Talayari.— The Talayari (talai, head) or chief watchman, or Uddari (saviour of the village), is a kind of undepartmental village policeman, who is generally known as the Talari. Among other duties, he has to follow on the track of stolen cattle, to act as a guard over persons confined in the village choultry (lock-up), to attend upon the head of the village during the trial of petty cases, to serve processes, and distrain goods. In big villages there are two or three Talayaris, in which case one is a Paraiyan, who officiates in the Paraiya quarter. In parts of the Telugu country, the Mutrachas, who are the village watchmen, are known as Talarivallu, or watchman people, and, in like manner, the Bedars are called Talarivandlu in the Kurnool and Bellary districts.
It is noted, in the Gazetteer of the Tanjore district (1906), that "from the earliest years of the British occupation of the country, fees were paid to the talaiyari or village watchman. He was probably survival of a state of society in which kavalgars did not exist, and his duties were, it seems, to look after the villagers' fields and threshing floors. At any rate, he continued in existence even after the abolition of the kaval system (^see Maravan), and was declared by the early Police Regulation (XI of 1816) to be part of the regular police establishment. Practically he did little real police duty, and in i860, when the mufassal police was reorganised, all claims to the services of the talaiyari as a servant of the State were formally abandoned, the Inspector-General of Police having reported that any attempt to utilise the talaiyari body would be fruitless and unpopular. Talaiyaris still continue to be employed and paid by the ryots (cultivators) as the private guardians of their crops and harvested grain. Recently, however, the district was
brought into line with the rest of the Presidency by the creation of a new force of talaiyaris, who now perform the police duties assigned to such persons elsewhere. They are provided with lathis (sticks) and badges, and are a useful auxiliary to the police."
Tali.— "The tali," Bishop Caldwell writes, "is the Hindu sign of marriage, answering to the ring of European Christendom. I have known a clergyman refuse to perform a marriage with a tali, and insist upon a ring being used instead. A little consideration will show that the scrupulous conscience can find no rest for itself even in the ring ; for, if the ring is more Christian than the tali, it is only because its use among Christians is more ancient. Every one knows that the ring has a Pagan origin, and that, for this reason, it is rejected by Quakers." "The custom," Wagner informs us,t "of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand had unquestionably a Pagan origin. Both the Greeks and the Romans called the fourth left-hand finger the medicated finger, and used it to stir up mixtures and potions, out of the belief that it contained a vein, which communicated directly with the heart, and therefore nothing noxious could come in contact with it, without giving instant warning to that vital organ."
The marriage badge, as it occurs in Southern India, is, broadly speaking, of two types. The one in use among the Tamil castes is oblong in shape, with a single or double indentation at the base, and rounded at the top. The corresponding bottu or sathamanam of the Telugu and Canarese castes is a flat or cup-shaped disc. The tali in use among various Malayalam castes at the tali-kettu ceremony is a long cylinder.
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