Andi

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This article is an excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d’Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa,Romana di Anthropologia Assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. Government Press, Madras 1909.

Āndi

In a note on Āndis in the Madras Census Report, 1901, Mr. W. Francis writes that “for a Brāhman or an ascetic, mendicancy was always considered an honourable profession, to which no sort of shame attached. Manu says ‘a Brāhman should constantly shun worldly honour, as he would shun poison, and rather constantly seek disrespect as he would seek nectar’; and every Brāhman youth was required to spend part of his life as a beggar. The Jains and Buddhists held the same views. The Hindu Chattrams19 and Uttupuras, the Jain Pallis, and the Buddhist Vihāras owe their origin to this attitude, they being originally intended for the support of the mendicant members of these religions. But persons of other than the priestly and religious classes were expected to work for their living, and were not entitled to relief in these institutions. Begging among such people—unless, as in the case of the Pandārams and Āndis, a religious flavour attaches to it—is still considered disreputable. The percentage of beggars in the Tamil districts to the total population is .97, or more than twice what it is in the Telugu country, while in Malabar it is as low as .09.

The Telugus are certainly not richer as a class than the Tamils, and the explanation of these differences is perhaps to be found in the fact that the south is more religiously inclined than the north, and has more temples and their connected charities (religion and charity go hand in hand in India), and so offers more temptation to follow begging as a profession. Āndis are Tamil beggars. They are really inferior to Pandārams, but the two terms are in [46]practice often indiscriminately applied to the same class of people. Pandārams are usually Vellālas by caste, but Āndis are recruited from all classes of Sūdras, and they consequently have various sub-divisions, which are named after the caste to which the members of each originally belonged, such as the Jangam Āndis, meaning beggars of the Jangam caste, and the Jōgi Āndis, that is, Āndis of the Jōgi caste. They also have occupational and other divisions, such as the Kōvil Āndis, meaning those who do service in temples, and the Mudavāndis or the lame beggars. Āndi is in fact almost a generic term. All Āndis are not beggars however; some are bricklayers, others are cultivators, and others are occupied in the temples. They employed Brāhman priests at their ceremonies, but all of them eat meat and drink alcohol. Widows and divorcées may marry again. Among the Tinnevelly Āndis, the sister of the bridegroom ties the tāli (marriage badge) round the bride’s neck, which is not usual.”

In the Madras Census Report, 1891, the Āndis are summed up as “beggars who profess the Saiva faith. They may be found in all the Tamil districts, begging from door to door, beating a small gong with a stick. The Āndis differ from most other castes, in that a person of any caste may join their community. Some of them officiate as priests in village temples, especially when large sacrifices of goats, buffaloes, and pigs are made. They usually bury the dead. They have returned 105 sub-divisions, of which the most important are the following:—Jangam, Kōmanāndi, Lingadāri, Mudavāndi, and Uppāndi. Kōmanam is the small loin cloth, and a Kōmanāndi goes naked, except for this slight concession to decency. Mudam means lame, and the Mudavāndis (q.v.) are allowed to claim any deformed child belonging to the Konga Vellāla caste. [47]The etymology of Uppāndi is difficult, but it is improbable that it has any connection with uppu, salt.

In the Tanjore Manual, it is noted that “in its ordinary acceptation the word Āndi means houseless beggars, and is applied to those who profess the Saiva faith. They go out every morning, begging for alms of uncooked rice, singing ballads or hymns. They play on a small gong called sēmakkalam with a stick, and often carry a conch shell, which they blow. They are given to drinking.”

It is recorded20 that “South Indian beggars are divided into two classes, Panjathāndi and Paramparaiāndi. The former are famine-made beggars, and the latter are beggars from generation to generation. The former, a common saying goes, would rob from the person of a child at a convenient opportunity, while the latter would jump into a well, and pick up a child which had fallen into it by an accident, and make it over to its parents.”

Āndi (a god) occurs as an exogamous section of Sirukudi Kallans.