Part 13

It is noted by Canon A. Margoschis that the Parava females are famous for the excessive dilatation of the lobes of the ears, and for wearing therein the heaviest and most expensive gold ear jewels made of sovereigns. Ordinary jewels are said to cost Rs. 200, but heavy jewels are worth Rs. 1,000 and even more. The longer the ears, the more jewels can be used, and this appears to be the rationale of elongated ears.

In a recent account of a Parava wedding in high life, I read [81] that "the bride and bridegroom proceeded to the church at the head of an imposing procession, with music and banners. The service, which was fully choral, was conducted by a priest from their own community, after which the newly wedded couple went in procession to the residence of the Jati Talavamore, being escorted by their distinguished host in person. The Jati Talavamore, who wore a picturesque, if somewhat antiquated, robe, rode in a gorgeously upholstered palanquin, with banners, trophies, elephants, and other emblems of his high office. The bride, who was resplendent with diamonds, was becomingly attired in a purple Benares sari with gold floral designs, and wore a superb kincob bodice."

In a note on the Paravans of Travancore, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that "they are found in most taluks of the State. The title sometimes used by them is Kuruppu. The Paravans of Chengannur and Tiruvella call themselves Chakka, a word supposed by the castemen to be derived from slaghya or praiseworthy, but perhaps more correctly from Chakku, the basket carried by them in their hands. The Paravans are divided into numerous sections. In the south, the Tamil-speaking division follows the makkathayam, while all the Malayalam-speaking sections follow the marumakathayam law of inheritance. There is also a difference in the dress and ornaments of the two sections, the former adopting the fashion of the east coast, and the latter that of the west. The Travancore Paravas are really one with the Tamil-speaking Paravas of the east coast. While most of them became converts to Christianity, in Travancore they have tried to preserve their separate existence, as they had already spread into the interior of the country before the proselytism of St. Xavier had made its enduring mark on the sea-coast villages. There is a curious legend about the settlement of the Chakkas in Central Travancore. Formerly, it would appear, they were Sudras, but, for some social offence committed by them, they were outcasted by the Edappalli chieftain. They were once great devotees of Sri Krishna, the lord of Tiruvaranmulai in the Tiruvella taluk. The Paravas say further that they are descended from a high-caste woman married to an Izhava. The word Parava is accordingly derived from para, which in Sanskrit means foreign. The Paravas engage in various occupations, of which the most important in Central Travancore are climbing palm trees, catching fish, and washing clothes for Christians, Muhammadans, and depressed classes of Hindus. In South Travancore they make wicker baskets, rattan chairs, and sofas. Women, in all parts of the State, are lime and shell burners. They worship at the Aranmula temple, and pay special worship to Bhadrakali. Their priest is known as Parakuruppu, who, having to perform four different functions, is also entitled Nalonnukaran. It is his duty to preside at marriage and other rites, to be caste barber, to carry the news of death to the relations, and to perform the priestly functions at funerals. The Paravas perform both the tali-kettu and sambandham ceremonies."

Parel Maddiyala.--Barbers of the Billavas.

Parenga.--A sub-division of Gadaba.

Pariah.--See Paraiyan.

Parikimuggula.--Professional tattooing women in the Telugu country. The name refers to the patterns (parika or muggu), which they carry about with them, as designs for tattooing or to be drawn on the floor on occasions of festival and ceremonial.

Parivara.--A sub-division of Bant.

Parivaram.--It is noted, in the Census Report, 1891, that "this is a caste, which presents some difficulty. Parivaram means 'an army, a retinue,' and it is alleged that the people of this caste were formerly soldiers. Parivaram is found as a sub-division of Maravan and Agamudaiyan, and the Parivaras of Madura and Tinnevelly are probably either a sub-division or an offshoot of the Maravans. In Coimbatore, the only other district in which the Parivaras are numerous, they seem to be a sub-division of Toreyas, a fishing caste, and Mr. Rice, in his Gazetteer (of Mysore), says that Parivara is a synonym of Besta." Further, in the Census Report, 1901, it is stated that "the word Parivaram means 'a retinue,' and was probably originally only an occupational term. It is now-a-days applied to the domestic servants and the Tottiya zamindars in the districts of Coimbatore, Trichinopoly, Madura, and Tinnevelly, who are recruited from several castes, but have come to form a caste by themselves. The Kotaris of South Canara are a somewhat parallel case, and probably in time the Paiks among the Oriyas, and the Khasas, who are servants to the Telugu zamindars, will similarly develop into separate castes. The caste is said to require all its members of both sexes to do such service for its masters as they may require. Persons of any caste above the Paraiyas are admitted into its ranks, and the men in it may marry a woman of any other caste with the permission of the zamindar under whom they serve. They do not habitually employ Brahmans as priests, and in places the head of the Tottiyan caste conducts their ceremonies. Their titles are Maniyagaran and Servaigaran. The latter is also used by the Agamudaiyans."

The title Servaigaran or Servaikaran indicates that members of the caste do servai, or service, and the further title uliyakkaran is a sign that they do uliyam, or menial work. Servaikaran is also a title of the Tamil Ambalakarans, Agamudaiyans, Kallans, and Maravans, and the Canarese Toreyas, some of whom have settled in the Tamil districts of Madura and Coimbatore. It also occurs as a synonym of the Canarese Kotegaras.

The illegitimate offspring of Maravans, Kallans, and Agamudaiyans, are said to become members of the mixed Parivaram caste.

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that the Parivaram caste "is divided into two endogamous sections; the Chinna Uliyam (little services) who are palanquin-bearers, and have the title Tevan, and the Periya Uliyam (big services), who are called Maniyakaran. The Kombai Parivarams, who are the servants of the Kappiliyan Zamindars of Kombai and Tevaram in the Periyakulam taluk, are a separate community, and do not intermarry with the others. When a girl attains maturity, she is kept for sixteen days in a hut, which is guarded at night by her relations. This is afterwards burnt down, and the pots she used are broken into very small pieces, as there is an idea that, if rain-water collects in any of them, the girl will be childless. Some of the ceremonies at weddings are unusual. On the first day, a man takes a big pot of water with a smaller empty pot on top of it, and marches three times round the open space in front of the bride's house. With him march the happy couple carrying a bamboo, to which are tied in a turmeric-coloured cloth the nine kinds of grain. After the third journey round, these things are put down at the north-east corner, and the marriage pandal is made by bringing three more poles of the same size. Afterwards the wrists of the couple are tied together, and bridegroom's brother carries the pair a short distance. They plunge their hands into a bowl of salt. Next the husband takes an ordinary stone rolling-pin, wraps it in a bit of cloth, and gives it to his wife, saying 'Take the child; I am going to the palace.' She takes it, replying 'Yes, give me the child, the milk is ready.' This has to be repeated three times in a set formula. Several other odd rites are observed. Brahmans officiate, and the bridegroom's sister, as usual, ties the tali. Divorce is allowed to both sides. Adultery within the caste, or with the Zamindar, is tolerated. The husbands accept as their own any children their wives may bear to the Zamindar. Such children are called Chinna Kambalattar, and may marry with Tottiyans. But adultery outside the caste is most rigorously prohibited, and sternly punished with excommunication. A mud image of the girl who so offends is made, two thorns are poked into its eyes, and it is thrown away outside the village."

Pariyari (doctor).--A name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan), who practice as barber-surgeons.

Pariyata.--Five individuals were recorded, at the census, 1901, under the name Pariyata or Parit, as members of a Bombay caste of washermen in South Canara.

Parvatha.--Parvatha or Parvathala, meaning hill or mountain, has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Gamalla, Kapu, Mala, and Medara.

Pasi.--A few members of this Bengal caste of toddy-drawers were returned at the Madras census, 1901. The name is said to be derived from pasa, a noose or cord, probably in reference to the sling used by them in climbing palm trees. [82] Pasi, meaning coloured glass beads, occurs as a sub-division of Idaiyan, and the equivalent Pasikatti as a sub-division of Valaiyan.

Pasu.--Pasu (cow) or Pasula has been recorded as an exogamous sept of Boya, Mala and Madiga, and a sub-division of west coast Pulayans, who eat beef.

Pasupula (turmeric).--Pasula or Pasupula is an exogamous sept of Boya and Devanga. Pasupuleti occurs as a sub-division of Balija. See Arashina.

Patabonka.--A sub-division of Bonka.

Patali.--An occupational name applied to priests of temples and bhuthasthanas (devil shrines), and Stanikas in South Canara.

Patha (old).--A sub-division of Idiga, and a sept of Togata.

Pathanchitannaya (green pea sept).--An exogamous sept of Bant.

Pathi (cotton).--A sub-division of Kurubas, who use a wrist-thread made of cotton and wool mixed during the marriage ceremony. Also an exogamous sept of Gudala and Padma Sale.

Pathinettan.--The Pathinettan or eighteen are carpenters in Malabar, who "are said to be the descendants of the smiths who remained to attend to the repairs to the eighteen temples, when the rest of the community fled to Ceylon, as related in the tradition of the origin of the Tiyans". [83]

Paththar.--A section of Saivite Chettis, who wear the lingam, and have separated from the Acharapakam Chettis. They bury their dead in a sitting posture. A bamboo stick is tied to the kudumi (hair-knot) of the corpse, and the head pulled by its means towards the surface of the grave. Paththar is also a name given to goldsmiths by other castes.

Patnaik.--A title of Karnam.

Patnulkaran.--The Patnulkarans are described, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as "a caste of foreign weavers found in all the Tamil districts, but mainly in Madura town, who speak Patnuli or Khatri, a dialect of Gujarati, and came originally from Gujarat. They have always been known here as Patnulkarans, or silk thread people. They are referred to in the inscriptions of Kumara Gupta (A.D. 473) at Mandasor, south of Gujarat, by the name of Pattavayaka, which is the Sanskrit equivalent of Patnulkaran, and the sasanam of Queen Mangammal of Madura, mentioned below, speaks of them by the same name, but lately they have taken to calling themselves Saurashtras from the Saurashtra country from which they came. They also claim to be Brahmans. They thus frequently entered themselves in the schedules as Saurashtra Brahmans. They are an intelligent and hard-working community, and deserve every sympathy in the efforts which they are making to elevate the material prosperity of their members and improve their educational condition, but a claim to Brahmanhood is a difficult matter to establish. They say that their claim is denied because they are weavers by profession, which none of the Southern Brahmans are, and because the Brahmans of the Tamil country do not understand their rites, which are the northern rites. The Mandasor inscriptions, however, represent them as soldiers as well as weavers, which does not sound Brahmanical, and the Tamil Brahmans have never raised any objections to the Gauda Brahmans calling themselves such, different as their ways are from those current in the south. In Madura their claim to Brahmanhood has always been disputed. As early as 1705 A.D. the Brahmans of Madura called in question the Patnulkarans' right to perform the annual upakarma (or renewal of the sacred thread) in the Brahman fashion. [Eighteen members of the community were arrested by the Governor of Madura for performing this ceremony.] The matter was taken to the notice of the Queen Mangammal, and she directed her State pandits to convene meetings of learned men, and to examine into it. On their advice, she issued a cadjan (palm leaf) sasanam (grant) which permitted them to follow the Brahmanical rites. But all the twice-born--whether Brahmans, Kshatriyas, or Vaisyas--are entitled to do the same, and the sasanam establishes little. The Patnuls point out that, in some cases, their gotras are Brahmanical. But, in many instances which could be quoted, Kshatriyas had also Brahmanical gotras."

It is stated, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that the inscription at Mandasor in Western Malwa "relates how the Pattavayas, as the caste was then called, were induced to migrate thither from Lata on the coast of Gujarat by king Kumara Gupta (or one of his lieutenants), to practice there their art of silk-weaving. The inscription says many flattering things about the community, and poetically compares the city to a beautiful woman, and the immigrants to the silk garments in which she decks herself when she goes to meet her lover. [The inscription further records that, while the noble Bandhuvarman was governing this city of Dasapura, which had been brought to a state of great prosperity, a noble and unequalled temple of the bright-rayed (sun) was caused to be built by the silk-cloth weavers (pattavayair) as a guild with the stores of wealth acquired by (the exercise of their) craft.] On the destruction of Mandasor by the Mussalmans, the Pattavayas seem to have travelled south to Devagiri, the modern Daulatabad, the then capital of the Yadavas, and thence, when the Mussalmans again appeared on the scene at the beginning of the fourteenth century, to Vijayanagar, and eventually to Madura. A curious ceremony confirming this conjecture is performed to this day at Patnulkaran weddings in South India. Before the date of the wedding, the bridegroom's party go to the bride's house, and ask formally for the girl's hand. Her relations ask them in a set form of words who they are, and whence they come, and they reply that they are from Sorath (the old name for Saurashtra or Kathiawar), resided in Devagiri, travelled south (owing to Mussalman oppression) to Vijayanagar, and thence came to Madura. They then ask the bride's party the same question, and receive the same reply. A Marathi MS., prepared in 1822 at Salem under the direction of the then Collector, Mr. M. D. Cockburn, contains the same tradition. Mr. Sewell's 'A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar' shows how common silk clothing and trappings were at Vijayanagar in the days of its glory. Most of the Patnulkarans can still speak Telugu, which raises the inference that they must have resided a long time in the Telugu country, while their Patnuli contains many Canarese and Telugu words, and they observe the feast of Basavanna (or Boskanna), which is almost peculiar to the Bellary country. After the downfall of Vijayanagar, some of the caste seem to have gone to Bangalore, for a weaving community called Patvegars, who speak a dialect similar to Patnuli, still reside there." Concerning the Patnulis who have settled in the Mysore Province, it is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, that "with silk they manufacture a fine stuff called katni, which no other weavers are said to be able to prepare. It is largely used by Mussalmans for trousers and lungas (gowns). It is said that Haider Ali, while returning from his expeditions against Madras, forcibly brought with him some twenty-five families of these weavers, who were living in the Tanjore district, and established them at Ganjam near Seringapatam, and, in order to encourage silk and velvet weaving, exempted them from certain taxes. The industry flourished till the fall of Seringapatam, when most of the class fled from the country, a few only having survived those troublous times. At present there are only 254 souls returned to these people, employed in making carpets in Bangalore."

"The Patnulkars," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [84] "say that they were originally Brahmans, living in a town of Surat called Devagiri, in which twelve streets were entirely peopled by them. For some reason, of which they profess themselves to be ignorant, the residents of one of these streets were excommunicated by the rest of the caste, and expelled. They travelled southwards, and settled in Tirupati, Arni, and Vellore, as well as in Trichinopoly, Tanjore, Madura, and other large towns, where they carried on their trade of silk-weaving. Another story is to the effect that they were bound to produce a certain number of silken cloths at each Dipavali feast in Devagiri for the goddess Lakshmi. One year their supply fell short, and they were cursed by the goddess, who decreed that they should no longer be regarded as Brahmans. They, however, still claim to be such, and follow the customs of that caste, though they refuse to eat with them. They acknowledge priests from among themselves, as well as from among Brahmans, and profess to look down upon all other castes. In religion they are divided into Smartas, Vaishnavas, and Vyaparis, some among the Smartas being Lingayats. Those who can write usually employ the Telugu characters in writing their language."

The Patnulkarans, according to one tradition, claim descent from a certain Brahman sage, known as Tantuvardhanar, meaning literally a person who improves threads, i.e., manufactures and weaves them into cloths. This is, it is suggested, probably only an eponymous hero.

In the Manual of the Madura district, the Patnulkarans are described as "a caste of Surat silk-weavers, whose ancestors were induced to settle in Madura by one of the earlier Nayakkan kings, or in response to an invitation from Tirumala Naik, and who have thriven so well that they now form by far the most numerous of all the castes resident in the town of Madura. They are very skilful and industrious workmen, and many of them have become very wealthy. They keep altogether aloof from other castes, and live independently of general society, speaking a foreign tongue, and preserving intact the customs of the land of their origin. They are easily distinguished in appearance from Tamils, being of a light yellowish colour, and having handsomer and more intelligent features. They are called Chettis or merchants by Tamils." In a recent note, [85] the Patnulkarans of Madura are described as being "exceedingly gregarious; they live together in large numbers in small houses, and their social status in the country is quite unsettled. Though they delight to call themselves Saurashtra Brahmans, the Tamils consider them to be a low caste. Like the Brahmans, they wear the sacred thread, and tack on to their names such titles as Iyengar, Iyer, Rao, Bhagavather, Sastrigal, and so forth, though the conservatives among them still cling to the time-honoured simple Chetti. Child marriage is the rule, and widow marriage is never practiced. Hindus by religion, they worship indiscriminately both the Siva and Vaishnava deities, but all of them wear big Iyengar namams on their foreheads, even more prominently than do the real Iyengars themselves. All of them pass for pure vegetarians. The proud position of Madura to this day as second city in the Presidency is mainly, if not solely, due to her prosperous and industrious community of Saurashtra merchants and silk-weavers, who have now grown into nearly half her population, and who have also come to a foremost place among the ranks of her citizens. They have their representatives to-day in the Municipal Councils and in the Local and District Boards. Their perseverance has won for them a place in the Devastanam Committee of one of the most prosperous temples in the district. But, in spite of their affluence and leading position it must be confessed that they are essentially a 'backward class' in respect of English education and enlightenment. They are, however, making steady progress. An English high school for Saurashtra boys, and a number of elementary schools for girls, are now maintained by the Saurashtra Sabha for the proper education of their children." In 1906, a member of the community was appointed a member of the committee of the Sri Kalla Alagar temple in the Madura district.

In an order of the Director of Public Instruction, in 1900, it was laid down that "Saurashtras having been recognised (in 1892) as a backward class falling under Pattunulgars, the manager cannot continue to enjoy the privileges accorded under the grant-in-aid code to schools intended for backward classes, if he returns his pupils as Brahmans. If the pupils have been returned as Saurashtra Brahmans, the manager should be requested to revise, as no such caste is recognised." A deputation had an interview with the Director, and it was subsequently ruled that "Saurashtras will continue to be treated as a backward class. Pupils belonging to the above class should invariably be returned in future as Saurashtras, whether the word Brahman is added or not."