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Praise for C# 2.0: Practical Guide for Programmers !

Great book for any C# developer! It describes the basic programming language with EBNF
notation and provides a number of practical programming tips and best practices on
program design that enable you to utilize the C# language features effectively.
– Adarsh Khare, Software Design Engineer, Microsoft

C# 2.0: A Practical Guide provides an amazing breadth of information in a compact and

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C# 2.0: Practical Guide
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C# 2.0: Practical Guide
for Programmers

Michel de Champlain
DeepObjectKnowledge

Brian G. Patrick
Trent University

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08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
To Hélène, the air that I breathe
— Michel

With love to my parents, Lionel and Chrissie

— Brian
Contents

Preface xv

1 Introducing C# and .NET 1

1.1 What Is C#? 1
1.2 What Is the .NET Framework? 2
1.2.1 The .NET Virtual Machine: Common Language
Runtime 4
1.2.2 The .NET Virtual Code: Intermediate Language 4
1.2.3 The .NET Assemblies: Applications and/or
Components 4
1.3 Project Exercise 5
1.4 Syntax Notation 6

2 Classes, Objects, and Namespaces 9

2.1 Classes and Objects 10
2.1.1 Declaring Classes 10
2.1.2 Creating Objects 11
2.2 Access Modifiers 12
2.2.1 Controlling Access to Classes 12
2.2.2 Controlling Access to Class Members 12
2.3 Namespaces 14
2.3.1 Declaring Namespaces 14
2.3.2 Importing Namespaces 16
2.3.3 Controlling the Global Namespace 17
2.3.4 Resolving Namespace Conflicts 18

ix
x Contents ■

2.4 Compilation Units 19

2.4.1 Presenting a Complete C# Program 19
2.4.2 Declaring Partial Classes 21
2.5 Compilation and Execution 22
2.5.1 Using Assemblies for Separate Compilation 23
2.5.2 Revisiting Access Modifiers 24
2.5.3 Adding XML Documentation 26

3 Class Members and Class Reuse 29

3.1 Fields and Methods 29
3.1.1 Invoking Methods 30
3.1.2 Accessing Fields 32
3.1.3 Declaring Constructors 32
3.1.4 Declaring Destructors 36
3.2 Parameter Passing 37
3.2.1 Passing Arguments by Value 37
3.2.2 Passing Arguments by Reference 38
3.2.3 Passing a Variable Number of Arguments 41
3.2.4 Using the this Reference 42
3.2.5 Overloading Methods 45
3.3 Class Reuse 45
3.3.1 Using Aggregation 46
3.3.2 Using Inheritance 46
3.3.3 Comparing Aggregation and Inheritance 50
3.3.4 Using Protected Methods 51

4 Unified Type System 55

4.1 Reference Types 56
4.2 Value Types 56
4.2.1 Simple Value Types 57
4.2.2 Nullable Types 58
4.2.3 Structure Types 60
4.2.4 Enumeration Types 61
4.3 Literals 63
4.4 Conversions 64
4.5 Boxing and Unboxing 66
4.6 The Object Root Class 67
4.6.1 Calling Virtual Methods 67
4.6.2 Invoking the Object Constructor 69
4.6.3 Using Object Instance Methods 69
4.6.4 Using Object Static Methods 75
4.7 Arrays 76
4.7.1 Creating and Initializing Arrays 77
 ■ Contents xi

4.7.2 Accessing Arrays 78

4.7.3 Using Rectangular and Jagged Arrays 78
4.8 Strings 79
4.8.1 Invoking String Methods 80
4.8.2 Concat, IndexOf, and Substring Methods 80
4.8.3 The StringBuilder Class 81

5 Operators, Assignments, and Expressions 83

5.1 Operator Precedence and Associativity 83
5.2 Assignment Operators 84
5.2.1 Simple Assignment 84
5.2.2 Multiple Assignments 86
5.3 Conditional Operator 86
5.4 Null Coalescing Operator 87
5.5 Conditional Logical Operators 88
5.6 Logical Operators 89
5.6.1 Logical Operators as Conditional Logical Operators 90
5.6.2 Compound Logical Assignment Operators 91
5.7 Equality Operators 92
5.7.1 Simple Value Type Equality 92
5.7.2 Object Reference and Value Equality 93
5.8 Relational Operators 94
5.8.1 Type Testing 95
5.9 Shift Operators 96
5.9.1 Compound Shift Assignment Operators 97
5.10 Arithmetic Operators 97
5.10.1 Multiplicative Operators 97
5.10.2 Additive Operators 98
5.10.3 checked/unchecked Operators 99
5.10.4 Compound Arithmetic Assignment Operators 100
5.11 Unary Operators 101
5.11.1 Prefix and Postfix Operators 102
5.11.2 Explicit Casts 103
5.12 Other Primary Operators 103
5.13 Overloadable Operators 104

6 Statements and Exceptions 107

6.1 Block Statement 107
6.2 Declaration Statements 108
6.3 Embedded Statements 109
6.3.1 Expression and Empty Statements 109
6.3.2 Selection Statements 110
xii Contents ■

6.3.3 Iteration Statements 112

6.3.4 Jump Statements 114
6.3.5 checked/unchecked Statements 116
6.3.6 lock and using Statements 116
6.4 Exceptions and Exception Handling 117
6.4.1 What Is an Exception? 117
6.4.2 Raising and Handling Exceptions 118
6.4.3 Using the throw Statement 119
6.4.4 Using the try-catch Statement 121
6.4.5 An Extended Example 124

7 Advanced Types, Polymorphism, and Accessors 129

7.1 Delegates and Events 130
7.1.1 Using Delegates for Callbacks 130
7.1.2 Using Delegates for Events 133
7.1.3 Using Delegates for Anonymous Methods 135
7.1.4 Using Delegate Inferences 136
7.2 Abstract Classes 136
7.2.1 Declaring Abstract Classes 136
7.2.2 Implementing Abstract Classes 137
7.2.3 Using Abstract Classes 138
7.3 Interfaces 138
7.3.1 Declaring Interfaces 139
7.3.2 Implementing Interfaces 140
7.3.3 Using Interface Methods 141
7.4 Polymorphism and Virtual Methods 143
7.4.1 Using the Modifiers override and virtual 143
7.4.2 Adding and Removing Polymorphism 145
7.4.3 Using Dynamic Binding 146
7.5 Properties 150
7.5.1 Declaring get and set Accessors 150
7.5.2 Declaring Virtual and Abstract Properties 151
7.5.3 Declaring Static Properties 153
7.5.4 Declaring Properties with Accessor Modifiers 154
7.6 Indexers 155
7.7 Nested Types 157
7.8 Other Modifiers 159

8 Collections and Generics 163

8.1 Collections 163
8.1.1 Cloning Collections 165
8.1.2 Using List-Type Collections 165
 ■ Contents xiii

8.1.3 Using Dictionary-Type Collections 173

8.1.4 Using Iterator Blocks and yield Statements 178
8.2 Generics 180
8.2.1 Defining Generics 181
8.2.2 Declaring Generic Objects 183

9 Resource Disposal, Input/Output, and Threads 185

9.1 Resource Disposal 185
9.2 Input/Output 188
9.2.1 Using Binary Streams 188
9.2.2 Using Byte Streams 190
9.2.3 Using Character Streams 191
9.2.4 Reading XML Documents from Streams 192
9.3 Threads 193
9.3.1 Examining the Thread Class and Thread States 193
9.3.2 Creating and Starting Threads 194
9.3.3 Rescheduling and Pausing Threads 195
9.3.4 Suspending, Resuming, and Stopping Threads 196
9.3.5 Joining and Determining Alive Threads 198
9.3.6 Synchronizing Threads 200

10 Reflection and Attributes 211

10.1 Reflection 211
10.1.1 Examining the Reflection Hierarchy 212
10.1.2 Accessing Assemblies 212
10.2 Attributes 215
10.2.1 Using Attributes for Exception Serialization 216
10.2.2 Using Attributes for Conditional Compilation 217
10.2.3 Using Attributes for Obsolete Code 218
10.2.4 Defining User-Defined Attributes 218
10.2.5 Using User-Defined Attributes 220
10.2.6 Extracting Attributes Using Reflection 221
10.3 Where to Go from Here 223

A C# 2.0 Grammar 227

A.1 Lexical Grammar 227
A.1.1 Line Terminators 228
A.1.2 White Space 228
A.1.3 Comments 228
A.1.4 Tokens 228
A.1.5 Unicode Character Escape Sequences 228
A.1.6 Identifiers 228
xiv Contents ■

A.1.7 Keywords 229

A.1.8 Literals 229
A.1.9 Operators and Punctuators 230
A.1.10 Preprocessing Directives 230
A.2 Syntactic Grammar 231
A.2.1 Namespace, Type, and Simple Names 231
A.2.2 Types 231
A.2.3 Variables 232
A.2.4 Expressions 232
A.2.5 Statements 233
A.2.6 Namespaces 235
A.2.7 Classes 235
A.2.8 Structs 237
A.2.9 Arrays 237
A.2.10 Interfaces 237
A.2.11 Enums 238
A.2.12 Delegates 238
A.2.13 Attributes 238
A.3 Generics 238

B Predefined XML Tags for Documentation Comments 241

References 243

Index 245
Preface

Writing a short book on a comprehensive programming language was most definitely a

challenge. But such was our mandate and such is C#.
The C# programming language was first released in 2000 and has quickly established
itself as the language de rigueur for application development at Microsoft Corpora-
tion and other software houses. It is a powerful language based on the paradigm of
object-orientation and fully integrated with the Microsoft .NET Framework. Hence, C# is
architecturally neutral and supported by a vast library of reusable software.
To describe all minutiae of the C# language or to indulge in all facets of the .NET
Framework would require a tome or two. Yet the authors realize that experienced soft-
ware programmers are not looking to plough through extraneous detail but are focused
on extracting the essentials of a language, which allow them to commence development
quickly and confidently. That is our primary objective.
To realize this objective, we followed the ABCs of writing: accuracy, brevity, and
completeness. First and foremost, care has been taken to ensure that the terminology and
the discussion on the syntax and semantics of C# are consistent with the latest language
specifications, namely C# 2.0. For easy reference, those features that are new to C# 2.0 are
identified in the margins.
Second, for the sake of brevity, we strike at the heart of most features of C# with
little digression, historical reflection, or comparative analysis. Although the book is not
intended as a tutorial on object-oriented design, a few tips on good programming practice
are scattered throughout the text and identified in the margins as well.
Finally, all principal features of the C# programming language are covered, from basic
classes to attributes. The numerous examples throughout the text, however, focus on the
most natural and most common applications of these features. It is simply not possible
within the confines of two hundred pages to examine all permutations of C#.

xv
xvi Preface ■

This practical guide emerged from the experiences of the first author in teaching,
training, and mentoring professional developers in industry and graduate students at
university on the use of the C# language. Its organization is therefore rooted in several
C# jump-start courses and one-day tutorials with an intended audience of experienced
programmers. Although some background in object-oriented technology is ideal, all
object-oriented features are reviewed in the broader context before they are described
with respect to their implementation in C#.

In short, C# 2.0: Practical Guide for Programmers rests its hat on three hooks:
■ Provide a concise yet comprehensive explanation of the basic, advanced, and latest
features of the C# language. Each feature is illustrated with short, uncluttered exam-
ples. To ensure that code is error-free, the large majority of examples have been
automatically and directly extracted from source code that has been verified and
successfully compiled.
■ Cover the essentials of the .NET Framework. Modern programming languages like
Java and C# are supported by huge application programming interfaces (APIs) or
frameworks in order to tackle the flexibility and complexity of today’s applications.
Although the focus of this book is on the C# language and not on the .NET Framework,
we would be remiss to omit a basic discussion on the core functionalities of the .NET
libraries. Any greater depth, however, would far exceed our mandate.
■ Include a refresher on object-oriented concepts. The C# language is fully object-
oriented, replete with a unified type system that encapsulates the full spectrum of
types, from integers to interfaces. In addition to classes, the concepts of inheritance
and polymorphism are given their share of proportional representation as two of the
three tenets of object-oriented technology.

Organization of the Book

The book is organized into ten concise chapters and two appendices. Chapter 1 introduces
the C# programming language and the .NET Framework. It also outlines a small project that
is used as the basis for the exercises at the end of most chapters. This project is designed
to gradually meld the features of the C# language into a comprehensive solution for a
practical problem.
Unlike in books that present a programming language from the bottom up, Chap-
ters 2, 3, and 4 immediately delve into what we consider the most fundamental, though
higher-level, concepts of C#. Chapter 2 begins our discussion with classes and objects,
the first of the three tenets of object-oriented technology. We demonstrate how classes
are defined as an amalgam of behavior and state, how objects are created, and how access
to classes and to class members is controlled. Namespaces are also described as an impor-
tant aspect of “programming in the large” and how they are used to organize classes into
logical groups, to control name conflicts, and to ease the integration and reuse of other
classes within applications.
 ■ Preface xvii

A fuller exposé on the basic class members of C# follows in Chapter 3: methods

that define behavior and data members that define state. Constructors, destructors, and
parameter passing by value and by reference are also covered. Chapter 3 concludes with
an important discussion on class reuse and how classes derive, refine, and redefine their
behavior and state via inheritance, the second tenet of object-oriented programming. We
compare inheritance with aggregation (composition) and offer a few guidelines on their
appropriate use.
The unified type system of C# is presented in Chapter 4, showing how value and ref-
erence types are derived from the same root class called Object. All value types, including
nullable types, are fully described, along with a brief introduction to the basic notion of
a reference type. The Object class itself provides an excellent vehicle to introduce poly-
morphism (the third tenet of object-oriented programming), virtual methods, and cloning
using deep and shallow copying. The chapter ends with a presentation of two predefined
but common classes for arrays and strings.
In Chapters 5 and 6, the rudiments of C# expressions and statements are reviewed
with numerous short examples to illustrate their behavior. Expressions are built from arith-
metic, logical, relational, and assignment operators and are largely inspired by the lexicon
of C/C++. Because selection and iterative statements, too, are drawn from C/C++, our pre-
sentation is terse but comprehensive. However, whenever warranted, more time is devoted
to those features, such as exceptions and the exception-handling mechanism of C#, that
bolster its reliability and robustness.
Chapter 7 extends our discussion on the reference types that were first introduced
in Chapter 4. These advanced reference types include delegates, events, abstract classes,
and interfaces. New features such as delegate inferences and anonymous methods are
also covered. In this chapter, we carefully distinguish between the single inheritance of
classes and the multiple implementation of interfaces. Polymorphism, first mentioned with
respect to the Object root class, is illustrated once again with a comprehensive example
based on a hierarchy of counter-classes and interfaces. The two accessors in C#, namely
properties and indexers, are also presented, noting the latest specifications for property
access modifiers.
The last three chapters (8, 9, and 10) shift their focus away from the program-
ming language concepts of C# and examine some of the basic but indispensable fea-
tures of the .NET Framework. Chapter 8 extends the notion of class reuse with a look
at the different types of predefined collections and their constructors and iterators.
Although not associated with the .NET Framework itself, one of the newest features
of C# is generic classes (or templates) and is presented as a natural counterpart to
collections.
Our discussion on resource disposal begun in Chapter 3 is rounded out in
Chapter 9 along with input/output and threads. Input/output is a broad topic and is limited
here to representative I/O for binary, bytes, and character streams. Threads, on the other
hand, is a challenging topic, and the synchronization mechanisms required to support con-
current programming are carefully explained with several supporting examples. Finally,
Chapter 10 examines the use and collection of metadata using reflection and attributes,
both pre- and user-defined.
xviii Preface ■

The first of the two appendices summarizes the grammatical rules of the C# language
using EBNF notation. The second appendix provides an abridged list of the common XML
tags used for the automatic generation of web documentation.

Source Code Availability

The code for most examples and all exercises of each chapter is available and maintained
at the website www.DeepObjectKnowledge.com.

Acknowledgments
Any book goes through a number of incarnations, but none is more important than that
based on the constructive and objective feedback of its reviewers. Much improvement
on the organization and technical content of the book is due to their invaluable input,
and our sincere thanks are extended to Gerald Baugartner (Ohio State University), Eric
Gunnerson (Microsoft Corporation), Keith Hill (Agilent Technologies), Adarsh Khare
(Microsoft Corporation), David Makofske (Akamai Technologies), and Mauro Ottaviani
(Microsoft Corporation). Over the past year, we have also received timely advice and
ongoing encouragement from the kind staff at Morgan Kaufmann and Kolam. We acknowl-
edge their support with a special “tip of the cap” to Rick Adams, Mona Buehler, Karyn
Johnson, and Cara Salvatore.
Finally, we warn all potential authors that writing a book is a wonderful way to
while away the weeks and weekends. Unfortunately, these precious hours are spent apart
from our families, and it is to them that we extend our deepest appreciation for their
understanding, patience, and unconditional love.
We hope in the end that you enjoy the book. We hope that it reads well and provides
a solid introduction to the C# language. Of course, full responsibility for its organization
and content rests with the authors. And with that in mind, we defer to you, our reader, as
our ultimate source for both improvement and encouragement.

Michel de Champlain
mdec@DeepObjectKnowledge.com

Brian G. Patrick
bpatrick@trentu.ca
 ■ Preface xix

About the Authors

Michel de Champlain is the President and Principal Architect of DeepObjectKnowledge

Inc., a firm that provides industry with mentoring and training support in object tech-
nologies. Michel holds a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the École Polytechnique de
Montréal and has held university appointments at the Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-
Jean, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Concordia University in Montréal.
He has also been a regular invited speaker at the Embedded Systems Conference for the last
fourteen years. Working in close collaboration with industry as well as academia, Michel
has trained thousands of people throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and down
under in object-oriented analysis, design, and implementation. His current research inter-
ests include object-oriented languages, frameworks, design patterns, compilers, virtual
machines, and real-time microkernels.

Brian G. Patrick is an Associate Professor of Computer Science/Studies at Trent University

in Peterborough, Ontario. He first met Michel as a colleague at the Collège Militaire Royal
de Saint-Jean and has developed a close working relationship with Michel over the years.
Brian earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from McGill University in Montréal, where he
later completed an M.B.A. in Finance and International Business. His research interests
have included heuristic search, parallel algorithms, and software reuse. He is currently
investigating job scheduling schemes for parallel applications.
 chapter 1
Introducing C# and .NET

I n the late 1990s, Microsoft created Visual J++ in an attempt to use Java in a Windows
context and to improve the interface of its Component Object Model (COM). Unable to
extend Java due to proprietary rights held by Sun, Microsoft embarked on a project to
replace and improve Visual J++, its compiler, and its virtual machine with a general-
purpose, object-oriented language. To head up this project, Microsoft engaged the talents
of Anders Hejlsberg, formerly of Borland and the principal author of Windows Foundation
Classes (WFC), Turbo Pascal, and Delphi. As a result of this effort, C# was first introduced
in July 2000 as a thoroughly modern object-oriented language that would ultimately serve
as the main development language of the Microsoft .NET platform.
In this short introductory chapter, we lay out the fundamental features of the
C# programming language and the .NET Framework. We also outline the requirements of a
small project that will serve as an ongoing exercise throughout the text. The chapter ends
with a few words on syntactic notation.

1.1 What Is C#?

As part of the lineage of C-based languages, C# has incorporated and exploited program-
ming language features with a proven record of success and familiarity. To that end,
most syntactic features of C# are borrowed from C/C++, and most of its object-oriented
concepts, such as garbage collection, reflection, the root class, and the multiple inheri-
tance of interfaces, are inspired by Java. Improvements in C# over Java, often with syntax
simplification, have been applied to iteration, properties, events, metadata, versioning,
and the conversion between simple types and objects.

1
2 Chapter 1: Introducing C# and .NET ■

In addition to being syntactically familiar, C# is strongly typed, architecturally

neutral, portable, safe, and multi-threaded. Type security in C# is supported in a number
of ways, including initializing variables before their use, eliminating dangerous explicit
type conversions, controlling the limits in arrays, and checking the overflow of type limits
during arithmetic operations. Its architecturally neutral intermediate format, implemented
as the Common Intermediate Language (CIL) and executed on a virtual machine, makes
C# portable and independent of its running environment.
C# is also safe. It controls access to hardware and memory resources, checks
classes at runtime, and does not allow the implicit usage and manipulation of pointers
(as C/C++ do). The explicit use of pointers, on the other hand, is restricted to sections
of code that have been designated as unsafe. With the support of a garbage collector,
frustrating memory leaks and dangling pointers are a non-issue. The C# language also
supports multi-threading in order to promote efficient interactive applications such as
graphics, input/output, and so on. Other modern features in C# include Just-in-Time (JIT)
compilation from bytecode to native code, exceptions for error handling, namespaces for
preventing type collisions, and documentation comments.
In order to promote the widespread use and acceptance of C#, Microsoft relin-
quished its proprietary rights. With the support of Hewlett-Packard and Intel, Microsoft
quickly pushed for a standardized version of C#. In December 2001, the first standard
was accepted by the European Computer Manufacturer Association (ECMA). The following
December, a second standard was adopted by the ECMA, and it was accepted 3 months
later by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The standardization of
C# has three principal benefits:
1. To support the portability of C# applications across different hardware architectures,
2. To foster the development of C# compilers among different manufacturers, and
3. To encourage the emergence of high-quality software tools to support the develop-
ment of C# applications.

In this text, C# 2.0 is used as the final arbiter of the language.

1.2 What Is the .NET Framework?

The .NET Framework provides a new platform for building applications that are easily
deployed and executed across multiple architectures and operating systems. This porta-
bility is achievable only because of ongoing standardization through the ECMA and ISO
organizations. In this way, the framework offers independence to languages by supplying
an international standard called the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
The framework was designed to be installed on top of an operating system and
is divided into two main layers, as shown in Figure 1.1: a runtime environment called
the Common Language Runtime (CLR), similar to the Java Virtual Machine, and a large
library of classes called the Framework Class Library (FCL), which provides the required
services for modern applications.
 ■ 1.2 What Is the .NET Framework? 3

Applications Development Tools for C#, J#, C++, VB, …

Framework Class Library

Common Language Runtime

Operating System

Figure 1.1: Overview of the .NET Framework.

The bottom layer of the .NET Framework contains the CLR. The CLR provides the
runtime services to execute C# programs that have been translated into the CIL. The top
layer encapsulates all services in the FCL for user interface, control, security, data access,
Extensible Markup Language (XML), input/output, threading, and so on. User interface
(UI) services—both Window and Web Forms—support graphic interfaces and server-side
controls, respectively. ASP.NET provides control, security, sessioning, and configuration
for dynamic web pages. Data access by ADO.NET adds XML as an intermediate format for
data and supports connections to datasets using XML caches. The FCL also contains system
classes to manage I/O, execution threads, serialization, reflection, networking, collections,
diagnostics, debugging, and so on.
Applications and development tools are typically layered on top of the .NET Frame-
work. Visual Studio .NET, in particular, is a good example. It provides an integrated devel-
opment environment (IDE) that standardizes support for many programming languages,
including C#, J#, C++, and Visual Basic.
After the standardization of the C# and CLI specifications in December 2001,
Microsoft released the CLR as both a commercial implementation of the CLI runtime
virtual machine and a subset of the FCL. Since then, C# has become the programming
language of choice for developing applications in the .NET Framework. CLR, FCL, and the
C# compiler are all released as part of the .NET Framework Software Development Kit
(SDK), which is freely available from Microsoft at http://msdn.microsoft.com. At the time
of this writing, there are other .NET implementations in progress, such as the open-source
Mono and DotGNU projects. All these implementations include a C# compiler that extends
language availability to platforms other than Windows.
The C# code executed on this framework follows object-oriented development prac-
tices defined by the Common Language Specification (CLS). The CLS defines a collaboration
standard between languages and object development practices. Obviously, some older
traditional programming languages, such as COBOL and Fortran, cannot exploit the full
characteristics offered by the CLS. The Common Type System (CTS) of the .NET Framework
represents a standardized set of basic data types that permit language interoperability.
In other words, the CTS defines the rules implemented in the CLR. The CLS supports
a (common) subset of the CTS in order to allow cross-language integration. Therefore,
a CLS-compliant component can be used by applications written in other languages.
The following subsections highlight the relationships between a number of important
features of the .NET Framework and the C# programming language, including the .NET
virtual machine, .NET virtual code, and .NET assemblies.
4 Chapter 1: Introducing C# and .NET ■

1.2.1 The .NET Virtual Machine: Common Language Runtime

The CLR is the .NET virtual machine. It handles the compiling, loading, and execution of a
C# application. The compiling process employs a JIT approach that translates the CIL into
machine code as required. In addition to a traditional runtime system, it also provides
debugging and profiling functionalities. The CLR implements the CTS, which defines types
and data. Moreover, C# applications contain a complete description of their types, called
metadata, providing code visibility to other applications or tools. With this metadata, the
CLR uses reflection in order to resolve library references, link components, and resolve
types at runtime. The garbage collector is a subsystem of the CLR that cleans up memory
that is no longer needed. It frees developers of the tedious and error-prone responsibility
of recovering (deleting or deallocating) memory space allocated during object creation.

1.2.2 The .NET Virtual Code: Intermediate Language

The applications written in C# are not traditional Windows programs compiled into
machine code. Rather, the C# compiler generates CIL code, often referred to as managed
code. This code is dedicated to run safely within the .NET environment. In fact, the CLR
takes care of the back-end part of the compilation before execution, allowing the possibility
of JIT translation from CIL code into native machine code without compromising security.
On the other hand, unmanaged code, such as that generated by C/C++ compilers in the
Windows environment, uses native and potentially dangerous instructions (for example,
pointers). Like Java bytecode, CIL is also virtual machine code and is therefore completely
independent of any underlying processor architecture. It is fully cross-language compat-
ible on the .NET platform, offering at the time of this writing support for many different
programming languages. Therefore, all programs implemented in any of these languages
and compiled into CIL may share components without any extra effort.

1.2.3 The .NET Assemblies: Applications and/or Components

An assembly is the logical unit of deployment in .NET and encompasses two kinds of
implementation units: applications (.exe) and components (.dll1 ). Whereas applications
represent fully executable C# programs, components represent core reusable objects that
provide basic services to build up applications. Indeed, Microsoft prefers to call C# a
component-oriented rather than an object-oriented programming language.
Each assembly is either private or public and contains a manifest (a set of meta-
data) that provides information about its implementation units, such as name, owner,
version, security permissions, culture, processor, operating system, public key signa-
ture, and all other needed resources (such as bitmaps). Private assemblies are used only
by the application that installed them, but public (shared) assemblies are stored in a
repository maintained by the .NET Framework called the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).

1 DLL stands for Dynamic-Link Library and refers to a class library in Visual Studio .NET.
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
“The Malaiyāli houses are built of tattis (mats) of split bamboo, and roofed with jungle
grass. The use of tiles or bricks is believed to excite the anger of the gods. The
Kollaimalai houses seem always to have a loft inside, approached by a ladder. The eaves
project greatly, so as almost to touch the ground. In the pial (platform at the entrance) a
hole is made to pen fowls in. On the tops of the houses, tufts of jungle grass and rags are
placed, to keep off owls, the ill-omened kōttan birds. The villages are surrounded with a
fence, to keep the village pigs from destroying the crops outside. The Pachaimalai
women wear the kusavam fold in their cloth on the right side, but do not cover the
breasts. The Kollaimalai women do not wear any kusavam, but carefully cover their
breasts, especially when at work outside the village site, for fear of displeasing the gods.
The Pachaimalai people tattoo, but this custom is anathema on the Kollaimalais, where
the Malaiyālis will not allow a tattooed person into their houses for fear of offending
their gods.

“All the Malaiyālis are keen sportsmen, and complain that sport is spoilt by the forest
rules. The Kollaimalai people have a great beat on the first of Ani (June-July), and
another on the day of the first sowing of the year. The date of the latter is settled by the
headman of each village, and he alone is allowed to sow seeds on that day, everyone else
being debarred on pain of punishment from doing any manner of work, and going out to
hunt instead. On the Kollaimalais, bull-baiting is practiced at the time of the Māriyayi
festival in Māsi (February-March). A number of bulls are taken in front of the goddess,
one after the other, and, while some of the crowd hold the animals with ropes, a man in
front, and another behind, urge it on to unavailing efforts to get free. When one bull is
tired out, another is brought up to take its place.

“The Malaiyālis have a good many superstitions of their own, which are apparently
different from those of the plains. If they want rain, they pelt each other with balls of
cow-dung, an image of Pillaiyar (Ganēsa) is buried in a manure pit, and a pig is killed
with a kind of spear. When the rain comes, the Pillaiyar is dug up. If a man suffers from
hemicrania, he sets free a red cock in honour of the sun on a Tuesday. A man who grinds
his teeth in his sleep may be broken off the habit by eating some of the food offered to
the village goddess, brought by stealth from her altar. People suffering from small-pox
are taken down to the plains, and left in some village. Cholera patients are abandoned,
and left to die. Lepers are driven out without the slightest mercy, to shift for themselves.

“With regard to marriage, the Malaiyālis of the Trichinopoly district recognise the
desirability of a boy’s marrying his maternal aunt’s daughter. This sometimes results in a
young boy marrying a grown-up woman, but the Malaiyālis in this district declare that
the boy’s father does not then take over the duties of a husband. On the Kollaimalais, a
wife may leave her husband for a paramour within the caste, but her husband has a right
to the children of such intercourse, and they generally go to him in the end. You may ask
a man, without giving offence, if he has lent his wife to anyone. Both sections practice
polygamy. A betrothal on the Pachaimalais is effected by the boy’s taking an oil bath,
followed by a bath in hot water at the bride’s house, and watching whether there is any
ill omen during the process. On the Kollaimalais, the matter is settled by a simple
interview. On both hill ranges, the wedding ceremonies last only one day, and on the
Pachaimalais a Thursday is generally selected. The marriage on the latter range consists
in all the relatives present dropping castor-oil on to the heads of the pair with a wisp of
grass, and then pronouncing a blessing on them. The terms of the blessing are the same
as those used by the Konga Vellālas. The bridegroom ties the tāli. On the Kollaimalais,
the girl is formally invited to come and be married by the other party’s taking her a sheep
and some rice. On the appointed day, offerings of a cock and a hen are made to the gods
in the houses of both. The girl then comes to the other house, and she and the
bridegroom are garlanded by the leading persons present. The bridegroom ties the tāli,
and the couple are then made to walk seven steps, and are blessed. The garlands are then
thrown into a well, and, if they float together, it is an omen that the two will love each
other.

“Both sections bury their dead. On the Kollaimalais, a gun is fired when the corpse is
taken out for burial, and tobacco, cigars, betel and nut, etc., are buried with the body.

“Two curious customs in connection with labour are recognised on both ranges. If a man
has a press of work, he can compel the whole village to come and help him, by the
simple method of inviting them all to a feast. He need not pay them for their services. A
different custom is that, when there is threshing to be done, any labourer of the caste
who offers himself has to be taken, whether there is work for him or not, and paid as if
he had done a good day’s work. This is a very hard rule in times of scarcity, and it is said
that sometimes the employer will have not only to pay out the whole of the harvest, but
will also have to get something extra from home to satisfy the labourers.”

It is noted by Mr. Garstin46 that “in his time (1878) the Malaiālis of the South Arcot
district kept the accounts of their payments of revenue by tying knots in a bit of string,
and that some of them once lodged a complaint against their village headman for
collecting more from them than was due, basing their case on the fact that there were
more knots in the current year’s string than in that of the year preceding. The poligars, he
adds, used to intimate the amount of revenue due by sending each of the cultivators a
leaf bearing on it as many thumb-nail marks as there were rupees to be paid.”

Malayāli.—A territorial name, denoting an inhabitant of the Malayālam country. It is

noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that this name came in very handy to class
several of the Malabar tribes, who have immigrated to the province, and whose names
were unfamiliar to census officials. There is, in the city of Madras, a Malayāli club for
inhabitants of the Malayālam country, who are there employed in Government services,
as lawyers, or in other vocations. I read that, in 1906, the Malabar Ōnam festival was
celebrated at the Victoria Public Hall under the auspices of this club, and a dramatised
version of the Malayālam novel Indulekha was performed.

Malayan.—Concerning the Malayans, Mr. A. R. Loftus-Tottenham writes as follows.

“The Malayans are a makkathāyam caste, observing twelve days’ pollution, found in
North Malabar. Their name, signifying hill-men, points to their having been at one time a
jungle tribe, but they have by no means the dark complexion and debased physiognomy
characteristic of the classes which still occupy that position. They are divided into nine
exogamous illams, five of which have the names Kōtukudi, Velupā, Chēni, Palānkudi,
and Kalliath. The men do not shave their heads, but allow the hair to grow long, and
either part it in the middle, or tie it into a knot behind, like the castes of the east coast, or
tie it in a knot in front in the genuine Malayāli fashion. The principal occupation of the
caste is exorcism, which they perform by various methods.
 Malayan devil-dancer.

“If any one is considered to be possessed by demons, it is usual, after consulting the
astrologer in order to ascertain what murti (form, i.e., demon) is causing the trouble, to
call in the Malayan, who performs a ceremony known as tīyattam, in which they wear
masks, and, so disguised, sing, dance, tom-tom, and play on a rude and strident pipe.
Another ceremony, known as ucchavēli, has several forms, all of which seem to be either
survivals, or at least imitations of human sacrifice. One of these consists of a mock
living burial of the principal performer, who is placed in a pit, which is covered with
planks, on the top of which a sacrifice is performed, with a fire kindled with jack wood
(Artocarpus integrifolia) and a plant called erinna. In another variety, the Malayan cuts
his left forearm, and smears his face with the blood thus drawn. Malayans also take part
with Peruvannāns (big barbers) in various ceremonies at Badrakāli and other temples, in
which the performer impersonates, in suitable costume, some of the minor deities or
demons, fowls are sacrificed, and a Velicchapād pronounces oracular statements.”

As the profession of exorcists does not keep the Malayans fully occupied, they go about
begging during the harvest season, in various disguises, of which that of a hobby-horse
is a very common one. They further add to their income by singing songs, at which they
are very expert. Like the Nalkes and Paravas of South Canara, the Malayans exorcise
various kinds of devils, with appropriate disguises. For Nenaveli (bloody sacrifice), the
performer smears the upper part of his body and face with a paste made of rice-flour
reddened with turmeric powder and chunam (lime) to indicate a bloody sacrifice. Before
the paste dries, parched paddy (unhusked rice) grains, representing small-pox pustules,
are sprinkled over it. Strips of young cocoanut leaves, strung together so as to form a
petticoat, are tied round the waist, a ball of sacred ashes (vibhūthi) is fixed on the tip of
the nose, and two strips of palmyra palm leaf are stuck in the mouth to represent fangs. If
it is thought that a human sacrifice is necessary to propitiate the devil, the man
representing Nenaveli puts round his neck a kind of framework made of plantain leaf
sheaths; and, after he has danced with it on, it is removed, and placed on the ground in
front of him. A number of lighted wicks are stuck in the middle of the framework, which
is sprinkled with the blood of a fowl, and then beaten and crushed. Sometimes this is not
regarded as sufficient, and the performer is made to lie down in a pit, which is covered
over by a plank, and a fire kindled. A Malayan, who acted the part of Nenaveli before me
at Tellicherry, danced and gesticulated wildly, while a small boy, concealed behind him,
sang songs in praise of the demon whom he represented, to the accompaniment of a
drum. At the end of the performance, he feigned extreme exhaustion, and laid on the
ground in a state of apparent collapse, while he was drenched with water brought in pots
from a neighbouring well.

The disguise of Uchchaveli is also assumed for the propitiation of the demon, when a
human sacrifice is considered necessary. The Malayan who is to take the part puts on a
cap made of strips of cocoanut leaf, and strips of the same leaves tied to a bent bamboo
stick round his waist. His face and chest are daubed with yellow paint, and designs are
drawn thereon in red or black. Strings are tied tightly round the left arm near the elbow
and wrist, and the swollen area is pierced with a knife. The blood spouts out, and the
performer waves the arm, so that his face is covered with the blood. A fowl is waved
before him, and decapitated. He puts the neck in his mouth, and sucks the blood.
 Malayan devil-dancer with fowl in mouth.

The disguises are generally assumed at night. The exorcism consists in drawing
complicated designs of squares, circles, and triangles, on the ground with white, black,
and yellow flour. While the man who has assumed the disguise dances about to the
accompaniment of drums, songs are sung by Malayan men and women.

Malayan.—A division of Panikkans in the Tamil country, whose exogamous septs are
known by the Malayālam name illam (house).

Maldivi.—A territorial name, meaning a native of the Maldive islands, returned by

twenty-two persons in Tanjore at the Census, 1901.
Malē Kudiya.—A synonym of Kudiya, denoting those who live in the hills.

Malēru.—It is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1901, that “in some temples of the
Malnād there exists a set of females, who, though not belonging to the Natuva class, are
yet temple servants like them, and are known by the name of Malēru. Any woman who
eats the sacrificial rice strewn on the balipītam (sacrificial altar) at once loses caste, and
becomes a public woman, or Malēru.” The children of Malērus by Brāhmans are termed
Golakas. Any Malēru woman cohabiting with one of a lower caste than her own is
degraded into a Gaudi. In the Madras Census Report, 1901, Mālē or Mālēra is returned
as a sub-caste of Stānika. They are said, however, not to be equal to Stānikas. They are
attached to temples, and their ranks are swelled by outcaste Brāhman and Konkani
women.

Maleyava.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a small Canarese-

speaking caste of beggars. In the South Canara Manual, it is stated that they are “classed
as mendicants, as there is a small body of Malayālam gypsies of that name. But there
may have been some confusion with Malava and Malē Kudiya.”

Māli.—“The Mālis,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,47 “are now mostly cultivators, but their
traditional occupation (from which the caste name is derived) is making garlands, and
providing flowers for the service of Hindu temples. They are especially clever in
growing vegetables. Their vernacular is Uriya.” It is noted, in the Census Report, 1901,
that the temple servants wear the sacred thread, and employ Brāhmans as priests. It is
further recorded, in the Census Report, 1871, that “the Mālis are, as their name denotes,
gardeners. They chose for their settlements sites where they were able to turn a stream to
irrigate a bit of land near their dwellings. Here they raise fine crops of vegetables, which
they carry to the numerous markets throughout the country. Their rights to the lands
acquired from the Parjās (Porojas) are of a substantial nature, and the only evidence to
show their possessions were formerly Parjā bhūmi (Poroja lands) is perhaps a row of
upright stones erected by the older race to the memory of their village chiefs.”
 Malayan devil-dancers.

For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The Mālis say that
their ancestors lived originally at Kāsi (Benares), whence they emigrated to serve under
the Rāja of Jeypore. They are divided into the following sub-divisions:—Bodo, Pondra,
Kosalya, Pannara, Sonkuva, and Dongrudiya. The name Pondra is said to be derived
from podoro, a dry field. I am informed that, if a Pondra is so prosperous as to possess a
garden which requires the employment of a picottah, he is bound to entertain as many
men of his caste as choose to go to his house. A man without a picottah may refuse to
receive such visits. A picottah is the old-fashioned form of a machine still used for
raising water, and consists of a long lever or yard pivotted on an upright post, weighted
on the short arm, and bearing a line and bucket on the long arm.

Among the Bodo Mālis, a man can claim his paternal aunt’s daughter in marriage, which
takes place before the girl reaches puberty. A jholla tonka (bride-price) of forty rupees is
paid, and the girl is conducted to the house of the bridegroom, in front of which a pandal
(booth) has been erected, with nine pots, one above the other, placed at the four corners
and in the centre. In the middle of the pandal a mattress is spread, and to the pandal a
cloth, with a myrabolam (Terminalia fruit), rice, and money tied up in it, is attached. The
contracting couple sit together, and a sacred thread is given to the bridegroom by the
officiating priest. The bride is presented with necklaces, nose-screws, and other
ornaments by the bridegroom’s party. They then repair to the bridegroom’s house. The
ceremonies are repeated during the next three days, and on the fifth day the pair are
bathed with turmeric water, and repair to a stream, in which they bathe. On their return
home, the bridegroom is presented with some cheap jewelry.

Among the Pondra Mālis, if a girl is not provided with a husband before she reaches
puberty, a mock marriage is performed. A pandal (booth) is erected in front of her house,
and she enters it, carrying a fan in her right hand, and sits on a mattress. A pot,
containing water and mango leaves, is set in front of her, and the females throw
turmeric-rice over her. They then mix turmeric powder with castor-oil, and pour it over
her from mango leaves. She next goes to the village stream, and bathes. A caste feast
follows after this ceremonial has been performed. The girl is permitted to marry in the
ordinary way. A Bodo Māli girl, who does not secure a husband before she reaches
puberty, is said to be turned out of the caste.

In the regular marriage ceremony among the Pondra Mālis, the bridegroom,
accompanied by his party, proceeds to the bride’s village, where they stay in a house
other than that of the bride. They send five rupees, a new cloth for the bride’s mother,
rice, and other things necessary for a meal, as jholla tonka (present) to the bride’s house.
Pandals, made of four poles, are erected in front of the houses of the bride and
bridegroom. Towards evening, the bridegroom proceeds to the house of the bride, and
the couple are blessed by the assembled relations within the pandal. On the following
day, the bridegroom conducts the bride to her pandal. They take their seat therein,
separated by a screen, with the ends of their cloths tied together. Ornaments, called
maguta, corresponding to the bāshinga, are tied on their foreheads. At the auspicious
moment fixed by the presiding Dēsāri, the bride stretches out her right hand, and the
bridegroom places his thereon. On it some rice and myrabolam fruit are laid, and tied up
with rolls of cotton thread by the Dēsāri. On the third day, the couple repair to a stream,
and bathe. They then bury the magutas. After a feast, the bride accompanies the
bridegroom to his village, but, if she has not reached puberty, returns to her parents.
Widow remarriage is permitted, and a younger brother usually marries the widow of his
elder brother.

The dead are burnt, and death pollution lasts for ten days, during which those who are
polluted refrain from their usual employment. On the ninth day, a hole is dug in the
house of the deceased, and a lamp placed in it. The son, or some other close relative, eats
a meal by the side of the hole, and, when it is finished, places the platter and the remains
of the food in the hole, and buries them with the lamp. On the tenth day, an Oriya
Brāhman purifies the house by raising the sacred fire (hōmam). He is, in return for his
services, presented with the utensils of the deceased, half a rupee, rice, and other things.

Māli further occurs as the name of an exogamous sept of Holeya. (See also Rāvulo.)

Maliah (hill).—A sub-division of Savaras who inhabit the hill-country.

Malighai Chetti.—A synonym of Acharapākam Chettis. In the city of Madras, the

Malighai Chettis cannot, like other Bēri Chettis, vote or receive votes at elections or
meetings of the Kandasāmi temple.

Mālik.—A sect of Muhammadans, who are the followers of the Imām Abu ’Abdi ’llāh
Mālik ibn Anas, the founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Sunnis, who was born
at Madināh, A.H. 94 (A.D. 716).

Malle.—Malle, Malli, Mallela, or Mallige, meaning jasmine, has been recorded as an

exogamous sept of Bestha, Holeya, Kamma, Korava, Kurni, Kuruba, Mādiga, Māla,
Oddē, and Tsākala. The Tsākalas, I am informed, will not use jasmine flowers, or go near
the plant. In like manner, Besthas of the Malle gōtra may not touch it.

Mālumi.—A class of Muhammadan pilots and sailors in the Laccadive islands. (See
Māppilla.)

Māmidla (mango).—An exogamous sept of Padma Sālē.

Mānā (a measure).—An exogamous sept of Kuruba.

Manavālan (bridegroom).—A sub-division of Nāyar.

Manayammamar.—The name for Mūssad females. Mana means a Brāhman’s house.

Mancha.—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a Musalman tribe in the

Laccadive islands.

Manchāla (cots).—An exogamous sept of Oddē. The equivalent mancham occurs as a

sept of Panta Reddis, the members of which avoid sleeping on cots.
Manchi (good).—An exogamous sept of Padma Sālē and Yānādi.

Mandādan Chetti.—There are at Gudalūr near the boundary between the Nīlgiri district
and Malabar, and in the Wynād, two classes called respectively Mandādan Chettis and
Wynād Chettis (q.v.).

The following account of the Mandādan Chettis is given in the Gazetteer of the Nīlgiris.
“They speak a corrupt Canarese, follow the makkatāyam law of inheritance (from father
to son), and seem always to have been natives of the Wynaad. Mandādan is supposed to
be a corruption of Mahāvalinādu, the traditional name still applied to the country
between Nellakōttai and Tippakādu, in which these Chettis principally reside. These
Chettis recognise as many as eight different headmen, who each have names and a
definite order of precedence, the latter being accurately marked by the varying lengths of
the periods of pollution observed when they die. They are supposed to be the
descendants in the nearest direct line of the original ancestors of the caste, and they are
shown special respect on public occasions, and settle domestic and caste disputes.
Marriages take place after puberty, and are arranged through go-betweens called
Madhyastas. When matters have been set in train, the contracting parties meet, and the
boy’s parents measure out a certain quantity of paddy (unhusked rice), and present it to
the bride’s people, while the Madhyastas formally solicit the approval to the match of all
the nearest relatives. The bride is bathed and dressed in a new cloth, and the couple are
then seated under a pandal (booth). The priest of the Nambalakōd temple comes with
flowers, blesses the tāli, and hands it to the bridegroom, who ties it round the bride’s
neck. Sometimes the young man is made to work for the girl as Jacob did for Rachael,
serving her father for a period (generally of from one to four years), the length of which
is settled by a panchāyat (council). In such cases, the father-in-law pays the expenses of
the wedding, and sets up the young couple with a house and some land. Married women
are not prohibited from conferring favours on their husbands’ brothers, but adultery
outside the caste is severely dealt with. Adoption seems to be unknown. A widow may
remarry. If she weds her deceased husband’s brother, the only ceremony is a dinner, after
which the happy pair are formally seated on the same mat; but, if she marries any one
else, a pandal and tāli are provided. Divorce is allowed to both parties, and divorcées
may remarry. In their cases, however, the wedding rites are much curtailed. The dead are
usually burnt, but those who have been killed by accidents or epidemics are buried.
When any one is at death’s door, he or she is made to swallow a little water from a vessel
in which some rice and a gold coin have been placed. The body is bathed and dressed in
a new cloth, sometimes music is played and a gun fired, and in all cases the deceased’s
family walk three times round the pyre before it is fired by the chief mourner. When the
period of pollution is over, holy water is fetched from the Nambalakōd temple, and
sprinkled all about the house. These Chettis are Saivites, and worship Bētarāyasvāmi of
Nambalakōd, the Airu Billi of the Kurumbas, and one or two other minor gods, and
certain deified ancestors. These minor gods have no regular shrines, but huts provided
with platforms for them to sit upon, in which lamps are lit in the evenings, are built for
them in the fields and jungles. Chetti women are often handsome. In the house they wear
only a waist-cloth, but they put on an upper cloth when they venture abroad. They
distend the lobes of their ears, and for the first few years after marriage wear in them
circular gold ornaments somewhat resembling those affected by the Nāyar ladies. After
that period they substitute a strip of rolled-up palm leaf. They have an odd custom of
wearing a big chignon made up of plaits of their own hair cut off at intervals in their
girlhood.”

Mandādi.—A title of Golla.

Mandai.—An exogamous section of Kallan named after Mandai Karuppan, the god of
the village common (Mandai).

Mandha.—Mandha or Mandhala, meaning a village common, or herd of cattle collected

thereon, has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Bēdar, Karna Sālē, and Mādiga.

Māndi (cow).—A sept of Poroja.

Māndiri.—A sub-division of Dōmb.

Mandula.—The Mandulas (medicine men) are a wandering class, the members of which
go about from village to village in the Telugu country, selling drugs (mandu, medicine)
and medicinal powders. Some of their women act as midwives. Of these people an
interesting account is given by Bishop Whitehead,48 who writes as follows. “We found
an encampment of five or six dirty-looking huts made of matting, each about five feet
high, eight feet long and six feet wide, belonging to a body of Mandalavāru, whose
head-quarters are at Masulipatam. They are medicine men by profession, and thieves and
beggars by choice. The headman showed us his stock of medicines in a bag, and a quaint
stock it was, consisting of a miscellaneous collection of stones and pieces of wood, and
the fruits of trees. The stones are ground to powder, and mixed up as a medicine with
various ingredients. He had a piece of mica, a stone containing iron, and another which
contained some other metal. There was also a peculiar wood used as an antidote against
snake-bite, a piece being torn off and eaten by the person bitten. One common treatment
for children is to give them tiles, ground to powder, to eat. In the headman’s hut was a
picturesque-looking woman sitting up with an infant three days old. It had an anklet,
made of its mother’s hair, tied round the right ankle, to keep off the evil eye. The mother,
too, had a similar anklet round her own left ankle, which she put on before her
confinement. She asked for some castor-oil to smear over the child. They had a good
many donkeys, pigs, and fowls with them, and made, they said, about a rupee a day by
begging. Some time ago, they all got drunk, and had a free fight, in which a woman got
her head cut open. The police went to enquire into the matter, but the woman declared
that she only fell against a bamboo by accident. The whole tribe meet once a year, at
Masulipatam, at the Sivarātri festival, and then sacrifice pigs and goats to their various
deities. The goddess is represented by a plain uncarved stone, about four-and-a-half or
five feet high, daubed with turmeric and kunkuma (red powder). The animals are killed
in front of the stone, and the blood is allowed to flow on the ground. They believe that
the goddess drinks it. They cook rice on the spot, and present some of it to the goddess.
They then have a great feast of the rest of the rice and the flesh of the victims, get very
drunk with arrack, and end up with a free fight. We noted that one of the men had on an
anklet of hair, like the woman’s. He said he had been bitten by a snake some time ago,
and had put on the anklet as a charm.”

The Mandula is a very imposing person, as he sits in a conspicuous place, surrounded by

paper packets piled up all round him. His method of advertising his medicines is to take
the packets one by one, and, after opening them and folding them up, to make a fresh
pile. As he does so, he may be heard repeating very rapidly, in a sing-song tone,
“Medicine for rheumatism,” etc. Mandulas are sometimes to be seen close to the Moore
Market in the city of Madras, with their heaps of packets containing powders of various
colours.

Mangala.—“The Mangalas and Ambattans,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,49 “are the barber
castes, and are probably of identical origin, but, like the potters, they have, by difference
of locality, separated into Telugus and Tamilians, who do not intermarry. Both are said to
be the offspring of a Brāhman by a Vaisya woman. The Telugu name is referred to the
word mangalam, which means happiness and also cleansing, and is applied to barbers,
because they take part in marriage ceremonies, and add to the happiness on the occasion
by the melodious sounds of their flutes (nāgasaram), while they also contribute to the
cleanliness of the people by shaving their bodies. The Telugus are divided into the
Reddibhūmi, Murikinādu, and Kurichinādu sub-divisions, and are mostly Vaishnavites.
They consider the Tamilians as lower than themselves, because they consent to shave the
whole body, while the Telugus only shave the upper portions. Besides their ordinary
occupation, the members of this caste pretend to some knowledge of surgery and of the
properties of herbs and drugs. Their females practice midwifery in a barbarous fashion,
not scrupling also to indulge largely in criminal acts connected with their profession.
Flesh-eating is allowed, but not widow marriage.”

“Mangalas,” Mr. Stuart writes further,50 “are also called Bajantri (in reference to their
being musicians), Kalyānakulam (marriage people), and Angārakudu. The word
angāramu means fire, charcoal, a live coal, and angārakudu is the planet Mars. Tuesday
is Mars day, and one name for it is Angārakavāramu, but the other and more common
name is Mangalavāramu. Now mangala is a Sanskrit word, meaning happiness, and
mangala, with the soft l, is the Telugu for a barber. Mangalavāramu and Angārakavāramu
being synonymous, it is natural that the barbers should have seized upon this, and given
themselves importance by claiming to be the caste of the planet Mars. As a matter of
fact, this planet is considered to be a star of ill omen, and Tuesday is regarded as an
inauspicious day. Barbers are also considered to be of ill omen owing to their connection
with deaths, when their services are required to shave the heads of the mourners. On an
auspicious occasion, a barber would never be called a Mangala, but a Bajantri, or
musician. Their titles are Anna and Gādu.” Anna means brother, and Gādu is a common
suffix to the names of Telugus, e.g., Rāmigādu, Subbigādu. A further title is Ayya
(father).

For the following note on the Mangalas, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The
caste is divided into two endogamous divisions, Telaga and Kāpu, the ancestors of which
were half brothers, by different mothers. They will eat together, but will not intermarry,
as they regard themselves as cousins. The primary occupation of the caste is shaving the
heads of people belonging to the non-polluting castes, and, for a small consideration,
razors are lent to Mādigas and Mālas. A Mangala, in the Vizagapatam district, carries no
pollution with him, when he is not actually engaged in his professional duties, and may
often be found as storekeeper in Hindu households, and occupying the same position as
the Bhondāri, or Oriya barber, does in the Oriya country. Unlike the Tamil Ambattan, the
Mangala has no objection to shaving Europeans. He is one of the village officials, whose
duties are to render assistance to travellers, and massage their limbs, and, in many
villages, he is rewarded for his services with a grant of land. He is further the village
musician, and an expert at playing on the flute. Boys are taught the art of shaving when
they are about eight years old. An old chatty (earthen pot) is turned upside down, and
smeared with damp earth. When this is dry, the lad has to scrape it off under the
direction of an experienced barber.

Mangala Pūjāri.—The title of the caste priest of the Mogērs.

Māngalyam.—A sub-division of Mārāns, who, at the tāli-kettu ceremony of the Nāyars,

carry the ashtamāngalyam or eight auspicious things. These are rice, paddy (unhusked
rice), tender leaves of the cocoanut, a mimic arrow, a metal looking-glass, a well-washed
cloth, burning fire, and a small round wooden box called cheppu. Māngalyam occurs as
the name for Mārāns in old Travancore records.

Mangalakkal.—This and Manigrāmam are recorded, in the Travancore Census Report,

1901, as sub-divisions of Nāyar.

Mānikala (a measure).—An exogamous sept of Yānādi.

Mānikattāl.—A synonym of Dēva-dāsi applied to dancing-girls in the Tamil country.

Maniyakkāran.—Maniyakkāran or Maniyagāran, meaning an overseer, occurs as a title

or synonym of Parivāram and Sembadavan. As a name of a sub-division of the Idaiyan
shepherds, the word is said to be derived from mani, a bell, such as is tied round the
necks of cattle, sheep, and goats. Maniyakkāran has been corrupted into monegar, the
title of the headman of a village in the Tamil country.

Manjaputtūr.—A sub-division of Chettis, who are said to have emigrated to the Madura
district from Cuddalore (Manjakuppam).

Mānla (trees).—An exogamous sept of Chenchu.

Mannādi.—A title of Kunnavans of the Palni hills, often given as the caste name. Also a
title of Pallans and Mūttāns.

Mannādiyar.—A trading sub-division of Nāyar.

Mannān.—The Mannāns are a hill tribe of Travancore, and are said to have been
originally dependents of the kings of Madura, whom they, like the Ūrālis and Muduvans,
accompanied to Nēriyamangalam. “Later on, they settled in a portion of the Cardamom
Hills called Makara-alum. One of the chiefs of Poonyat nominated three of these
Mannāns as his agents at three different centres in his dominions, one to live at
Tollāiramalai with a silver sword as badge and with the title of Varayilkīzh Mannān, a
second to live at Mannānkantam with a bracelet and the title of Gōpura Mannān, and a
third at Utumpanchōla with a silver cane and the title of Talamala Mannān. For these
headmen, the other Mannāns are expected to do a lot of miscellaneous services. It is only
with the consent of the headmen that marriages may be contracted. Persons of both sexes
dress themselves like Maravans. Silver and brass ear-rings are worn by the men.
Necklets of white and red beads are worn on the neck, and brass bracelets on the wrist.
Mannāns put up the best huts among the hill-men. Menstrual and puerperal impurity is
not so repelling as in the case of the Ūrālis. About a year after a child is born, the eldest
member of the family ties a necklet of beads round its neck, and gives it a name. The
Mannāns bury their dead. The coffin is made of bamboo and reeds, and the corpse is
taken to the grave with music and the beating of drums. The personal ornaments, if any,
are not removed. Before filling in the grave, a quantity of rice is put into the mouth of
the deceased. A shed is erected over the site of burial. After a year has passed, an
offering of food and drink is made to the dead. The language of the Mannāns is Tamil.
They have neither washermen nor barbers, but wash clothes and shave for one another.
The Mannāns stand ahead of the other hill-men from their knowledge of medicine,
though they resort more to Chāttu than to herbs. Drinking is a very common vice.
Marumakkathāyam is the prevailing form of inheritance (in the female line); but it is
customary to give a portion to the sons also. Marriage takes the form of tāli-tying. The
tāli (marriage badge) is removed on the death of the husband. Women generally wait for
two years to marry a second husband, after the death of the first. A Mannān claims the
hand of his maternal uncle’s daughter. The Sāsta of Sabarimala and Periyār is devoutly
worshipped. The Mannāns are experts in collecting honey. They eat the flesh of the
monkey, but not that of the crocodile, snake, buffalo or cow. They are fast decreasing in
numbers, like the other denizens of the hills.”51

Concerning the Mannāns, Mr. O. H. Bensley writes as follows.52 “I enjoy many pleasant
reminiscences of my intercourse with these people. Their cheery and sociable
disposition, and enjoyment of camp life, make it quite a pleasure to be thrown into
contact with them. Short, sturdy, and hairless, the Mannāns have all the appearances of
an ‘aboriginal‘ race. The Mannān country extends southward from the limit occupied by
the Muduvans on the Cardamom Hills to a point south of the territory now submerged by
the Periyār works.53 They have, moreover, to keep to the east of the Periyār river.
Smallpox ravages their villages, and fever lives in the air they breathe. Within the
present generation, three of their settlements were at the point of extinction, but were
recruited from other more fortunate bands. Very few attain to old age, but there were
until lately three old patriarchs among them, who were the headmen of three of the most
important sections of the tribe. The Muduvans and Mannāns pursue the same destructive
method of cultivation, but, as the latter are much fewer in numbers, their depredations
are not so serious. None of the tribes east of the Periyār pay any tax to the Government,
but are expected, in return for their holdings, to perform certain services in the way of
building huts and clearing paths, for which they receive fixed payment. They have also
to collect forest produce, and for this, too, they obtain fixed rates, so that their treatment
by the Government is in reality of the most liberal kind. Mannāns do not always look at
things in quite the light one would expect. For example, the heir to an English Earldom,
after a pleasant shooting trip in Travancore, bestowed upon a Mannān who had been
with him a handsome knife as a memento. Next day, the knife was seen in the possession
of a cooly on a coffee estate, and it transpired that the Mannān had sold it to him for
three rupees, instead of keeping it as an heirloom. A remarkable trait in the character of
the Mannāns is the readiness with which they fraternise with Europeans. Most of the
other tribes approach with reluctance, which requires considerable diplomacy to
overcome. Not so the Mannān. He willingly initiates a tyro and a stranger into the
mysteries of the chase. Though their language is Tamil, and the only communication
they hold with the low country is on the Madura side, they have this custom in common
with the Malayālis, that the chieftainship of their villages goes to the nephew, and not to
the son. One does not expect to find heroic actions among these simple people. But how
else could one describe the following incident? A Mannān, walking with his son, a lad
about twelve years old, came suddenly upon a rogue elephant. His first act was to place
his son in a position of safety by lifting him up till he could reach the branch of a tree,
and only then he began to think of himself. But it was too late. The elephant charged
down upon him, and in a few seconds he was a shapeless mass.”

Mannān (Washerman caste).—See Vannān and Vēlan.

Mannēdora (lord of the hills).—A title assumed by Konda Doras. Mannē Sultan is a
title of the Mahārāja of Travancore and the Rāja of Vizianagram. The Konda Doras also
style themselves Mannēlu, or those of the hills.

Mannepu-vandlu.—Said54 to be the name, derived from mannemu, highland, for Mālas

in parts of the Godāvari district.

Mannu (earth).—A sub-division of Oddēs, who are earth-workers. Manti, which has
also been returned by them at times of census, has a similar significance (earthen). Man
Udaiyan occurs as a synonym of Kusavan, and Manal (sand) as an exogamous sept of
Kāppiliyan. Man Kavarai is recorded in the Salem Manual as the name of a class of salt
makers from salt-earth.

Mantalāyi.—Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as a sub-division of

Nāyar.

Māppilla.—The Māppillas, or Moplahs, are defined in the Census Report, 1871, as the
hybrid Mahomedan race of the western coast, whose numbers are constantly being added
to by conversion of the slave castes of Malabar. In 1881, the Census Superintendent
wrote that “among some of them there may be a strain of Arab blood from some early
generation, but the mothers throughout have been Dravidian, and the class has been
maintained in number by wholesale adult conversion.” Concerning the origin of the
Māppillas, Mr. Lewis Moore states55 that “originally the descendants of Arab traders by
the women of the country, they now form a powerful community. There appears to have
been a large influx of Arab settlers into Malabar in the ninth century A.D. and the
numbers have been constantly increased by proselytism. The Māppillas came
prominently forward at the time of the Portuguese invasion at the end of the fifteenth
century A.D.” “The Muhammadan Arabs,” Dr. Burnell writes,56 “appear to have settled
first in Malabar about the beginning of the ninth century; there were heathen Arabs there
long before that in consequence of the immense trade conducted by the Sabeans with
India.” “There are,” Mr. B. Govinda Nambiar writes,57 “many accounts extant in
Malabar concerning the introduction of the faith of Islām into this district. Tradition says
that, in the ninth century of the Christian era, a party of Moslem pilgrims, on their way
to a sacred shrine in Ceylon, chanced to visit the capital of the Perumāl or king of
Malabar, that they were most hospitably entertained by that prince, and that he,
becoming a convert to their faith, subsequently accompanied them to Arabia (where he
died). It is further stated that the Perumāl, becoming anxious of establishing his new
faith in Malabar, with suitable places of worship, sent his followers with letters to all the
chieftains whom he had appointed in his stead, requiring them to give land for mosques,
and to endow them. The Perumāl’s instructions were carried out, and nine mosques were
founded and endowed in various parts of Malabar. Whatever truth there may be in these
accounts, it is certain that, at a very early period, the Arabs had settled for commercial
purposes on the Malabar coast, had contracted alliances with the women of the country,
and that the mixed race thus formed had begun to be known as the Māppillas. These
Māppillas had, in the days of the Zamorin, played an important part in the political
history of Malabar, and had in consequence obtained many valuable privileges. When
Vasco da Gama visited Calicut during the closing years of the fifteenth century, we find
their influence at court so powerful that the Portuguese could not obtain a commercial
footing there. The numerical strength of the Māppillas was greatly increased by forcible
conversions during the period when Tippu Sultan held sway over Malabar.” [At the
installation of the Zamorin, some Māppilla families at Calicut have certain privileges;
and a Māppilla woman, belonging to a certain family, presents the Zamorin with betel
nuts near the Kallai bridge, on his return from a procession through the town.] According
to one version of the story of the Perumāl, Chēramān Perumāl dreamt that the full moon
appeared at Mecca on the night of the new moon, and that, when on the meridian, it split
into two, one half remaining in the air, and the other half descending to the foot of a hill
called Abu Kubais, where the two halves joined together. Shortly afterwards, a party of
pilgrims, on their way to the foot-print shrine at Adam’s peak in Ceylon, landed in
Chēramān Perumāl’s capital at Kodungallūr, and reported that by the same miracle,
Muhammad had converted a number of unbelievers to his religion.

The cephalic index of the Māppillas is lower than that of the other Muhammadan classes
in South India which I have examined, and this may probably be explained by their
admixture with dolichocephalic Dravidians. The figures are as follows:—

Number examined. Cephalic index.

Māppilla 40 72.8
Sheik Muhammadan 40 75.6
Saiyad Muhammadan 40 75.6
Daira Muhammadan 50 75.6
Pathān Muhammadan 40 76.2

From the measurement of a very few Māppillas, members of the Hyderabad Contingent,
and Marāthas, who went to England for the Coronation in 1902, Mr. J. Gray arrived at
the conclusion that “the people on the west coast and in the centre of the Deccan, namely
the Moplas, Maharattas, and Hyderabad Contingent, differ considerably from the Tamils
of the east coast. Their heads are considerably shorter. This points to admixture of the
Dravidians with some Mongolian element. There is a tradition that the Moplas are
descended from Arab traders, but the measurements indicate that the immigrants were
Turkish, or of some other Mongolian element, probably from Persia or Baluchistan.”58

The cephalic indices, as recorded by Mr. Gray, were:—

 Number examined. Cephalic index.
Tamils 6 75.4
Moplas 6 77.5
Hyderabad Contingent 6 75
Maharattas 7 79

The number of individuals examined is, however, too small for the purpose of
generalisation.

In the Census Report, 1891, it is noted that some Māppillas have returned “Putiya
Islām,” meaning new converts to Islām. These are mostly converts from the Mukkuvan
or fisherman caste, and this process of conversion is still going on. Most of the
fishermen of Tanūr, where there is an important fish-curing yard, are Mukkuvan
converts. They are sleek and well-nourished, and, to judge from the swarm of children
who followed me during my inspection of the yard, eminently fertile. One of them,
indeed, was polygynous to the extent of seven wives, each of whom had presented him
with seven sons, not to mention a large consignment of daughters. On the east coast the
occurrence of twins is attributed by the fishermen to the stimulating properties of fish
diet. In Malabar, great virtue is attributed to the sardine or nalla mathi (good fish, Clupea
longiceps), as an article of dietary.

“Conversion to Muhammadanism,” Mr. Logan writes,59 “has had a marked effect in

freeing the slave caste in Malabar from their former burthens. By conversion a
Cheruman obtains a distinct rise in the social scale, and, if he is in consequence bullied
or beaten, the influence of the whole Muhammadan community comes to his aid.” The
same applies to the Nayādis, of whom some have escaped from their degraded position
by conversion to Islām. In the scale of pollution, the Nayādi holds the lowest place, and
consequently labours under the greatest disadvantage, which is removed with his change
of religion.

As regards the origin and significance of the word Māppilla, according to Mr. Lewis
Moore, it means, ”(1) a bridegroom or son-in-law; (2) the name given to Muhammadan,
Christian, or Jewish colonists in Malabar, who have intermarried with the natives of the
country. The name is now confined to Muhammadans.” It is noted by Mr. Nelson60 that
“the Kallans alone of all the castes of Madura call the Muhammadans Māppilleis, or
bridegrooms.” In criticising this statement, Yule and Burnell61 state that “Nelson
interprets the word as bridegroom. It should, however, rather be son-in-law. The husband
of the existing Princess of Tanjore is habitually styled by the natives Māppillai Sahib, as
the son-in-law of the late Rāja.” “Some,” Mr. Padmanabha Menon writes,62 “think that
the word Māppila is a contracted form of mahā (great) and pilla (child), an honorary title
as among Nairs in Travancore (pilla or pillay). Mr. Logan surmises that mahā pilla was
probably a title of honour conferred on the early Muhammadans, or possibly on the still
earlier Christian immigrants, who are also down to the present day called Māppilas. The
Muhammadans generally go by the name of Jonaga Māppilas. Jonaka is believed to
stand for Yavanaka, i.e., Greek!”63 [In the Gazetteer of the Tanjore district, Yavana is
recorded as meaning Ionia.] It is, indeed, remarkable that in the Payyanorepāt, perhaps
the earliest Malayālam poem extant, some of the sailors mentioned in it are called
Chonavans. (The Jews are known as Juda Māppila.) Dr. Day derives the word Māpilla
from Mā (mother) and pilla (child). [Wilson gives Māpilla, mother’s son, as being
sprung from the intercourse of foreign colonists, who were persons unknown, with
Malabar women.] Duncan says that a Qāzi derived the name from Mā (mother) and pilla
a (puppy) as a term of reproach! Maclean, in the Asiatic Researches, considered that the
word came from mahā or mohai (mocha) and pilla (child), and therefore translated it into
children or natives (perhaps outcasts) of Mohai or Mocha. A more likely, and perhaps
more correct derivation is given by Mr. Percy Badger in a note to his edition of the
Varthema. “I am inclined to think,” he says, “that the name is either a corruption of the
Arabic muflih (from the root fallah, to till the soil), meaning prosperous or victorious, in
which sense it would apply to the successful establishment of those foreign Mussalmans
on the western coast of India; or that it is a similar corruption of maflih (the active
participial form of the same verb), an agriculturist—a still more appropriate designation
of Moplahs, who, according to Buchanan, are both traders and farmers. In the latter
sense, the term, though not usually so applied among the Arabs, would be identical with
fella’h.” By Mr. C. P. Brown the conviction was expressed that Māppilla is a Tamil
mispronunciation of the Arabic mu’abbar, from over the water.

“The chief characteristic of the Māppillas,” Mr. Govinda Nambiar writes, “as of all
Mussalmans, is enthusiasm for religious practices. They are either Sunnis or Shiahs. The
Sunnis are the followers of the Ponnāni Tangal, the chief priest of the orthodox party,
while the Shiahs acknowledge the Kondōtti Tangal as their religious head. There are
always religious disputes between these sects, and the criminal courts are not seldom
called in to settle them.” In an account of the Māppillas,64 Mr. P. Kunjain, a Mappilla
Government official (the first Māppilla Deputy Collector), states that “there are a few
Moplahs in the Ernād and Waluwanād tāluks who are the followers of the Kondōtti
Tangal, and are, therefore, believed to be heretics (Shias). The number of these is
dwindling. The reason why they are believed to be heretics, and as such outcasted, is that
they are enjoined by their preceptor (the Tangal) to prostrate before him. Prostration
(sujud), according to strict doctrines, is due to God alone.” At Mulliakurichi in the
Walluwanād tāluk there are two mosques. One, the Pazhaya Palli, or old mosque,
belongs to, or is regarded as belonging to the Kondōtti sect of Māppillas. The other is
called Puthan Palli, or new mosque. This mosque is asserted by the Ponnāni sect of
Māppillas to have been erected for their exclusive use. The Kondōtti sect, on the other
hand, claim that it was erected by them, as the old mosque was not large enough for the
growing congregation. They do not claim exclusive use of the new mosque, but a right to
worship there, just like any other Muhammadan. The Ponnāni sect, however, claim a
right to exclude the Kondōtti people from the new mosque altogether. In September,
1901, there was a riot at the mosque between members of the rival sects. The Māppillas
have a college at Ponnāni, the chief seat of their religious organisation, where men are
trained in religious offices. This institution, called the Jammat mosque, was, it is said,
founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. by an Arab divine for the purpose of
imparting religious instruction to youths of the Muhammadan community. The head of
the institution selects the ablest and most diligent from among the students, and confers
on him the title of Musaliar. He is then appointed to preach in mosques, and to explain
the meaning of the Korān and other sacred writings. There are other religious offices, as
those of the Kāzi, Katib, and Mulla. The highest personages of divinity among them are
known as Tangals. In the middle of the last century there was a very influential Tangal
(Mambram Tangal), who was suspected of fomenting outbreaks, and who conferred his
blessing on the murderous projects of his disciples. Of him it is stated that he was
regarded as imbued with a portion of divinity, and that the Māppillas swore by his foot
as their most solemn oath. Earth on which he had spat or walked was treasured up, and
his blessing was supremely prized. Even among the higher class of Māppillas, his wish
was regarded as a command.

Mr. A. R. Loftus-Tottenham informs me that “it is quite common now for Māppillas to
invoke Mambram Tangal when in difficulties. I have heard a little Māppilla, who was
frightened at my appearance, and ran away across a field, calling out ‘Mambram Tangal,
Mambram Tangal.’ The Tangal, who had to be induced to leave Malabar, went off to
Constantinople, and gained great influence with the Sultan.”

In 1822 it was recorded65 by Mr. Baber, in a circuit report, that the Tarramal and
Condotty Tangals “pretend to an extraordinary sanctity, and such is the character they
have established, that the people believe it is in their power to carry them harmless
through the most hazardous undertakings, and even to absolve them of the most
atrocious crimes. To propitiate them, their votaries are lavish in their presents, and there
are no description of delinquents who do not find an asylum in the mosques wherein
these Tangals take up their abode, whether pursued by the Police, or by their own evil
consciences.” There is a legend current on the Kavarathi island of the Laccadives that a
Tangal of that island once cursed the crows for dropping their excrement on his person,
and now there is not a crow on the island. On another occasion, hearing the cries of a
woman in labour, the Tangal prayed to God that the women of the island might suffer
from no such pains in future. So strong is the belief in the immunity from the pangs of
child-birth which was thus obtained, that the women of the neighbouring islands go over
to Kavarathi for delivery, in order to have an easy confinement.66
In connection with Māppilla superstition, Mr. Tottenham writes as follows. “A beggar
died (probably of starvation) by the roadside in Walluvanād tāluk. When alive, no one
worried about him. But, after he died, it was said that celestial voices had been heard
uttering the call to prayer at the spot. The Māppillas decided that he was a very holy
man, whom they had not fed during his life, and who should be canonised after death. A
little tomb was erected, and a light may be seen burning there at night. Small banners are
deposited by the faithful, who go in numbers to the place, and there is, I think, a money-
box to receive their contributions.” Mr. Tottenham writes further that “the holy place at
Malappuram is the tomb of the Sāyyids (saints or martyrs) who were killed in a battle by
a local military chieftain. These Sāyyids are invoked. At Kondotti there is a very
pretentious, and rather picturesque tomb—a square building of gneiss surmounted by a
cupola—to one of the Tangals. Near it is a small tank full of more or less tame fish. It is
one of the sights of the place to see them fed. At the great festival called neercha (vow),
the Māppillas go in procession, headed by banners, elephants (if they possess them), and
music, and carrying offerings to the head-quarters (Malappuram and Kondotti are the
principal ones) of some Tangal, where they deposit the banners, I think at the tomb of the
local saint, and present the offerings to the Tangal. At Malappuram, an enormous crowd
of ten to twenty thousand assembles, and there is a great tamāsha (popular excitement).
You will sometimes see a man with his hair uncut, i.e., he does not cut it till he has
fulfilled the vow.”

There is a tradition that, some centuries ago, one Sheik Mahomed Tangal died. One
night, some Māppillas dreamt that his grave, which was near the reefs, was in danger of
being washed away, and that they should remove the body to a safe place. They
accordingly opened the grave, and found the body quite fresh, with no sign of
decomposition. The remains were piously re-interred in another place, and a mosque,
known as Sheikkinde Palli, built. The Māppillas of Calicut celebrate annually, on the
15th day of Rajub, the anniversary of the death of Sheik Mahomed Tangal, the date of
which was made known through inspiration by an ancestor of the Mambram Tangal. The
ancestor also presented the Mullah of the mosque with a head-dress, which is still worn
by successive Mullahs on the occasion of the anniversary festival. “The festival goes by
the name of Appani (trade in bread). A feature of the celebration is that every Moplah
household prepares a supply of rice cakes, which are sent to the mosque to be distributed
among the thousands of beggars who gather for the occasion. A very brisk trade is also
carried on in these rice cakes, which are largely bought by the charitable for distribution
among the poor. On the day of the anniversary, as well as on the day following, prayers
are offered up to the souls of the departed. According to a legend, the pious Sheik,
during his travels in foreign lands, arrived at Achin disguised as a fakir. One day, some
servants of the local Sultan came to him, recognising in him a holy man, and begged his
help in a serious difficulty. Their Sultan, they said, had a favourite parrot which used to
be kept in a golden cage, and, the door of this cage having been inadvertently left open,
the parrot had escaped. On hearing of the loss of his favourite bird, the Sultan had
threatened his ministers and servants with dire punishment, if they failed to recover the
bird. Sheik Mahomed Koya directed the servants to place the cage in the branches of a
neighbouring tree, assuring them that the parrot would come and enter his cage. Saying
this, the holy man departed. The servants did as he had bidden them, and had the
gratification of seeing the bird fly into the cage, and of recovering and conveying it to
their master. The Sultan asked the bird why it went away when it had a beautiful golden
cage to live in, and a never failing supply of dainty food to subsist upon. The parrot
replied that the beautiful cage and the dainty food were not to be compared with the
delights of a free and unfettered life spent under the foliage of feathery bamboos, swayed
by gentle breezes. The Sultan then asked the bird why it had come back, and the bird
made answer that, while it was disporting itself with others of its species in a clump of
bamboos, a stifling heat arose, which it feared would burn its wings, but, as it noticed
that on one side of the clump the atmosphere was cool, it flew to that spot to take shelter
on a tree. Seeing the cage amidst the branches, it entered, and was thus recaptured and
brought back. The Sultan afterwards discovered that it was the fakir who had thus
miraculously brought about the recovery of his bird, and further that the fakir was none
other than the saintly Sheik Mahomed Koya Tangal. When the news of the Tangal’s
death was subsequently received, the Sultan ordered that the anniversary of the day
should be celebrated in his dominions, and the Moplahs of Calicut believe that the
faithful in Achin join with them every year in doing honour to the memory of their
departed worthy.”67

It is recorded, in the Annual Report of the Basel Medical Mission, Calicut, 1907, that
“cholera and smallpox were raging terribly in the months of August and September. It is
regrettable that the people, during such epidemics, do not resort to hospital medicines,
but ascribe them to the devil’s scourge. Especially the ignorant and superstitious
Moplahs believe that cholera is due to demoniac possession, and can only be cured by
exorcism. An account of how this is done may be interesting. A Thangal (Moplah priest)
is brought in procession, with much shouting and drumming, to the house to drive out
the cholera devil. The Thangal enters the house, where three cholera patients are lying;
two of these already in a collapsed condition. The wonder-working priest refuses to do
anything with these advanced cases, as they seem to be hopeless. The other patient, who
is in the early stage of the disease, is addressed as follows. ‘Who are you?’—‘I am the
cholera devil’. ‘Where do you come from?’—‘From such and such a place’. ‘Will you
clear out at once or not?’—‘No, I won’t’. ‘Why?’—‘Because I want something to
quench my thirst’. ‘You want blood?’—‘Yes’. Then the Thangal asks his followers and
relatives to give him what he asks. A young bull is brought into the room and killed on
the spot, and the patient is made to drink the warm blood. Then the Thangal commands
him to leave the place at once. The patient, weak and exhausted, gathers up all his
strength, and runs out of the house, aided by a cane which is freely applied to his back.
He runs as far as he can, and drops exhausted on the road. Then he is carried back, and,
marvellous to say, he makes a good recovery.”
“The most important institution,” Mr. A. S. Vaidyanatha Aiyar writes,68 “among the
Māppilas of Malabar is the office of the Mahadun (Makhdūm) at Ponnāni, which dates
its origin about four centuries ago, the present Mahadun being the twenty-fifth of his
line. [The line of the original Makhdūm ended with the eighteenth, and the present
Makhdūm and his six immediate predecessors belong to a different line.] In the
Mahadun there was a sect of religious head for the Māppilas from Kodangalur to
Mangalore. His office was, and is still held in the greatest veneration. His decrees were
believed to be infallible. (His decrees are accepted as final.) The Zamorins recognised
the Mahadunship, as is seen from the presentation of the office dress at every succession.
In the famous Jamath mosque they (the Mahaduns) have been giving instruction in
Korān ever since they established themselves at Ponnāni. Students come here from
different parts of the country. After a certain standard of efficiency, the degree of
Musaliar is conferred upon the deserving Mullas (their name in their undergraduate
course). This ceremony consists simply in the sanction given by the Mahadun to read at
the big lamp in the mosque, where he sometimes gives the instruction personally. The
ceremony is known as vilakkath irikka (to sit by the lamp). When the degree of Musaliar
is conferred, this sacred lamp is lit, and the Mahadun is present with a number of
Musaliars. These Musaliars are distributed through the length and breadth of the land.
They act as interpreters of the Korān, and are often appointed in charge of the mosques.
When I visited the Jamath, there were about three hundred students. There is no regular
staff of teachers. Students are told off into sections under the management of some
senior students. The students are confined to the mosque for their lodgings, while most
of them enjoy free boarding from some generous Māppilla or other.”

I am informed by Mr. Kunjain that “Mulla ordinarily means a man who follows the
profession of teaching the Korān to children, reading it, and performing petty religious
ceremonies for others, and lives on the scanty perquisites derived therefrom. The man in
charge of a mosque, and who performs all petty offices therein, is also called a Mulla.69
This name is, however, peculiar to South Malabar. At Quilandi and around it the teacher
of the Korān is called Muallimy, at Badagara Moiliar (Musaliar), at Kottayam Seedi, at
Cannanore Kalfa, and north of it Mukri. The man in charge of a mosque is also called
Mukir in North Malabar, while in South Malabar Mukir is applied to the man who digs
graves, lights lamps, and supplies water to the mosque.”

The mosques of the Māppillas are quite unlike those of any other Muhammadans.
“Here,” Mr. Fawcett writes,70 “one sees no minarets. The temple architecture of Malabar
was noticed by Mr. Fergusson to be like that of Nepāl: nothing like it exists between the
two places. And the Māppilla mosque is much in the style of the Hindu temple, even to
the adoption of the turret-like edifice which, among Hindus, is here peculiar to the
temples of Siva. The general use nowadays of German mission-made tiles is bringing
about, alas! a metamorphosis in the architecture of Hindu temples and Māppilla
mosques, the picturesqueness disappearing altogether, and in a few years it may be
difficult to find one of the old style. The mosque, though it may be little better than a
hovel, is always as grand as the community can make it, and once built it can never be
removed, for the site is sacred ever afterwards. Every Māppilla would shed his blood,
rather than suffer any indignity to a mosque.” The mosques often consist of “several
stories, having two or more roofs, one or more of the upper stories being usually built of
wood, the sides sloping inwards at the bottom. The roof is pent and tiled. There is a
gable end at one (the eastern) extremity, the timber on this being often elaborately
carved.”

One section of Māppillas at Calicut is known as “Clap the hand” (Keikottakar) in

contradistinction to another section, which may not clap hands (Keikottāttakar). On the
occasion of wedding and other ceremonies, the former enjoy the privilege of clapping
their hands as an accompaniment to the processional music, while the latter are not
permitted to do so.71 It is said that at one time the differences of opinion between the
two sections ran so high that the question was referred for decision to the highest
ecclesiastical authorities at Mecca.

The Māppillas observe the Ramazān, Bakrid, and Haj. “They only observe the ninth and
tenth days of Muharam, and keep them as a fast; they do not make taboots.72 A common
religious observance is the celebration of what is called a mavulad or maulad. A maulad
is a tract or short treatise in Arabic celebrating the birth, life, works and sayings of the
prophet, or some saint such as Shaik Mohiuddin, eleventh descendant of the prophet,
expounder of the Korān, and worker of miracles, or the Mambram Tangal, father of
Sayid Fasl. For the ceremony a Mulla is called in to read the book, parts of which are in
verse, and the congregation is required to make responses, and join in the singing. The
ceremony, which usually takes place in the evening, concludes with, or is preceded by a
feast, to which the friends and relations are invited. Those who can afford it should
perform a maulad in honour of Shaik Mohiuddin on the eleventh of every month, and
one in honour of the prophet on the twelfth. A maulad should also be performed on the
third day after death. It is also a common practice to celebrate a maulad before any
important undertaking on which it is desired to invoke a blessing, or in fulfilment of
some vows; hence the custom of maulads preceding outbreaks.”73

For a detailed account of the fanatical74 outbreaks in the Māppilla community, which
have long disturbed the peace of Malabar from time to time, I must refer the reader to
the District Manual and Gazetteer. From these sources, and from the class handbook
(Māppillas) for the Indian Army,75 the following note relating to some of the more
serious of the numerous outbreaks has been compiled.76

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Māppillas massacred the chief of
Anjengo, and all the English gentlemen belonging to the settlement, when on a public
visit to the Queen of Altinga.77 In 1841, seven or eight Māppillas killed two Hindus, and
took post in a mosque, setting the police at defiance. They, and some of their co-
religionists who had joined them, were shot down by a party of sepoys. In the same
month, some two thousand Māppillas set at defiance a police guard posted over the spot
where the above criminals had been buried, and forcibly carried off their bodies, to inter
them with honours in a mosque.

Māppilla mosque.

An outbreak, which occurred in 1843, was celebrated in a stirring ballad.78 A series of

Māppilla war-songs have been published by Mr. Fawcett.79 In October, 1843, a peon
(orderly) was found with his head and hand all but cut off, and the perpetrators were
supposed to have been Māppilla fanatics of the sect known as Hāl Ilakkam (frenzy
raising), concerning which the following account was given in an official report, 1843.
“In the month of Mētam last year, one Alathamkuliyil Moidīn went out into the fields
before daybreak to water the crops, and there he saw a certain person, who advised him
to give up all his work, and devote his time to prayer at the mosque. Moidīn objected to
this, urging that he would have nothing to live upon. Whereupon, the above-mentioned
person told him that a palm tree, which grew in his (Moidīn’s) compound, would yield
sufficient toddy, which he could convert into jaggery (crude sugar), and thus maintain
himself. After saying this, the person disappeared. Moidīn thought that the person he saw
was God himself, and felt frantic (hāl). He then went to Taramal Tangal, and performed
dikkar and niskāram (cries and prayers). After two or three days, he complained to the
Tangal that Kāfirs (a term applied by Muhammadans to people of other religions) were
making fun of him. The Tangal told him that the course adopted by him was the right
one, and, saying ‘Let it be as I have said,’ gave him a spear to be borne as an emblem,
and assured him that nobody would mock him in future. Subsequently several Māppillas,
affecting hāl ilakkam, played all sorts of pranks, and wandered about with canes in their
hands, without going to their homes or attending to their work. After several days, some
of them, who had no means of maintaining themselves unless they attended to their
work, returned to their former course of life, while others, with canes and Ernād knives
(war knives) in their hands, wandered about in companies of five, six, eight, or ten men,
and, congregating in places not much frequented by Hindus, carried on their dikkar and
niskāram. The Māppillas in general look upon this as a religious vow, and provide these
people with food. I hear of the Māppillas talking among themselves that one or two of
the ancestors of Taramal Tangal died fighting, that, the present man being advanced in
age, it is time for him to follow the same course, and that the above-mentioned men
affected with hāl ilakkam, when their number swells to four hundred, will engage in a
fight with Kāfirs, and die in company with the Tangal. One of these men (who are
known as Hālar), by name Avarumāyan, two months ago collected a number of his
countrymen, and sacrificed a bull, and, for preparing meals for these men, placed a
copper vessel with water on the hearth, and said that rice would appear of itself in the
vessel. He waited for some time. There was no rice to be seen. Those who had
assembled there ate beef alone, and dispersed. Some people made fun of Avarumāyan for
this. He felt ashamed, and went to Taramal Tangal, with whom he stayed two or three
days. He then went to the mosque at Mambram, and, on attempting to fly through the air
into the mosque on the southern side of the river at Tirurangādi, fell down through the
opening of the door, and became lame of one leg, in which state he is reported to be still
lying. While the Hālar of Munniyūr dēsam were performing niskāram one day at the
tomb of Chemban Pokar Mūppan, a rebel, they declared that in the course of a week a
mosque would spring up at night, and that there would be complete darkness for two full
days. Māppillas waited in anxious expectation of the phenomenon for seven or eight
days and nights. There was, however, neither darkness nor mosque to be seen. Again, in
the month of Karkigadam last, some of the influential Māppillas led their ignorant Hindu
neighbours to believe that a ship would arrive with the necessary arms, provisions, and
money for forty thousand men; and that, if that number could be secured meanwhile,
they could conquer the country, and that the Hindus would then totally vanish. It appears
that it was about this time that some Tiyyar (toddy-drawers) and others became converts.
None of the predictions having been realised, Māppillas, as well as others, have begun to
make fun of the Hālar, who, having taken offence at this, are bent upon putting an end to
themselves by engaging in a fight.”
Since the outbreak near Manjeri in 1849, when two companies of sepoys were routed
after firing a few shots, European troops have always been engaged against the
Māppillas. On the occasion of that outbreak, one of the Māppillas had his thigh broken
in the engagement. He remained in all the agony of a wound unattended to for seven
days, and was further tortured by being carried in a rough litter from the Manjeri to the
Angādipuram temple. Yet, at the time of a further fight, he was hopping to the encounter
on his sound leg, and only anxious to get a fair blow at the infidels before he died. It is
recorded that, on one occasion, when a detachment of sepoys was thrown into disorder
by a fierce rush of death-devoted Māppillas, the drummer of the company distinguished
himself by bonneting an assailant with his drum, thereby putting the Māppilla’s head
into a kind of straight jacket, and saving his own life.80 In 1852 Mr. Strange was
appointed Special Commissioner to enquire into the causes of, and suggest remedies for,
the Māppilla disturbances. In his report he stated, inter alia, that “a feature that has been
manifestly common to the whole of these affairs is that they have been, one and all,
marked by the most decided fanaticism, and this, there can be no doubt, has furnished
the true incentive to them. The Māppillas of the interior were always lawless, even in the
time of Tippu, were steeped in ignorance, and were, on these accounts, more than
ordinarily susceptible to the teaching of ambitious and fanatical priests using the
recognised precepts of the Korān as handles for the sanction to rise and slay Kafirs, who
opposed the faithful, chiefly in the pursuit of agriculture. The Hindus, in the parts where
outbreaks have been most frequent, stand in such fear of the Māppillas as mostly not to
dare to press for their rights against them, and there is many a Māppilla tenant who does
not pay his rent, and cannot, so imminent are the risks, be evicted.” Mr. Strange stated
further that “the most perverted ideas on the doctrine of martyrdom, according to the
Korān, universally prevail, and are fostered among the lower classes of the Māppillas.
The late enquiries have shown that there is a notion prevalent among the lower orders
that, according to the Mussalman religion, the fact of a janmi or landlord having in due
course of law ejected from his lands a mortgagee or other substantial tenant, is a
sufficient pretext to murder him, become sahid (saint), and so ensure the pleasures of the
Muhammadan paradise. It is well known that the favourite text of the banished Arab
priest or Tangal, in his Friday orations at the mosque in Tirurangādi, was ‘It is no sin, but
a merit, to kill a janmi who evicts.’” Mr. Strange proposed the organisation of a special
police force exclusively composed of Hindus, and that restrictions should be put on the
erection of mosques. Neither of these proposals was approved by Government. But a
policy of repression set in with the passing of Acts XXII and XXIV of 1854. The former
authorised the local authorities to escheat the property of those guilty of fanatical rising,
to fine the locality where outrages had occurred, and to deport suspicious persons out of
the country. The latter rendered illegal the possession of the Māppilla war-knife. Mr.
Conolly, the District Magistrate, proceeded, in December, 1854, on a tour, to collect the
war-knives through the heart of the Māppilla country. In the following year, when he
was sitting in his verandah, a body of fanatics, who had recently escaped from the
Calicut jail, rushed in, and hacked him to pieces in his wife’s presence. He had quite
recently received a letter from Lord Dalhousie, congratulating him on his appointment as
a member of the Governor’s Council at Madras. His widow was granted the net proceeds
of the Māppilla fines, amounting to more than thirty thousand rupees.

In an account of an outbreak in 1851, it is noted that one of the fanatics was a mere
child. And it was noticed, in connection with a more recent outbreak, that there were
“several boys who were barely fourteen years old. One was twelve; some were
seventeen or eighteen. Some observers have said that the reason why boys turn fanatics
is because they may thus avoid the discomfort, which the Ramzan entails. A dispensation
from fasting is claimable when on the war-path. There are high hopes of feasts of
cocoanuts and jaggery, beef and boiled rice. At the end of it all there is Paradise with its
black-eyed girls.”81

In 1859, Act No. XX for the suppression of outrages in the district of Malabar was
passed.

In 1884, Government appointed Mr. Logan, the Head Magistrate of Malabar, to enquire
into the general question of the tenure of land and tenant right, and the question of sites
for mosques and burial-grounds in the district. Mr. Logan expressed his opinion that the
Māppilla outrages were designed “to counteract the overwhelming influence, when
backed by the British courts, of the janmis in the exercise of the novel powers of ouster,
and of rent-raising conferred upon them. A janmi who, through the courts, evicted,
whether fraudulently or otherwise, a substantial tenant, was deemed to have merited
death, and it was considered a religious virtue, not a fault, to have killed such a man, and
to have afterwards died in arms, fighting against an infidel Government.” Mr.
MacGregor, formerly Collector of Malabar, had, some years before, expressed himself as
“perfectly satisfied that the Māppilla outrages are agrarian. Fanaticism is merely the
instrument, through which the terrorism of the landed classes is aimed at.”

In 1884 an outbreak occurred near Malappuram, and it was decided by Government to

disarm the tāluks of Ernād, Calicut, and Walluvanād. Notwithstanding the excited state
of the Māppillas at the time, the delicate operation was successfully carried out by the
district officers, and 17,295 arms, including 7,503 fire-arms of various kinds, were
collected. In the following year, the disarming of the Ponnāni tāluk was accomplished.
Of these confiscated arms, the Madras Museum possesses a small collection, selected
from a mass of them which were hoarded in the Collector’s office, and were about to be
buried in the deep sea.

In 1896 a serious outbreak occurred at Manjeri, and two or three notoriously

objectionable landlords were done away with. The fanatics then took up a position, and
awaited the arrival of the British troops. They took no cover, and, when advancing to
attack, were mostly shot down at a distance of 700 to 800 yards, every man wounded
having his throat cut by his nearest friend. In the outbreak of 1894, a Māppilla youth was
wounded, but not killed. The tidings was conveyed to his mother, who merely said, with
the stern majesty of the Spartan matron of old, ‘If I were a man, I would not come back
wounded.’82 “Those who die fighting for the faith are reverenced as martyrs and saints,
who can work miracles from the Paradise to which they have attained. A Māppilla
woman was once benighted in a strange place. An infidel passed by, and, noticing her
sorry plight, tried to take advantage of it to destroy her virtue. She immediately invoked
the aid of one of the martyrs of Malappuram. A deadly serpent rushed out of a
neighbouring thicket, and flew at the villain, who had dared to sully the chastity of a
chosen daughter. Once, during a rising, a Māppilla, who preferred to remain on the side
of order and Government, stood afar off, and watched with sorrow the dreadful sight of
his co-religionists being cut down by the European soldiery. Suddenly his emotions
underwent a transformation, for there, through his blinding tears and the dust and smoke
of the battle, he saw a wondrous vision. Lovely houris bent tenderly over fallen martyrs,
bathed their wounds, and gave them to drink delicious sherbet and milk, and, with smiles
that outshone the brightness of the sun, bore away the fallen bodies of the brave men to
the realms beyond. The watcher dashed through the crowd, and cast in his lot with the
happy men who were fighting such a noble fight. And, after he was slain, these things
were revealed to his wife in a vision, and she was proud thereat. These, and similar
stories, are believed as implicitly as the Korān is believed.”83

It is noted by Mr. Logan84 that the custom of the Nāyars, in accordance with which they
sacrificed their lives for the honour of the king, “was readily adopted by the Māppillas,
who also at times—as at the great Mahāmakham twelfth year feast at Tirunāvāyi—
devoted themselves to death in the company of Nāyars for the honour of the Valluvanād
Rāja. And probably the frantic fanatical rush of the Māppillas on British bayonets is the
latest development of this ancient custom of the Nāyars.”

The fanatical outbreaks of recent times have been exclusively limited to the Ernād and
Walluvanād tāluks. There are quartered at the present time at Malappuram in the Ernād
tāluk a special Assistant Collector, a company of British troops, and a special native
police force. In 1905, Government threw open 220 scholarships, on the results of the
second and third standard examinations, to Māppilla pupils of promise in the two tāluks
mentioned above, to enable them to prosecute their studies for the next higher standard
in a recognised school connected with the Madras Educational Department. Twenty
scholarships were further offered to Māppillas in the special class attached to the
Government School of Commerce, Calicut, where instruction in commercial arithmetic,
book-keeping, commercial practice, etc., is imparted in the Malayālam language. In
1904, a Māppilla Sanskrit school was founded at Puttūr, some of the pupils at which
belong to the families of hereditary physicians, who were formerly good Sanskrit
scholars.
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