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Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s1: Section. 2. The Castes in Detail

Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c18.s1

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Contents

Section. 2. The Castes in Detail

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Having seen the futility of relying on some of the foreign travellers for information about the four castes and their sub-divisions, we may now attempt to glean as much information as possible about them from epigraphical and literary sources. The most prominent name amongst the four *varṇas* is of course that of the Brahmans. These deserve a treatment for themselves. A section equally important, although outside the pale of the orthodox group of the four *varṇāśramas*, was that of the Jainas. The significant part played by these in the religious and to a great extent in the commercial life of the people will be discussed in a subsequent paper

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While we have some definite details about these, practically nothing can be gathered about the second recognized division of the *varṇāśramas*, the Kshatriyas. It may not be too bold to suggest that Kshatriyas, as known especially to the history of northern India, were not native to the soil of the south.¹ This we infer from the absence of the name Kshatriya in two stone records written in cave characters and Prakrit language, dated about A.D. 150 and A.D. 250 respectively. In these the Brahmans are mentioned together with a Brahman endowment, the Vedas, the cows, the *dharma* and the soldiers. These last are called *abhaṭa* and not Kshatriyas.² But by A.D. 450, the idea of the Kshatriyas had already reached the south. In that year Mayūraśarma, the Kadamba king, defeated the Pallavas of Kañchī. This epigraph tells us that "through the Kshatras Brahmanhood is (reduced to mere) grass"; and that his successor Kākushtha, while protecting his subjects, honoured "the chief twice-born with the best of his wealth ".³ There was another name which was associated with the Brah-

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¹ But the Vanniyans or Vanniyars, as narrated below, are spoken of by some as the non-Aryan Rajputs of the south.

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² E. C., VII., Sk. 263, 264, p. 143, text, pp. 325-6.

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³ Ibid., Sk. 176, pp. 113-14.

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Christians". For a later account of the courage of the soldiers, read Satyanatha, *Nayaks*, p. 275. The pertinent remarks of Sewell on the character of the Portuguese may also be read here. *For. Emp.*, pp. 177-8.

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mans and Kshatriyas—the Brahma-Kshatriya, whose representative we have in the famous viceroy over Āraga, Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar.¹ But neither about this race nor about the other called the Ārshēya Kshatriya can we find out anything in epigraphs. Rājanātha Rāutta, son of Viśvanātha Rāutta, in A.D. 1526, in the reign of Kṛishṇa Dēva Rāya, is said to have been an Ārshēya-Kshatriya². In the Bakhair of Rāma Rāja, as noted in connection with the army, we have a contingent of Kshatriyas, who may have been enlisted in the Vijayanagara service as fortune-seekers from the north, towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. Yet, in spite of the paucity of materials, we come across the incessant claims of the rulers to be the promoters of the four varṇāśramas. It may be that the nobles and other high dignitaries, because of their prowess, were included among the Kshatriyas, who have ever been associated with all that is noble and chivalrous in Indian history.

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¹ The origin of the Saṅgama dynasty has been discussed in Volume I, Chapter I. As regards the beginnings of the Sāluva dynasty, it is rather a thorny question. We know, as stated elsewhere, that both Sāluva Timma and Sāluva Gōvinda Rāja were Brahman generals. The Telugu Jaimini-Bhāratamu traces the origin of the Sāluvas to the Yadu-vaṁśa. See Ramayya Pantulu, Ep. Ind., VII., p. 76; E. C., X., Intr. p. xxxv; Viṭhṭhaṇṇa Oḍeyar, will figure in the Chapter on Brahmans, Infra. See also E.C., VI., Kp. 52-3, pp. 86-7.

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² E. C., XI., Jl. 41, p. 88.

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One reason which may explain to a certain extent the absence of the name Kshatriya in the history of Vijayanagara is that the vitality of the Hindu Empire was due to the activities of the commercial and agricultural classes. These, as will be evident from the observations we shall make in connection with the corporate life of the people, vindicated their rights and privileges in the numerous grants they made to the provincial rulers; and helped to increase the material prosperity of the country upon which, among other things, depended the success of the Vijayanagara arms. Our assumption that the middle classes were mainly responsible for the greatness of Vijayanagara is in a way borne out by the praise given to the generals in terms of their achievements rather than in those of their Kshatriya descent. From the very beginning of Vijayanagara history the tendency was to ignore the Kshatriya claims of generals, and to describe them with the usual titles of *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* and the like, and with an account of their brave deeds. It is true that for the present we are unable to prove the veracity of the documents which give us these details. We are told in A. D. 1355, for example, that the great general Mallinātha who, as we remarked in an earlier connection, acquired greatness on the Turuka, Seuna, Telunga, Pāṇḍya, and Hoysala armies, was also honoured by the "Suratāla King" (the Bāhmani Sultan) "as the brave of a foreign army".¹ We have to remember in this connection the solid contributions to the State by the Jaina generals like Irugappa Daṇḍanāyaka and others in order to know that, from the infancy of the Empire, the privilege and honour of defending the country had already been monopolized by people who never belonged to the Kshatriya caste.

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¹ E. C., XI., Cd. 2 and 3 p. 2, op. cit.

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Among the middle classes of southern India mention must be made of the wide group which comprised the Seṭṭis or Cheṭṭis. These have figured prominently in the early history of both the Karṇāṭaka and Tamil lands. In the Karṇāṭaka, for example, in the twelfth century they are said to have had different sections among them. Thus in A. D. 1150 the *gavaregas*, *gātṛigas*, *seṭṭis*, *seṭṭiguttas*, *aṅkakāras*, *biras*, *bira-vaṇigas*, *gandigas*, *gāvuṇḍas*, and *gāvuṇḍa-svāmis*, as mentioned elsewhere, are all classed together.² Of all these subsections, the Seṭṭis exercised remarkable influence in Vijayanagara times. They had their own heads of caste to whom sometimes even the feudatories were compelled to petition for granting dues and sanctioning gifts to local temples. Thus, in about A. D. 1402, the Vira Śaiva Vira Pratāpa Chōḷa Rāja (who, we may incidentally note, assumed the imperial titles of *Mahārājādhirāja*, etc.) "having made a representation to (with numerous titles) certain *seṭṭis* (named), the heads of the caste", they agreed to grant certain specified payments and to permit him to levy specified taxes.¹ Some of these Seṭṭis rose to great prominence at the provincial courts. One of them was the royal Śrēṣṭhi Ambuvaṇa at the court of Dēva Rāya, the Sāḷuva ruler of Gērasoppe.²

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² E. C., VII, Sk. 118, p. 87. See Infra, Social Institutions. Section on Guilds.

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¹ See, Volume I, Chapter IV, Section 5, B.; E.C., IX, Bn. 96, p. 19, op. cit.

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² E. C., VIII, Sa. 55, p. 101, op. cit. Dames [Barbosa, II., p. 71. n. (1)] has some interesting remarks to make on the origin of the word seṭṭi.

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We may record the observations of Barbosa on these people. "First of these races whom I call foreigners who dwell in Malabar is a caste called Chalis, natives of the province of Charamandel of which I shall speak further on. They are tawny men, almost white, and fat. The more part of them are great merchants, and they deal in precious stones, seed pearls and corals, and other valuable goods, such as gold and silver, either coined or to be coined. This is their principal trade, and they follow it, because they can raise or lower the prices of such things many times; they are rich and respected; they lead a clean life, and have spacious houses in their own appointed streets; they also have their own houses of worship, and idols different from those of the natives of the land. They go naked from the waist up, and below gather round them long garments many yards in length, little turbans on their heads and long hair gathered under the turban. Their beards are shaven, and they wear finger marks of ashes mixed with sandal-wood and saffron on their breasts, foreheads and shoulders. They have wide holes in their ears,³ into which an egg would fit, which are filled with gold with many precious stones, they wear many rings on their fingers, they are girt about with girdles of gold and jewellery and even carry in their breasts great pouches in which they keep scales and weights of their gold, and silver coins and precious stones. Their sons also begin to carry them as soon as they are ten years of age, they go about changing small coins. They are great clerks and accountants, and reckon all their sums on their fingers. They are given to usury, so much so that one brother will not lend to another a ceitil,¹ without making a profit thereby. They are sober and orderly in eating and spending. They speak a tongue which differs from that of Malabar as it is with the Castilians and Portuguese. They marry as with us, and their sons inherit their property. If her husband dies the wife never marries again, young as she may be; if the wife dies the husband may marry again, and if she offends he may poison her without any punishment. They manage their own affairs, the Kings may not enquire into their crimes; they do justice to one another with which the King is satisfied. When they die, their bodies are burnt; they eat everything save the cow only.² The same traveller writes thus about the Cheṭṭis of Chōḷomaṇḍala which he calls Chara-mandel. "The more part or all of the Heathen merchants or Chatis who live throughout India are natives of this country, and are very cunning in every kind of traffic in goods."³

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³ Cf. Barbosa's account of the Banyas, whom he calls Baneanes of Gujarat. Dames, I, p. 114, and 114, n. (3).

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¹ "A very small Portuguese coin of copper which took the place of the dinheiro in the reign of D. Joao. (1481-95)". Barbosa, Dames, II, p. 73, n (1).

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² Barbosa, Dames, II, pp. 70-3.

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³ Barbosa, Dames, II, pp. 125-6 Cf. the account of the Komatis given by Metthwold, Relations, pp. 15-17. Here he describes also the Jangamas, Kāpus and the prostitutes.

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Of equal importance as the Seṭṭis or Cheṭṭis were the members of the trading and artisan class called the Vīra Pañchāḷas. Thus do they boast about their antiquity and greatness in a record dated A. D. 1372: ". . . all the Vīra Pañchāḷa (s), the originals of the Manu race, of incomparable character . . . delighting in Parabrahma, creators of the fourteen worlds . . . of unshaken joy, of daily pure and enlightened salvation, self-known and self-manifest; by their authority as the original men, making (?) in Tuṅgaḷa (or Tuṅgaḷale) of Beṇḍukaliyūr, hundreds and thousands of inquiries of all manner of seeds and plants; versed in weighing and comparing, in Vedas, science, logic, grammar, poetry, in pronouncing distinctly the palatals and labials, in training horses and elephants, and in holding the breath charged with perfume; passed masters in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the deception of (?) skilful people . . . perfumers of Sarasvati with rare jasmine; ornaments in the ears of Sarasvati; distinguished for cities; island forts, hill forts, forest forts . . . five foundations . . . domes, pinnacles, create and the sixteen signs of the original house, the sign of the sacrificial hall, the sign of the pit for consecrated fire, the sign of slopes, etc., according to standard rules, for these and all other signs; authorities for the creation of . . . mansions...adorners of Śrīparvata; deeply learned in all the science of language and the purāṇas to the utmost limits; fond of and merciful to war elephants.... accomplished as Rāmā; boon lords of Piṇḍōtipura"—such were the Vira Pañchāḷas of Terakaṇāmbi.¹

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¹ E. C., IV, Gu. 34, p. 42, text, p. 105.

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In later Vijayanagara history there seems to have been some restriction placed over the Vira Pañchāḷas in a few unspecified areas. This we infer from a record dated A. D. 1632, which informs us that: "...a śāsana was granted to the followers of the Pañchāḷa god as follows : within the boundaries fixed from . . . to the western gate, you may perform your festivals and marriage processions".² In the fourteenth century, however, the artisan classes were wealthy and of some consequence. In about A.D. 1396, the five classes of artisans presented the tax they had to pay to the goddess Banna of Baṇḍaṇike in Nāgara-khaṇḍa-nāḍ.³

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² E. C., XI, Hr. 46, p. 110.

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³ E. C., VII, Sk. 241, p. 138.

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The Kaikkōḷars (or Keyikōḷars) were also a prominent community. Somewhere about A.D. 1370, the Kaikkōḷars of Haṭṭalakōṭe secured a remission of taxes imposed on them from the Viceroy Chikka Kampaṇa Oḍeyar, son of Bukka Rāya⁴. These Kaikkōḷa weavers have also figured in the revenue history of Vijayanagara detailed in the previous pages.

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⁴ E. C., IV, Ch. 97, p. 13.

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Another class which was likewise responsible for the material prosperity of the land was composed of Reḍḍis. These exercised considerable influence in the Telugu provinces of the Empire. They come into prominence from the times of Dēva Rāya II. The Reḍḍi chief Pāṇṭa Mailāra is said to have pleased his royal master Dēva Rāya II by destroying wicked kings by his wisdom and valour, by paying homage to the Vijayanagara ruler, and by giving him great gifts. This is related in a record dated A.D. 1428-29.¹ The military achievements of Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya were of course responsible for a close co-operation of the Reḍḍis with Vijayanagara. This is suggested in the epigraph dated A.D. 1515-16, which says that the Gaṅga-Reḍḍi chief Gaṅgādhara, son of Viṭṭa (Chiṇṭa?), requested the Emperor to give the learned Brāhmaṇa Sūraya—who had foretold that many forts in the Telugu land would pass into the hands of Vijayanagara—the village Nāgulavaram.² These Reḍḍis may have helped the cause of the great movement for colonizing the south, and this may explain their presence in the districts of Trichinopoly, Coimbatore and Salem.³

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¹ Butterworth-Chetty, *Nellore Ins.*, I., v. 17, p. 153.

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² *Ibid*, I, pp. 127-8.

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³ Rangachari locates them around these districts, *I. A.*, XLIII, p. 133.

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Much as one would like to know about the Tuḷuva Vēḷāḷers, it is unfortunate that contemporary records throw no light on their history. They are, as we shall narrate presently, mentioned in connection with the Kurumbars.⁴

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⁴ For an account of the Tuḷuva Vēḷāḷers, read Pate, *Tinnevelly Gaz.*, I, pp. 101, 105-7, 137-42; Hemingway. *Trichy Gaz.* I, pp. 100-01; Thurston, *Castes and Tribes of S. India* q.v. On the Tuḷuva Vēḷāḷers and the Chōḷa king Adondai Chakravarti, read, Taylor, *Cat. Rais.*, III, pp. 431-2; Ellis, *Mirasi Right*, p. 57, seq. (1852 ed.); *Uyar-tuḷuva-Vēḷāḷer Charitra-curukkam* (Madras, 1911).

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One class of the people who have now taken to agriculture but who, during Vijayanagara times, it is presumed, found employment under the Nāyakas of Madura and the various Pāḷeyagāras as peons and armed retainers,⁵ were called the Toṭṭiyans, also known as Kambalaṭṭār. These had their own communal organization. In about A.D. 1369, in a joint resolution issued by the Toṭṭiyans of Pulliyūr-nāḍu, as we have seen, it was decided that he who did not pay was declared to be an outcaste from the nāḍu, the assembly, the pañchāḷan, the parai, and the eighteen nāḍus.¹

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⁵ Nelson, *Mad. Country*, P. II, p. 81.

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¹ E. C., IX., Ht. 103 (a), p. 101. op. cit. For further remarks on the Toṭṭiyans or Toṭṭiyans, see Nelson, Mad. Country, p. 82; Rangachari, I. A., XLIII, pp. 135-6. It is not improbable that these were in some way connected with the Pañchāḷas, B. A., S.

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About the Gauḍas of the Karṇāṭaka, who must have been also instrumental in improving the agricultural condition of the country, we have some indirect evidence, especially in connection with the social activities of the people.

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A less important community which, as we related above,² rose in the royal estimation towards the middle of the sixteenth century was that of the barbers. We may be permitted to recount one or two facts already given in connection with these people. It appears that about A.D. 1547-48, some heads of the barber community made a request, the nature of which is not specified anywhere, to the Emperor Sadāśiva. This seems to have been the result of their skill having been recognized by the great Regent in A.D. 1545. At least so we are told in the inscriptions which give us these details. In that year Rāma Rāja Oḍeyar, being pleased with the barber Koṇḍōja, exempted the barbers of the country from certain taxes.³ The inscriptions of the next year (A.D. 1546) merely mention that the barbers of the whole country secured this privilege.⁴ If this were really so, why they should have made a petition to Rāma Rāja in A.D. 1555, or "propitiated the Emperor" in A.D. 1547, cannot be understood. In the former year we are told that "Timmōja-Koṇḍōja having made application to Rāma-Rājayya, and the latter having made application to Sadāśiva-Dēva-Mahārāya, the Rāya remitted to the barber Timmōja-Koṇḍōja and his family throughout the four boundaries of the kingdom he ruled," certain specified taxes.¹ An inscription of A.D. 1547-48 relates that Timmōja, Koṇḍōja and Bhadri of (the town of) Bādāvi, having propitiated the king (*rāyara mech[chhi]si bēḍikoṇḍa sammam [bam]dha*) that ruler (Sadāśiva Rāya), " in connection with a request they had made ", granted them a *mānya* land.² Whatever the nature of the application may have been, there cannot be a doubt that great concessions were shown to the barber community as a whole.

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² See Volume I, Chapter IV. Financial Administration, Section, 9. Customs and Other Minor Sources: Miscellaneous Sources of Revenue.

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³ E. C., XII, Tp. 126, p. 66; E. C., VI, Tk. 13, p. 105.

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⁴ E. C., XI, Hk. 11, p. 117, Hk. 110, p. 131.

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¹ E.C., XI. Mk. 6, p. 90, text, p. 246. *Timmōja-Koṇḍōjanu binnahāṃ māḍalāgi.*

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² Fleet, *I. A.*, X, p. 65. Here it is not the skill of one man " named Mangada Timmoju Kondoja of the town of Badavi", that is spoken of, as Heras writes (*Aravidu*, pp. 48-9), but the work of three barbers that is to be noted. The Bādāmi inscription clearly says *ivaru mūvaru rāyara* etc. Manggalla Timmōja seems to have been the barber of Rāma Rāja. See *A. S. R.* for 1908-9, p. 198, n (5). We cannot determine whether that Manggalla Timmōja was the same Timmōja-Koṇḍōja of Mk. 6 given above. See also Butterworth-Chetty, *Nellore Ins.*, II, pp. 664-6.

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It is true that the presence of the barber is necessary in the conduct of certain rituals and ceremonials of the Hindus. Thus in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* : "Thereupon they enclose a place north of the hall, and place a vessel of water in it; beside this the barber takes up his position. He (the sacrificer) then shaves his hair and beard, and cuts his nails. For impure, indeed, is that part of man where water does not reach him. Now at the hair and beard, and at the nails the water does not reach him: hence when he shaves his hair and beard, and cuts his nails he does so in order that he may be consecrated after becoming pure."³ While describing the *chūḍākarma* ceremony or tonsure of the child, the *Gṛihya Sūtra* says : "To the barber the vessels of grain. To the barber the vessels of grain" which are filled with rice, barley, sesamum, seeds and beans.⁴

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³ *Sat-Brah.*, P. II, III, Kāṇḍa, I, Adhyāya, 2 Brāhmaṇa, 2, p. 6. See *Ibid.*, 1, 7.

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⁴ *Gṛihya Sūtras*, (Sānkhāyana), P. 1 Adhyāya, 28 Kāṇḍa, 6 and 24, pp. 55, 57.

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The fact that the services of the barbers were called into requisition during certain ceremonials does not explain the marked favour which the Hindu Government showed them in the sixteenth century. Neither does the statement that the Emperor and the Regent were pleased with the skill shown by the barbers. If it were merely a question of honouring a particular section of the people, and especially the heads of a community or guild, the Vijayanagara rulers, as we shall enumerate in a subsequent place, would, according to the custom of the age, have bestowed on them the usual rewards in the shape of dress, ināms, and grants of land. As regards the view that the Government desired to commemorate the social services of a community, we may remember that there were more important sections of the people whose existence was as necessary for the well being of the country as that of the barbers themselves. We may conjecture, therefore, that there must have been a special occasion which necessitated the granting of remission to the barbers. The most important examples of remissions we have given above centre round the Tumkur, Chitaldroog (or Chitradurga) and Kalādgi districts of the Mysore State and the Bombay Presidency.

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Now, in these parts of Karṇāṭaka there lived some ancient tribes whose subjugation was a matter of necessity for the Vijayanagara rulers. Among these tribes were the ancient Kurumbars who, according to tradition, held sway over certain unspecified localities even during Vijayanagara times. In their attempts to break the power of these tribes, the monarchs may have partially utilized the services of a community like the barbers, who, because of their vocation which brought them into touch with all classes of people or because of some particular reasons to be narrated presently, were best fitted to give the Government information about the ancient tribes. In this connection we may note that Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya had laid down a definite policy as regards the tribes in the following words: "It is always advisable to entrust the government over wild tribes inhabiting hills and forests to heroes who have fallen from great positions. It would not affect the king much whoever succeeds in the struggle between them. If the people of the forest (wild tribes) multiply in any state the trouble to the king and his people would not be small. The king should make such people his own by destroying their fears. Because they are people of very little advancement, faith and want of faith, anger and friendship, bitter enmity and close friendship, result from (very little) insignificant causes...The first wild forest tribes can be brought under control by truthfulness (keeping one's engagements with them)..."1

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The great monarch does not speak, it is true, of the barbers and the Kurumbars in his maxims. Nevertheless the spirit of his broad-minded policy is significant in the light of the events that followed soon after. The most numerous concessions which the barbers received fall within the reign of Sadāśiva Rāya. It is not unreasonable to suppose that as a result of the policy of conciliation inaugurated by Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya, the State must have set itself to the task of winning over the tribes; and that in the realization of their object, which may have been only towards the end of Achyuta Rāya's reign, they may have received some aid from the barbers. Now this conjecture of ours presupposes three considerations: the marked tendency which the Government showed to the Kurumbars (or Kurubars) after the times of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya; the hereditary enmity of the Kurumbars and the barbers; and, finally, the importance of the Kurumbars in the areas which we have associated with the barbers above.

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Tradition throws much light on the origin and power of the Kurumbars. They claimed descent from the Yādavas.² "Their occupation is chiefly to take care of a kind of goats, with the hair of which they make blankets, and sell them. But there are other Curumbars whose office is to rule the land; others who make and sell chunam or lime; and some are hunters who live by the chase ".³ One of their southern centres was called Pattipulam (Immuḍipaṭnam).⁴ But what concerns us is the following information supplied by the same source: "The ancestors of these people were engaged in the great war of the *Pāndavas*. Their descendants were afterwards dispersed in various places. These were *Jainas*. A proverb is current concerning them (from a particular incident) that their eyes are on their shoulders. From a custom common among them of having their heads shaved on the death of one of their number, they were massacred in one day, by barbers. The place is called *Narambur*. A detail of their forts, twelve in number is given.

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¹ Amuktamālyada, vv. 221-225, J. I. H. IV, pp. 66-7.

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² Taylor, Cat. Rais. III, p. 368. These Kurubars are also identified with the Mallars or Vedars. Ibid., p. 399.

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³ Ibid. p. 369.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 399. Taylor says the following: "Certain old coins have been found there. Remains of their fort appear. Roman coins have been found there.

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"A *Sannyasi* who had seen a book written by the *Curumbar*, states, that they were numerous and powerful before the time of *Adondai*, and of the *Jaina* religion. Various other matters concerning them are rather doubtfully mentioned; but it is stated that they certainly held power as late as the time of *Krishna-rayer*; when, in consequence of their pride the *Vellar-has* engaged certain barbers to massacre them; and besides, the troops of *Krishna-rayer*, also with those of the *Wiyalavar* poligars, further destroyed them".¹

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¹ Taylor, ibid., pp. 399-400.

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Another account gives some further interesting details which brought about the estrangement between the Kurumbars and the Vijayanagara Government. "Under the *Rayer's* government (i. e., obviously of *Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya*) the *Curumbar* ruled in many districts. They constructed forts in the various places. They tried to make the *Muthaliers* and *Vellar-has* render them homage, to which the others did not consent; and the *Curumbars* in consequence greatly troubled them. Still they did not submit. Accordingly in betel gardens, and in many other places they constructed very low wicket gates, so that the Hindus, coming to them, must be forced to bow on

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been found there. The people had a town on the sea shore, for the purpose of trading." *Ibid.*, p. 399. On the Kurumbars Mr. R. Gopalan's paper on "The Historical Value of the Mackenzie MSS (read at the Sixth Meeting of the Indian Historical Records Commission, Madras 1924) may also be consulted.

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entering. But the *Muthaliars* and *Vellarhas* instead of entering head foremost thrust feet in first; and thus treated the *Curumbars* with contempt. As the latter had power in their possession, they vexed the said tribes. These, at length, went to a barber, and promsing a gift of land, asked of him counsel how to destroy the *Curumbars*. The barber gave them encouragement: he then went to the houses of all his tribe; and engaged their services by promise. It was the custom of *Curumbars* that, if one of their people died, the whole family should shave the head. One of the seniors of the tribe of *Curumbars* died, and, by custom, the whole tribe at one time sat down to have their heads shaved. The aforesaid barber, on this occasion, charged all his associates each one to kill his man, which they did, by each one cutting the throat of the person shaved. The women, thus suddenly widowed, had a great pile of fire kindled, into which they leaped and died, execrating their enemies."¹

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¹ Taylor, *Cat. Rais.* III, p. 420. Here we are also told that the ruins of the Kurumbar forts "are still visible", and that some "very old walls" near Sadras, are seen. The Muthaliars and Vellarhas referred to above were the Mudaliars and the Vellāḷers. B. A. S.

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But we have not yet explained the appearance of Vijayanagara forces on the scene. We read another account of the same people in order to know what Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya, and the "Wiyalavar" Pāḷeyagāras, had to do with them. We are told the following in their tradition: "Anciently the *Curumbar* ruled in this country (Chingleput district). *Adondai Chōḷan*² came from Tanjore, and destroyed them; and having acquired the title of *Adondai chacraverti*, he established in their place the *Kondai katti vellarhar* (agriculturists who bound up their hair as women do). In those days the *Vannier* or *Patti* people, by permission of the ruler of the country, built this fort for themselves, as their own, (at "Tiruvidai churam")...The measures of that fort, as now found, are from south to north, 1,141 feet, east to west, 1,200 feet. The breadth of its outerwall was 20 feet. Around it there was a moat 30 feet broad...While ruling with considerable power, they rejected all claims of customary tribute from superior kings. They (i. e., "Candava rayen and Chettu rayen") were both illustrious but Canda rayen was the most warlike of the two...When the Rayer (i. e., obviously Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya) came to invade him, as the drums were beaten at several hill-stations, the Rayer did not know in which the chief was; and at length, the latter, watching his opportunity, fell on the Rayer's forces, and made great slaughter. The Rayer's general being greatly incensed came with a greater force; and, during four months an uncertain war was carried on, the chief's place not being known; while night and day he harassed the troops of the invader. The Rayer now desisted from open war; intending to effect his object indirectly. Candava rayen had greatly vexed the agriculturists, that Anondai chacraverti had placed in the land. The Vellarhars, in consequence arose in a body, and went to Kṛṣṇa-rayer, who sent the Wiyalayer (the people of a Poligar) against Candava. That Poligar being beaten, retreated; and sent spies to inspect the fortress, that he might discover how to overcome Candava. The spies discovered that, in intervals of rest from war, Candava was entirely enslaved by the leader of a band of dancing girls; and announced the circumstance to the chief of the Wiyalavar tribe. He came to Cupuchi and gave her the offer of four bags of gold as a bribe to cut off the head of Candava; to which, induced by avarice, she consented; and appointed a time for the Poligar, and his people to come. They came as appointed. Cupuchi gave Candava poison in a cake from her own hands, which speedily took effect. She cut off his head; and, putting it in a dish brought it to the appointed place, and gave it to the Poligar people. (But she was beheaded by the Poligar's people in turn, and Chettu rayen cut off the heads of her hundred companions in a tank which is called to this day Pinnai yeri, "the Lake of Corpses")...The Wiyalavar Poligar came with his troops, and fell on the fort. During twenty-six days, fighting was carried on with great loss on both sides; till at length, the attacking Poligar took the fort; which, after that time, became a dependency of the *Anna-gundi* (Āneguṇḍi) kings, who protected the agriculturists".¹

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² For an account of Adondai Chōḷan, read Taylor, ibid., pp. 426-7, in addition to the reference given above.

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¹ Taylor, *Cat. Rais.*, III., pp. 427-9. ² *Sāḷuva Timma*? ³ Taylor, ibid. III, p.

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We may record one more legend before we draw our own conclusions. "This fort ("at *Marutam*, near Canchi in the *Utra-melur* district") of mud, was formerly built by the *Curumbars*, covering more than forty acres of ground, with two boundary-walls, and was long ruled by them. In the time of *Krishna rayer*, his dependent the *raja* of Chingleput, fought with them; and, after some time, the *Curumba* chief was unjustly put to death. The *Curumbars* were destroyed; and *Timma raja*² took that fort. He gave it as a jagire to one of his near relatives, named *Govinda raja*. He built two temples; and established an *agrahāram* or alms-house, for the *Brahmans*."³

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Divested of fable, the probabilities in the above account may be summarized thus: The *Kurumbars* originally spread over the Karṇāṭaka and Tamil lands, were destroyed by the Tamil king Ādoṇḍai Chakravarti; consequently, the *Kurumbars* of the south disappeared as a political factor in the Tamil land; their place was taken by the Tuḷuva Veḷḷāḷers and the Vaṇṇiyars, both of whom were given to agriculture;⁴ and the Vaṇṇiyars continued the traditions of the *Kurumbars* of rejecting all claims of customary tribute from superior kings. This came into conflict with the imperialistic policy of Vijayanagara. Failing to subdue the Vaṇṇiyars by honest means, the State had recourse to deceit and achieved its end by means of a dancing girl. But it protected the agriculturists whose leaders it had subjugated.

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⁴³³ See p. 431 where an account of the forts built by the *Kurumbars* in the Tamil land is given. ⁴ The Vaṇṇiyars are called by Taylor "fire-race, a tribe of low cultivators". *Ibid.*, III, p.

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⁴²⁷ On the Vaṇṇiyars, see *ibid.*, III., pp. 90, 427. The name Vanniyar has been traced to the Sanskrit *vahni*, *agni*. Oppert, *M. J. L. S.* for 1887-8; *Org. Inhb.*, p. 118, *seq.*; S. K. Aiyangar, *I. A.*, LII., p. 368.

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Now to turn to the Kurumbars: the same policy of levelling down the authority of the tribes, which the rulers of Vijayanagara made clear in the instance of the Vanniyars, was extended to the Kurumbars as well. Their tradition tells us that Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya with the aid of the ruler of Chingleput destroyed their stronghold at "Marutam, near Canchi in the Utra-melur district". We may assume that the Kurumbars ceased to exist as a thorn on the side of the Hindu State in the eastern and southern parts of the Vijayanagara Empire. But they were still powerful in the Karṇāṭaka which seems to have been their earlier home. This is again told to us in another account of theirs, which deals with the ancient history of the Toṇḍaimaṇḍalam. "After the deluge, the country was a vast forest, inhabited by wild beasts. A race of men arose, who, destroying the wild beasts, dwelt in certain districts. There were then, according to tradition, no forts, only huts; no kings, no religion, no civilization, no books, men were naked savages; no marriage institutions. Many years after, the Curumbars arose in the Carnata country; they had a certain kind of religion; they were murderers; they derived the name of Curumbar from their cruelty. Some of them spread into the Dravida dēsam, as far as the Toṇḍamaṇḍala country. They are now found near Uttra melur; but more civilized".¹

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¹ Taylor, Cat. Rais., III, pp. 430-1.

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If the Vijayanagara monarchs planned for the wiping out of the Kurumbar chiefs in the Tamil land, they must also have done the same in the Karṇāṭaka where, as we related in an earlier connection, there were the Bēḍars and the other tribes of the Male-rājya, who gave infinite trouble to the Government. All the traditional evidence we have cited above goes to prove that the Hindu State was benevolent towards the agriculturists (the Vēḷāḷers and the Vaṇṇiyars); that these, especially the Vēḷāḷers, were the traditional enemies of the Kurumbars whom they had supplanted in the Tamil land; and that the Vijayanagara Government by siding with the Vēḷāḷers and other agricultural sections of the people, launched forth a policy of breaking the power of the Kurumbars, especially in the Karṇāṭaka, since their strongholds in the Tamil country had already been destroyed by Adoṇḍai Chakravarti and Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya himself.

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How can these considerations be made to square with the historical facts before us? To prove that the Kurumbars as a large section of the people existed only in the Karṇāṭaka in the Vijayanagara times, we may note the evidence of a contemporary traveller. Linschoten, as we have already seen elsewhere, thus writes about them:—"The Canariins and Corumbiins are the Countrimen, and such as deale with Tilling the Land, Fishing and such like labours...They are in a manner blacke, or of a darke browne colour, many of them Christians, because their chief habitation and dwelling places are on the Sea-side, in the Countries bordering upon Goa, for that the Palm-trees doe grow upon the Sea coasts, or upon the bankes by River sides."¹ Linschoten of course wrote in A.D. 1583. The fact that many of them were Christians around Goa does not invalidate our assumption : on the other hand, the evidence of Linschoten tends to prove that the Kurumbars were to be seen prominently in the districts round Goa.

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¹ Linschoten, Purchas, Pilgrims., X, p. 262.

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Now, the inscriptions dealing with the remissions to barbers centre round Bādāmi, and extend over a region which cover the Kalādgi, Chitaldroog, and Tumkur districts. There is nothing improbable in the Kurumbars, after having lost their hold over the Tamil country, being really powerful in the Karṇāṭaka, especially in its western parts, during the times of Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya. That monarch attempted to subjugate them, and, as their traditions inform us, was successful only with those in the eastern districts of his Empire. His policy was continued by Achyuta Rāya who, as we shall presently narrate, also gave to the Kurumbars of the Karṇāṭaka patronage; but the majority of the Kurumbars must have stoutly opposed the claims of the Vijayanagara rulers for the mastery of the Male-rājya. On failing to subdue them by honourable means, the Vijayanagara Government yuṇḍu, Bhaṇḍāramu, Peddapanāyuṇḍu, Bōrisū Bairineṇḍu, ditto Nāgatāta, Avasaram Basivineṇḍu, Kirtilayyaṅgāru, and people of various gōtras in the royal abodes of the above and others, (thereupon) the people of the Yādava gōtra rejoicing besought Kṛṣṇarāya Mahārāya to bestow upon Gaṅgā Paramēśvarī the village of Dēvara Donakoṇḍa which is the principal seat of the Nandagōpa caste and the Baḍugula caste (?).” Accordingly the Emperor caused a charitable edict to be issued granting the aforesaid village for providing offerings and food to Gaṅgā Paramēśvarī.¹

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¹ Butterworth-Chetty, *Nellore Ins.*, I, p. 316.

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The Karaṇams, who sometimes appear as a separate community,² have been dealt with while describing the financial administration of the country.

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² Rangachari, *Top. List.* I, Cd. 458, p. 614. Rāma Rāja Tirumala Rājayya Dēva exempted the Karaṇams of Niḍujuvvi from their taxes in Śaka 1470, Kilaka.

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Among the lower classes we must mention the Doṃbara community which supplied jugglers to the country. They seem to have been common in the Telugu³ and Karṇāṭaka parts of the Empire. Abdur Razzāq and Linschoten have left us some details about the people. The remarks of the former will be read in connection with the games and amusements of the people. Linschoten in A. D. 1583 thus writes: “They have likewise many South-saiers and Witches, which use Jugling, and travell throughout the out Countrie, having about them many live Snakes, which they know how to bewitch, and being shut up in little Baskets, they pull them out and make them dance, twine and winde at the sound of a certaine instrument, whereupon they play, and speak unto them. They wind them about their neckes, armes, and legges, kissing them, with a thousand other devises, onely to get money. They are all for the most part verie skilfull in preparing of Poysons, wherewith they doe many strange things, and easilie poyson each other; their dwellings and Houses are verie little and low, covered with Straw, without windowes, and verie low and narrow doores, so that a man must almost creepe upon his knees to goe in; their Householdstuffe is Mats of straw, both to sit and lie upon, their Tables, Table-clothes, and Napkins, are made of the great Indian Fig-leaves, they serve them not onely for Tables, Sheets, and other Linnen, but also for Dishes, wherein they put their meat, which you shall likewise see in the Grocers, and Pothecaries shops, to put and wrap in all things whatsoever they have within their shops (as we doe in Paper). They likewise joyne them together in such sort, that they can put both Butter, Oyle, and such liquid stuffes therein, and also whatsoever commeth to hand. To dresse their meat they have certaine Earthen pots wherein they seeth Rice, and makes holes in the ground, wherein they stampe it, or beat it with a woodden Pestell, made for the purpose, and they are so miserable, that they but the Rice in the Huskes, as it groweth on the ground, and some of them have Rice sowen behind their House to serve their necessarie use. They use to drinke out of a Copper kanne with a spout, whereby they let the water fall downe into their mouthes, and never touch the Pot with their lippes. Their Houses are commonly strawed with Kowdung, which (they say) killeth Fleas".¹

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³ Rangachari, *I. A.*, XLIII, p. 139. See *Ibid.*, pp. 138, 141-2, for an account of the Saurāṣṭras.

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¹ Linschoten, Purchase, Pilgrims., X. pp. 247-8. The remarks following the same people (p. 248) may also be noted.

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The same traveller mentions another people about whom many foreign witnesses have left their reminiscences. These were the Jōgis. Varthema has a great deal to say about a certain "King of the Iogbe" "a man of great dignity", who ruled over 30,000 people. But this was in northern India.² Barbosa has a very ingenious explanation to offer about the origin of the Jōgis. It appears that on the country passing into the hands of the Muhammadans, the Heathens (i. e., the Hindus), "unwilling to stay under the power of the Moors, go forth (for the most part of them) from that land and assume poor attire, resolving to go through the whole world sojourning in no place whatsoever; and this continue to do until they die during their pilgrimage".¹ Barbosa was told this by one of the Jōgis. "I have oft times asked them wherefore they went about thus, to which they replied that they always carried these iron chains as a penance for the great sin they had committed, in that they were unwilling to endure taking arms for the defence of their honour, and had allowed themselves to be overcome by a wicked people like the Moors; and that they went naked as a token of their great loss of honour, because they had submitted to be deprived of their lands, and houses in which God had brought them up. And now, they said, they wished for no property, as they had lost their own and they ought rather to have died; and that they smeared themselves with ashes to remind them of dust and ashes they were made, and to these they must return; all else was falsehood".²

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² Varthema, Jones, p. 111; and p. 111, n (1). See Hobson-Jobson on the Joges, Jogues, or Jōgis (Yōgis), for notices ranging from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

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¹ *Barbosa*, Dames, I, p. 230. ² *Ibid.*, pp. 231-2. ³ Sewell, *For. Emp.*, p. 241. ⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 255. ⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 255, n (1).

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Paes also noticed them in Vijayanagara. While describing a temple in a city called " Darcha " (identified with Dhārwār) Paes says: "It has three entrance gates, which gates are very large and beautiful, and the entrance from one of these sides, being towards the east and facing the door of the pagoda, has some structures like verandahs, small and low, where sit some Jogis..."³ In a later passage he describes the gates of the great capital and the slaughter of beasts. "There is present at the slaughter of these beasts a jogi (priest) who has charge of the temple, and as soon as they cut off the head of the sheep or goat this jogi blows a horn as a signal that the idol receives that sacrifice. Hereafter I shall tell of these jogis, what sort of men they are."⁴

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But since Paes "forgot to fulfil this promise",⁵ we may turn again to Barbosa for a description of these people.

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"These men possess nothing of their own, for they have lost whatever estates they once had; they go naked and barefoot, they wear nothing on their heads, and they hide their nakedness only with bands of Moorish brass, on which hang girdles of many coins which dangle on both sides; these are the width of four fingers, cylindrical in shape, with many figures carved on them (both of men and women). These they wear so tight that they make their bellies stand out over them. (And from the same band a strip of this brass passes behind between the buttocks, so as to form a cod-piece in front.)

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"To the corners of these bands their waist cloths are attached, when they wish to fasten them in their clasps, and all so tight that it gives them great pain. Besides this they carry heavy iron chains on their necks and waists. Their bodies and face are smeared with ashes. They carry a small horn or trumpet, on which they blow, and whithersoever they come they call out and demand food, more especially at the houses of worship, or those of kings, or great Lords. They go about in bands, like the Egyptians with us, nor is it their custom to abide long in one place, but a few days only. These men are called *Jogues* or Coamerques, which is as much as to say 'servants of God.'"¹

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¹ Barbosa, I, pp. 230-1. Coamerques, according to Dames, is svāmi. rishi, p. 231, n (1).

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Barbosa was not far wrong when he said that these Jōgis, given over to a wandering life, never settled in one spot. Nevertheless at Kadri in Tuḷuva-nāḍu, a province of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Jōgis have had one of their most famous centres. Pietro della Valle in A. D. 1624 visited "the famous Hermitage of Cadiri", to see the "Batinate, (Pāṭh Nāth?) called King of the Gioghi, who lives at this day in his narrow limits of that Hermitage, impoverished by Venk-tapā Naieka."²

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² Pietro della Valle, Travels, II, pp. 345-6. Here follows a detailed account of the Jōgi Nāth of the Kānapāṭhis of Mangalore. Ibid., pp. 346-57. For an account of these Kānapāṭhis, see Leonard, I. A. VII, pp. 298, seq. Eastwick, Handbook of Madras, p. 302, may also be read in this connection.

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Pimenta in A. D. 1599 speaks of "twentie Priests which they call Jogues, which threw themselves from the highest pinnacle of the Temple" at Ginjee, for a remarkable cause described in detail by the same traveller.¹

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¹ Pimenta, Purchas, Pilgrims, X. p. 208.

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The Maravas of the south, especially round about Rāmnād, also are to be noted while dealing with the castes. The success of the Portuguese in converting large numbers of these fisherfolk proves that the Sētupatis of Rāmnād,² the provincial rulers of Madura, and the Vijayanagara kings had failed to justify their claims as protectors of the religious interests of the Hindu people.

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² Read Heras, Aravidu, p. 354, and passim.

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There were other people who proved a fruitful field of enterprise among the Christian missionaries. These were the Paraiyans. It is difficult to determine when these people were driven to the position of an untouchable class, whose presence caused pollution as bewailed by Vēmana.³ What status these occupied along with the Bōyees, the Erkelas,⁴ and the Kallars also cannot be found out. These last are mentioned in an effaced epigraph dated only in the cyclic year Bhāva but assigned to the times of Virūpaṇṇa. It tells us that the fees to be paid to the temple of Parvatagīrśvara at Kuṇṇāṇḍār-Kōyil, Pudukkoṭṭai State, by Kaḷḷa Vēḷaikkārar for the protection afforded to them, were fixed.⁵ We are also unable to find out much about the Bēḍars (or Vēdars), some of whom, as related above, caused commotion in the Karṇāṭaka,⁶ and about the Pāntacurhis. About the latter we have the following in tradition: They were originally Jainas but were destroyed by the Brahmans in the times of Adondai; and some embraced the Brahmanical system. They had the custom of putting their old people, when very infirm, into vessels of baked earth, and leaving them to die." They were found mostly round Paduvur.¹

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³ Vemana, Verses, Bk. III, vv. 226-30, p. 148 (Brown). See Infra.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 97, (n). On the Pariahs, read Metthwold, Relations, p. 19

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⁵ 368 of 1914.

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⁶ The Bēḍars attacked the ruler of Nañjarāyapaṭṭaṇa in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. My. Arch. Report for 1925. pp. 14-15. For Vēdars, see Taylor, Cat. Rais. III, p. 409.

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¹ Taylor, Cat. Rais., III, p. 399.

C. Colonization of the South and Some Social Questions at Issue

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The influx of the northern communities into the south was not without its abiding effects on the social history of the people. They are generally called by the name Baḍuga, Baḍaga, or Vaḍucker. Some maintain that the most prominent among the northern colonists were the Telugu Toṭṭiyans or the Kambaḷattārs mentioned elsewhere.² This assumption is strengthened by the notices in tradition of the heads of the Doṭiyah people who followed the fortunes of Nāgama Nāyaka to the south, and who were rewarded by him with the seventy-two pāḷeyams described in an earlier connection.³ While it is not improbable that the Telugu people may have been called by the name Baḍaga from the fact of their having hailed from the north (or baḍagu), it would be more proper to include in that general appellation other people also who were not Telugus. For it is quite likely that the Karṇāṭaka rulers—such as the monarchs of Vijayanagara essentially were till the rise of the Āraviṭi family,—may have also induced the people of the Karṇāṭaka to settle in the fertile regions of the south. Our assumption that the term Toṭṭiyans could not have referred only to those who came from the Telugu land is supported by the statement of an inscription dated A. D. 1369, which, as we have seen, speaks of the Toṭṭiyans of Pulliyūr-nāḍu. Moreover, the colonists who went to the south were also made up of people like the Paṭṭu-nūlkārans of Surat who were certainly not of the Telugu origin.⁴

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² Rangachari, I. A., XLIII, pp. 135-6. On some notices on the Baḍugas, see Heras, Q.J.M.S., XV, p. 182, n (40); Aravidu, p. 150, n (4)

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³ Taylor, ibid.; O.H.MSS., II, p. 21, op. cit.

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⁴ Nelson, Mad. Country p. 87.

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When the Baḍagas or northerners migrated to the south, a social upheaval was bound to follow, in spite of the endeavours of the monarchs to maintain the sakala-varṇāśrama *dharma* of the people.¹ It manifested itself in various problems some of which we shall deal with here. Firstly, there was the question of the change in the status of the earlier inhabitants. The new-comers entered the Tamil land essentially in their capacity as conquerors; and the old inhabitants found themselves consequently relegated to a lower position in social and political spheres. This may have been one of the causes why the ancient classes were compelled to give up their traditional profession and to take up menial work. The Śemmans, for example, who were originally Tamil leather weavers, sank to the position of menial servants in the village after the advent of the Telugu or Kannaḍa Mādigas.² Perhaps it was during this age, when the hereditary trades of the old inhabitants were usurped by the new-comers, that there arose the nefarious distinction between caste and caste, person and person, culminating in what has been known in our own days as the institution of untouchability. If this is admitted, then the degradation of such an ancient community like the Paraiyans, from the position of minor servants of the village *āyagāras* and masters of the soil, to that of slaves and unclean classes is not unintelligible.

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