Kēpumāri

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This article is an excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d’Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa,Romana di Anthropologia. Assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. Government Press, Madras 1909.

Kēpumāri

It is noted, in the Gazetteer of South Arcot, that “the Kēpumāris are one of the several foreign communities from other districts, who help to swell the total of the criminal classes in South Arcot. Their head-quarters is at Tiruvallūr in the Chingleput district, but there is a settlement of them at Māriyānkuppam (not far from Porto Novo), and another large detachment at Kunisampet in French territory. They commit much the same class of crime as the Donga Dāsaris, frequenting railway trains and crowded gatherings, and they avert suspicion by their respectable appearance and pleasant manners. Their house-language is Telugu.

They call themselves Alagiri Kēpumāris. The etymology of the second of these two words is not free from doubt, but the first of them is said to be derived from Alagar, the god of the Kallans, whose temple at the foot of the hills about twelve miles north of Madura town is a well-known place of pilgrimage, and to whom these people, and other criminal fraternities annually offer a share of their ill-gotten gains.” Information concerning the criminal methods of these people, under the name Capemari, will be found in Mr. F. S. Mullaly’s ‘Notes on Criminal Classes of the Madras Presidency.’