Vellalar

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Vellalar
Religions
Tamil people

Vellalar is a group of

Thuluva Vellalar and Sri Lankan Vellalar.[9][10]

Etymology

The earliest occurrence of the term Velaalar (வேளாளர்) in

Paripadal where it is used in the sense of a landowner.[11] The term Velaalar (வேளாளர்) can be derived from the word Vel (வேள்), Vel being a title that was borne by the Velir chieftains of Sangam age among other things.[12]

The word Vellalar (வெள்ளாளர் ) may come from the root Vellam for flood, which gave rise to various rights of land; and it is because of the acquisition of land rights that the Vellalar got their name.[13]

History

Vellālars worshipping lingam, snake-stones and Ganēsa from Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909).

The Vellalars have a long cultural history that goes back to over two millennia in southern India,[14] where once they were the ruling and land-owning community.[15][16] Though the Vellalar have generally been associated with the landed gentry and agriculture, they are not a homogenous group and various people from diverse backgrounds have identified themselves as a Vellalar in the course of history.[6]

In Sangam literature

The Vellalar are spoken of as a group of people right from the

Pattinappaalai lists the six virtues of Vellalar as abstention from killing, abstention from stealing, propagation of religion, hospitality, justice and honesty.[18]

Post-Sangam period

In the years that immediately followed the Sangam age (from third to sixth century CE), the Tamil lands were ruled by a dynasty called

The Velir

The

Venad during the Sangam period. The word Venad is derived from Vel -nadu, that is the country ruled by Vel chieftains.[26] We know of a queen of Vikramaditya Varaguna, an Ay king of 9th century who is referred to as Murugan Chenthi and as Aykula Mahadevi from inscriptions. Her father, an Ay chief called Chathan Murugan is described as a Vennir Vellala that is a Vellala by birth,[27] in the Huzur plates of king Karunandakkan, the predecessor of Vikramaditya Varaguna.[28]

The

Rajadhiraja Chola an Irukkuvel feudatory who was a high-ranking military officer (Dandanayaka) of the king is described as a Velala.[f]

The Irungovels are considered to be of the same stock as the

Thiruvannamalai, the town that served as their capital in 14th century.[34]

The Chola period

According to the anthropologist Kathleen Gough, "the Vellalars were the dominant secular aristocratic caste under the Chola kings, providing the courtiers, most of the army officers, the lower ranks of the kingdom's bureaucracy, and the upper layer of the peasantry".[16]

Two identical

Mulbagal Taluk dated in the 3rd year of Kulottunga I (about 1072-1073 CE) describe how the great army of the right hand class (perumpadai valangai mahasenai) having arrived with great weapons of war from the 78-nadus of Chola-mandalam and the 48000-bhumi of Jayangonda-cholamandalam (the northern districts of Tamil Nadu that is Tondaimandalam) conquered and colonized southern Karnataka (Kolar district) by the grace of Rajendrachola (Kulottunga I).[35]

Historian

Rajaraja Chola I.[37] The Chola inscriptions state that the Velaikkara forces pledged under oath to commit suicide in case they failed to defend their king or in the event of his death.[38] The Chalukya kings were also known by the title Velpularasar, that is kings of Vel country (pulam means region or country in Tamil) and as Velkulattarasar, that is kings of the Vel clan (kulam), in epigraphs and in the old Tamil lexicon Divakaram.[39][40]

The Vellalar also contributed to the

Vaishnavite preachings by forcing him to sign a document stating Shiva is the greatest god.[47][48]

Sri Lanka

The Vellalars of Sri Lanka have been chronicled in the Yalpana Vaipava Malai and other historical texts of the Jaffna kingdom. They form half of the Sri Lankan Tamil population and are the major husbandmen, involved in tillage and cattle cultivation.[49][9] Local Sri Lankan literature, such as the Kailiyai Malai, an account on Kalinga Magha, narrates the migration of Vellala Nattar chiefs from the Coromandel Coast to Sri Lanka.[50]

Their dominance rose under Dutch rule and they formed one of the colonial political elites of the island.[51][52]

In Jainism

At present, most of the

Vijayanagar empire in the 15th century.[54] The villages and areas settled by the Saiva Velaalar even now have a small number of Jaina families and inscriptional evidence indicate that these were earlier Jaina settlements as is evident by the existence of old Jaina temples.[55]

Current usage

Even though at present, the term "Vellalar" is uncertain, a number of non-cultivating landholding castes like

Saivite group that traditionally served as priests.[59]

Social status

The Vellalar were considered to be of high status and enjoyed a high rank during the Chola period. They helped promote and stabilize Shaivism during the Chola era and many of the cult's leaders were drawn from the ranks of the Vellalar. They were a prosperous community of farmers and landowners who had provided economic support to Shiva temples in the Tamil country. In the Tamil region, Vellalar like Mudaliyar and Pillai along with certain other non-brahmin groups enjoyed a status equal to that of the Brahmins. The Vellalar also had more authority, power and status than the Brahmins in some social and ritual contexts.[60] They were more orthodox than the Brahmins in their religious practices.[61][62] The Vellalar nobles had marriage alliances with Chola royal families.[63][64]

The

Shaivites and started worshipping in Shiva temples.[65]

From the Sangam period to the Chola period of Indian history (A.d. 600 to 1200), state-level political authority was in the hands of relatively low, Vellalar chieftains, who endowed local and nonlocal Brahmins with land and honors, and were in turn legitimized by them.[66]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to Susan Bayly, even in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, "Vellalar affiliation was as vague and uncertain as that of most other south Indian castes"; Vellalar identity was a source of prestige and "There were any number of groups sought to claim Vellalar status for themselves"[4]
  2. ^ The term "Vellalar" is a generic term for a group of high ranking Non-brahmin castes in TamilNadu[5]
  3. ^ Coming to the Vellalas, Andre Beteille, an authority on caste in South India writes: The term 'Vellala' is rather confusing because of its comprehensive use. Even the Vellalas proper, those who are of Vellala origin-are not a homogeneous unit but are subdivided into small sections. These sub-groups are always segmented and are endogamous.[6]
  4. ^ Without going into detail, it must suffice to say that in Sripuram the Vellalas proper are segmented into three endogamous units: Chozhia Vellala, Karaikathu Vellala, and Kodikkal Vellala.[7]
  5. ^ The Kongu Vellalar is an engogamous group. They use 'gounder' as a title and hence they are also known as Kongu Vellala Gounders.[8]
  6. ^ Records in his third year gift of 90 sheep for a lamp by Velala Madurantakam alias Tandanayakan Rajadhiraja Ilangovelan of Nadar, a village in Tiraimur-nadu which was a sub-division of Uyyakondan-valanadu in Solamandalam.[30]
  7. ^ It is also widely believed that the Saiva Vellalas of Madras State who are stricter vegetarians than even Tamil Brahmins, were Jainas.[53]
  8. ^ All of those who feared for their lives converted to Saivism (and not any other religious sect) adorning the sacred ash, 'throwing away their sacred threads', they assumed the identity of Saiva (nir-puci) vellalars or nir-puci-nayinars (the Jainas who smeared sacred ash).[54]
  9. ^ Among the Tamil castes, both Karkattar Vellalas (Arunachalam, 1975) and Kondaikatti Vellalas (Barnett, 1970) have much the same profile as the KP (Kottai Pillaimar): both are non-cultivating land-holders, with a history of service to ruling dynasties.[56]

References

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Further reading