owed tax-free land out of its endowments.
Other Temples had similar arrangements. . . . At the present day they
form a regular Caste, having its own laws of inheritance, its own
customs and rules of etiquette, and its own councils to see that all
these are followed, and they hold a position which is perhaps without a
parallel in any other country. . . .

"The daughters of the Caste who are brought up to follow the Caste
profession are carefully taught dancing and singing, the art of dressing
well, . . . and their success in keeping up their clientele is largely
due to the contrast which they thus present to the ordinary Hindu
housewife, whose ideas are bounded by the day's dinners and babies."

Closely allied to this Caste is that formed by the Temple musicians, who
with the Temple woman are "now practically the sole repository of Indian
music, the system of which is probably one of the oldest in the world."
In certain districts the Report states that a custom obtains among
certain castes, under which a family which has no sons must dedicate one
of its daughters to Temple service. The daughter selected is taken to a
Temple and married there to a god, the marriage symbol being put on her
as in a real marriage. Henceforth she belongs to the god.

Writing in 1904, a member of the Indian Civil Service says: "I heard of
a case of dedication (three girls) at A. at the beginning of this year,
but I could not get any evidence. The cases very rarely indeed come up
officially, as nearly every Hindu is interested in keeping them dark."
We, too, have had the same difficulty, and the evidence we now submit is
doubly valuable because of its source. It is very rarely that we have
found it possible to get behind the scenes sufficiently to obtain
reliable information from those most concerned in this traffic.

The head priest of one of our Temples admitted to a friend who was
watching for opportunities to get information for us that the "marriage
to the god is effected privately by the Temple priest at the Temple
woman's house, with the usual marriage-symbol ceremony. To avoid the
Penal Code (which forbids the marriage of children to gods) a nominal
bridegroom is sometimes brought for the wedding day to become the
nominal husband. This Caste is recruited by secret adoption."

A Temple woman's son, now living the ordinary life apart from his clan,
explains the very early marriage thus: "If not married, they will not be
considered wor