digs up some mud, and the bride carries three basketfuls thereof to a distance. The following story is narrated in connection with their marriage ceremonies. A certain king wanted an Oddē to dig a tank, which was subsequently called Nidimamidi Koththacheruvu, and promised to pay him in varahālu (gold coins). When the work was completed, the Oddē went to the king for his money, but the king had no measure for measuring out the coins. A person was sent to fetch one, and on his way met a shepherd, who had on his shoulders a small bamboo stick, which could easily be converted into a measure. Taking this stick, he returned to the king, who measured out the coins, which fell short of the amount expected by the Oddēs, who could not pay the debts, which they had contracted. So they threw the money into the tank, saying "Let the tank leak, and the land lie fallow for ever." All were crying on account of their misery and indebtedness. A Balija, coming across them, took pity on them, and gave them half the amount required to discharge their debts. After a time they wanted to marry, and men were sent to bring the bottu (marriage badge), milk-post, musicians, etc. But they did not return, and the Balija suggested the employment of a pestle for the milk-post, a string of black beads for the bottu, and betel leaves and areca nuts instead of gold coins for the oli (bride-price). ​The Oddēs are in some places Vaishnavites, in others Saivites, but they also worship minor deities, such as Ellamma, Ankamma, etc., to whom goats and sheep are sacrificed, not with a sword or knife, but by piercing them with a spear or crowbar. Writing at the commencement of the nineteenth century, Buchanan states * that "although the Woddaru pray to Vishnu, and offer sacrifices to Marima, Gungama, Durgama, Putalima, and Mutialima, yet the proper object of worship belonging to the caste is a goddess called Yellama, one of the destroying spirits. The image is carried constantly with their baggage; and in her honour there is an annual feast, which lasts three days. On this occasion they build a shed, under which they place the image, and one of the tribe officiates as priest or pujāri. For these three days offerings of brandy, palm wine, rice, and flowers are made to the idol, and bloody sacrifices are performed before the shed. The Woddas abstain from eating the bodies of the animals sacrificed to their own deity, but eat those which they sacrifice to the other Saktis."
ODDĒ HUT.
waist thread, whereas a widow is taken to the water's edge, and sits on a winnow. Her bangles are broken, and the bottu is snapped by her brother. Water is then poured over her head three times through the winnow. After bathing, she goes home, and sits in a room with a lamp, and may see no one till the following morning. She is then taken to one or more temples, and made to pull the tail of a cow three times. The Oddēs of Coimbatore, in the Tamil country, have elaborated both the marriage and funeral ceremonies, and copy those of the Balijas and Vellālas. But they do not call in the assistance of a Brāhman purōhit.
A woman, found guilty of immorality, is said to have to carry a basketful of earth from house to house, before she is re-admitted to the caste.
The following note on a reputed cure for snake poisoning used by Oddēs was communicated to me by Mr. Gustav Haller. "A young boy, who belonged to a gang of Oddēs, was catching rats, and put his hand into a bamboo bush, when a cobra bit him, and clung to his finger when he was drawing his hand out of the bush. I saw the dead snake, which was undoubtedly a cobra. I was told that the boy was in a dying condition, when a man of the same gang said that he would cure him. He applied a brown pill to the wound, to which it stuck without being tied. The man dipped a root into water, and rubbed it on the lad's arm from the shoulder downwards. The arm, which was benumbed, gradually became sensitive, and at last the fingers could move, and the pill ​dropped off. The moist root was rubbed on to the boy's tongue and into the corner of the eye before commencing operations. The man said that a used pill is quite efficacious, but should be well washed to get rid of the poison. In the manufacture of the pill, five leaves of a creeper are dried, and ground to powder. The pill must be inserted for nine days between the bark and cambium of a margosa tree (Melia Azadirachta) during the new moon, when the sap ascends." The creeper is Tinospora cordifolia (gul bēl) and the roots are apparently those of the same climbing shrub. There is a widespread belief that gul bēl growing on a margosa tree is more efficacious as a medicine than that which is found on other kinds of trees.
The insigne of the caste at Conjeeveram is a spade.*"
In the Ceded Districts," Mr. F. S. Mullaly writes, †" some of the Wudders are known as Donga Wuddiwars, or thieving Wudders, from the fact of their having taken to crime as a profession. Those of the tribe who have adopted criminal habits are skilful burglars and inveterate robbers. They are chiefly to be found among the stone Wudder class, who, besides their occupation of building walls, are also skilful stone-cutters. By going about under the pretence of mending grindstones, they obtain much useful information as to the houses to be looted, or parties of travellers to be attacked. In committing a highway robbery or dacoity, they are always armed with stout sticks. Burglary by Wudders may usually be traced to them, if careful observations are made of the breach in the wall. The implement is ordinarily the crowbar used by them in their profession as stone-workers, and the blunt marks of the crowbar ​are, as a rule, noticeable. They will never confess, or implicate another of their fraternity, and, should one of them be accused of a crime, the women are most clamorous, and inflict personal injuries on themselves and their children, to deter the police from doing their duty, and then accuse them of torture. Women and children belonging to criminal gangs are experts in committing grain thefts from kalams or threshing-floors, where they are engaged in harvest time, and also in purloining their neighbours' poultry. Stolen property is seldom found with Wudders. Their receivers are legion, but they especially favour liquor shopkeepers in the vicinity of their encampment. Instances have been known of valuable jewellery being exchanged for a few drams of arrack. In each Wudder community, there is a headman called the Ganga Rāja, and, in the case of criminal gangs of these people, he receives two shares of spoil. Identifiable property is altered at once, many of the Wudders being themselves able to melt gold and silver jewellery, which they dispose of for about one-tenth of the value."
It has been said of the navvies in England that "many persons are quite unaware that the migratory tribe of navvies numbers about 100,000, and moves about from point to point, wherever construction works are going forward, such as railways, harbour, canals, reservoirs and drainage works. Generally the existence of these works is unknown to the public until their completion. They then come into use, but the men who risked their lives to make them are gone nobody knows where. They are public servants, upon whose labours the facilities of modern civilised life largely depend, and surely, therefore, their claim on our sympathies is universal." And these remarks apply ​with equal force to the Oddēs, who numbered 498,388 in the Madras Presidency at the census, 1901.
In the Census Report, 1901, Oddērāzulu is given as a synonym of Oddē. One of the sections of the Yerukalas is also called Oddē. Vadde (Oddē) Cakali (Tsākala) is recorded, in the Vizagapatam Manual, as the name for those who wash clothes, and carry torches and palanquins.
* ↑ * Manual of the North Arcot district.
* ↑ * Madras Dioc. Magazine, April, 1908.
* ↑ † Ind. Ant., VIII, 1879.
* ↑ * Ind. Ant., V, 1876.
* ↑ * Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras presidency.
* ↑ * Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar.
* ↑ * J. S. F. Mackenzie. Ind. Ant., IV, 1875.
* ↑ † op. cit.