Domara: Deccan

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Domara

This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS BY SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and Middle Temple, London. One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. BOMBAY THE TlMES PRESS 1920 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version/ additional information to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

Domara, Dombari, Dotnri, Reddi Domara — a vagrant mongrel tribe of acrobats, jugglers, rope-dancers and tumblers, chiefly found in the Ttilugu and Carnatic Districts of H. H. the Nizam's Domi- nions. They are identical with the Kolhatis of Maharashtra, both of them being associated with the same means of livelihood. Both tribes have the evil repute of being highway robbers, burglars and , dakaits, and are classed by the police among the criminal tribes of the Dominions.

History

These tribes wander about in small gangs throughout the country and encamp in temporary huts of mats made of palmyra leaves. The men are ostensibly engaged in making combs of buffalo horns and wood, brooms for weaver's looms, dolls and mattresses. To these occupations they add the exhibition of gymnastic feats, rope-dancing, tumbling, conjuring tricks and athletic exercises. In these performances they are joined by their women, some of whom are wonderfully expert in exhibitions on a long bamboo pole or a tight rope. To attract large audiences, the women selected as acrobats are generally smart and good-looking, and are trained in the art from their childhood. In their character, these women are very loose and dissolute, and the men not only encourage them in their depraved habits, but subsist largely on their immoral gains.

Both the Kolhatis and the Domaras are a mixed race composed of various elements and this fact accounts for the appreciable varia- tions observed in their complexion and features. This variation of type seems to be due to the intermixture of blood brought about by the free admission of outsiders into the community, the prostitution of their women, and the kidnapping 'of high-caste girls to be brought up as dancing girls.