WAKALLT. KARN., TEL. A plural of Wakl or Waql, a farmer or agricultural race. The Wakaliga of Mysore have four Sections,—Morasn, Hali Gangadikar or Gangahara, Nonabba, and Kongaru. Among the Canarese they are Hindu cultivators, whom the Abbe Dubois considered to be identical with the Tamil Vellalar. They are so merely as farmers. They eat flesh freely, and are not strict Hindus. They are indifferent soldiers, but serve locally. The women of several families of one of their clans or sects, that of the 3iorasu Wakaliga, follow the custom of having the fingers of the right hand amputated. There are about two thousand families in Mysore who believe in the duty of acting this practice of mutilation, which is forbidden by law ; but so lately as the beginning of the year 1874, a woutan had the operation performed secretly at Havana holi, in the Bangalore district. Every woman of the sect, previous to piercing the ears of her eldest daughter,preparatory to her being betrothed in marriage, had to undergo the mutilation by the village blacksmith. The fingers being placed on a block, the blacksmith places a chisel over the joints, and chops them off at a single blow. The tradition connected with this rite is to the effect that Vrika, a rakshasha or demon, by a course of austere devotion, obtained from Maha deva the power of consuming to ashes any person on whose head he might place his right hand.
He then attempted to use this power to destroy Mahadeva, who fled and concealed himself in a grove, pursued by the demon. A farmer in a neighbouring field loudly deniEd having seen Mahadeva, but pointed with his finger to the grove. At this instant, to save Mahadeva, Vishnu appeared in the fortn of a beautiful Brahman girl, with whom Vrika became enamoured, but she withstood his advances until he should per form the Sandhya ceremonyelzit'llpplying the right hand to the breast, the crown of the head, and other parts of the body, and thus lie. reduced himself to ashes. Mahadeva, issuing from the grove, resolved to deprive the farmer of the finger with which he had pointed to the grove, but the farmer's wife prevailed on Mahadeva to accept two of her fingers instead ; and ever since then her female posterity, as a memorial of the transaction, sacrifice two fingers at Mahadeva's temple. The Wakaln cultivators in India number G65,215 souls.