Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.8
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.8
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c48.s2.8.1
is insignificant. In the Karnatic, indeed, it is scarcely to be found, and in Telingāna, too, the position of a special subdivision is often found to rest upon the military recruitment of a former dynasty. The Rāzu, who were settled in the extreme south of the Telugu country by the Vijayanagar Chiefs, for whom they fought, seem to have the best claim to the distinction in question. They are undoubtedly superior to their neighbours in physique, and are more scrupulous as to ceremonial. They wear the sacred thread, seclude their women and employ Brāhmans as their family priests. It is not improbable, therefore, that they are the remnants of a body of mercenaries from further north, and really differ in race from the Dravidians with whom they are now permanently associated. The Velama of the north Coromandel coast are an offshoot of the great Kāpu or Reḍḍi caste and closely connected with other agricultural bodies of the neighbourhood. They have amongst them, however, several wealthy and influential Zamīndārs, or landed proprietors, and having adopted Brāhmanical regulations more strictly than the rest, are generally considered to hold a somewhat higher position.
c48.s2.8.2
In the Tamil country, especially in the south, the line of demarcation between the military castes and the others is more easily traced than amongst the Telugu masses, but there seems to be this noteworthy difference between the two regions, that the immigrant peasantry of the south rank higher in the present day than the castes once dominant, so that, setting aside the Chieftains and Zamīndārs, there is the tendency for a landowner of the latter, as he advances in prosperity, to get merged in the ranks of the former. The popular version of this inclination runs: "The Kaḷḷan became a Maṟavan; the Maṟavan became an Agamuḍaiyān, and the Agamuḍaiyān is now a Veḷḷāḷan". The explanation seems to be that the formerly dominant classes obtained their position by predatory, rather than military, prowess under the weak governments of the past, and retained with their independence their original religion and customs. In the piping times of the pax Britannica, however, Brāhmanic influence is permeating the masses, and as its ceremonial is the touchstone of respectability, the more aspiring remnants of the earlier civilisation affiliate themselves to a body already in full touch with the refinement aimed at, in preference to taking up the invidious position of innovator in the community of their birth. The principal tribe coming under this head is the Kaḷḷan, which happens to be the Tamil for thief.
c48.s2.8.3
It is probable that the original meaning was different, but no alternative has been found, and the interpretation is unfortunately justified by the history and habits of the caste. It is conjectured that the Kaḷḷan are an offshoot of the great Kuṟumban, or cowherd race of the south, which spread downwards from the uplands of Mysore, and were ousted from the plains successively by the Cēra and the Cōḷa dynasties. Some of the tribe expelled in their turn, the peasantry introduced by the latter, and settled on their lands. The reputation thus acquired helped to keep the Kaḷḷan in independence, and enabled them to maintain to this day their old customs untainted by Brāhmanism in their essential features. The acknowledged head of their tribe is the Rāja of Pūdūkottai, called by them the Toṇḍamān, in memory of their former colonisation of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam or the Pallava country. The bulk of them are cultivators and labourers; but they still furnish a strong contingent of watchmen, a duty which serves them as the pretext for the levy of a prophylactic subsidy from the householders thus subjected to their protection. Their neighbours to the south, the Maṟavan, are amongst the earliest inhabitants of this tract, and at one time got possession of the whole of the Pāṇḍya or Madura domain. They furnished a strong body of militia, and for many generations lorded it over the rest of the population. There is some connection, at present unascertained, between them and the Kaḷḷan.
c48.s2.8.4
Like the latter they worship their own gods and demons, and employ for the purpose priests drawn from the lower castes, but for ceremonial other than that of the temple, they call in Brāhmans. Their head is the Zamīndār of Rāmnād, to whom the Toṇḍamān and other local magnates do obeisance when they meet. The Agamuḍaiyān again, are closely connected with the Maṟavan, with whom they intermarry under rules which in the Brāhmanic system would imply hypergamy in favour of the latter. Nevertheless, the Agamuḍaiyān is the only caste of the three which has been substantially Brāhmanised, and in many ways it comes near the Veḷḷāḷan in practices and beliefs.