Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.37.3

c48.s2.37.3

They have a tradition of better, even dominant, days, before the Nāyar enslaved them on their estates. One of the relics of their servile condition is the practice of still bringing their children to be named by their employer. They use their own priests in the propitiation of the evilly-disposed goddesses they worship. In a good many respects they follow the customs of the Nāyar, such as inheritance through the female line in the north and through the male in the south. The title of Cēruman denotes, according to their tradition, an origin in the Cēra country. There remains the great community of village menials of a type more pronouncedly impure than the castes mentioned above. These rank above the tanners and leather workers generally, and above the scavenger, whether a separate caste or, as in the greater part of the south, a sub-division of the main body. The best known section of this group is the Paraiyan or Pariah, of the Tamil country. In treating of it it is advisable at the outset to get rid of the notion set on foot by the Abbé Raynal, that the Pariah is an "outcaste", or that there exists such a thing as an outcaste anywhere in India. Every community has its place, disputed though it may be, in the social hierarchy of Brāhmanism, and there is no caste but will unhesitatingly designate some other as ranking below it.