Part 5
"Pandarams speak Tamil. They are of two classes, the married and celibate. The former are far more numerous than the latter, and dress in the usual Hindu manner. They have the hind-lock of hair known as the kudumi, put on sacred ashes, and paint the point between the eyebrows with a sandal paste dot. The celibates wear orange-tawny cloths, and daub sacred ashes all over their bodies. They allow the hair of the head to become matted. They wear sandals with iron spikes, and carry in their hands an iron trisulam (the emblem of Siva), and a wooden baton called dandayudha (another emblem of Siva). When they go about the streets, they sing popular Tamil hymns, and beat against their begging bowl an iron chain tied by a hole to one of its sides. Married men also beg, but only use a bell-metal gong and a wooden mallet. Most of these help pilgrims going to the more famous Siva temples in the Madras Presidency, e.g., Tirutani, Palni, Tiruvannamalai, or Tirupparankunram. Among both sections, the dead are buried in the sitting posture, as among other Lingayats. A samadhi is erected over the spot where they are buried. This consists of a linga and bull in miniature, which are worshipped as often as may be found convenient.
"The managers of temples and mutts (religious institutions), known as Pandara Sannadhis, belong to the celibate class. They are usually learned in the Agamas and Puranas. A good many of them are Tamil scholars, and well versed in Saiva Siddhanta philosophy. They call themselves Tambirans--a title which is often usurped by the uneducated beggars."
In the Census Report, 1901, Vairavi is returned as a sub-caste of Pandaram, and said to be found only in the Tinnevelly district, where they are measurers of grains and pujaris in village temples. Vairavi is further used as a name for members of the Melakkaran caste, who officiate as servants at the temples of the Nattukottai Chettis.
Pandaram is a title of the Panisavans and Valluvan priests of the Paraiyans.
A class of people called hill Pandarams are described [39] by the Rev. S. Mateer as "miserable beings without clothing, implements, or huts of any kind, living in holes, rocks, or trees. They bring wax, ivory (tusks), and other produce to the Arayans, and get salt from them. They dig roots, snare the ibex (wild goat, Hemitragus hylocrius) of the hills, and jungle fowls, eat rats and snakes, and even crocodiles found in the pools among the hill streams. They were perfectly naked and filthy, and very timid. They spoke Malayalam in a curious tone, and said that twenty-two of their party had been devoured by tigers within two monsoons." Concerning these hill Pandarams, Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes that they live on the banks of streams in crevices of rocks, caves, and hollows of trees. They are known to the dwellers on the plains as Kattumanushyar, or forest men. They clad themselves in the bark of trees, and, in the rainy and cold seasons, protect their bodies with plantain leaves. They speak a corrupt form of Tamil. They fear the sight of other men, and try to avoid approaching them. A former European magistrate of the Cardamom Hills took some of them to his residence, but, during their three days' stay there, they refused to eat or talk. There is a chieftain for every four hills, but his authority is little more than nominal. When women are married, the earth and hills are invoked as witnesses. They have Hindu names, such as Raman, Kittan (Krishna), and Govindan.
In a lecture delivered some years ago at Trivandrum, Mr. O. H. Bensley described the hill Pandarams as being "skilful in catching fish, their mode of cooking which is to place the fish on roots on a rock, and cover them with fire. They keep dogs, and, by their aid, replenish their larder with rats, mungooses, iguanas (lizard, Varanus), and other delicacies. I was told that the authority recognised by these people is the head Arayan, to whom they give a yearly offering of jungle produce, receiving in exchange the scanty clothing required by them. We had an opportunity of examining their stock-in-trade, which consisted of a bill-hook similar to those used by other hillmen, a few earthen cooking-pots, and a good stock of white flour, which was, they said, obtained from the bark of a tree, the name of which sounded like ahlum. They were all small in stature, with the exception of one young woman, and, both in appearance and intelligence, compared favourably with the Uralis."
Pandariyar.--Pandariyar or Pandarattar, denoting custodians of the treasury, has been returned as a title of Nattaman, Malaiman, and Sudarman.
Pandava-kulam.--A title, indicative "of the caste of the Pandava kings," assumed by Jatapus and Konda Doras, who worship the Pandavas. The Pandava kings were the heroes of the Mahabharata, who fought a great battle with the Kauravas, and are said to have belonged to the lunar race of Kshatriyas. The Pandavas had a single wife named Draupadi, whom the Pallis or Vanniyans worship, and celebrate annually in her honour a fire-walking festival. The Pallis claim to belong to the fire race of Kshatriyas, and style themselves Agnikula Kshatriyas, or Vannikula Kshatriyas.
Pandi (pig).--Recorded as an exogamous sept of Asili, Boya, and Gamalla. Pandipattu (pig catchers) and Pandikottu (pig killers) occur as exogamous septs of Odde.
Pandito.--Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined [40] as "properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugu countries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt)." In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brahmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu varu. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix, e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Madhva Brahmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.
Pandito is further the name of "an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brahmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited." [41] I am informed that these Panditos engage Brahmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikaro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.
Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stanikas.
Pandya.--The territorial name Pandya, Pandiya, Pandiyan, or Pandi has been returned, at recent times of census, as a sub-division of various Tamil classes, e.g., Ambattan, Kammalan, Occhan, Pallan, Vannan, and Vellala. Pandiya is further a title of some Shanans. In Travancore, Pandi has been returned by some Izhavans. The variant Pandiangal occurs as an exogamous sept of the Tamil Vallambans, and Pandu as a Tamil synonym for Kapu or Reddi.
Panikkar.--Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayalam country, as a title of barbers, Kammalan, Maran, Nayar, Panan, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show :--
1518. "And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars."--Barbosa.
1553. "And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them."--Barros.
1583. "The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes."--Castaneda.
A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shanans. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. "The Panikkans are," Mr. Francis writes, [42] "weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brahmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brahmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellalas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mital, Pattanam, and Malayalam, and each of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Muttillam, Toranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanattillam, and Soliya-illam. It is stated that the Mital and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayalam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nadu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams." The occurrence of Malayam as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayalam word illam as that of the exogamous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.
Panimagan (work children).--A name for Mukkuvans who are employed as barbers for members of their caste.
Panisavan.--Panisavan is defined in the Salem Manual as "a corruption of paniseygiravan (panisaivon), literally meaning one who works (or does service), and is the caste name of the class, whose business it is to carry news of death to the relations of the deceased, and to blow the tharai or long trumpet." According to Mr. H. A. Stuart, [43] Panisavan appears to answer among the Tamilians to the Dasaris or Tadas of the Telugus. It is a mendicant caste, worshipping Siva. Unlike the Tadas, however, they often employ themselves in cultivation, and are, on the whole, a more temperate and respectable class. Their priests are Brahmans, and they eat flesh, and drink alcoholic liquor very freely. The dead are generally burned.
There are two classes of Panisavans, of which one works for the right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell (Turbinella rapa) and tharai, which he supports from the ground by means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions, it is his duty to go in front, sounding the tharai from time to time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses, the tharai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak's hair. The cloth should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse, blowing his conch-shell. The tharai is only used if the deceased was an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the last day of the death ceremonies (karmandhiram), the Panisavan should be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tali (marriage badge) is removed from a widow's neck. In some places, the Panisavan conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans constitute a separate caste, and have no connection with the Nokkans, who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nokkan is used to signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts, e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the funeral ceremonies of the non-Brahman castes. The main occupations of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nagasaram (reed instrument), and teaching Deva-dasis dancing. Another occupation, which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu velai, i.e., the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandaram, Pillai, and Mudali.
Paniyan.--The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature, with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynad, and those portions of the Ernad, Calicut, Kurumbranad and Kottayam taluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghats, and the Mudanad, Cherangod, and Namblakod amshams of the Nilgiri district.
A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their origin nothing definite is known. The Nayar Janmis (landlords) say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed, the Paniyan calls out 'Ippi'! 'Ippi'! as he runs away, and they believe this to have been the name of the country whence they came originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself, though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Raja, who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they were captured.
The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282, and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart, the Census Commissioner, observes:--"Most of these are not real, and none has been returned by any considerable number of persons." Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord's 'man'; and, though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.
In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle in the Wynad, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it, who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries, which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the Badagas of the Nilgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid to be out after dark, the Paniyans are not afraid of bogies by night, and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend, Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience, the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.
In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land, and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them, the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer, and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and ragi (Eleusine coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats, or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece, a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the Meppadi bazar. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments on those who were undergoing the operation.
Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynad is carried out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or devasoms (temple property) of the great Nayar landlords; and Chettis and Mappillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with 'arrow-root' leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden, and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing with their friends outside the net.
Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the purpose of engaging Wynad Paniyans to help them in carrying out some more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure, when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases, which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling up the straw on all sides of the building marked for destruction, torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs, and thrust into the fiery furnace.
The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied, built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots, returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.
They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface, and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.
It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson [44] that the section of the Moyar river "stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and poor construction, they are not effective, but will do a certain amount of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli, occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low."
In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897, for the protection of fish in the Bhavani and Moyar rivers. These rules referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum) in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules applied.
The Paniyan language is a debased Malayalam patois spoken in a curious nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.
Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities, they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kad Bhagavadi, or, according to another version, a deity called Kuli, a malignant and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swami (god) rice boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently of the fig tribe, are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and, if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.