Part 29

Sengundam (red dagger).--A synonym, connected with a caste legend, of Kaikolan.

Seniga (Bengal gram: Cicer arietinum).--An exogamous sept of Medara and Pedakanti Kapu.

Seniyan.--The name Seniyan is generally used to denote the Karna Sale weavers, but at Conjeeveram it is applied to Canarese Devangas. Elsewhere Canarese Devangas belong to the left-hand section, but at Conjeeveram they are classed with the right-hand section. Like other Devangas, the Conjeeveram Seniyans have exogamous house-names and gotras, which are interesting inasmuch as new names have been, in recent times, substituted for the original ones, e.g., Chandrasekhara rishi, Nilakanta rishi, Markandeya rishi. The Devangas claim Markandeya as their ancestor. The old house-name Picchi Kaya (water-melon: Citrullus vulgaris) has been changed to Desimarada, and eating the melon is tabu. A list of the house-names and gotras is kept by the headman for reference. The Conjeeveram Seniyans are Lingayats, but are not so strict as the Canarese Lingayats. Jangams are respected, but rank after their own stone lingams. In the observance of death rites, a staunch Lingayat should not bathe, and must partake of the food offered to the corpse. These customs are not observed by the Seniyans. Until quite recently, a man might tie a tali (marriage badge) secretly on a girl's neck, with the consent of the headman and his relatives, and the girl could then be given in marriage to no other man. This custom is said to have been very common, especially in the case of a man's maternal uncle's or paternal aunt's daughter. At Conjeeveram it was extended to girls not so related, and a caste council was held, at which an agreement was drawn up that the secret tali-tying was forbidden, and, if performed, was not to be regarded as binding. The priest of the Conjeeveram Seniyans is a Vellala Pandaram, who is the head of the Tirugnana Sambanda Murti mutt (religious institution) at Conjeeveram.

Servai.--Servai, meaning service, has been recorded as the title of Agamudaiyans and Valaiyans. Servaikaran or Servaigaran (captain or commander) is the title of Agamudaiyan, Ambalakaran, Kallan, Maravan, and Parivaram. It further occurs as the name for a headman among the Vallambans, and it has been adopted as a false caste name by some criminal Koravas in the south.

Servegara.--The Servegaras are a caste found in South Canara, and to a small extent in Bellary. "They are said to be a branch of the Konkan Marathis of Goa, from whence they were invited by the Lingayat kings of Nagara to serve as soldiers and to defend their forts (kote), whence the alternative name of Koteyava (or Kotegara). Another name for them is Ramakshatri. The mother-tongue of the Servegaras of South Canara is Canarese, while their brethren in the north speak Konkani. They have now taken to cultivation, but some are employed in the Revenue and Police departments as peons (orderlies) and constables, and a few are shopkeepers. The name Servegara is derived from the Canarese serve, an army. In religion they are Hindus, and, like most West Coast castes, are equally partial to the worship of Siva and Vishnu. They wear the sacred thread. Karadi Brahmans are their priests, and they owe allegiance to the head of the Sringeri mutt. Their girls are married before puberty, and the remarriage of widows is neither allowed nor practiced. Divorce is permitted only on the ground of the unchastity of the wife. The body of a child under three years is buried, and that of any person exceeding that age is cremated. They eat flesh, but do not drink. Their titles are Nayak, Aiya, Rao, and Sheregar." [164] In the Census Report, 1901, Bomman Valekara is returned as a synonym, and Vilayakara as a sub-caste of Servegara.

Setti.--See Chetti.

Settukkaran.--A castle title, meaning economical people, sometimes used by Devangas instead of Setti or Chetti.

Sevagha Vritti.--A sub-division of Kaikolan.

Sevala (service).--An exogamous sept of Golla.

Shanan.--The great toddy-drawing caste of the Tamil country, which, a few years ago, came into special prominence owing to the Tinnevelly riots in 1899. "These were," the Inspector-General of Police writes, [165] "due to the pretensions of the Shanans to a much higher position in the religio-social scale than the other castes are willing to allow. Among other things, they claimed admission to Hindu temples, and the manager of the Visvanatheswara temple at Sivakasi decided to close it. This partial victory of the Shanans was keenly resented by their opponents, of whom the most active were the Maravans. Organised attacks were made on a number of the Shanan villages; the inhabitants were assailed; houses were burnt; and property was looted. The most serious occurrence was the attack on Sivakasi by a body of over five thousand Maravans. Twenty-three murders, 102 dacoities, and many cases of arson were registered in connection with the riots in Sivakasi, Chinniapuram, and other places. Of 1,958 persons arrested, 552 were convicted, 7 being sentenced to death. One of the ring-leaders hurried by train to distant Madras, and made a clever attempt to prove an alibi by signing his name in the Museum visitor's book. During the disturbance some of the Shanans are said to have gone into the Muhammadan fold. The men shaved their heads, and grew beards; and the women had to make sundry changes in their dress. And, in the case of boys, the operation of circumcision was performed."

The immediate bone of contention at the time of the Tinnevelly riots was, the Census Superintendent, 1901, writes, "the claim of the Shanans to enter the Hindu temples, in spite of the rules in the Agama Shastras that toddy-drawers are not to be allowed into them; but the pretensions of the community date back from 1858, when a riot occurred in Travancore, because female Christian converts belonging to it gave up the caste practice of going about without an upper cloth." On this point Mr. G. T. Mackenzie informs us [166] that "in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the female converts to Christianity in the extreme south ventured, contrary to the old rules for the lower castes, to clothe themselves above the waist. This innovation was made the occasion for threats, violence, and series of disturbances. Similar disturbances arose from the same cause nearly thirty years later, and, in 1859, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras, interfered, and granted permission to the women of the lower castes to wear a cloth over the breasts and shoulders. The following proclamation was issued by the Maharaja of Travancore:--We hereby proclaim that there is no objection to Shanan women either putting on a jacket like the Christian Shanan women, or to Shanan women of all creeds dressing in coarse cloth, and tying themselves round with it as the Mukkavattigal (fisherwomen) do, or to their covering their bosoms in any manner whatever, but not like women of high castes." "Shortly after 1858, pamphlets began to be written and published by people of the caste, setting out their claims to be Kshatriyas. In 1874 they endeavoured to establish a right to enter the great Minakshi temple at Madura, but failed, and they have since claimed to be allowed to wear the sacred thread, and to have palanquins at their weddings. They say they are descended from the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings; they have styled themselves Kshatriyas in legal papers; labelled their schools Kshatriya academy; got Brahmans of the less particular kind to do purohit's work for them; had poems composed on their kingly origin; gone through a sort of incomplete parody of the ceremony of investiture with the sacred thread; talked much but ignorantly of their gotras; and induced needy persons to sign documents agreeing to carry them in palanquins on festive occasions." [During my stay at Nazareth in Tinnevelly, for the purpose of taking measurements of the Shanans, I received a visit from some elders of the community from Kuttam, who arrived in palanquins, and bearing weapons of old device.] Their boldest stroke was to aver that the coins commonly known as Shanans' cash were struck by sovereign ancestors of the caste. The author of a pamphlet entitled 'Bishop Caldwell and the Tinnevelly Shanars' states that he had met with men of all castes who say that they have seen the true Shanar coin with their own eyes, and that a Eurasian gentleman from Bangalore testified to his having seen a true Shanar coin at Bangalore forty years ago. The coin referred to is the gold Venetian sequin, which is still found in considerable numbers in the south, and bears the names of the Doges (Paul Rainer, Aloy Mocen, Ludov Manin, etc.) and a cross, which the Natives mistake for a toddy palm. "If," Mr. Fawcett writes, [167] "one asks the ordinary Malayali (native of Malabar) what persons are represented on the sequin, one gets for answer that they are Rama and Sita: between them a cocoanut tree. Every Malayali knows what an Amâda is; it is a real or imitation Venetian sequin. I have never heard any explanation of the word Amâda in Malabar. The following comes from Tinnevelly. Amâda was the consort of Bhagavati, and he suddenly appeared one day before a Shanar, and demanded food. The Shanar said he was a poor man with nothing to offer but toddy, which he gave in a palmyra leaf. Amâda drank the toddy, and performing a mantram (consecrated formula) over the leaf, it turned into gold coins, which bore on one side the pictures of Amâda, the Shanar, and the tree, and these he gave to the Shanar as a reward for his willingness to assist him."

In a petition to myself from certain Shanans of Nazareth, signed by a very large number of the community, and bearing the title "Short account of the Cantras or Tamil Xatras, the original but down-trodden royal race of Southern India," they write as follows. "We humbly beg to say that we are the descendants of the Pandya or Dravida Xatra race, who, shortly after the universal deluge of Noah, first disafforested and colonized this land of South India under the guidance of Agastya Muni. The whole world was destroyed by flood about B.C. 3100 (Dr. Hale's calculation), when Noah, otherwise called Vaivasvata-manu or Satyavrata, was saved with his family of seven persons in an ark or covered ship, which rested upon the highest mountain of the Aryavarta country. Hence the whole earth was rapidly replenished by his descendants. One of his grandsons (nine great Prajapatis) was Atri, whose son Candra was the ancestor of the noblest class of the Xatras ranked above the Brahmans, and the first illustrious monarch of the post-diluvian world."

"Apparently," the Census Superintendent continues, "judging from the Shanan's own published statements of their case, they rest their claims chiefly upon etymological derivations of their caste name Shanan, and of Nadan and Gramani, their two usual titles. Caste titles and names are, however, of recent origin, and little can be inferred from them, whatever their meaning may be shown to be. Brahmans, for example, appear to have borne the titles of Pillai and Mudali, which are now only used by Sudras, and the Nayak kings, on the other hand, called themselves Aiyar, which is now exclusively the title of Saivite Brahmans. To this day the cultivating Vellalas, the weaving Kaikolars, and the semi-civilised hill tribe of the Jatapus use equally the title of Mudali, and the Balijas and Telagas call themselves Rao, which is properly the title of Mahratta Brahmans. Regarding the derivation of the words Shanan, Nadan and Gramani, much ingenuity has been exercised. Shanan is not found in the earlier Tamil literature at all. In the inscriptions of Rajaraja Chola (A. D. 984-1013) toddy-drawers are referred to as Iluvans. According to Pingalandai, a dictionary of the 10th or 11th century, the names of the toddy-drawer castes are Palaiyar, Tuvasar, and Paduvar. To these the Chudamani Nikandu, a Tamil dictionary of the 16th century, adds Saundigar. Apparently, therefore, the Sanskrit word Saundigar must have been introduced (probably by the Brahmans) between the 11th and 16th centuries, and is a Sanskrit rendering of the word Iluvan. From Saundigar to Shanan is not a long step in the corruption of words. The Shanans say that Shanan is derived from the Tamil word Sanrar or Sanror, which means the learned or the noble. But it does not appear that the Shanans were ever called Sanrar or Sanror in any of the Tamil works. The two words Nadan and Gramani mean the same thing, namely, ruler of a country or of a village, the former being a Tamil, and the latter a Sanskrit word. Nadan, on the other hand, means a man who lives in the country, as opposed to Uran, the man who resides in a village. The title of the caste is Nadan, and it seems most probable that it refers to the fact that the Iluvan ancestors of the caste lived outside the villages. (South Indian Inscriptions, vol. II, part 1.) But, even if Nadan and Gramani both mean rulers, it does not give those who bear these titles any claim to be Kshatriyas. If it did, all the descendants of the many South Indian Poligars, or petty chiefs, would be Kshatriyas."

The Census Superintendent, 1891, states that the "Shanans are in social position usually placed only a little above the Pallas and the Paraiyans, and are considered to be one of the polluting castes, but of late many of them have put forward a claim to be considered Kshatriyas, and at least 24,000 of them appear as Kshatriyas in the caste tables. This is, of course, absurd, as there is no such thing as a Dravidian Kshatriya. But it is by no means certain that the Shanans were not at one time a warlike tribe, for we find traces of a military occupation among several toddy-drawing castes of the south, such as the Billavas (bowmen), Halepaik (old foot soldiers), Kumarapaik (junior foot). Even the Kadamba kings of Mysore are said to have been toddy-drawers. 'The Kadamba tree appears to be one of the palms, from which toddy is extracted. Toddy-drawing is the special occupation of the several primitive tribes spread over the south-west of India, and bearing different names in various parts. They were employed by former rulers as foot-soldiers and bodyguards, being noted for their fidelity. [168]' The word Shanan is ordinarily derived from Tamil saru, meaning toddy; but a learned missionary derives it from san (a span) and nar (fibre or string), that is the noose, one span in length, used by the Shanans in climbing palm-trees." The latter derivation is also given by Vellalas.

It is worthy of note that the Tiyans, or Malabar toddy-drawers, address one another, and are addressed by the lower classes as Shener, which is probably another form of Shanar. [169]

The whole story of the claims and pretensions of the Shanans is set out at length in the judgment in the Kamudi temple case (1898) which was heard on appeal before the High Court of Madras. And I may appropriately quote from the judgment. "There is no sort of proof, nothing, we may say, that even suggests a probability that the Shanars are descendants from the Kshatriya or warrior castes of Hindus, or from the Pandiya, Chola or Chera race of kings. Nor is there any distinction to be drawn between the Nadars and the Shanars. Shanar is the general name of the caste, just as Vellala and Maravar designate castes. 'Nadar' is a mere title, more or less honorific, assumed by certain members or families of the caste, just as Brahmins are called Aiyars, Aiyangars, and Raos. All 'Nadars' are Shanars by caste, unless indeed they have abandoned caste, as many of them have by becoming Christians. The Shanars have, as a class, from time immemorial, been devoted to the cultivation of the palmyra palm, and to the collection of the juice, and manufacture of liquor from it. There are no grounds whatever for regarding them as of Aryan origin. Their worship was a form of demonology, and their position in general social estimation appears to have been just above that of Pallas, Pariahs, and Chucklies (Chakkiliyans), who are on all hands regarded as unclean, and prohibited from the use of the Hindu temples, and below that of Vellalas, Maravans, and other classes admittedly free to worship in the Hindu temples. In process of time, many of the Shanars took to cultivating, trade, and money-lending, and to-day there is a numerous and prosperous body of Shanars, who have no immediate concern with the immemorial calling of their caste. In many villages they own much of the land, and monopolise the bulk of the trade and wealth. With the increase of wealth they have, not unnaturally, sought for social recognition, and to be treated on a footing of equality in religious matters. The conclusion of the Sub-Judge is that, according to the Agama Shastras which are received as authoritative by worshippers of Siva in the Madura district, entry into a temple, where the ritual prescribed by these Shastras is observed, is prohibited to all those whose profession is the manufacture of intoxicating liquor, and the climbing of palmyra and cocoanut trees. No argument was addressed to us to show that this finding is incorrect, and we see no reason to think that it is so.... No doubt many of the Shanars have abandoned their hereditary occupation, and have won for themselves by education, industry and frugality, respectable positions as traders and merchants, and even as vakils (law pleaders) and clerks; and it is natural to feel sympathy for their efforts to obtain social recognition, and to rise to what is regarded as a higher form of religious worship; but such sympathy will not be increased by unreasonable and unfounded pretensions, and, in the effort to rise, the Shanars must not invade the established rights of other castes. They have temples of their own, and are numerous enough, and strong enough in wealth and education, to rise along their own lines, and without appropriating the institutions or infringing the rights of others, and in so doing they will have the sympathy of all right-minded men, and, if necessary, the protection of the Courts."

In a note on the Shanans, the Rev. J. Sharrock writes [170] that they "have risen enormously in the social scale by their eagerness for education, by their large adoption of the freedom of Christianity, and by their thrifty habits. Many of them have forced themselves ahead of the Maravars by sheer force of character. They have still to learn that the progress of a nation, or a caste, does not depend upon the interpretation of words, or the assumption of a title, but on the character of the individuals that compose it. Evolutions are hindered rather than advanced by such unwise pretensions resulting in violence; but evolutions resulting from intellectual and social development are quite irresistible, if any caste will continue to advance by its own efforts in the path of freedom and progress."

Writing in 1875, Bishop Caldwell remarks [171] that "the great majority of the Shanars who remain heathen wear their hair long; and, if they are not allowed to enter the temples, the restriction to which they are subject is not owing to their long hair, but to their caste, for those few members of the caste, continuing heathens, who have adopted the kudumi--generally the wealthiest of the caste--are as much precluded from entering the temples as those who retain their long hairs. A large majority of the Christian Shanars have adopted the kudumi together with Christianity."

By Regulation XI, 1816, it was enacted that heads of villages have, in cases of a trivial nature, such as abusive language and inconsiderable assaults or affrays, power to confine the offending members in the village choultry (lock-up) for a time not exceeding twelve hours; or, if the offending parties are of the lower castes of the people, on whom it may not be improper to inflict so degrading a punishment, to order them to be put in the stocks for a time not exceeding six hours. In a case which came before the High Court it was ruled that by "lower castes" were probably intended those castes which, prior to the introduction of British rule, were regarded as servile. In a case which came up on appeal before the High Court in 1903, it was ruled that the Shanars belong to the lower classes, who may be punished by confinement in the stocks.

With the physique of the Shanans, whom I examined at Nazareth and Sawyerpuram in Tinnevelly, and their skill in physical exercises I was very much impressed. The programme of sports, which were organised in my honour, included the following events:--

Fencing and figure exercises with long sticks of iron-wood (Mesua ferrea). Figure exercises with sticks bearing flaming rags at each end. Various acrobatic tricks. Feats with heavy weights, rice-pounders, and pounding stones. Long jump. Breaking cocoanuts with the thrust of a knife or the closed fist. Crunching whiskey-bottle glass with the teeth. Running up, and butting against the chest, back, and shoulders. Swallowing a long silver chain. Cutting a cucumber balanced on a man's neck in two with a sword. Falconry.

One of the good qualities of Sir Thomas Munro, formerly Governor of Madras, was that, like Rama and Rob Roy, his arms reached to his knees, or, in other words, he possessed the kingly quality of an Ajanubahu, which is the heritage of kings, or those who have blue blood in them. This particular anatomical character I have met with myself only once, in a Shanan, whose height was 173 cm. and span of the arms 194 cm. (+ 21 cm.). Rob Roy, it will be remembered, could, without stooping, tie his garters, which were placed two inches below the knee.

For a detailed account of demonolatry among the Shanans, I would refer the reader to the Rev. R. (afterwards Bishop) Caldwell's now scarce 'Tinnevelly Shanans' (1849), written when he was a young and impulsive missionary, and the publication of which I believe that the learned and kind-hearted divine lived to regret.

Those Shanans who are engaged in the palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) forests in extracting the juice of the palm-tree climb with marvellous

## activity and dexterity. There is a proverb that, if you desire to

climb trees, you must be born a Shanan. A palmyra climber will, it has been calculated, go up from forty to fifty trees, each forty to fifty feet high, three times a day. The story is told by Bishop Caldwell of a man who was sitting upon a leaf-stalk at the top of a palmyra palm in a high wind, when the stalk gave way, and he came down to the ground safely and quietly, sitting on the leaf, which served the purpose of a natural parachute. Woodpeckers are called Shanara kurivi by birdcatchers, because they climb trees like Shanars. "The Hindus," the Rev. (afterwards Canon) A. Margöschis writes, [172] "observe a special day at the commencement of the palmyra season, when the jaggery season begins. Bishop Caldwell adopted the custom, and a solemn service in church was held, when one set of all the implements used in the occupation of palmyra-climbing was brought to the church, and presented at the altar. Only the day was changed from that observed by the Hindus. The perils of the palmyra-climber are great, and there are many fatal accidents by falling from trees forty to sixty feet high, so that a religious service of the kind was

## particularly acceptable, and peculiarly appropriate to our people." The