Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.8.3

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.