Paraiyar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Paraiyar
Malayalam
CountryIndia, Sri Lanka
Populated statesTamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry
EthnicityTamils
Related groupsSri Lankan Tamils • other Dravidians

Paraiyar,[1] Parayar[2] or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah /pəˈraɪ.ə/ pə-RY-ə and Paree)[3] is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka.

Etymology

Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who worked in South India, was in agreement with some Indian writers of the same period who considered the name to derive from the Tamil word parai (drum).

According to this hypothesis, the Paraiyars were originally a community of drummers who performed at auspicious events like weddings and funerals.

M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, writing a little later, found this etymology unsatisfactory, arguing that beating of drums could not have been an occupation of so many people.

Some other writers, such as Gustav Solomon Oppert, have derived the name from the Tamil word poraian, the name of a regional subdivision mentioned by ancient Tamil grammarians, or the Sanskrit pahariya, meaning "hill man".[4]

More recently, George L. Hart's textual analysis of the Sangam literature (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE) has led him to favour Caldwell's earlier hypothesis. The literature has references to the Tamil caste system and refers to a number of "low-born" groups variously called Pulaiyar and Kinaiyar. Hart believes that one of the drums called kiṇai in the literature later came to be called paṟai and the people that played the drum were paraiyar (plural of paraiyan).[5]

Paraiyar as a word referring to an occupational group first appears in the second century CE writings of Mangudi Kilar.[citation needed]

The 335th poem of the Purananuru mentions the Paraiyar:

Other than the Tutiyan drummers and the Panan singers
and the Paraiyans and the Katampans, there are no castes.[6]

This poem is sometimes interpreted as evidence of there being only four castes in ancient Tamilakam. However, in their translation of the Purananuru, George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz argue that this interpretation is incorrect: as with other poems in this section of the Purananuru, this verse "deals with life in a marginal village... All these plants, food, castes, and gods are typically those found in such marginal areas," and thus the four castes mentioned here should not be taken as a comprehensive list of all Tamil castes in this period.[7]

History

Pre-British period

Hart says that the pulaiyar performed a ritual function by composing and singing songs in the king's favour and beating drums, as well as travelling around villages to announce royal decrees. They were divided into subgroups based on the instruments they played and one of these groups – the Kinaiyan – "was probably the same as the modern Paraiyan".[8] He says that these people were believed to be associated with magical power and kept at a distance, made to live in separate hamlets outside villages. However, their magical power was believed to sustain the king, who had the ability to transform it into auspicious power.[9] Moffatt is less sure of this, saying that we do not know whether the distancing was a consequence of the belief in their magical powers or in Hinduism's ritual pollution as we know of it nowadays.[10]

  • Inscriptions, especially those from the Thanjavur district, mention paraicceris, which were separate hamlets of the Paraiyars.[11] Also living in separate hamlets were the artisans such as goldsmiths and cobblers, who were also recorded in the Sangam literature.[12]
  • In a few inscriptions (all of them from outside Thanjavur district), Paraiyars are described as temple patrons.[11]
  • There are also references to "Paraiya chieftainships" in the 8th and 10th centuries, but it is not known what these were and how they were integrated into the Chola political system.[12]

Burton Stein describes an essentially continuous process of expansion of the nuclear areas of the caste society into forest and upland areas of tribal and warrior people, and their integration into the caste society at the lowest levels. Many of the forest groups were incorporated as Paraiyar either by association with the parai drum or by integration into the low-status labouring groups who were generically called Paraiyar. Thus, it is thought that Paraiyar came to have many subcastes.[13] According to 1961 Madras Census Report, castes that are categorised under Paraiyar include Koliyar, Panchamar, Thoti, Vettiyan, Vetti, Vellam, Vel, Natuvile, Pani, Pambaikaran, Ammaparaiyan, Urumikaran, Morasu, Tangalam, Samban, Paryan, Nesavukaraparayan, Thotiparayan, Kongaparayan, Mannaparayan, and Semban.[citation needed]

During the

sacred thread under rituals such as marriage and funeral.[16]

Scholars such as Burchett and Moffatt state that the Bhakti devotationalism did not undermine Brahmin ritual dominance. Instead, it might have strengthened it by warding off challenges from Jainism and Buddhism.[17][18]

British colonial era

By the early 19th century, the Paraiyars had a degraded status in the Tamil society.

serfs toiling under a system of bonded labour that resembled the European villeinage.[23] However, scholars such as Burton Stein argue that the agricultural bondage in Tamil society was different from the contemporary British ideas of slavery.[24]

Historians such as David Washbrook have argued that the socio-economic status of the Paraiyars rose greatly in the 18th century during the Company rule in India; Washbrook calls it the "Golden Age of the Pariah".[25] Raj Sekhar Basu disagrees with this narrative, although he agrees that there were "certain important economic developments".[26]

The Church Mission Society converted many Paraiyars to Christianity by the early 19th century.[27] During the British Raj, the missionary schools and colleges admitted Paraiyar students amid opposition from the upper-caste students. In 1893, the colonial government sanctioned an additional stipend for the Paraiyar students.[28] The colonial officials, scholars, and missionaries attempted to rewrite the history of the Paraiyars, characterising them as a community that enjoyed a high status in the past. Edgar Thurston (1855–1935), for example, claimed that their status was nearly equal to that of the Brahmins in the past.[29] H. A. Stuart, in his Census Report of 1891, claimed that Valluvars were a priestly class among the Paraiyars, and served as priests during Pallava reign. Robert Caldwell, J. H. A. Tremenheere and Edward Jewitt Robinson claimed that the ancient poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar was a Paraiyar.[30]

Buddhist advocacy by Iyothee Thass

persisted among Indian Christians, while the backwardness of contemporary local Muslims made Islam unappealing.[31]

Thass subsequently attempted a Buddhist reconstruction of the Tamil religious history. He argued that the Paraiyars were originally followers of

Persia defeated them and destroyed Buddhism in southern India; as a result, the Paraiyars lost their culture, religion, wealth and status in the society and become destitute. In 1898, Thass and many of his followers converted to Buddhism and founded the Sakya Buddha Society (cākkaiya putta caṅkam) with the influential mediation of Henry Steel Olcott of the Theosophical Society. Olcott subsequently and greatly supported the Tamil Paraiyar Buddhists.[32]

Controversy over the community's name

Jean-Antoine Dubois, a French missionary who worked in India between 1792 and 1823 and had a Brahmin-centric outlook, recorded the community's name as Pariah. He described them as people who lived outside the system of morals prescribed by Hinduism, accepted that outcaste position and were characterised by "drunkenness, shamelessness, brutality, truthlessness, uncleanliness, disgusting food practices, and an absolute lack of personal honour". Moffat says this led to pariah entering the English language as "a synonym for the socially ostracised and the morally depraved".[33]

Iyothee Thass felt that Paraiyar was a

Mahajana Assembly) in 1891. Another Paraiyar leader, Rettamalai Srinivasan, however, advocated using the term Paraiyar with pride. In 1892, he formed the Parayar Mahajana Sabha (Paraiyar Mahajana Assembly), and also started a news publication titled Paraiyan.[34]

Thass continued his campaign against the term, and petitioned the government to discontinue its usage, demanding punishment for those who used the term. He incorrectly claimed that the term Paraiyar was not found in any ancient records (it has been, in fact, found in the 10th-century Chola stone inscriptions from Kolar district).[34] Thass subsequently advocated the term Adi Dravida (Original Dravidians) to describe the community. In 1892, he used the term Adidravida Jana Sabhai to describe an organisation, which was probably Srinivasan's Parayar Mahajana Sabha. In 1895, he established the People's Assembly of Urdravidians (Adidravida Jana Sabha), which probably split off from Srinivasan's organisation. According to Michael Bergunder, Thass was thus the first person to introduce the concept of Adi Dravida into political discussion.[35]

Another Paraiyar leader,

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy ensured the wider dissemination of the term Adi Dravida.[35]

Right-hand caste faction

Paraiyars belong to the Valangai ("Right-hand caste faction"). Some of them assume the title Valangamattan ("people of the right-hand division"). The Valangai comprised castes with an agricultural basis while the Idangai consisted of castes involved in manufacturing.[37] Valangai were better organised politically.[38]

Present status

As of 2017, the Paraiyar were a listed as a

Scheduled Caste in Tamil Nadu under India's system of affirmative action.[39]

Culture

Malavazhiyattam is a ritualistic dance drama performed once a year by the Paraya community in Kerala.[40] Malavazhi is the mother goddesses who are installed in the homes of the Parayas and worshiped by them. Malavazhiyattam is performed to please the deities through music and drama.[41]

Notable people

[clarification needed]

Religious and spiritual leaders

Social reformers and activists

Politics

Arts and entertainment

References

Citations

  1. ISBN 978-1-13519-658-5
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  2. ISBN 978-0-52104-019-8
    .
  3. ISBN 9789050630511
    .
  4. ^ Basu (2011), pp. 2–4.
  5. ^ Hart (1987), pp. 467–468.
  6. ISBN 9780231115636
    .
  7. ^ Hart & Heifetz 2001, p. 322.
  8. ^ Hart (1987), p. 468.
  9. ^ Hart (1987), pp. 482–483.
  10. ^ Moffat (1979), p. 37.
  11. ^ a b Orr (2000), pp. 236–237.
  12. ^ a b Moffatt (1979), p. 38.
  13. ^ Moffatt (1979), p. 41.
  14. ^ Moffatt (1979), pp. 38–39.
  15. JSTOR 640372
    .
  16. ^ Kolappa Pillay, Kanakasabhapathi (1977). The Caste System in Tamil Nadu. University of Madras. p. 33.
  17. ^ Moffatt (1979), p. 39.
  18. S2CID 143000307
    .
  19. ^ Basu (2011), p. 16.
  20. ^ Basu (2011), p. 2.
  21. ^ Irschick (1994), pp. 153–190.
  22. ^ a b c Bergunder (2004), p. 68.
  23. ^ Basu (2011), pp. 9–11.
  24. ^ Basu (2011), p. 4.
  25. ^ Basu (2011), pp. 33–34.
  26. ^ Basu (2011), p. 39.
  27. ^ Kanjamala (2014), p. 127.
  28. ^ Kanjamala (2014), p. 66.
  29. ^ Basu (2011), pp. 24–26.
  30. ^ Moffatt (1979), pp. 19–21.
  31. ^ Bergunder (2004), p. 70.
  32. ^ Bergunder (2004), pp. 67–71.
  33. ^ Moffat (1979), pp. 6–7.
  34. ^ a b c d Srikumar (2014), p. 357.
  35. ^ a b Bergunder (2004), p. 69.
  36. ^ Bergunder, Frese & Schröder (2011), p. 260.
  37. ^ Siromoney, Gift (1975). "More inscriptions from the Tambaram area". Madras Christian College Magazine. 44. Retrieved 21 September 2008.
  38. ISBN 978-0-52124-145-8
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  39. ^ "Tamil Nadu". Ministry of Social Justice. 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  40. ^ Varavoor, Prashanth. "അവതരണങ്ങളിൽ അപമാനിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന അനുഷ്‌ഠാനകലകൾ".
  41. ^ M, Athira (24 March 2022). "Malayalam docu-fiction 'Thevan' pays tribute to folk artiste Thevan Peradipurathu". The Hindu.
  42. ISBN 978-81-7214-561-3
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  43. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6
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  44. ISBN 978-1-85065-670-8
    .
  45. ^ Srikumar (2014), p. 356.
  46. ISBN 9781135182014
    .
  47. ^ "കാവാരികുളം കണ്ടന്‍ കുമാരനും ദളിത് പ്രശ്നവും". Deshabhimani (in Malayalam).
  48. ISBN 9789352803057
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  49. ^ "Casteist message in Ilaiyaraaja's name is fake, composer's lawyer clarifies". The News Minute. 21 May 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2021.

Bibliography

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