Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.37.1

c48.s2.37.1

§ 49. **Dravidian Labouring castes.** In the south of India the landless labouring classes are particularly strong in number and assertiveness, and their relative positions are hard to define and must be treated as doubtful pending the results of the investigations of the Ethnographic Survey. It is advisable, therefore, to deal with them apart from the rest. There is apparently some reason for believing them all to be of one origin, but superimposed at different times one upon the other by various waves of conquest or migration. Their position has thus varied more than that of the corresponding helot tribes of the region absorbed by foreigners from beyond the north-west of India. The title Paraiyan, for instance, is not found in the standard Tamil dictionary of the 11th century, but the caste now so called is referred to in contemporary records under the name of Pulayan, still used of the corresponding community on the Malabār coast. Some weight may also be attached to the similarity of these two names with those of the Paḷḷi and Paḷḷan, labouring castes of the south Tamil country. The Holār or Holeya of the Karnatic, too, appears to belong to the same group, as in Kanarese the Tamil P becomes H. The Paḷḷi, to whom the name of Vaṇṇiyan was given by the Brāhmans, were once a dominant tribe under the Pallava dynasty, but were reduced to predial servitude when the Veḷḷāḷan entered their country.