Part 7

The marriage ceremonies of the Desa Panos are closely allied to those of the Dandasis and Haddis, whereas those of the Khonda Panos bear a close resemblance to the ceremonies of the Khonds. Like Khond girls, unmarried Khond Pano girls sleep in quarters (dhangadi) specially set apart for them, and, as among the Khonds, wedding presents in the form of gontis are given. It is noted with reference to the Khonds, in the Ganjam Manual, that "the bride is looked upon as a commercial speculation, and is paid for in gontis. A gonti is one of anything, such as a buffalo, a pig, or a brass pot; for instance, a hundred gontis might consist of ten bullocks, ten buffaloes, ten sacks of corn, ten sets of brass, twenty sheep, ten pigs, and thirty fowls." At a Khond Pano marriage, the fingers of the contracting couple are linked together, and an important item of the ceremonial, which adds dignity thereto, is placing in front of the house at which a marriage is being celebrated a big brass vessel containing water, with which the guests wash their feet.

The Panos pay reverence to ancestors, to whom, when a death occurs in a family, food is offered. In some Pano villages, when a child is born, it is customary to consult a pujari (priest) as to whether the grandfather or great-grandfather is re-born in it. If the answer is in the affirmative, pigs are sacrificed to the ancestors. Some Panos have adopted the worship of Takuranis (village deities), to whom rice and turmeric are offered by placing them before the image in the form of a figure-of-eight. A fowl is sacrificed, and its blood allowed to flow on to one loop of the figure. In some places, Dharmadevata and Gagnasuni are worshipped, a castrated goat being sacrificed annually to the former, and fowls and an entire goat to the latter.

Pano women, who live among the Khonds, tattoo their faces in like manner, and in other respects resemble Khond women.

I am informed that, on more than one occasion, Panos have been known to rifle the grave of a European, in the belief that buried treasure will be found.

Panta (a crop).--A sub-division of Kapu and Yanadi. In the Gazetteer of South Arcot, Pan Reddi is recorded as a caste of Telugu-speaking ryots (Kapus).

Pantala.--Recorded, in Travancore, as a sub-division of Samantan. The name is said to be derived from Bhandarattil, or belonging to the royal treasury.

Pantari.--Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, as synonymous with the Idacheri sub-division of Nayar. Pantrantu Vitan is also there recorded as a sub-division of Nayar.

Pappadam.--People calling themselves Pappadam Chetti are largely found in Malabar, living by the manufacture and sale of cakes called pappadam, which are purchased by all classes, including Nambutiri Brahmans.

Pappini.--A name for Brahmanis, a class of Ambalavasi.

Pappu (split pulse).--An exogamous sept of Balija.

Paradesi.--Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a class of Malayalam beggars. The name indicates strangers (paradesa, a foreign country), and is applied to the White Jews of Cochin, in connection with whom it occurs in Sirkar (State) accounts and royal writs granted to them.

Paraiya Tada.--Recorded, in the North Arcot Manual, as a name for those who are considered impure Valluvans. The name literally means Paraiya Tadan or Dasari.

Paraiyan.--The Paraiyans or, as they are commonly termed, Pariahs of the Tamil country number, according to recent census returns, over two million souls, and a large proportion of those who returned themselves as Native Christians are said also to belong to this class. For the following note I am mainly indebted to an account of the Paraiyans by the Rev. A. C. Clayton. [48]

The late Bishop Caldwell derived the name Paraiyan from the Tamil word parai a drum, as certain Paraiyans act as drummers at marriages, funerals, village festivals, and on occasions when Government or commercial announcements are proclaimed. Mr. H. A. Stuart, however, seems to question this derivation, remarking [49] that "it is only one section of Paraiyans that act as drummers. Nor is the occupation confined to Paraiyans. It seems in the highest degree improbable that a large, and at one time powerful, community should owe its name to an occasional occupation, which one of its divisions shares with other castes. The word Paraiyan is not found in Divakaram, a Tamil dictionary of the eleventh century A.D., and the word Pulayan was then used to denote this section of the population, as it is still in Malayalam to this day." In the legend of the Saivite saint, Nandan is, in the prose version of the Periya Puranam, called a Pulayan, though a native of Sholamandalam, which was a distinctly Tamil kingdom. Mr. W. Francis writes [50] that "the old Tamil poems and works of the early centuries of the Christian era do not mention the name Paraiyan, but contain many descriptions of a tribe called the Eyinas, who seem to have been quite distinct from the rest of the population, and did not live in the villages, but in forts of their own. Ambur and Vellore are mentioned as the sites of two of these. They may perhaps have been the ancestors of the Paraiyans of to-day."

In a note on the Paraiyans, Sonnerat, writing [51] in the eighteenth century, says that "they are prohibited from drawing water from the wells of other castes; but have particular wells of their own near their inhabitations, round which they place the bones of animals, that they may be known and avoided. When an Indian of any other caste permits a Paraiya to speak to him, this unfortunate being is obliged to hold his hand before his mouth, lest the Indian may be contaminated with his breath; and, if he is met on the highway, he must turn on one side to let the other pass. If any Indian whatever, even a Choutre, by accident touches a Paraiya, he is obliged to purify himself in a bath. The Brahmans cannot behold them, and they are obliged to fly when they appear. Great care is taken not to eat anything dressed by a Paraiya, nor even to drink out of the vessel he has used; they dare not enter the house of an Indian of another caste; or, if they are employed in any work, a door is purposely made for them; but they must work with their eyes on the ground; for, if it is perceived they have glanced at the kitchen, all the utensils must be broken. The infamy of the Paraiyas is reflected on the Europeans: last are held in more detestation, because, setting aside the little respect they have for the cow, whose flesh they eat, the Indians reproach them with spitting in their houses, and even their temples: that when drinking they put the cup to their lips, and their fingers to their mouths in such a manner that they are defiled with the spittle."

Paraiyans are to be found throughout the Tamil districts from North Arcot to Tinnevelly, and in the southern extremity of the Native State of Travancore. In the Telugu country the Malas and Madigas and in the Canarese country the Holeyas take their place.

Some of the most common names of Paraiyan males are--

Kanni or Kanniyappan. Raman or Ramaswami. Raju. Velu. Muttan. Mari. Kanagan. Subban. Nondi. Tambiran. Perumal. Viran. Sellan. Amavasi.

Among females the most common names are Tai, Parpathi, Ammai, Kanni, Muttammal, Rajammal, Ammani, Selli, Gangammal. In one village, where the Paraiyans were almost all Vaishnavas, by profession not by practice, Mr. Clayton found the inhabitants all named after heroes of the Mahabharata, and dirty naked children answered to the names of Ikshvakan, Karnan, Bhiman, and Draupadi. It is usual to give the father's name when distinguishing one Paraiyan from another, e.g., Tamburan, son of Kannan. In legal documents the prefix Para denotes a Paraiyan, e.g., Para Kanni, the Paraiyan Kanni, but this is a purely clerical formula. The Paraiyan delights in nicknames, and men sometimes grow so accustomed to these that they have almost forgotten their real names. The following nicknames are very common :--

Nondi, lame. Kallan, thief. Kullan, dwarf. Vellei, white or light complexioned. Kannan, with eyes. Muthalai, crocodile. Kudiyan, drunkard.

No name, indicating virtue or merit, is given, lest the wrath of malevolent spirits should be aroused.

At the census, 1891, 348 sub-divisions were returned, of which the following were strongest in point of numbers :--Amma found chiefly in Tanjore and Madura; Katti in Salem and Trichinopoly; Kizhakkatti (eastern) in Salem; Koliyan (weavers) in Chingleput, Tanjore and Trichinopoly; Konga in Salem; Korava in Coimbatore; Kottai (fort) in South Arcot; Morasu (drum) in Salem; Mottai in Madura; Pacchai (green) in Coimbatore; Samban in South Arcot; Sangidum (sanku, conch, or chank shell) in Coimbatore; Sozhia (natives of the Sozha or Chola country) in Tanjore and Madura; Tangalan in North and South Arcot, Chingleput, Salem, and Trichinopoly; and Valangamattu in South Arcot. The members of the various sub-divisions do not intermarry.

It has been suggested to me that the Morasu Paraiyans, included in the above list, are Canarese Holeyas, who have settled in the Tamil country. In the south their women, like the Kallans, wear a horsehair thread round the neck. As additional sub-divisions, the following may be noted :--

Aruththukattatha, or those who, having once cut the tali-string, do not tie it a second time, i.e., those who do not permit remarriage of widows.

Valai (a net).--Paraiyans who hunt.

Sanku (conch-shell).--Those who act as conch-blowers at funerals.

Thatha.--Thathan is the name given to mendicants who profess Vaishnavism. Such Paraiyans are Vaishnavites, and some are beggars.

In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. Francis notes that the term Paraiyan "is now almost a generic one, and the caste is split up into many sub-divisions, which differ in manners and ways. For example, the Koliyans, who are weavers, and the Valluvans, who are medicine men and priests and wear the sacred thread, will not intermarry or eat with the others, and are now practically distinct castes." As occupational titles of Paraiyans Mr. Francis gives Urumikkaran and Pambaikkaran, or those who play on drums (urumi and pambai), and Podarayan or Podara Vannan, who are washermen. The title Valangamattan, or people of the right-hand division, is assumed by some Paraiyans.

Mr. Clayton states that he knows of no legend or popular belief among the Paraiyans, indicating that they believe themselves to have come from any other part of the country than that where they now find themselves. There is, however, some evidence that the race has had a long past, and one in which they had independence, and possibly great importance in the peninsula. Mr. Stuart mentions [52] that the Valluvans were priests to the Pallava kings before the introduction of the Brahmans, and even for some time after it. He quotes an unpublished Vatteluttu inscription, believed to be of the ninth century, in which it is noted that "Sri Valluvam Puvanavan, the Uvacchan (or temple ministrant), will employ six men daily, and do the temple service." The inference is that the Valluvan was a man of recognised priestly rank, and of great influence. The prefix Sri is a notable honorific. By itself this inscription would prove little, but the whole legendary history of the greatest of all Tamil poets, Tiruvalluvar, "the holy Valluvan," confirms all that can be deduced from it. His date can only be fixed approximately, but it is probable that he flourished not later than the tenth century A.D. It is safe to say that this extraordinary sage could not have attained the fame he did, or have received the honours that were bestowed upon him, had not the Valluvans, and therefore the Paraiyans, been in the circle of respectable society in his day. This conjecture is strengthened by the legend that he married a Vellala girl. The same hypothesis is the only one that will account for the education and the vogue of the sister of the poet, the aphoristic poetess Avvei.

In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. Francis mentions an inscription of the Chola King Raja Raja, dated about the eleventh century A.D., in which the Paraiyan caste is called by its own name. It had then two sub-divisions, the Nesavu or weavers, and Ulavu or ploughmen. The caste had even then its own hamlets, wells and burning-grounds.

There are certain privileges possessed by Paraiyans, which they could never have gained for themselves from orthodox Hinduism. They seem to be survivals of a past, in which Paraiyans held a much higher position than they do now. It is noted by Mr. M. J. Walhouse [53] that "in the great festival of Siva at Trivalur in Tanjore the headman of the Pareyars is mounted on the elephant with the god, and carries his chauri (yak-tail fly fan). In Madras, at the annual festival of Egatta, the goddess of the Black, [54] now George, Town, when a tali is tied round the neck of the idol in the name of the entire community, a Pareyan is chosen to represent the bridegroom. At Melkotta in Mysore, the chief seat of the followers of Ramanuja Acharya, and at the Brahman temple at Belur, the Holeyas or Pareyars have the right of entering the temple on three days in the year specially set apart for them." At Melkote, the Holeyas and Madigas are said to have been granted the privilege of entering the sanctum sanctorum along with Brahmans and others on three days by Ramanuja. In 1799, however, the right to enter the temple was stopped at the dhvajastambham, or consecrated monolithic column. At both Belur and Melkote, as soon as the festival is over, the temples are ceremonially purified. At Sriperumbudur in the Chingleput district, the Paraiyans enjoy a similar privilege to those at Tiruvalur, in return for having sheltered an image of the locally-worshipped incarnation of Vishnu during a Muhammadan raid. It is noted by Mr. Stuart that the lower village offices, the Vettiyan, Taliari, Dandasi or Barike, and the Toti, are, in the majority of Madras villages, held by persons of the Paraiyan caste. Paraiyans are allowed to take part in pulling the cars of the idols in the great festivals at Conjeeveram, Kumbakonam, and Srivilliputtur. Their touch is not reckoned to defile the ropes used, so that other Hindus will pull with them. With this may be compared the fact that the Telugu Malas are custodians of the goddess Gauri, the bull Nandi, and Ganesa, the chief gods of the Saiva Kapus and Balijas. It may also be noted that the Komatis, who claim to be Vaisyas, are bound to invite Madigas to their marriages, though they take care that the latter do not hear the invitation. Mr. Clayton records that he has heard well-authenticated instances of Brahman women worshipping at Paraiyan shrines in order to procure children, and states that he once saw a Paraiyan exorciser treating a Brahman by uttering mantrams (consecrated formulæ), and waving a sickle up and down the sufferer's back, as he stood in a threshing floor.

In a note on the Paraiyans of the Trichinopoly district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows. "They have a very exalted account of their lineage, saying that they are descended from the Brahman priest Sala Sambavan, who was employed in a Siva temple to worship the god with offerings of beef, but who incurred the anger of the god by one day concealing a portion of the meat, to give it to his pregnant wife, and was therefore turned into a Paraiyan. The god appointed his brother to do duty instead of him, and the Paraiyans say that Brahman priests are their cousins. For this reason they wear a sacred thread at their marriages and funerals. At the festival of the village goddesses, they repeat an extravagant praise of their caste, which runs as follows. 'The Paraiyans were the first creation, the first who wore the sacred thread, the uppermost in the social scale, the differentiators of castes, the winners of laurels. They have been seated on the white elephant, the Vira Sambavans who beat the victorious drum.' It is a curious fact that, at the feast of the village goddess, a Paraiyan is honoured by being invested with a sacred thread for the occasion by the pujari (priest) of the temple, by having a turmeric thread tied to his wrists, and being allowed to head the procession. This, the Paraiyans say, is owing to their exalted origin."

In times of drought some of the lower orders, instead of addressing their prayers to the rain god Varuna, try to induce a spirit or devata named Kodumpavi (wicked one) to send her paramour Sukra to the affected area. The belief seems to be that Sukra goes away to his concubine for about six months, and, if he does not then return, drought ensues. The ceremony consists in making a huge figure of Kodumpavi in clay, which is placed on a cart, and dragged through the streets for seven to ten days. On the last day, the final death ceremonies of the figure are celebrated. It is disfigured, especially in those parts which are usually concealed. Vettiyans (Paraiyan grave-diggers), who have been shaved, accompany the figure, and perform the funeral ceremonies. This procedure is believed to put Kodumpavi to shame, and to get her to induce Sukra to return, and stay the drought. Paraiyans are said [55] to wail as though they were at a funeral, and to beat drums in the funeral time.

The Paraiyans are said by Mr. Francis [56] to have a curious share in the ceremonies in connection with the annual buffalo sacrifice at the Kali shrine at Mangalam in South Arcot. "Eight men of this community are chosen from eight adjoining villages, and one of them is selected as leader. His wife must not be with child at the' time, and she is made to prove that she is above all suspicion by undergoing the ordeal of thrusting her hand into boiling gingelly (Sesamum) oil. On each of ten days for which the festival lasts, this Paraiyan has to go round some part of the boundaries of the eight villages, and he is fed gratis by the villagers during this time. On the day of the sacrifice itself, he marches in front of the priest as the latter kills the buffaloes. The Paraiyans of the eight villages have the right to the carcases of the slaughtered animals."

The Paraiyans know the village boundaries better than anyone else, and are very expert in this matter, unerringly pointing out where boundaries should run, even when the Government demarcation stones are completely overgrown by prickly-pear, or have been removed. Mr. Stuart records a custom which prevails in some parts of making a Paraiyan walk the boundaries of a field with a pot of water on his head, when there is any dispute about their exact position. He thinks that the only satisfactory explanation of this is that the connection of the Paraiyans with the soil is of much longer standing than that of other castes. The admitted proprietary right which Paraiyans have in the site known as cheri-nattam, on which their huts stand, is a confirmation of this. These sites are entered as such on the official village maps. They cannot be taken from the Paraiyans, and date from time immemorial. Throughout the whole of the Tamil country it is usual to find that the land allotted for house-site (nattam) is in two portions in every village (Ur). One part is known by the Sanskrit name gramam (village), the inhabited place. The other is called by the Dravidian name cheri (gathering place).

Sometimes the latter is called by the fuller title paracheri (Anglice parcheri, parcherry), i.e., the gathering place of the Paraiyans. In the gramam live the Brahmans, who sometimes dwell, in a quarter by themselves known as the agrahara, and also other Hindus. In the paracheri live the Paraiyans. The paracheri and the gramam are always separated, at least by a road or lane, and often by several fields. And not only is it usual thus to find that, in every village, the Paraiyans as a community possess a house-site, but there are many cases in which more than one cheri is attached to a gramam. This seems to repudiate the suggestion that at some period or periods the higher castes relegated the Paraiyans to these cheris. Indeed, in some cases, the very names of the cheris suggest what appears to be the more correct view, viz., that the cheris had a distinct origin. For instance, the whole revenue village of Teiyar near Chingleput consists of one Sudra gramam and seven Paraiyan cheris, each with a name of its own, Periyapilleri, Komancheri, etc. In other cases, e.g., Ideipalayam in the north of the district, and Varadarajapuram near Vandalur, only Paraiyan hamlets exist; there is no gramam. In South Arcot there are at least two villages, Govindanallur and Andapet, inhabited only by Paraiyans, where even the Maniyakkaran (munsiff or village headman) is a Paraiyan. Other instances might be quoted in proof of the same opinion. And, when the ceremonial antipathy between Brahman and Paraiyan is examined, it points in the same direction. It is well known that a Brahman considers himself polluted by the touch, presence, or shadow of a Paraiyan, and will not allow him to enter his house, or even the street in which he lives, if it is an agrahara. But it is not so well known that the Paraiyans will not allow a Brahman to enter the cheri. Should a Brahman venture into the Paraiyan's quarter, water with which cow-dung has been mixed is thrown on his head, and he is driven out. It is stated [57] by Captain J. S. F. Mackenzie that "Brahmans in Mysore consider that great luck will await them if they can manage to pass through the Holeya quarter of a village unmolested, and that, should a Brahman attempt to enter their quarters, they turn out in a body and slipper him, in former times it is said to death." Some Brahmans consider a forsaken paracheri an auspicious site for an agrahara. A very peculiar case is that of the gramam founded for, and occupied by the clerks of the earliest Collectors (district magistrates) of the jagir of Karunguli from 1795 to 1825 A.D. These clerks were Brahmans, and it was called the agraharam. It was deserted when the head-quarters of the Collector were removed to Conjeeveram. It is now occupied by Paraiyans, but is still called the agraharam.

The facts, taken together, seem to show that the Paraiyan priests (Valluvans), and therefore the Paraiyans as a race, are very ancient, that ten centuries ago they were a respectable community, and that many were weavers. The privileges they enjoy are relics of an exceedingly long association with the land. The institution of the paracheri points to original independence, and even to possession of much of the land. If the account of the colonisation of Tondeimandalam by Vellalans in the eighth century A.D. is historic, then it is possible that at that time the Paraiyans lost the land, and that their degradation as a race began.