While Sewing Sandals - Or Tales of a Telugu Pariah Tribe #271604

Many a day I passed with a group of Madigas before me, listening to their legends, hearing about their cults. I received glimpses of life in the Indian village community, and I felt the heart-beat of the religious life of the common people of India.<br><br>The Madigas are among the humblest and most despised of the Pariahs of Southern India. They are the leather workers in the Telugu country. For centuries they have tanned hides, sewed sandals, prepared leather buckets for the wells of the Sudras, and made trappings for their bullocks. And all their search for truth was carried on while sewing sandals with their hands.<br><br>I have described what I heard from them. In some respects I found myself on untrodden ground. With regard to the Matangi cult, the Chermanishta sect, the cult called Perantalu, and the several Reform sects which came to my notice, I cannot quote the researches of others in corroboration of that which I found among the people.