Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.34.4

c48.s2.34.4

Still further south there is a smaller body, the Taṇḍān, probably a sub-caste of the Tiyan, but not intermarrying with them. This caste has the curious custom mentioned in connection with the Nāyar, of prohibiting its women from crossing a certain river. As those on the south are far better off than their kinsfolk on the other side, this restriction may have a solid mundane basis. The third of these castes, the S'āṇān, is found principally in Tinnevelli and Madura, though it is spread to some extent over most of the Tamil district. The title is not found in the early Tamil dictionaries, and in the inscriptions of the 10th century the caste is called Iluvan. The name S'āṇān is said to be derived from śāṇ and nār, signifying a span-long noose, thereby corresponding to the name of the Pāsī of upper India. The caste came into great prominence in 1899, when it asserted by force its right to enter the temples of the Maṛavan caste, on the score of its Kṣatriya origin, a title rejected by the rest of the community. The occupation of the caste is undoubtedly of great antiquity in southern India, and the Kadamba dynasty of Mysore sprang from one of its subdivisions. Numbers of the caste, therefore, were employed in its army and afterwards settled as a semi military peasantry or labouring class upon the land occupied. The tradition of such an origin, however, has not survived amongst the S'āṇān, whose claims are of comparatively recent date.