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Oriental Drawings
Charles Gold ·
(1806)
A COLLERIE
Alexander_s_East_India_and_Colonial_Maga
(1835)
COLLERIES - KALLAR - CULLAR
உதய தாரகை 23rd September 1847
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செயற்க்கை நலம்
Kallar and Maravar subcaste settlement in Pudukkottai Map of Pudukkottai State
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Kallar: The royal, and dominant, caste in Pudukkottai; they had a reputation as a warrior caste and were settled in parts of Madurai, Ramanatapuram, Tanjavur, Tiruccirappalli, and Pudukkottai.
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Kurikarar: lesser Kallar chiefs, given lands but only rarely retainers.
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The little kingdom under scrutiny in the pages to follow is a place called Pudukkottai (Putukk6ttai), meaning “new fort.” Pudukkottai, which at its most extensive did not exceed 1,200 square miles, was located in an exclusively rain-fed agricultural zone right in the middle of the Tamil speaking region of southern Indian, straddling the boundary between the two great medieval Tamil kingdoms. Ruled by Kallar kings from the end of the seventeenth century until 1947, it provides an excellent canvas for a study of the political history of Indian society, or, rather, a social history of the Indian state. Kallars were elsewhere thought to be highway robbers: the term itself is still used in Tamil for thief. Dumont, in his first work on India and his only ethnographic monograph (1957b), used Kallars as examples of a ritually marginal
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In my study fieldwork was not only possible, it was necessary. From the start I intended my study to be ethnohistorical. I began with a concern about social structure and the insufficient role accorded by South Asian anthropology to the interpenetration of politics, the state, and the development of social forms (Dirks 1981). However, when I first went to the “‘field’’ between 1975 and 1977, I spent most of my time in archives, libraries, and government offices. Though I spent some time in the little kingdom, interviewing important citizens and living in the guest annex of the royal residence, I did not do the kind of fieldwork that could teach me what I needed to know about the social structure of the little kingdom. Nor could I frame in any serious contextual way the material garnered from interviews, which for the most part were held on the verandah of my annex room. As I became increasingly aware of the continuing cultural salience of royal forms of power and authority, as well as of the intricate segmental structure of royal Kallar subcastes, I realized that if any of my speculations about kingship and society were to amount to much I had to return to what was left of the little kingdom. I had to do fieldwork.
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While in the field during my second research stint between September 1981 and August 1982 I continued to work in the local record office with land records and new files that I found only after long months of searching. But I also played the part of the anthropologist, spending extended periods of time in a series of villages which I selected to satisfy my own research requirements. I did not look for isolated communities miles from market towns, railheads, and metalled roads, though I found _ myself in these on many occasions. Rather, I selected villages that had clearly had an important role in the social organization of first the royal Kallar caste and then of other castes that I selected for my study. For example, each Kallar subcaste had a central village where the head of the subcaste had lived and where the principal temple in which the members of the subcaste had their major festivals and assemblies was located. I began by visiting these communities, and then followed leads and contacts, sometimes doing intensive fieldwork with a community-or set of informants, sometimes simply collecting survey information before moving on to the next village down the road or track. I attended festivals when invited, as I often was. I watched village dramas and goat sacrifices in the early hours of the morning, attended weddings at dawn, rested on the verandahs of village, lineage, or subcaste headmen during the heat of the day, chased down names and events long into the dark and mysterious evenings of the rural landscape, and pestered patient folk for meanings and memories more often than I care to remember. I recorded many conversations in their entirety, which were then transcribed by research assistants. I kept diaries. I felt myself becoming, in the sense that I too was going through that sacred rite of passage called fieldwork, an anthropologist.
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In addition, prefiguring the important changes of the Vijayanagara period, throughout much of the Tamil country new groups such as Kallars and Maravars progressively converted uncultivated lands which were often just outside the major areas of settlement to peasant agriculture. This settlement probably occurred first, during Cola times, in the Ramnad, Madurai and Pudukkottai areas, and later in portions of Tirunelveli and Tanjavur. Stein notes that in these areas “the relationships between a particular ethnic group and the territory were perhaps stronger than in the older peasant core areas” (Stein 1980, 109). These areas for the most part correspond with the mixed economy zones of.“ Ludden’s description in which local territorial forms of dominance were most highly developed (Ludden 1978a). Both Maravars and Kallars have been divided into endogamous sub-divisions which correspond with territorial sub-divisions. For the most part (except for Tanjavur), both Maravars and Kallars settled in areas left unoccupied by the earlier f high caste settlers of the Tamil country (mostly Vellalars and Brahmans) or in areas where they ousted these other caste groups from positions of’ dominance. In addition, both Kallars and Maravars settled in ways designed to facilitate single caste, and at a local level single subcaste, dominance. Although both groups often settled in areas contiguous to each other, Kallars and Maravars rarely settled together in the same locality. The areas of Kallar and Maravar settlement were not unoccupied by lower caste or tribal groups. In many forest tracts, the earliest settlers seem to have been Kurumpars, Vetars, and Valaiyars, all of whom are associated with the forest. These groups soon became subordinated to the new dominant agrarian groups.
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;sovereignty of the Madurai Nayaka, and thus the basis for the \reconstitution of the old regime Tamil political order in the Madurai larea. The family histories of the Nayakas and, many of the family histories of these palaiyakkarars identify the key moment when the latter shift their political allegiance from the Pantiyans to the Madurai Nayakas as the gifting of the privilege of guarding the bastion allotted to them. The family histories of these palaiyakkarars make use of this incident to represent the attainment of a particular form of political recognition, one in which those selected in the group of seventy-two saw themselves as superior to those not selected. In many of these texts the actual number of the bastion is cited, suggesting that even among the inclusive unity of the seventy-two there was a hierarchical order.'? , Despite the inclusion of only Vatuka (Telegu) palaiyakkarars among | the seventy-two in some lists and traditions, many Maravar and Kallars were also allocated bastions as palaiyakkarars in the fort (Taylor 1835, 2:161—167). At the top of the regional political system, an especially privileged inner circle of superior palaiyakkarars was signified by the term kumara varkkam, which literally meant those who were counted among the sons of the Madurai Nayaka. This inner group of “adopted sons” of the great king included the Kallar Tondaiman of Pudukkottai and the Maravar rulers of Ramanatapuram oe Civakankai. The highest of the local kings were not Telegus at all.’
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The story of Kaliyan rendered here is a modified version of the story | of Tirumankai Alvar, one of the best-known and most prolific of medieval Tamil Vaisnavite bhakti saints and poets. The legendary account of his life (Bharati 1942; Zvelebil 1975, 159-160) is very colorful, and of great interest in calculating the ethical content of bhakti. He was | born a Kallar (though many Maravars claim him as one of their | own — see Pate 1917, 134), and a Saivite, and was called Nilan. He was ! given lands and was made a commander in the army by the Cola king. He then fell in love with the maiden Kumutavalli, who was a great devotee of Visnu. To win her hand he also became a devotee of Visnu and pledged to feed 1,008 Vaisnavite devotees every day. To fulfill his pledge he stole from the king, who imprisoned him, although he was subsequently saved from prison by Visnu. Nilan then turned to highway robbery, which enabled him to enlarge the Srirankam temple in addition to feeding the devotees. He was even said to have stolen the large golden image of the Buddha in Nakapattinam. Finally, he set upon and robbed a wealthy Brahman, who turned out to be Visnu himself. Visnu then taught him the all powerful mantra that led to his enlightenment.
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The vamcavali omits the earlier events of this legend. Its version begins with Kaliyan’s desire to renovate the Srirankam temple. The inclusion of this bhakti story connects the mediational and incorporative effects of bhakti, already established in the previous episode, with temple worship, something the Maravar family has yet to demonstrate its adeptness at and fitness for. So, for example, the presentation of gifts to temples rather than the feeding of devotees figures in its version of the story, thus contributing to the general emphasis in the episode on the mastery of prescribed ritual codes for conduct by this Maravar group. Not unnaturally, the vamcavali departs from the traditional texts in not designating the hero asa Kallar, although the choice of the story suggests (at least at this point in the narrative) little embarrassment about one of the Kallars’ traditional occupations, highway robbery (varipparikkam). Here, the purpose of highway robbery is the exalted one of renovating the temple (tiruppani). And Visnu does not seem to disapprove, for he takes on a disguise and becomes the robber’s victim in order to engineer the enlightenment of his great devotee. Interestingly, in the Uttumalai text the mode of enlightenment is not the mantra of the traditional accounts but the contact of Kaliyan’s tongue with Visnu’s holy feet (tirupatam); the motif—in sharp and direct contrast to the previous pisode — is again one in which the relation between deity and devotee is epicted by the contact of head and foot. While Tinnan’s devotion offsets the literal subordination of the deity’s head to his shod foot, here the final action is the literal touching of Kaliyan’s tongue to the deity’s foot, an image that neatly encapsulates the movement toward the increased ritualism of temple worship in the earlier part of this second story. Both stories stress devotion, but the contrast between them is striking, especially in their final images.
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geographical features with other mixed economy zones. However, its central position between the Pantiya and Cola heartlands and the extensive nature of Kallar dominance in the region gave it a far more important role in political history than any of the palaiyams in Tirunelveli. Further, Pudukkottai was significantly larger than any of the Tirunelveli palaiyams, and only slightly smaller in size than either.
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Chiefs of a Kallar subcaste, who, according to their family history, moved south from the Tirupati hills in the service of the Vijayanagara rulers, the Tondaimans emerged in Pudukkottai as two collateral ruling jhouses 1 in the late seventeenth century. The state took its modern form ‘when the two families, one in Pudukkottai and the other in the northern ‘village of Kulattur, merged in the middle of the eighteenth century, only
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This structure of privileged landholding reflects the structure of political power and socio-cultural participation within state and village institutions. The chief landholders were the great Kallar Jagirdars a Cérvaikarars. The former were collateral relations of the Raja. Jagi estates were created for the two brothers of the Raja after a succession dispute in 1730 severely threatened the stability of the state. These collateral families kept these estates intact until their settlement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Jagirs were, in effect, mini kingdoms in their own right, each containing a small court and a full set of inam grants, including “military ones.
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grants of land, titles, honors, and emblems. Each of the Cervaikarars |was awarded a specified number of retainers, or amarakarars, to serve them at home, to go to battle with them abroad, and to carry their honors and emblems to ritual occasions in the royal court and in temples. Lesser chiefs, called Kurikarars, came from Kallar subcastes other than royal Ampu Natu. Lands and privileges throughout the state were also given to other Kallars, called in diminutive form Cervais, to keep watch over villages and localities not dominated by loyal Kallars (i.e., all groups other than the Vicenki Nattu Kallars who were only finally brought under control in a series of wars in the late eighteenth century). The Cervais were mostly members of the royal Ampu Natu | subcaste who had no affinal ties with the royal family. The royal family and court was itself protected by Uriyakarars, all of | whom were members of the Akampatiyar caste, aligned with the Kallars and the Maravars, through membership in the classificatory group of | the three “families,” or mukkulattar. These Uriyakarars had become a separate subcaste by virtue of their connection with and service to the Raja. A number of Uriyakarar chiefs had a prominent role in the kingdom. Like most of the Kurikarars, these chiefs were given extensive lands but no formal group of amarakarar retainers under them (see Chapter 6). In addition, within each village the state headmen were given ants in recognition of their rights to local authority as well as to render this authority representative of the state’s power at large. These headmen came from the locally dominant castes. Kallars were dominant in the northern and eastern parts of the state. Maravars had a significant presence in the south. Other caste groups such as the Nattampati Kavuntars and the Vallampars were dominant in some of the peripheral portions of the state. Ampalams-the title for headman (literally meaning the central common ground of the village) used by most of the castes in Pudukkottai-—were also called miracidarS.
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‘In Pudukkottai, all the Brahmans I met had been granted lands by the Tondaiman kings, who, in spite of their Kallar caste and therefore nonKsatriya status, were said to be true kings— and. gods -— by these Brahmans. Similarly, the Vellalars who managed the main temple of the royal Kallar subcaste demonstrated their authoritative rights and position by displaying a sword and other emblems that they told me had been granted them by the Tondaiman kings. Village headmen could not conduct their ritual duties in village festivals without worshipping and prominently displaying the emblems that had been granted by kings. Even the great Kallar Cervaikarar warriors, who attained their high positions by being Kallars, providing crucial assistance at one time or another to the Tondaimans, and establishing affinal ties with the royal family, despite all this had to appeal to the emblems and privileges of their authority which, likewise, had been granted by the Tondaiman kings.
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Other manuscripts concerning the migration of Maravars into the area (Ayyar 1940, 548) confirm their early connection with the ruling Vellalars. They specify that Vellalars invited large groups of Maravars to settle in the southern and western parts of the state to protect them. Other traditions suggest that the Kallars arrived under similar conditions, or at least that those Kallars already settled in proximity to the Vellalars were accorded rights of protection by local Vellalar groups. According to these traditions Kallars lived in the forest tracts of Kanatu where they were employed by Vanatiraiyar, a Vellalar chief of Kanatu, to fight against the Vellalars of Konatu. While the Kallar traditions 'provide much less detail than the Maravar accounts, they do make it beleat that a number of villages and many lands were granted to Kallars | because of their participation in one or another of the wars between | Konatu and Kanatu.
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All the Maravar groups trace their settlement in Pudukkottai to the great war between Konatu and Kanatu. Though this event figures in some Kallar histories, it is far less central for them than for the Maravars. The Maravars became the dominant caste throughout much of the southern part of the state, restricting their settlement to the eastern portion of Kanatu and that portion of Konatu south of the river Vellar. The already established presence of Kallars north of the river Vellar was most probably the reason why the Maravars restricted their settlement in such a way. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the Kallars have been the dominant caste in the northern part of the state from perhaps as early as the tenth century, although pinpointing an exact date may never be possible.
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number of different waves. In all likelihood the earliest Kallar settlers were those of Vicenki Natu, in the north-central part of the state. Early on this group of Kallars was associated with violent and predatory behavior; if there were many Vellalars settled in this region they did not stay long. From the Kallar traditions already referred to, other Kallar groups which settled in the area now knownas Alankuti taluk might well have arrived before the last of the Konatu-Kanatu wars, since the names of the areas from which Kallars were said to have been recruited by the Kanatu chiefs are the same as the natus which still organize Kallar settlement in these regions. Nonetheless, the vagueness and paucity of Kallar accounts lend little credibility to the venerability of their settlement in regions which might simply have provided them with territorial labels and boundaries for their own lineage or subcaste organizations.
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We are on somewhat surer ground with respect to the final migration of Kallars, which took place later and further to the north. Certain areas of northern Pudukkottai, particularly the northeastern region of Ampu Natu (the area around Karampakuti), were settled by Vellalars before the arrival of the Kallars. According to some Kallar informants in this region as well as the descendants of Vellalars still living there, the Vellalars settled there at the invitation of the Cola kings. In a by now } familiar pattern, they lost their dominant position sometime thereafter, possibly as late as the fifteenth century, to the Kallars, who settled in the region as local chiefs and protectors, and later spawned the royal subcaste of Pudukkottai state.
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‘shown by their inclusion in Ampu Natu, where they still accept honors along with Kallars in the local subcaste temple. Even today Vellalars act as headmen in the royal Kallar subcaste, maintaining the honor roll calls, convening and adjudicating subcaste assemblies, and managing the subcaste temple (see Chapter 7).
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suggested by the frequent mention in the inscriptions of single caste | villages, such as akaraparru (Brahman villages), kallaparru (Kallar | villages), and vellanparru (Vellalar villages). The settlement of villages, the endowments of gifts to temples, the; exchange of protection rights between villagers and chiefs for shares of | the produce, and the particular types of relations that existed between | chiefs and their military retainers were all articulated in terms of more general Tamil ideas concerning rights to and shares of the produce of the land. In particular, the melvaram, thetop orfirstcut that was thought to be\ = the right of the king or landlord, was shared with, or rather redirected to, / many individuals and institutions represented in the inscriptions, from chiefs to temples to tanks and their keepers. For example, one araiyar remitted (iraiyoli) the melvaram share owed by a particular landholder Yeo 3 ordering him to make in its place certain contributions both in kind and ‘ coin to the temple at Nelvayil (IPS no. 277; also see nos. 305, 321, 328, 329, 424). Allinscriptional grants in the Tamil country from the Pallavas on follow this basic form. What makes the Pudukkottai inscriptions particularly interesting is that in addition to this classic sharing of the king’s right, we also see the _ appropriation of kingly rights through the assumption of patikkaval, or | protection rights, by araiyars, and even on some occasions by temples, | on whose behalf a chief would carry out the required protection as a form of devotion while directing the perquisites of the rights to the temple (see IPS no. 799). Patikkaval means the protection (kaval) of a place (pati). In the fourteenth century and after, the position of the araiyars as chief donors was complemented by the accordance of | patikkaval rights to them over villages and localities .
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Kiranur, Viraiyaccilai, Karkuricciparru, Kuruntanparai, Pulivalam, Kottiyur-Ilambalakkuti, and Ilancarppuram (IPS nos. 690, 706, 711, 727, 731, 743, 744, 745, 759, 792, 800, 829, 838). Five of these villages continued into the eighteenth century as important Kallar and Maravar strongholds. Araiyars themselves are often identified as belonging to a particular pataiparru (IPS nos. 403, 439,462) but the exact nature of the relation between the chief and his soldiers, and of both with the residents of the hamlets, is unclear. One inscription records that a number of pataiparrus regularly paid fees to a particular araiyar, who ordered a substantial reduction in those fees in recognition of service and for help rendered when one Valuttur Pallavarayar invaded the territory of the chief (IPS no. 462). It seems likely that while each araiyar had his own military base, he was able to secure the loyalty and service of other military camps on the basis of kin ties and political alliances.
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3 One of the most important chiefly allies of the Colas in the eighth through tenth centuries had been the Irukkuvels of Kotumpalur, the site of an important Cola temple on the banks of the river Vellar in the northwestern part of modern Pudukkottai state. Stein (1980) disputes Arokiaswami’s claims that the Irukkuvels were Vellalars on the basis of the later dominance of Kallars and Maravars in the whole area, but the congruence of Irukkuvel titles (velir, velar, muventavelar) with titles used by Vellalars of the area today and the coincidence of the dates of Irukkuvel dominance with the time sequences implied in the many origin stories, copper plates, and palm leaf manuscripts all of which attribute initial settlement and leadership in Konatu to Vellalars may suggest otherwise. Certainly, the Irukkuvels were emulating conceptions of local kingship established in core areas of Vellalar and Brahman dominance. These ideas were impressively realized in the building of major temples and the establishment of Brahman settlements (brahmadeyas). Nevertheless, whoever the Irukkuvels were, and whatever their relationship to Karalar and/or Karkatta Vellalars referred to in local sources, the distinctive development of Kallar and Maravar kingship in this region seems a result both of trends established by the local araiyars who secured patikkaval rights in the period after the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and of the earlier forms of chiefship so central to the Pallava and Cola periods which seem to have been examplified by dynasties such as the Irukkuvels.
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various regions in _Pudukkottai_ during: this period inant contol ove paths. The Pallavaraiyar line (not the same Pallavaraiyars who immediately preceded the Tondaimans in the late seventeenth century) first appeared in Perunkalur and Vaittur (in the north-central part of the state) in early-fourteenth-century inscriptions as araiyars (IPS nos. 462, 476, 711, 713, 714, 726, 752, 864, 866, 945, 968). By the mid fifteenth century they were appending illustrious epithets to their names such as “those who protected the crown of the Pantiya and the dignity of the .Caluva” (IPS no. 752). They claimed that one Ramappa Nayakar, the lrepresentative of Visvanatha Nayakar of Madurai granted them land (IPS no. 752). The last two rulers of this line assumed the title of Rajyampanni Arulukaiyil, or those who performed the act of ruling with grace (Ayyar 1940, 735). The Vanataraiyars, or Banas, another translocal dynasty of the same period, ruled over a region in western Pudukkottai contiguous to and in parts overlapping those areas “‘ruled”’ by the Pallavaraiyars. They made their first inscriptional appearance as cattle raiders in 1274 (IPS no. 380) and by the late fifteenth century had become quite powerful. One of their inscriptions announced that when the banner of the Banas was unfurled, the tiger of the Cola, the carp of the Pantiya, and the bow of the Cera all disappeared (IPS no. 674). Although it is not clear to which caste the Banas belonged, the Tekkattur Manuscript mentions that they enrolled Kallar chieftains to assist them in fighting against the Konatu Vellalars (Ayyar 1940, 728). Other similar local chiefly families in Pudukkottai were the Kankaraiyars, the Dharmaraiyars, the Tondaimans of Arantanki, and the chiefs of Perampur and Kuttalur, of Iluppur, Kumaravati, and Marunkapuri. Thus we see the political dynamic of little kingship operating at the level of the araiyars who then developed into little kings of the type seen above. The inseriptional record closely parallels the vamcavali stories depicting the > palaiyakkarars’ ris rise to little kir kingship. In the vamcavalis the little kings began their “political” careers by subduing (sometimes rival) bandits in the service of a chief or king. In the inscriptions, the araiyars similarly began their ascent to kingship by subduing bandits, or rather by providing villages and local institutions with protection from the exploits of bandits. In both the vamcavalis and the inscriptions the road to little kingship led from n protection to forms of royal beneficence an yal beneficence and behavior. “The warrior kings who began by offering their military services for the purpose of protection proceeded to grant lands to temples and Brahmans and to receive grants of various royal honors and
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However, this conventional interpretation based on how and when certain terms appear in a terminological study of the inscriptional record may miss the actual structural dynamic. Village and locality assemblies did not so much decline as become increasingly encompassed by leaders ( who represented them and assembled them in new hierarchical forms. ; These hierarchical forms, because of the congruence seen earlier between kin-based and territory-based assemblies, inevitably entailed newly formulated relationships over time between different groups and different territories as well as changes in the structures of lineages and subcastes. As I will argue throughout this book, the political development of regional hegemony led to the development and elaboration of particular forms of subcaste organization which can be seen very clearly among the dominant Kallars of Pudukkottai. In Pudukkottai local Kallar chiefs and headmen extended their social relations well beyond the village community and strengthened Kallar locality control and regional integration through their political success. I believe that this process is representative of many similar changes in other parts of South Asia during the old regime.
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In order to explore the development of Kallar kingship we must strive, often without much help from the inscriptional record, to understand the developing structures of local level Kallar society. Similarly, we will not be able to understand Kallar social organization unless we study it in the light of its political history. In a larger sense, my argument is that neither society nor polity can be understood when looked at as separate domains or entities, and that Stein’s proposal of a segmentary argument (1980) can be most usefully employed in this kind of inquiry, where we can see direct links (as well as instructively inexact fits) between the
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Tondaimans were one of many groups of Kallars who lived in the Tirupati hills as skillful hunters and catchers of elephants, skills which they subsequently put to good political use (Ayyar 1940, 755). Though the choice of Indra as chief ancestor was in large part just a reflex of the larger Kallar tradition, a royal line could have no better ancestor than the king of the gods himself.
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men and their descendants remained two of the most important military chieftains, Cervaikarars, of the kingdom. We know from later records that they were given extensive lands in the southern part of the state.” Of all the chief Cervaikarars, only Ilantari Ampalakarar never had an affinal alliance with the royal family, by reason of the peculiar circumstances of his recruitment, and the related fact that although he was a Kallar, he belonged to a different subcaste than the Tondaimans.
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Penetrating behind the confusion of these shifting and frequent | military engagements, we can see that during this entire period the; Tondaiman was expanding his territory by performing and providing} military services for which he was rewarded with villages and land. In| addition, the Nayaka permitted him to chip away at the possessions of lesser chiefs on the periphery of his own domain. As the century unfolded so did a steadily escalating process of gift, plunder, and annexation, revealing the historical dynamics of the transition from royal protector (aracu kavalkarar) to little king. During this time thd Tondaiman expanded his area of authority well beyond the country o the territorially segmented Kallar clans under his direct control fro whence came the nobility and military of his early state. In the first thir of the eighteenth century the Tondaiman expanded his rule by conquering lands in the now southwestern portion of the state (around Ponnamaravati, Viraccilai, and Oliyamankalam); by extending his rule to the southeast by building a fort in Mirattunilai in 1710; and by seizing extensive tracts of land around Viralimalai in what is now the northwestern part of the state from a number of small palaiyakkarars. In one case, the inhabitants of a village, half of which belonged to the palaiyakkarar of Marunkapuri and the other to the Tondaiman, wished to be united under one king. The Tondaiman persuaded them to opt for him by giving them substantial concessions in their tax payments (S. R. Aiyar 1916, 155). Other groups on the boundary were persuaded by a mixture of good rhetoric, tempting promises, and mischievous action that the Tondaiman could offer them the best protection. By 1735 the state had essentially expanded to its 1800 boundaries, the only exception being a small parcel of land in the southeastern part of the state. This was gifted later, first by Tanjavur and then, after they rescinded their present, by the British in 1803.
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As soon as an area was “conquered,” the Tondaiman settled it with his men to provide the protection he promised and collect the dues he demanded. In many cases these protectors were members of the royal subcaste and were called Cervais, a diminutive form of the title of the great Kallar chiefs, or Cervaikarars. On certain occasions these protectors were amarakarars from different Kallar subcastes than the Raja’s. While the Raja gave these loyal protectors local lands, rights, and privileges, he also granted large amounts of land to Brahmans whom he invited from the more crowded Kaveri river banks and deltas further north. In addition to granting tax-free brahmadeyams, some to learned Brahmans who distinguished themselves in royal courts during
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Rakunata Raya Tondaiman died in 1730. He was succeeded by his chosen heir, his eldest grandson Vijaya Rakunata Raya Tondaiman, though not without a bloody succession dispute. The two Cervaikarars whose lands were among the earliest granted by the first Tondaiman Raja were responsible for assuring the succession. One of them, Ilantari, was entitled ‘‘Aracu Nilainiruttina Avutaiyappa Cervaikarar,” or the Avutaiyappa Cervaikarar who established the Raj. The experience of the succession dispute was probably responsible for one of the first acts of the new Raja, the granting of estates to his two younger brothers, Rajakopala Tondaiman and Tirumalai Tondaiman. A third Kallar chief, Ramacami Rankia Tevar, served with distinction during the succession dispute. Henceforth he too was included in the inner circle of powerful nobles.
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By the middle of the eighteenth century the Kallar Tondaiman chiefs had made the full transition from local chiefs to important regional kings. Though the British still called them “poligars,” they had identified themselves in key cultural ways with the codified forms of kingship that they borrowed from Vijayanagara. The Tondaimans had consolidated their rule over an area which extended far beyond their lineage and subcaste base, had acted as one of the chief supporters of the Madura Nayaka, and fought on equal terms with the Rajas of Tanjavur and Ramanatapuram (inter alia), had given extensive land rights and political privileges to their own subordinate chiefs, had made gifts to Brahmans, temples, monasteries, and feeding houses, and had taken on a Brahmanic guru at the same time as they had begun to host their own Dasara celebration in an ancient rock cut temple which from this time
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adukkottai’s extraordinary military system made it possible for the Tondaiman to mobilize large numbers of brave Kallar warriors at short notice. At least 8,000 amarakarars, or military retainers, had inam lands in the late eighteenth century. They served under the Jagirdars, Cervaikarars, and other chiefs and generals who were often recruited from outside the state. All of these generals, whether Kallar Cervaikarars or recruited Rajputs, were called, in addition to their other titles, Sardars, from the Persian military term for commander then in vogue. Since many of the records for the early eighteenth century have not survived, it is difficult to construct a chronological sense of the operation and makeup of the military system, yet one fact is clear. The number, kind, and background of military generals expanded and diversified as the century progressed.
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seen how some of the Cervaikarars entered the service of the Tondaiman, providing major military and political assistance at crucial moments in the history of the state. All Kallars, and all but one of the same Kallar subcaste as the Tondaimans, the Cervaikarars often developed or consolidated affinal kinship ties with the Raja after their elevation to this special status.
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Sardars were the aie (P. F. R. nos. 2589, 2590, 2591) and the Rail Singhs (no. 3803) from north India, and the Rowths from Andhra (no. 2884), all of whom commanded retinues of soldiers and trained troops in the use of new weapons and techniques. They also arranged for} the personal security of the Raja. The single most important non-Kallar family invited to settle in the state was the Owk family from ena (1546). Descendants of the Vijayanagara royal family, they were well versed in the arts of war. Among the contemporary weapons of war were
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the pike (long hard sticks), the bow and arrow, the slit sling and ‘the ? boomarang, bow and clay pellets, swords, spears, daggers, and increasing numbers of f matchlocks. Pikes and bow and arrows were used to storm forts; slings and boomerangs to engage the enemy in the thick scrub jungles of the countryside. Some Sardars organized their men into groups which specialized in the use of different weapons. Given the simplicity of most of these weapons, the value of the Kallar soldiers had more to do with their bravery and stealth than their knowledge and use of the most modern military hardware.
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In his work on caste Hocart noticed the fine line between proper names and titles; he gives many examples of the incorporation of titles into personal names and even proposes that perhaps personal names as such cannot be said to have existed until relatively recently (Hocart 1950, 61). Hocart further notices a tendency for a headman’s titles to spread to the whole caste (ibid., 59). Tracing this back to the classical period, he writes that, ““Not only the king, but members of the royal caste are there called Rajahs” (ibid.). Following Hocart, Dumont notes the replication of titles by the western branch of Kallars, the Pramalai Kallar, who settled to the west of Madurai. According to Dumont, the caste title of Tevar has three usages: first, it refers generally to all the Pramalai Kallars; second, it refers to lineage chiefs; and third, in its most restricted usage, it refers to the headman or chief of the caste (Dumont 1957b, 136-137). Similarly, the
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The inam lands given to the Cervaikarars lay in peripheral portions of the state which confronted its chief neighboring rivals to the south and __ northwest. Most of the important Cervaikarars were based in the southern part of the state, where the local population was non-Kallar and where the leading nattars belonged to the same Maravar caste as the rulers of Ramanatapuram and Civakankai, just to the south of Pudukkottai. (Map 5 shows the distribution of Cervaikarars in the nineteenth century. Also see Map 6, which shows the distribution of
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lands granted as attavanai, a category which includes lands given to Cervaikarars as well as land given to ministers of state and_other , prominent persons.) All of the major Cervaikarars were placed outside ‘of their own subcaste territories. Among them, only the Antakkulam Cervaikarar was given lands within a Kallar natu, though not his own.
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The distribution of Cervaikarars, and Kurikarars, illustrates the political geography and the strategic borders of eighteenth-century Pudukkottai. The four Anjunilaiparru Kurikarars were located in the northwestern part of Kulattur Taluk near the border with Tiruccirappalli, one of the major centers of Nayaka rule. They were flanked by the Pallavarayars. The Antakkulam Cervaikarars were situated northeast of Pudukkottai, toward Tanjavur. Five Cervaikarars were placed in Tirumayyam Taluk near the southern border with Ramnad, with whom Pudukkottai was not always allied despite Ramnad’s early role in the formation of the state. The Kallar Natus were distributed relatively evenly through Kulattur and Alankuti Taluks in the northern half of the state where they bordered Tiruccirappalli and Tanjavur, providing a band of loyalty that balanced the southern distribution of most of the more powerful Cervaikarars in the south.
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The geography of the state presents us with a structure of “‘conquest” overlaying the territorially segmented settlement of Kallar subcastes. But this was no simple segmentary state in the classical African sense, for while the Kallar kinship structure provided an important base many political mechanisms were established to centralize control, neutralize possible segmentation, and extend rule over non-Kallar areas. Neither, however, are the Cervaikarars comparable to Mughal Mansabdars, whose territories were frequently changed in order to fo pravedtthow trom establishing local bases of opposition. The Cervaikarars ruled as chiefs of the royal subcaste, but they did not rule from their own subcaste base of strength, particularly in areas of Maravar settlement where Kallars had great difficulty maintaining control. | By the late nineteenth century only seven Vakuppu Cervaikarars
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Inavari amarakarars were those commanded by the Cervaikarars, strictly speaking the only amarakarars who had their “beneficial tenure” » constituted in the way described above by Blackburne. The word inavari | means patrilineage, inam (not to be confused with inam) meaning kinship in general and agnatic kinship in a more marked sense, and vari / meaning line. The use of the term inavari thus suggests an agnatic, * kinship tie between the retainers and the particular chieftains under| whom they served. Unfortunately the records do not provide sufficient | information to determine whether or not this was the case. However, I discovered from interviews that members of the royal Kallar subcaste were rarely engaged as amarakarars because of the tremendous status differential between-Cervaikarars_and their amarakarars. Members of the royal subcaste attained their position in the little kingdom just by being associated with the Raja as rdjapantus (royal relations). Other | Kallars, including many from the lowest subcaste, comprised the bulk of the amarakarar group, and there were non-Kallars as well, including some Valatyars.
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Cervaikarars, however, their inams did not include al jivitams for amarakarar retainers under them. Nor is there any clear record of their participating in any important way either in state festivals or in battles outside the state, though such participation was certainly possible, and at times probable. The inams of these Cervais were spread throughout the state, particularly in areas outside of Kallar settlement, for these AN Kallars were originally resettled to keep a watch on troublespots and provide a constant royal presence all over the state. This royal presence was most forcefully dramatized during village festivals when the Cervais ritually enacted the king’s role by accepting temple honors on his behalf.
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The Tondaimans were active participants in these struggles, aiding both the Nawab (Muhammed Ali) and the English by sending troops and a regular stream of provisions. The importance of the fort at Trichinopoly (Tiruccirapalli) and its proximity to Pudukkottai made the Tondaiman’s support both possible and necessary. The Tondaiman) consistently offered support during the second half of the century, unlike | Tanjavur, which was only an intermittent ally though it had far more in| the way of provisions. In 1751 the Tondaiman sent a force of 400 cavalry | and 3,000 Kallar infantry to Trichinopoly. Hardly a year went by over | the next half-century when the Tondaiman did not send at least one | similar contingent in support of one of his allies. A combination of| British records and the palm leaf manuscript ‘War accounts” (yuttakurippu) which I found in the Palace Records reveal a sense of the amazing frequency and large numbers involved. Perhaps the largest number of soldiers ever sent by the Tondaiman was in 1762, when 8,000 Kallars and 300 horse were sent under Sardar Cataciva Rao to aid the Nawab and the British in a series of battles commanded by Major Preston against the rebel Yusuf Khan (Hill). An equally large contingent was sent in 1773 against Tanjavur under the above mentioned Sardar and the crown prince Rajakopala Tondaiman. The next years saw similiar contingents setting out to help fight against Ramanatapuram, Civakankai, the Dutch at Nakapattinam, Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. In the last years of the eighteenth century they fought against the rebel palaiyakkarars of Ariyalur, Utaiyarpalaiyam and Turaiyur. The final military engagements in which troops from Pudukkottai participated were the third and fourth Anglo Mysore Wars, and the last phases of the “‘poligar wars” against Kattapomman and the Marutu brothers of Civakankai between 1799 and 1801.
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is no wonder that the provision of Kallar soldiers, especially in regularly organized and well trained groups, was well appreciated.
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While the Tondaimans proved themselves to be indispensable allies | by sending Kallar troops, the Nawab and the English placed even more _ importance on their dependable delivery of provisions for the latter’s
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The Tondaimans emerged out of a medieval context as the lineage heads of a Kallar subcaste who became araiyars due to their capacity to provide protection in the region which now constitutes the northeastern portion of Pudukkottai state. We saw in the previous chapter how araiyars generally began as protectors, both of village communities and temples. They soon expanded their position of local authority by claiming rights to shares in local production as well as to honors in local temples. Thereafter, successful araiyars were granted titles, honors, and further rights to shares of local material and symbolic production by local communities and regional kings. Some araiyars made the further transition from local chief to regional king, as did the Kallar Tondaimans in the seventeenth century. During that century the Tondaimans established relations with the Nayakas of Madurai and Tanjavur as well as with the Cetupati of Ramanatapuram. They turned these contacts into the relational bases of an authority which — stretching in ideological terms all the way up to the retreating Vijayanagara kings of the northern Deccan — extended well beyond the boundaries of their local subcaste dominance.
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crucial to this set of developments, and it is no surprise that the Tondaiman made many gifts to his supporting Kallar chiefs and retainers, giving honors, which implicated the followers all the more firmly into the structure of Tondaiman sovereignty, and lands, which positioned the followers all the closer to the strategic borders requiring active vigilance. It is also not surprising that military specialists — Rajputs, Muslims, and Marathas — were recruited to live in Pudukkottai and support the local fighting apparatus. In addition, local markets were linked up to the larger world of political alliance and © conflict. Relations of production, distribution, and consumption were increasingly inflected by the larger context of demand and supervision
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The old regime therefore permitted and continued the transformation of peripheral zones in the Tamil country into small replicas of the great Vijayanagara kingdom. The great gifts of the Vijayanagara kings were replicated in the Tondaiman grants to Kallar supporters. From the early eighteenth century most of these gifts were made during the Dasara festival, performed in mimesis of Vijayanagara. Gifts provided the infrastructural circuitry which connected ritual and politics, for relations of worship and loyalty were articulated through this single process.
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The martial and predatory traditions of Kallars and Maravars were commented on very early in Tamil history. The Cankam classic Akananuru refers to the Kallars as a fearless and uncultured people who lived originally in the mountains about Tirupati, capturing elephants and exchanging their tusks indirectly through other mountain people for grain. Their leader is said to have been one Pulli, highly skilled in taming violent and uncontrollable elephants. The correspondence of these traditions with those recorded in the vamcavalis of Maravar and Kallar kingly families suggests the integrity and venerability of the tradition concerning the early martial and heroic character of these groups, as well as their position on the periphery of Tamil culture and kingly civilization. Both the vamcavalis and the history of the Kallars of Pudukkottai attest to a remarkable transformation of at least some of these groups over time (poems no. 62, 83, 209, 311, 359, 393, 342).
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The word Kallar also means thief in Tamil. As noted by Turnbull (1817):
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In these same family histories one of the ways these emergent palaiyakkarars distinguished themselves in the service of greater kings was by vanquishing other groups of bandits and predators. In most of the texts, these other groups are labelled as Kurumpars, a caste group which migrated from the Karnataka country at a very early time, and Kallars. These claims are made mostly by Maravars, and sometimes by Telegu Vatuka castes, but it is clear that the Kallars have been seen, and not only by the British, as a group given to banditry. In both Kallar and Maravar family histories the first movement of these groups towards some appropriation of local level political authority was accomplished by taking on rights of protection, an entitlement provided both by the
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The general structure of Kallar society
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\ Nadu). Each lineage within the natu, with a few stated exceptions, can marry in any other lineage within the natu, but in no lineages outside of the natu. In Pudukkottai there are at least thirty-four Kallar natus, each of which represent discrete territorial groupings that are often contiguous but not overlapping, except where natus have split: The natus vary in size. Most natus average between twelve and eighteen villages. Some are even smaller. The largest natu is Vicinki Natu (hereafter VN). It is followed by Ampu Natu (hereafter AN), the royal subcaste, which has internal territorial subdivisions called kuppams. VN constitutes an exception to the rule of natu endogamy, in that it is divided into a number of territorial subdivisions which, unlike those in AN, are of roughly equivalent size and are called natus as well. These internal VN natus, while important for ritual and juridical reasons, define neither endogamy nor exogamy, unlike the other natus which represent endogamous social boundaries. The Kallar natus are fairly evenly distributed across that part of the state which is north of the river,
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Each Kallar lineage, village, and subcaste has some sort of headman, and a tutelary deity, although in some cases individual lineages do not have a formal headman but belong to a group of lineages or a village which does. Often the lineage a and the village j are coterminous. the central 1 square and/or. meeting ass of the village. This central square is sometimes more specifically marked by a raised stone platform, and in some villages a stone pillar represents the village ampalam. The ampalam of the subcaste is usually called the nattampalam. In some villages which constitute the centers of their natus the raised stone platform might have as many stone pillars as there are village ampalams with one larger pillar representing the nattampalam. In some parts of Pudukkottai, and also elsewhere, Kallars are referred to as ampalakkarars, people of the ampalam; in this instance this title has been generalized in exactly the same manner as the title Tevar for Madurai Kallars (Dumont 1957b).
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I have noted that Kallar social forms are defined by the authority of the ampalam and the deity. These summary statements rest on a thick ethnographic base. At one point when I asked a group of Kallars about the meaning of kuppam (the territorial subdivision within the royal subcaste), I was told: “By kuppam we mean the assemblage of Kallars in a group having a common temple and headed by an ampalam of their own. This group discusses the issues in the common temple under the leadership of the ampalam. They also discuss the festival at these times. We settle our issues and our nag ete within the Pei ait is in these
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alike, there are three general types. First, the royal subcaste is of crucial and unique ethnographic importance, for we observe here a subcaste which has been inflected at its core by “politics,” and which, through its political and cultural hegemony, took an active role in inflecting other social groups. Second, VN, the most extensive of all natus, was subdivided in turn by (sub)natus, and was the least inflected of all natus in Pudukkottai by the political order. Third, most other subcastes i under the common type of natu, middling in status, smaller in size. Briefly, the social organization of Kallar groups in the third category }
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\ did so in discrete villages. Later migrant lineages settled in a less clearly \ differentiated manner, though a few of them are associated with \ particular villages. I was told that the ancestors of the three nat‘tampalams were the first settlers of the natu. These were the only families ‘to have true kaniyatci in the natu. In the main natu temple, dedicated to ‘Aiyanar, there is a small shrine to the ancestor of the head nattampalam. Puja is offered to him every day by his descendants; the entire Kallar subcaste offers him puja at the big annual festival.
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With the exception of the AN Kallars, who maintained their strong ties with their original natu group even though they had settled all over the state, any Kallar who lived in a particular territorial natu was also a social member of that natu. Territory, as Dumont has noted, cannot cannot be
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territorial natus of Pudukkottai for the most part predate actual Kallar| settlement. Many of the names of these territories appear in early Cola inscriptions with boundaries that are largely congruent with their later social realization in Kallar society. While it is impossible to know the historical dynamic by which territorial divisions might have exercised some influence on the way in which lineages settled and established affinal networks, we must accept that historically mandated territorial boundaries could have had cultural significance prior to the full working out of Kallar social forms. Dumont has perhaps underemphasized the, importance of territory in his study of the Pramalai Kallars who settled | in regions to the west of Madurai. It is possible that in Dumont’s area | there were no natus prior to Kallar settlement, for reasons that have to | do with the more marginal nature of the lands where the Pramalai Kallars settled. Other differences of a more systematic nature between the Pramalai and the Pudukkottai Kallars will be considered in the next chapter.
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The remainder of this chapter will concern the royal subcaste. The next chapter will examine the other major Kallar group and contrast it not only with other Kallar groups in Pudukkottai but also with Dumont’s depiction of the Pramalai Kallar. We will then use these comparisons as a way to begin considering other castes in Pudukkottai, indeed to construct a sense of the historical formation of caste relations in different parts of the Tamil country.
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Kuppam derives from the term kumpam, meaning “a village of small houses or huts” (Winslow 1862, 134). The term kuppam is used among no other groups within Pudukkottai for any kind of territorial unit. I have found no reference to it in the ethnographic literature concerning Tamil Nadu. As we noted above, kuppam here seems to mean natu, or rather a sub-natu of the type found among the VN Kallar. However, the kuppam is sometimes a single village, more commonly several apes
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The AN Kallars are the only Kallar group to have well-developed conceptions of their settlement in Pudukkottai (with the single exception of the Terketti Kallars, who migrated to the state in the eighteenth century). Those AN Kallars of the Raja’s kuppam (and here I refer both
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In both the statements of my informants and in various texts dating from the eighteenth century, we see many cases of groups, sometimes fractions of larger groups which divided because of a quarrel, migrating and settling down together in a new area. Migration was obviously a constant feature of life, even as the association of a group with its own territory was highly pronounced. This potential contradiction was resolved in part through the important role played by family deities in migration. All of these groups established their family deity in the new) places to which they migrated. The AN Kallars followed the ae method of transferring their deity as that described for the Pramalai Kallar by Dumont and elucidated by Daniel. They took a handful of soil — pitiman — from the site of the original shrine and used it to install their deity in a new shrine in their new place of settlement. Given the strong territorial associations of Kallars, we might assume that migration was not undertaken lightly. And yet this technique of migration, as Daniel writes, provides a means for the mixing of the old soil which was appropriate to the particular group (indeed part of their substance) with the new soil, making it, too, appropriate. The establish-| ment of the deity is of course crucial since the social group is defined largely in terms of its common worship of tutelary deity.*
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| never be accorded first rank. This might also explain why it is that in some cases the family deity of the head lineage is also the deity of the natu, although even in these cases the head lineage may have two different family deities, hereby suggesting the possibility of the appropriation of first honors in an earlier “‘territorial’’ temple by the first family. While we can only form sketchy notions of the settlement of any of the Kallar natus, we can say that territorial association is not the product of affinal alliance, but rather that it helps to create an imperative for the development of territorially bounded and internally ranked affinal networks.
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Like other temples, it defines a social community. As the Pallavaraiyar chief said: “If one could not find a place to prepare porkal during the festival in this Pillaiyar temple, then one is considered to be an alien to AN, or as unfit to be an AN Kallar. The VT and TT Kallars are the shareholders who have original rights in this temple.” Since the temple is located in the middle of Cervaipatti village, one-half of the village comes | under the authority of VT and one-half comes under TT. Interestingly, the Pallavaraiyars represent their teru by preparing ponkal at this temple, while a group of Vellalars, who as we shall soon see have an important priestly role in AN, represent VT. After worship, the leaders of these two groups receive the temple honors and then distribute them to the other karais in their respective terus.
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|} community. He was the ultimate court of appeal for all Kallars and all communities in the whole state. And yet, no other Kallar leader had the locus standi to fill in for the Raja in this role. Thus, the Vellalars performed their duties as much by default as by virtue of their original settlement in the region, and by extension of their early relationship to the temple.
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According to a Kallar informant from the Narankyapattu lineage: “It was the Vellalars who were living here originally. We were brought here by them. Even now, they have the first mariyatai.” In the words of another Kallar informant from the Ammanipattu lineage: “Ampu Kovil is the talaimai itam (the head place) for AN. No AN Kallars live there. The Raja placed a Kantiyar there to protect (do the paripalanam of) the temple. He gives honors in the temple.”’ The head of the Pallavaraiyar lineage told me that: “The natu kuttam for AN should be convened only by the Piccar and Kantiyar, i.e., the AN Vellalars. For the services of being the stanikar of AN, they were given a tax-free maniyam grant of eighty acres of land. These stanikars have to meet the expenses for arranging the natu kuttam such as providing meals for the participants from their maniyam lands. They do not only organize the kuttam but also function as arbitrators.” Another Pallavaraiyar continued to explain: ‘““The nine ampalams guided by the Stanikar pass the judgement. Though the Raja does not come, on the final day, they place lime, betel nut, etc., on a chair to represent the Raja. The others sit on a mat spread on the ground.” Thus the claims made by the Kantiyars are borne out by the Kallars.® This last statement is striking in that it suggests that the Vellalars do in a curious way represent the authority of the Raja himself. They constitute the symbolic presence of the king by setting up a chair (perhaps a symbol of the throne — in other traditional assemblies the nattampalams were distinguished either by sitting on the only mat, or by sitting on a raised stone platform) with honors to represent the Raja. As the guardians of honor they are uniquely empowered to handle and invoke kingly honors. Indeed, the Kantiyars were occasionally called the kantirajas, thereby expressing the perception that they were, in ee sense, kings. As the greatest honor of all, they alone were allowed
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Thus we see again the importance of honors and emblems for constituting and representing social relationships and political authority. The honors given by the Raja to the Vellalars contain, especially in the case of the Kantiyars, some of the sovereign honor of the Raja himself. Here, as elsewhere, honors not only depict hierarchical forms, but express the worship and service components of hierarchical relationships. All honors have the dual role of marking a particular group within the total structure and marking them in such a way as to display the preeminence of the king. In the particular ethnohistory of Pudukkottai, we realize that the special position of Vellalars is as precursors as well as emblems of Kallar kingship. Insofar as they possess residual authority from being the previous “honorable” settlers of the Pudukkottai country, they are best qualified to represent the new kingly authority of the Kallars.
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These Vellalars also provided me with a possible reason for the continued significance of this non-Kallar group in AN. As we have seen, the position of the Raja is anomalous because while he is head of the natu (and of his entire kingdom) by virtue of being the king, he, in his kinship position, is not entitled to first respects. The Vellalars told me that
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The Raja, as ruler of the state, is given the first honor. He represents the kingship (rajiyam) and so he gets this privilege. But the Raja as an AN Kallar cannot claim the first honor (mutal mariyatai) and he will not be given it by the temple on these grounds. When the Stanikar of Ampu temple calls the kuppams during the distribution of honor, the persons representing the concerned kuppam only can get the honors. The Raja cannot go and get respects by means of representing any kuppam. The Raja mariydtai is different from ina mariyatai (ina(m) means caste, community, patrilineage).
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anomalous situation in which the head of the royal subcaste would be some Kallar other than the king himself.
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The privileged position of the TT kuppam among the AN Kallars was also exemplified by the special “privileges” accorded to women of the aracu ancu as well as the families of Cervaikarars and other important nobles. They were virtually kept in purdah. The customary freedom and boldness of Kallar women was not in evidence among them. They rarely left their domestic compounds. Visitors did not come inside their houses but were entertained in a separate house or mantapam constructed some distance from the domestic hearth. When these Kallar women did leave their houses, they did so in royal style, in covered palanquins. They also covered their bodies from head to foot when they went out. The only Kallar women allowed to wear blouses (ravikkai), they also wore special earrings (mémélatu), a necklace of black glass beads (karukamani), and green and black glass bangles (paccai and karuvalaivi). _
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One has to maintain one’s family status, one’s temple, one’s karai, and royal blood. Antastu can take its meaning from one’s village, or kuppam, or natu. By dignity and status we do not mean money, but rather having alliances through marriage. To maintain and establish good alliances, one must maintain one’s dignity and status. Even the poor of TT are regarded as having higher status and members of other kuppams would desire to have an alliance with a poor Pilavituti Kallar. They feel that if they have an alliance (campantam) with us, their status among Kallars will go up. We have this belief. Why are we superior to others? Because we maintain the camutaya kattuppatu. We do not allow widow remarriage and we abide by the moral codes of our society strictly. Other Kallars may say that all Kallars are the same. It is popularly assumed that all Kallars were thieves (kalavanis). But we are not thieves. How can the ruling Kallars steal from others? Our Kallars are Panchayattars, Zamindars, Kurikarars, Cervaikarars, and Miracidars. We have to maintain law and order. How can we go off thieving? We decided that we should lead a life of kattuppatu and orunku (restriction and order). Others are not like us. We lead a life for mariyatai and antastu (honor and status). Our Kallars base their lives on the temple and on
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The first and fundamental element of this world view is the possession by these AN Kallars of royalty and honor. Royalty is implied by the term antastu; the particular honor (mariyatai) of these Kallars is dependent on their participation in the royalty of the Tondaiman king. The status of royalty is achieved through proximity to the king: kinship networks with the royal family, more generalized membership in the royal subcaste, and the privilege of performing services on behalf of the king. The preeminent position of the king in the kingdom has had the effect of making the royal subcaste the preeminent community in the kingdom as well, and every conception of social reality held by AN Kallars is colored by this basic social fact. As we have seen, the AN Kallars are entitled to accept honors in the place of the king; they are endowed with their political importance throughout the little kingdom because of their capacity to represent the king. Political, social, economic, and ritual hierarchy, at least among Kallars, is explicable only in the context of the historical accident that the king was an AN Kallar. The locus of enunciation in kingship was not arbitrary, but the particular forms of order that then became enunciated were dependent on the particular history of the ascendance of a single subcaste and their particular constructions of their authority.
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the aim of all AN Kallar families. These kinds of alliances were sought after because, as we have seen, they could result inthe inclusion of one’s lineage in a connubial circle which would have the effect of raising that lineage’s status, as occurred with the four lineages that had established affinal ties with the Tondaiman lineage. In a structural context in which hypergamy was not part of the kinship system per se, status elevation was still very much a part of the set of concerns influencing marriage strategies.
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As we noted at the beginning of this chapter, the very word Kallar means thief in Tamil, and no one, certainly not the Pallavaraiyar, disputes the fact that at certain places and times particular groups of
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Kingship, of course, is just the opposite. Kings are not only legitimate, } they define the realm of the legitimate. The discourse of the Pallavarai| yar chief reveals this rather vividly. The way in which the royal suboatet organizes its social relations makes it impossible that they could be thieves, or indeed affected in any way by this general reputation. Not only is the royal subcaste headed by a king, it provides almost all the royal nobles of the kingdom. The fundamental duty of these members of the elite is to subdue disorder, destroy lawlessness, and enforce law and order, both within the kingdom at large and within the subcaste itself. In this context, we can better understand the Pallavaraiyar’s subsequent statement: “‘most important of all is the kattuppatu, the fact that our society [i.e., the AN Kallars] only exists as such because our group [corporately] set and then enforced a comprehensive code for conduct. It is no accident of history that we are the ones who belong to the royal family, since we have all the virtues and qualities of a royal and noble group.” Here we see why notions of order and restriction exist in such a vitally complementary way within the context of the centrality of the king. It is no accident, after all, that the king is an AN Kallar. The identity of the group in relation to the king and in opposition to the conventional category of bandit is the subtext of its social and ideological organization.
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However much the capacity for appropriate behavior was encoded by birth, the actual behavior of any individual was what ultimately mattered. The Pallavaraiyar chief told me that “if someone else is able to follow all of our restrictions and codes we welcome them. They too can become AN Kallars.” This statement not only confirms the interdependency between substance and code insisted upon by Inden and Marriott (1974), it also emphasizes the cultural appropriateness of Kallar kingship. The AN Kallars are defined as much by their birth into a given
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Given a cultural logic in which kinship (specifically birth and marriage and the set of constructions which orient the meanings of these categories) and politics (the exigencies of action being such that great deeds can create the basis for closer relations with kings, and therefore greater honors and more important positions in kingdoms) are seen as so mutually interdependent, we must still seek to explain why there area great number of systematic irregularities, or structural anomalies, in the way in which the organization of the Kallars of Pudukkottai has been inflected by the political history of the region. Let us recapitulate some of these anomalies.“ The royal subcaste is distinct from all other subcastes in several respects. It is the only Kallar subcaste which has its disputes adjudicated by non-Kallars, in this case Vellalars. The royal subcaste is also unique in that it is subdivided into kuppams. Kuppams are ordered in much the same way as are the karais in other subcastes, with the exception of the curious relation of VT and TT. While VT has structural precedence over TT, TT has, over time, become the chief kuppam of the natu. Within TT, there is a further, and also unique, subdivision into two tiers. And, in the top tier, the Pallavaraiyars have precedence over the Tondaimans even though the latter constitute the royal lineage. This problem is resolved by the dual form honors can take, as royal honor and as caste honor, itself'a distinction relevant only in this particular social unit. TT is the only kuppam not to have a single kuppam temple. Further irregularities occur when one attempts to order positions within the little kingdom in terms of these kinship divisions. Most of the Cervaikarars are from the top tier of TT, but not all. Most of the Cervais are from the lower tier of TT, but, again, not all. Even the
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Furthermore, Vellalars once had a strong presence in Pudukkottai. As we have seen, they settled in the Pudukkottai region in the Cola and Pantiyan periods (roughly the ninth through the thirteenth centuries), clearing forests and cultivating land, granting land rights and other privileges to their dependants, in particular to the Maravars and Kallars, whom they invited to the region to protect them. The Vellalars were said to have been kings during this period. But they did not maintain their position of dominance and many left the area. Their emigration began with the defeat of the Kanatu Vellalars in the great wars when all but one family of this vanquished group vacated the Pudukkottai region. Some of the Konatu Vellalars stayed on, mainly in twelve villages clustered near the river Vellar in the western part of Pudukkottai state, but most of them also migrated elsewhere. In the areas of Vellalar settlement in Pudukkottai today, Vellalars are known as good and industrious agriculturalists, as they are throughout Tamil Nadu. But unlike their counterparts elsewhere, they neither exercise any important dominance nor provide a cultural model for emulation. In many areas of Tamil Nadu the addition of the title Pillai to one’s name is a commonly used form of status mobility, reflecting the tremendous cultural dominance exerted by Vellalars over lower, upwardly mobile, castes. In Pudukkottai, on the other hand, Kallar titles’such as ampalakarar and Cervaikarar have played the same role.’There is a well known Tamil saying concerning the three castes of the Mukkulattar: Kallars, Maravars, Akampataiyars, by slow degrees become Vellalars (Kallan, Maravan, Akampataiyan, mella mella vantu Vellalar avan). Interestingly, this saying is not common and has little cultural resonance in Pudukkottai. If an equivalent saying could be found, it would no doubt consist of gradations of castes and Kallar subcastes and position the AN Kallars in the highest rank.
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At one level, the most important contribution of Brahmans to | Pudukkottai was to augment the honor of the Raja. The acceptance by learned Brahmans of grants of land from the Tondaiman Rajas signified that these Kallar chiefs were now true Ksatriya kings. The Brahmans themselves became emblems of the king’s sovereignty and honor. Further, many of the Brahmans were given lands with the specific injunction to pray for the prosperity of the king and his kingdom. The very presence of learned Brahmans in the state was thought to transform its character, making the soil sweet and fertile, and the kingdom as a whole prosperous.
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Kallar subcaste was the Vicinki Natu Kallars. The VN Kallars were the {ast of the Kallars to throw in their lot with the Tondaiman kings. As late as the end of the eighteenth century, they provided a steady source of resistance and rebellion throughout the state. . Probably the earliest Kallar settlers in the region (whose own | traditions of migration to Pudukkottai are at best vague), they settled | first in the northern part of the state.2 While some groups stayed on, others moved to the west. There they were joined by other waves of migrating Kallars who entered into affinal relations with them, becoming members of the subcaste. Over time, the subcaste came to dominate a large swath of territory in the northern and western parts of Pudukkottai.
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were fought against the VN Kallars in the eighteenth century to bring them under the control of the state. The first of these was conducted by Namana Tondaiman sometime around 1700. He encountered the VN Kallars in Puliyur, where they had assembled for a great subcaste festival, and executed the leading rebels. The last of these campaigns was in 1797, when the Tondaiman Raja sent a force of 700 men under a Pallavaraiyar general to punish the VN Kallars. Upon the success of his mission, the Pallavaraiyar was made into one of the grandest of the Vakuppu Cervaikarars, and was endowed with extensive lands in an area adjacent to the territory of the VN Kallars. The intention was that he, and his vast array of retainers, should keep a close watch over the unruly Kallars to the north. This campaign is referred to in a local folk ballad: “The Tondaiman made the Kallars of Cenkalur and Rakkattanpatti who did not join him tremble with his chained dogs (in pursuit of them). In the central Kallar country of Nallur and Puliyur, the Tondaiman had the heads of the Kallars cut off and sent to him in bundles. The Tondaiman subdued the recalcitrant Kallars of VN and lived prosperously without foes like Visnu” (S. R. Aiyar 1916, 297n).
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Though after this campaign the VN Kallars became nominal subjects of the Tondaiman rulers, they were never fully reconciled to Tondaiman sovereignty. They held aloof from the solidarity of the other Kallar natus in Pudukkottai. During the late eighteenth and nineteenth
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centuries the Tondaimans found it necessary to settle families of) Cervaikarars and AN Kallars in many areas of VN habitation. This was! not done in other Kallar areas. In addition to the Pallavaraiyar! Cervaikarar, a second Cervaikarar, Ilantari Ampalakarar, was given lands in Vattanakkottai (in addition to those he already had in Munacantai in the south). Vattanakkottai was the head village of one of the VN natus. The Mannavelar Cervaikarars were settled in Antakkulam, a town just to the south of another of the VN natus. There was a major concentration of Kurikarars in areas just to the west of VN settlement, around Perampur and Nankupatti. The settlement of these chiefs was supplemented by the settlement of families of AN Kallars called Cervais in many VN Kallar villages. These Cervais here, as/ elsewhere, provided local security, kept the court informed about the activities of the local population, aided local officials in the collection of, revenue, and accepted honors on behalf of the Raja in the local temples. Although VN was often a troubled area for the Tondaimans, many VN Kallars were recruited into the Tondaiman’s armies where they served as warriors (amarakarars) with the same distinction as when they fought on their own behalf. There was an unusually high incidence of “military” jivitam tenures in the area of VN sett tlement, although m many _ local amarakarars ars belonged to other Kallar subcastes. than VN. VN amarakarars we were usually settled outside of their own natu. In the most —
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VN Kallars are found throughout the area of northern Pudukkottai between Kiranur on the west and Perunkalur on the east and from ten miles north of Pudukkottai town to as far north as Vallam and Cenkipattu, just beyond the northern borders of the state. According to most informants, VN itself consists of five smaller natus, though the list of five varies. Part of the reason for this variance has to do with the fact that a number of the natus are further divided into southern and northern or eastern and western natus, and these are sometimes included in a list which for formal reasons can never contain more than five natus. The area covered by VN settlement is far more extensive and less centralized than that of any other Kallar subcaste.
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The difficulty in systematically diagramming the cultural order of VN attests to the fluidity in the structure of the subcaste. Though this fluidity is found elsewhere in Kallar society, there is here no discernible presence of anomalous features correlating with any single mode of inflection, as is the case in AN. Territorial principles have played a dominant role in the social organization of the VN Kallars. VN lineages migrated more
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widely than those of other Kallar natus. As they moved into new areas previously uninhabited by Kallars, they reorganized themselves and set themselves off with separate temples and headmen but without constituting new endogamous social units. The group as a whole was symbolized by a temple and three nattampalams, but this whole was too infrequently invoked to maintain the clear dominance of the whole over the parts. Partly because of the usual importance of honor in Kallar society, but also perhaps because of the lack of any clear leadership and the uncertain relationships of the parts to each other or to the whole, quarrels over precedence occurred even more frequently in VN than in other Kallar natus.
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Interpreting Kallar society
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Among the Pramalai Kallars, lineages, though exogamous, are not the units of exogamy, as they are in Pudukkottai with only a few exceptions. Again unlike Pudukkottai, natus are not endogamous. Dumont has written that “The patrilineal, patrilocal, exogamous lineage is the basic grouping of Kallar society. It groups the paternal descendants of a common ancestor around a headman who bears his name. It is the only group which has unity of this kind” (Dumont 1986, 184). If anything, this statement is more applicable to the Pudukkottai Kallars, for whom the lineage represents the basic exogamous group. But Dumont also writes: “Only lineage agnates constitute a genuine community. The unity ofa more extended group can be defined only by identifying it with
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For Dumont, “Alliance does not unite lineages. The real situation is more complex” (Dumont 1986, 188). According to his ethnographic account, some Pramalai Kallar natus are totally exogamous. Others include groups of lineages which have affinal relations with other lineages within the natu, as well as outside it.
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Earlier we saw that for the Pudukkottai Kallars alliance does unite, lineages, and that it does so at the level of the natu, the basic unit of) endogamy. The natu is represented by its preeminent lineage, but the| natu is a social unity by virtue of the constitution of a group of exogamous lineages into an affinal whole, which has a social, ritual, political, and territorial expression. This contrast leads to an interesting theoretical conundrum. Most criticisms of Dumont’s later work on kinship concern his contention that affinal relatives form a complementary group which, though similar in a structural sense to agnatic descent groups, is of more general importance for the organization of south Indian kinship than agnatic descent. Alliance for Dumont is the fundamental principle of south Indian kinship (Dumont 1957a, 44). But in his ethnographic reconstruction of the Pramalai Kallars, Dumont emphasizes alliance while simultaneously proposing that the lineage is the fundamental social unit of Kallar society: “The unity of the nad asa group is based on agnatic kinship: the inhabitants are members of seven patrilineal lineages descended from a common ancestor” (Dumont 1986, 171); “there is no real unit larger than the lineage”’ (p. 161).
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iven any consideration. Territory does not penetrate the system within the natu, for Dumont sees “‘no territorial subdivisions which would correspond either to the lineages or to the hamlets: the nad is the smallest territorial unit ... the hamlets and the lineages do not correspond at all” (p. 171). The effect of Dumont’s argument is to separate kinship as a process of social formation from either political or territorial forces and forms. The political activation of the natu does not, according to Dumont, affect the social organization of the Pramalai Kallar. While territory can thus create political unities, it has no real social value, for|
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society is fundamentally confined to the domains of caste and kinship. In questions of descent and alliance, Dumont finds both territory and politics to be essentially irrelevant. Correct as Dumont may be when he says that the territorial content and political inflection of caste and kinship is limited for the Pramalai Kallars, he then leaps to a general conclusion which is directly contradicted by the example of the , Pudukkottai Kallars. Indeed, by excluding territory and politics from | any major role in the organization of Kallar society, Dumont makes it \ possible for his theory of caste to prevail even where it seems least relevant.
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settled by single lineages. Finally, among the VN Kallars, the intermediate territorial classification of the natu does not correlate with any kinship content but creates boundaries for both ritual and political purposes. Territory is not restricted in its influence to the macro political level, but intervenes at every level of social organization. Indeed, to extend a phrase of Dumont’ s, each level of Kallar society has both a territorial and a social content, which | are so fused that neither one can be subordinated to the other. Territorial and social forms are expressed by villages, natus, descent groups, and alliance structures, as well as by the temples and headmen which define and assemble each level of the system. To extend Dumont’s formulations, we can say that territorial forms become subtly fused with social and political forms in differing ways at every level of the system.
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Dumont therefore sees caste authority and political authority as fundamentally different. He writes that ‘the notion of caste, the notion of a caste superior to one’s own exhausts all available transcendence. Properly speaking, a people’s headman can only be someone of another caste. If the headman is one of their own, then to some degree they are all headmen” (Dumont 1986, 161). This is true in Pudukkottai in that headmen are at one level simply primi inter pares in their social group. However, by virtue of their connection to the king, they do “transcend,” at some level, their own community. Most importantly, the king himself is at one level simply a Kallar, and not the highest one at that. But by virtue of his kingship, not caste transcendence, he is also the transcendent overlord of the entire kingdom.
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|the three families: mukkulattar. Despite this classificatory association, these castes did not generally live together. Where one of them has settled and become dominant the others tend not to be found. Maravars ) share many features of Kallar social organization, having strong lineage
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| and subcaste affiliations. Like the Kallars, the Maravars have always had the reputation of being a fierce group renowned for their military prowess. Many of the Tamil palaiyakkarars were Maravars, and in areas of Maravar political dominance ethnographic surveys reveal remarkable similarities between the two caste groups (Dumont 1957a). A comparison of the Maravars with the Kallars can therefore reveal a great deal about the influence of their respective political histories on their social and cultural organization within a single state system. My brief sketch of the Maravars will compare them to Kallar society as a whole, and highlight certain correlations that can be made at a general level between the political position and social organization of two similar caste groups.
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do not have titles per se, ‘but take their names from the names of the first two ancestors of the lineage group. For example, one lineage is called “Kommayyatevan-Piccatevan.”’ The headman of this lineage continues to bear one of these names himself, his eldest son the other. The names thus alternate down the generations. As in multi-lineage Kallar villages, the ampalam who represents the village is the head of the preeminent lineage within the village. Each village has a stone pillar which represents the ampalam. The head village of all Maravar subcastes has a stone platform in the central space of the village. This platform (the ampalakkal) supports a number of stone pillars on its perimeter, one for each of the ampalams of the constituent villages. Meetings of the subcaste assembly take place on this platform. The right to the hereditary office of ampalam is passed down to the eldest son. When an | ampalam dies, his body is bathed and dressed in the cloth (parivattam) worn by the goddess, the same cloth used to honor the ampalam on the occasion of the annual festival in the goddess temple. Before his corpse is taken to the cremation ground, his successor is brought and made to sit in front of it. The successor distributes a mixture of grain (called a taniyam, meaning grain and gift) to the village servants, both as remuneration for the services surrounding the funeral itself, and as a symbol of his position as chief patron. After the new ampalam has been thus installed, the corpse is taken to the cremation grounds.
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The way in which territory figures in the social organization of any group is strongly related to the nature and extent of political dominance exercised by the group. The Maravars exert dominance more in the villages in which they have settled than in any generalized localities. Unlike the situation in Kallar natus, Maravar villages (urs) are
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While the Kallars of Pudukkottai had a strong sense of their participation in royal authority and in a political system that transcended the particularities of localized dominance, the Maravars were virtually excluded from any position of importance within the state. There were no Maravar Cervaikarars, no Cervais, no amarakarars. Although only Kallars qualified for the first two positions, there were | non-Kallar soldiers (amarakarars), but I was told that Maravars were excluded from serving in this way. Akampatiyars, locally far less important than the Maravars, were palace guards, some of them attaining high positions in the state. Maravars were, on the other hand, given land grants as village and sometimes even locality ampalams, and thus participated in the Tondaiman Raj at the village and locality level. Nonetheless, when discussing the subject of kings and royal authority many of my Maravar informants ignored the Tondaimans. They spoke instead of the Vellalar kings who preceded them, from the Konatu and Kanatu Vellalar chiefs up to the Pallavaraiyar kings of the mid seventeenth century. The copper plate inscriptions and various tra|. ditions produced by Maravar informants to document their kaniyatci rights in land and temples had been issued by Vellalar kings. Perhaps because of the tenuousness of this connection, virtually all Maravar lineages and villages have preserved such copper plates; among the Kallars I found very few. When the Karumaravars, said by some to be
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remnants of the Kanatu Maravars, settled in the southern part of the state, convened a subcaste assembly — they had a subcaste organization with an ampalam in charge — they invited the local Kanatu Vellalar chief to sit in the ampalam’s place. The decline of Vellalar rule had led to Kallar gains which were, in the long run, at the expense of the Maravars who had been the principal | contenders for caste dominance in the Pudukkottai region. The deliberate settlement of many Kallar Cervaikarars and amarakarars in and around the Maravar country attests to the Tondaiman’s perception of the Maravars as potential rivals. After all, the Pudukkottai Maravars might have decided that their political position would be better advanced by the success of the Ramanatapuram Cetupatis than by the
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, Inmodern Pudukkottai, more Maravar than Kallar villages have lost their social and religious unity. The apparent decay of social and ritual cohesion in many Maravar urs resembles that of some Kallar natus. Festivals are rarely celebrated; disputes between lineages for dominance in the village and management of the local temple are rampant. Ironically, these disputes provide further evidence that the village was an important unit for Maravars, the locus both of the most strenuous conflict and cultural resilience. Viraccilai is a dramatic case in point. It not only contains all the units of exogamy but constitutes the unit of endogamy, In structural terms it is the same asa Kallar natu. For the last hundred years, at least, there have been serious and sustained quarrels between, and within, lineages over who should be ampalam and who should manage the temple. The Viraccilai Maravars only put up a united front once when they were threatened by newly wealthy Cettiyars who
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If the Maravars’ relative lack of generalized political dominance was at least partially responsible for their not possessing strong subcaste and territorial institutions, then many of the social structural traits we have just observed must be even more pronounced for other ‘“‘nondominant” castes. Though the Maravars were not politically dominant, they were not subservient. Indeed, they were perched, rather precariously, just outside the polity of Pudukkottai, powerful big men of the countrysidg (nattars) on whom the Kallar rulers had to keep a wary eye. We will now survey some of the other castes in Pudukkottai, beginning with the Akampatiyars.
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These Uriyakarars guarded the palace, provided escorts for the royal family when on tour, served betel nut to the Raja and his guests, performed sundry services in the palace, and organized the Raja’s hunting expeditions and other travels in the state. In the mid nineteenth century a British Political agent described them as ‘“‘a class of menial servants, who are somewhat lower than the amarakarars and will eat what has been left by others. They are employed now in much the same duty, such as watching the Gates of the Palace...’ One of my better informants, a VN Kallar, described the Uriyakarars as a group of people “who used to wait for the Raja to finish his meals so that they could take
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} circumstances of the palace. After all, the Uriyakarars were entrusted with the protection of the king’s life. A Kallar in this role might have been perceived as a potential rival, and therefore a threat. Another caste that could not harbor royal aspirations — one which was small, politically unimportant and yet not of low status — was chosen. Significantly,
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| the one Uriyakarar who did try to spearhead a revolt against the Raja did so not as a leader of Akampatiyars but by attempting to mobilize the Kallar Cervaikarars. And his lack of success was at least in part because he was an Akampatiyar and not a Kallar. .
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internal economies of Kallar and Maravar (inter alia) villages. In contrast, the Valaiyars often lived in their own villages (ur, not to be confused with the untouchable hamlets, or céri), maintaining a certain separateness from the dominant castes. The Valaiyars ¢ also kept some control over their own social forms, but they were never accorded any significant rights of possession, land use, or, later. in the nineteenth century, y, title to o land. When dominant caste groups expanded, they} frequently did so by forcing Valaiyar groups to. cultivate new, often previously forested, lands in order to produce surplus grain. Though the Kallars held much of their land on tax-free grants, they always required surpluses of grain for their chiefs and king as well as for the militarycum-grain trade that constituted much of Pudukkottai’s mercantile diplomacy. Thus, whereas Pallars and Paraiyars were used as agricultural laborers within dominant caste villages working to produce grain directly for the dominant castes, the Valaiyars worked as pannaiyal laborers and as tenants and sharecroppers on land — often within “‘their own” villages — which produced much of the grain that sustained th commercial and political economy of the early modern period.
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The Pallars and Paraiyars are divided into endogamous and territori-, ally named and situated subcastes (natus). These natus are none other than the natus of the dominant castes: AN, Kulamankilya Natu, Varappur Natu, etc., for the Kallar country; Kanatu, Konatu for the
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The term used by Kallars and other dominant castes for order, control, and restriction (kattuppatu) implied the need for intervention and the appropriation of adjudication rights. The Kallars, for example, prided themselves on the maintenance of strict discipline and conformity to specified codes of conduct within their caste and also within the caste groups under their control. These dominated groups were considered to have no kattuppatu_of their own. The appropriation of adjudication rights over dependent groups was an important sign and activity of dominance. As a result of this appropriation, however, any disputes among or between Kallar lineages often brought about disputes among or between the respectively dominated Pallar or Paraiyar lineages. They were often difficult to disentangle. One of the stratagems of dominance was the displacement of conflict. The patrons shifted the unpleasantness of conflict on to a dependent group, thereby avoiding the indignity and messiness of infighting while simultaneously display-
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Political hegemony was actualized through the dominant cultural and social position of the Kallar caste, the royal community in the little kingdom. But political hegemony had to be enforced and implemented. At the village and locality levels, this was often done through the ampalams, or headmen. The ampalam was thus the crucial link between kingship as an abstract institution and the caste system as the everyday local social world of the disparate groups that made up the little kingdom.
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Therefore, not only was the internal ordering of Kallar lineages and subcastes organized by kingship, but other castes were also profoundly affected by their relative proximity to the king. The caste system as a whole was ordered in relation to the king. Or rather, we should say that it was ordered in relation to kingship, as we have outlined it in terms not only of the person of the king but also the principles of honor, status, and order embodied by the king. Hocart is right when he says that the entire caste system was a sacrificial order, in which the king was the ritual principle (Hocart 1970). The king, who in the classical model was the upholder of dharma, became dharma. The textual prescriptions relevant for his caste and others, and how social order was defined, maintained, and enforced, all became encoded in the activities of the king. Hierarchy, as seen both in temples and in the king’s court, was thus literally nothing more than first, proximity to the king, second, the kinship ties and caste relations that were part of this, and third, the honor, offices, land rights and other privileges that constituted and reconstituted this proximity.
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present to receive it. Brahmans were subdivided into two and sometimes three categories; learned (srotriya) Brahmans were always given honors before other Brahmans, next came Brahmans who were present and who were engaged in secular ar (laukika) occupations, and last the temple priest, if Brahman, would ald receive his honor. While Brahmans ranked very high — they were thought to be bhudeva, gods on earth — even he | srotriya Brahmans had to follow the king. As we have noted earlier, the conundrum of the relationship between Brahman and king was resolved here; while the Brahman was superior to the king as Kallar, he was Brahmans on kings, which : See against their spiritual dominance, was not upheld in the domain of temple honors, which itself can be seen as neither exclusively spiritual nor exclusively material.
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After the Brahmans, the way in which the order of honor was calibrated varied greatly. Some of the factors behind this variance were the stature of the village and the kind of temple. Between the Brahman and the village ampalam there usually came a number of categories for persons in the village or locality who represented the government, thereby symbolizing the participation of the village in a wider political context. For example, in one large Maravar village (Ponnamaravati), after the Brahmans, honors were given to the Rajakkal Nayakkanmar, the Uriyakarar, the Amarakarar, and then the Ampalam. The Rajakkal Nayakkanmar was the descendant of a family of Telegu warriors who were given lands in the state in the late eighteenth century because of their military skill, which had won them an important leadership position in the militia. The Uriyakarar were palace guards; the amarakarars were Kallar soldiers. Both were placed high on the list for military reasons. In
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After the honoring of the persons and categories who represented the larger political and social context of the village, the village ampalam received honors. Of course, the ampalam himself was often the actual giver of all the honors, since in some villages he maintained the list (the mariyatai varicai) and was occasionally given all the honors by the temple pujari to distribute (sometimes before anyone else, sometimes only at the point at which the ampalam was given his own honors). After the ampalam, the heads of the various dominant caste lineages received their honors in the rank order of their karai position. Then the rest of the village was honored. In Piliyur, the karaikarars (heads of Kallar lineages) were followed by lower government officials (the Panchayat V. P. and village teacher and doctor), then by the Cettiyars, the Konars (the cattle herders, sometimes also the sheep herders, or formerly Itaiyars), the village servants ((i) Pantaram, priest; (ii) Mélakkarar, pipers; (iti) Kollan, blacksmith; (iv) Taccan, carpenter; (v) Topi, washerman), and finally the Ampattan (barber), the Pallar, and the Paraiyar. The last three groups were not given their pracatam on the tray like the others; instead, the Pantaram priest handed their honors directly
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(iii) Karaikarars — heads of each Kallar lineage, excepting those individuals who had already received honors (note, you get your honor at the highest possible place, like the king who gets honor as Raja and not as Tondaiman) ;
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Raja (the maniyakarar, i.e. the one given maniyams by the Raja in order to be the intermediary between the Raja and the kuppam, receives this honor; note he qualifies for this not only because of his office, but also because he is an AN Kallar)
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Table 2 (Contd.) D. The list of honors in Karaiyur: a large village in southwestern Pudukkottai, dominated by Vellalars: 1. Aracankam (representative of the state) 2. Brahmans 3. Caivas 4. Outside Vellalars 5-9. Five local karais of Vellalars 10. Ullur Vellalars 11. Palace accountant 12. Kankani (village head) 13. Cervai (VN Kallar) 14. Amarakarar (Terkketi Kallar) 15. Carapoki 16. Konattu ampalam 17. Katanpatti 18. Mankalipatti 19. Kollars (blacksmith) 20. Taccans (carpenter) 21. Kompu (god bearer) 22. Pucari (priest) 23. Pantaram (priest) 24. Vairavi (temple store keeper) 25. Taci (dancing girl) 26. Melam (piper) 27. Mey Kaval (protector) 28. Dhobi (washerman)
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The Aiyanar festival I have chosen to describe was celebrated in the Kallar village of Puvaracakuti, in Vallanatu, about eight miles southeast of Pudukkottai town, in early July 1982.
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ash (viputi) was distributed to all those present. The people who had come in the procession, led by the ampalam and the camiyatis, then worshiped Karuppar and Muni. The camiyatis then picked up bags of viputi and began walking back to the village, accompanied by the Paraiyars. As they walked through the village, the women of each house came towards them and poured water over their feet to cool them. The camiyatis blessed the women with the ash they carried. We walked through the Kallar section of town, via the ampalam’s house, to the Velar settlement on the eastern side of the village. There the procession was welcomed by the playing of the mela talam by the Melakkarars (the pipers) of Tiruvarankulam temple (the natu temple of the village, which was in Vallanatu) and by exploding fire crackers. Six terracotta figures, each about four feet high, were lined up on the Velar street — one elephant, three horses, and two bulls — in the final stages of decoration. They had been whitewashed, painted with colored stripes, and crowned with stalks of flowering paddy and the ribbons from the ampalam’s house. The five Kallar camiyatis stood in front of the terracotta figures. A Paraiyar from a nearby village came forward, and carefully dressed the camiyatis in special clothes. The Paraiyar wore a garland made of silver balls, his head was wrapped with a red cloth, his chest was draped with multicolored strands of cloth, a new towel was tied around his waist, and garlands of bells were wrapped around him. His face was painted with vermilion and sandal paste. This Paraiyar was called the munndti, the leader or the one who went first. In a few minutes he became possessed on his own, to the music of the drums and nadaswaram played by the Melakkarars. He began to jump wildly when the incense and camphor smoke was shown to him and he stared fixedly at the sky. He suddenly leapt into the crowd, snatched the ampalam’s spear, and began to beat the ground with it. He was jumping and running around and through the crowd, all the while circumambulating the six figures. The ampalam then came up to him, garlanded him and smeared sacred ash on his forehead. After this, the munnoti led the other camiyatis into states of possession. Someone whispered in my ear that the munnoti was the burning lamp which lights other lamps. Full possession was achieved when the munnoti held the camphor up to the camiyatis, one by one.
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A cloth was laid on the ground for the ampalam to sit on. The Velars brought him the huge bowl of tamarind rice and all the pracatam from the puja: flowers, coconuts, and plantains. Sitting there the ampalam distributed the honors, first to the Kallar lineage heads, then to the Valaiyars, and the artisans. Finally, the village elders took up the ampalam’s emblems once again, and beckoned to him to lead the procession back to the village. All returned to his house, where the emblems were returned to their accustomed place in the big house. This concluded, the village Pallars and Paraiyars were given their pracatam in the village square in front of the ampalam’s house, along with sufficient rice and a chicken for a feast of their own.
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Dumont’s sense of the combination of king and Brahman in the structural formulation of Aiyanar, and more generally of the structural relations of village deities, is nothing other than his theory of hierarchy and caste relations.* ““Aiyanar, then, commands the inferior gods, not because he is one of them, but precisely because he is different from them — such is hierarchy in the caste society” (Dumont 1959, 85). As we noted earlier, hierarchy for Dumont can only derive from difference; thus, for example, the king must be of a different caste from his subjects to transcend them. But Aiyanar, like the Kallar king, is at once the same
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But the principal leadership was not made up of these retainers. | Venkannan made alliances with a number of important persons in the state who had their own reasons to be unhappy with the Raja, including Krishna Pannikontar (MCP, no. 14, 23 May 1854, p. 2062), a brotherin-law of the Raja who was his firm enemy (having lost his jagir and a pension of Rs. 1,000 a year during the reign of the late Raja and was at this time still nursing his wounds), and one “Tunneaver Sholay Alagan”’ (MCP, no. 22, 17 October 1854, p. 103), a leading member of the Vicinki Natu Kallars with whom a general alliance was made by Venkannan Cervaikarar (MCP, no. 14, 23 May 1854, p. 2068). The VN Kallars were the largest of all the Kallar subcastes within Pudukkottai, and as we have seen their relations with the royal Kallars were not always entirely cordial. Even among the VN Kallars Sholay Alagan was singled out as being very fierce. According to Parker, “This man and his relations are a terror to all the inhabitants — nearly all the deponents before me, even those who complain of the Rajah, begged to be protected from this man, fear of whom they said had compelled them to resist the Cirkar” (MPC, no. 22, 17 October 1854, pp. 103-104).
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However, if indebtedness constituted a problem for Ramachandra, this was because the recipients of the advantages of the Raja’s indebtedness were Cettiyars, and the group of hangers-on at court included, as Parker had mentioned, many people from out of state. In addition to the courtiers from Trichinopoly were affinal relations through the Raja’s second wife, who was the daughter of the Zamindar of Gantarvakkottai in nearby Tanjavur District. The royal subcaste was largely ignored, symbolized vividly by the Raja’s treatment of his first wife, an AN Kallar, who was never allowed in court and not even permitted to arrange the various necessary ritual functions for her daughters.
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The Diwan’s recommendations were accepted by the then British Political Agent. Five years later a new Political Agent listened to the Jagirdar’s constant complaints about the nature and level of interference occasioned by the schedule and its management. The Agent decided that the Diwan had been rather too zealous in his interference in the Jagirdar’s expenditure of his pension. He suggested a number of palliative measures, from providing the amount of hay and grain required by the Jagirdar in kind rather than at the fluctuating market rate, to allowing the Jagirdar to choose a fellow Kallar as the manager of his estate rather than a Brahman, as the Diwan had stipulated. A Brahman himself, Sir Seshaiah Sastri’s disdain for Kallars was intense as the above quote shows (MPGO 7 July 1886, no. 663). Despite these recommendations the spate of petitions penned by the Jagirdar did not decrease measurably; in 1888 the schedule system was abolished altogether.
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In 1926 there was a major dispute in a VN Kallar village in which there were two lineages, the Vallataracus and the Tenkontans (R.D. No. 4213 of 1926, dt. 1-8—27). In the late nineteenth century the heads of the two lineages had both been miracidars, their miraci rights including trusteeship of the village temple. The two had been chosen because they were the hereditary ampalams of the two lineages of the dominant Kallar caste. The head lineage, the Vallataracus, were given first honors. When the Tenkontar miracidar died in the early twentieth century, the Sirkar decided not to continue miraci rights for his son, judging him to be irresponsible and the rights unnecessary. This judgement was particularly convenient because there was a succession dispute between brothers. Nonetheless, the eldest son, Daksinamurti Tenkontar, continued to act as head of his lineage and received honors in the temple in the same position as his father had. He claimed that these honors were not given on the basis of the conferment of government miraci rights but because these two were the traditional ampalams of the village.
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In both cases, the dispute was between the Kallar headman of Tiruvappur and the Velar pujaris, or priests, who fashioned the clay horses in their capacity as potters and installed them in the temple in their capacity as priests. The Velars had to obtain permission from the village headman to begin making the horses for the festival. They would present a handful of clay they had collected from the bottom of the village tank and present it to the ampalam, who would then give it back to them. According to my informants, who included both dominant caste headmen and Velar priests, this ritual signified the necessity for the village headman to endow the commencement of this all-important village festival with his approval, or permission. Our earlier discussion demonstrated the ampalam’s central role in this festival: he was the host
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Tiruvappur had been the scene of many similar disputes at least as early as 1885. At one point the local Paraiyars asserted themselves against the ampalam by refusing to beat drums outside the Mariyamman temple; the Sirkar intervened, forcing them to resubmit themselves to the authority of the Kallar headman. In another dispute between the Velar priests and the ampalam in a different Aiyanar temple, the state again supported the latter against the Velars (R. 299/c of 1913, dt. 4— 2-13). In this temple, the usual practice had been for twenty-six sheep to be sacrificed outside of the temple at the various street intersections forming the boundary line of Aiyanar’s sphere of influence. One of the special privileges claimed by the ampalam in this festival was the right to carry the scythe used for the ritual slaughter and present it to the Velars who performed the sacrifice. The ampalam was to be accorded fifteen of the sacrificed sheep, as well as a share of 43 per cent if
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any more sheep were sacrificed (which the ampalam would then distribute among the Kallar community).
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/ While he was thus occupied, the government resolved to build the Raja a new palace outside the town. The old palace occupied the town center, constituting the matrix for municipal structure and geography. The streets were named after the points of the compass, taking their reference from the old palace. Surrounded by imposing crenelated fort/compound walls with large open spaces for assemblies and displays, the structures within were themselves unimpressive from the outside. But their modest facades gave no idea of the intricate world within. The rambling internal structures were not laid out according to a master plan but appeared to be haphazard, organic growths, chance accretions, focused as much on the zenana as the durbar hall. Involuted and inward, they reflected more the ramified kinship structure of the royal family than any clearly lit vision of sovereignty. In contrast, the new palace was to be altogether different and more accessible to the British and their conceptions of rule. Designed by European architects, the new palace was to present an impressive facade, with the internal rooms built for formal entertaining rather than for the convenience of an extended Kallar family. Unlike the honeycombed old palace with its myriad small rooms and separate buildings, the new palace was a single free-standing monument, with only two bedrooms. It was to be built on classical IndoSaracenic lines on spacious grounds outside the town, close to the
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\ before, though many of the Kallar natus were in Alankuti it contained none of ‘the lands given to Cervaikarars, who as members of AN actually came from this region. Other percentage comparisons are roughly equal, with Tirumayyam, formerly Pantiyan rather than Cola territory, coming last in lands granted for
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