# Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Pentiya

​Pentiya.— The Pentiyas also call themselves Holuva and Halabā or Halbā. In the Madras Census Report, 1901, they are called Pantia as well as Pentiya, and described as Oriya betel-leaf (panno) sellers. Their occupation, in the Jeypore Agency tracts, is that of cultivators. According to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao, to whom I am indebted for the following note, numbers of them migrated thither from Bustar, and settled at Pentikonna, and are hence called Pentikonaya or Pentiya. Their language is Halba, which is easily understood by those who speak Oriya. They are divided into two endogamous sections, called Bodo (big or genuine), and Sanno (little), of whom the latter are said to be illegitimate descendants of the former. The Bodos are further sub-divided into a series of septs, e.g., Kurum (tortoise), Bhāg(tiger), Nāg(cobra), and Sūrya(sun). The caste is highly organized, and the head of a local centre is ​called Bhatha Nāyako. He is assisted by a Pradhāni, an Umriya Nāyako, and Dolāyi. The caste messenger is called Cholāno, and he carries a silver baton when he summons the castemen to a meeting. An elaborate ceremony is performed when a person, who has been tried by the caste council, is to be received back into the caste. He is accompanied to the bank of a stream, where his tongue is burnt with a gold or silver wire or ornament by the Bhatha Nāyako, and some offerings from the Jagannātha temple at Pūri are given to him. He is then taken home, and provides a feast, at which the Nāyako has the privilege of eating first. He has further to make a present of cloths to the assembled elders, and the four heads of the caste receive a larger quantity than the others. The feast over, he is again taken, carrying some cooked rice, to the stream, and with it pushed therein. This ceremonial bath frees him from pollution.
Girls are married either before or after puberty. A man can claim his paternal aunt's daughter in marriage. The bridegroom's party proceed, with the bridegroom, to the bride's village, and take up their abode in a separate house. They then take three cloths for the bride's mother, three rupees for her father, and a cloth and two annas for each of her brothers, and present them together with rice, liquor, and other articles. Pandals (booths) are erected in front of the quarters of the bridal couple, that of the bridegroom being made of nine, and that of the bride of five sāl (Shorea robusta) poles, to which a pot containing myrabolams (Terminalia fruits) and rice is tied. The couple bathe, and the bridegroom proceeds to the house of the bride. The Dēsāri, who officiates, dons the sacred thread, and divides the pandal into two by means of a screen or curtain. The couple ​go seven times round the pandal, and the screen is removed. They then enter the pandal, and the Dēsāri links their little fingers together. The day's ceremony concludes with a feast. On the following day, the bride is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, and they sprinkle each other with turmeric water. They then bathe in a stream or river. Another feast is held, with much drinking, and is followed by a wild dance. The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a younger brother may marry the widow of his elder brother. The dead are burnt, and death pollution is observed for ten days, during which the relatives of the deceased are fed by members of another sept. On the tenth day a caste feast takes place.
The Pentiyas are said * to distribute rice, and other things, to Brāhmans, once a year on the new-moon day in the month of Bhādrapadam (September-October), and to worship a female deity named Kāmilli on Saturdays. No one, I am informed, other, I presume, than a Pentiya, would take anything from a house where she is worshipped, lest the goddess should accompany him, and require him to become her devotee.
The caste title is Nāyako.