.dombii as scavenger woman

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

 I have also seen Dombar/thombar, a Dravidian caste in Salem, Tiruchy, etc.,
 Is Dombii the "iTumpi" in tamil works? Online Tamil Lexicon
 has "iTumpu"=mischief, pranks; "iTumpai"=affliction;
 It is interesting that "iTumpan" is the Chief of Skanda's hosts.
 For Skanda afflicting children in MBh., I read a post by
 N. Iyanaga a while ago.

 Lokesh Chandra, oDDiyANa: A new interpretation,
 L. Sternbach felicitaion volume, part I, Lucknow, 1979
 p. 491-514 gives a reference in German "where the presence
 of Dravidian expressions in the dhAraNI-s is explicitly
 pointed out by several Buddhist texts [5], some of which
 were translated into Chinese as early as A.D. 265-316 (T.310),
 A.D. 383(T.1547), and A.D. 398-399 (T. 212). [...]" (L. Chandra).
 [5] =Franz Bernhard, Zur Einstehung einer DhAraNI,
 ZDMG, 117 (1967): 148-168

 Of course, Daakinii occurs in the tamil CilappatikAram, probably
 first to do in literature.


--- balakrishnan raju <balakrishnanraju at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> According to Madras Census Report,1892, by M.A.Stuart: "The Dombs are a
> Dravidian caste of weavers and menials, found in the hill tract of
> Vizagapatnam and in Koraput..."
> In the current Indian context Dombs are classified as Scheduled caste. They
> live as  neighbours of Kondh. They play a subordinate role to Kondhs and
> acts as a messenger for Khondhs.I have visited such Domb settlements in
> Koraput and Rayagada districts of Orissa.
> There are villages named after Dombs. A search for 'Domb' prefixed village
> names yields following results:
> Tamilnadu(1)- Dombucheri
> Orissa(5) Dombaguda,Dombobisoiput, Dombo Turunji, Dombuai guda(koraput and
> Donma diha.
> West Bengal(2) Domberya, Dombandi
> Assam (1) Dombaha
> Bihar(7)- Dombaha, Domba Pahari, Dombi Duar etc.,
> Karnataka (11- Domba Kuppa, Dombara Halli, Dombar Hop, Dombara mattur etc.,
> It is pertinent to note that normally suffixes like 'Cheri' (as in the case
> of Dombucheri) and Kuppa (as in Domba kuppa) are associated with the
> settlements of so called 'low-caste' people (though always not the case).
>
> Regards
>
> R.Balakrishnan
>


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