At Tarikeri in Mysore, a wandering troupe of Are (Maratha) Dommaras performed before me. The women were decorated with jewels and flowers, and carried bells on their ankles. The men had a row of bells attached all round the lower edge of their short drawers. Before the performance commenced, a Pillayar (Ganesa) was made with cowdung, and saluted. The entertainment took place in the open air amid the beating of drums, whistling, singing, and dialogue. The jests and antics of the equivalent of the circus clown were a source of much joy to the throng of villagers who collected to witness the tamasha (spectacle). One of the principal performers, in the waits between his turns, played the drum, or took a suck at a hooka (tobacco pipe) which was passed round among the members of the troupe. The entertainment, in which both men and women took part, consisted of various acrobatic feats, turning summersaults and catherine wheels, stilt-walking, and clever feats on the tight rope. Finally a man, climbing up a lofty bamboo pole, spun himself rapidly round and round on the top of it by means of a socket in an iron plate tied to his loin cloth, into which a spike in the pole fitted.
Donga Dasari.--Dasari (servant of the god), Mr. Francis writes, [105] "in the strict sense of the word, is a religious mendicant of the Vaishnavite sect, who has formally devoted himself to an existence as such, and been formally included in the mendicant brotherhood by being branded on the shoulders with Vaishnavite symbols." Far different are the Donga, or thief Dasaris, who receive their name from the fact that "the men and women disguise themselves as Dasaris, with perpendicular Vaishnava marks on their foreheads, and, carrying a lamp (Garuda kambum), a gong of bell-metal, a small drum called jagata, and a tuft of peacock feathers, go begging in the villages, and are at times treated with the sumptuous meals, including cakes offered to them as the disciples of Venkatesvarlu. [106]"