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Paraiya Valluvans were priests to the Pallava Kings By Rev. A. C. Clayton Madras Government Museum Bulletin, Vol. V, No.2 1906

10. Antiquity. -    In the section discussing the name of the Paraiya caste, the uncertainty of any inference as to the original habitat of the Paraiyan was poined out. I know of no legend or popular belief among these people, indicating that they think themselves to have come from any other part of the country than that where they now find themselves. There is, however, some evidence that the race has had a long past, and one in which they had independence and possibly great importance in the Peninsula.

(1) Mr. H.A.Stuart, in the Census Report for 1891, mentions that the Valluvans were priests to the Pallava Kings, before the introduction of the Brahmans, and even for some time after it. He quotes “an unpublished Vatteluttu inscription, believed to be of the 9th centuray” in which the following sentence occurs:-. [A sentence is in Tamil.] This may be translated --- “Sri. Valluvam Puvanavan, the Uvacchan (or temple-ministrant) will employ six men daily, and do the temple service.” The inference is that the Valluvan was a man of recognized priestly rank, and of great influence. The prefix (sri) is a notable honorific. (For the meaning of Valluvan, see section 30.) (2) By itself the above inscription would prove little, but the whole legendary history of the greatest of all Tamil poets, and one of the greatest didactic poets in the world, Tiruvalluvar, “The Holy Valluvan,” confirms all that can be deduced from it. His date can only be fixed approximately, but it is probable that he flourished not later than the tenth century A.D. It is safe to say that this extra-ordinary sage could not have attained the fame he did, or  have received  the honours that were  bestowed upon him,  had not the Valluvans, and therefore  the Paraiyans, been in the circle  of respectable society in his day. This conjecture is strengthened by the legend that he married a Vellalla girl. The same hypothesis is the only one that will account for the education, and the vogue of the sister of the poet, the aphoristic poetess Avvei. (3) In the Census Report, 1901, Mr. Francis mentions an inscription of the Chola King Rajaraja, dated about the eleventh century A.D., in which the Paraiyan caste is called by its own name. It had then two sub-divisions, the nesavu or weavers, and the ulavu or ploughmen. The caste had even then its own hamlets, wells, and burning grounds. There are certain privileges possessed by Paraiyans, which they could never have gained for themselves from orthodox Hinduism. These seem to be survivals of a past, in which Paraiyans held a much higher position than they do now; or at anyrate show that they are as ancient in the land as any other Dravidians ( Mudaliars, Pillais, & c.) whom the Paraiyan calls ‘Tamils’, a name which he does not apply to himself. It has been impossible to do more than gather a few of these; but those mentioned are typical. An extract from the Indian Antiquary, vol. iii, p.191, quoted in the Madras Census Report, 1891, mentions that at Melkotta and in the Aiyangar Vaishnava temple at Bailur, the Holeyars or Kanarese Paraiyans have the  right of entering  the temple three days in the year, specially set apart for them; and that in the great Saiva festival at Tiruvalur in the Tanjore district, the headman of the Paraiyans  is mounted on the elephant with the god, and carries his chowri ( or yak-tail fly fan).

At Sriperumbudur in the Chingleput district, the Paraiyans enjoy a similar privilege, for having sheltered an image of the locally worshipped incarnation of Vishnu during a Musalman raid.

To this day a Paraiyan annually becomes husband of Egattal, the tutelary deity of the Black Town in Madras, and actually ties the tali or marriage – token round the neck of the image. Paraiyans are allowed to take part in pulling the cars of the idols in the great festivals at Conjeeveram, Kumbakonam and Srivilliputtur. Their touch is not reckoned to defile the ropes used, so that other Hindus will also pull with them. With this may be compared the fact that the Telugu Malas are custodians of the goddess Gauri, the bull Nandi and Ganesa, the chief gods of the Saiva Kapus and Balijas. It may also be noted that Komati Chettis, who claim to be Vaisyas, are bound to invite Madigas to their marriages, though they take care that the latter do not hear the invitation.

Another fact, which points to the ancient position of the Paraiyan in the land, is the universally admitted fact that he is more intimate, so to speak, with local gods, goddesses, demons and the like, than the high caste man is or can be. I have heard well-authenticated instances of Brahman women worshipping at Paraiya shrines in order to procure children. Near Palappattur, in the Chingleput district, I once saw a Paraiya exerciser treating a  Brahman by uttering mantrams (consecrated formula) and waving a sickle up and down the sufferer’s back, as he stood in a threshing floor. To this may be added the very general belief that the Paraiyans know the village boundaries better than any one also. They are indeed wonderfully expert in this matter, and unerringly point out where boundaries should run, even when the Government demarcation stones are completely overgrown by prickly pear, or have been removed. Mr. H.A. Stuart records a custom “which prevails in some parts of making a Paraiyan walk the boundaries of a field with a pot of water  on his head, when there is any dispute about their  exact position.”  He thinks that the only satisfactory explanation of this is that the connection of the Paraiyans with the soil is “of much longer standing than that of other castes.” The admitted proprietary right, which Paraiyans have in the site, known as cheri-nattam, on which their huts stand, is a confirmation of this. These sites are entered as such on the official village maps. They cannot be taken from the Paraiyans, and date from time immemorial. Throughout the whole of the Tamil country, it is usual to find that the land allotted for house-site (nattam) is in two portions in every village (ur). One part is known by the Sanskrit name gramam (the village), the inhabited place). The other is called by the Dravidian name, cheri (Tam. The gathering or the gathering place). Sometimes the latter is called by the fuller title parcheri, i.e., the gathering place of the Paraiyans (Anglice parcheri, parcherry).  In the gramam live the Brahmans, who sometimes dwell in a quarter by themselves known as the agrahara, and also the Komati Chettis, Sudra  Mudaliyars, Pillais, and other Hindus.  In the paracheri live the Paraiyans.  The paracheri and the gramam are always separated, at least by a road or lane, often by several fields.             And not only is it usual thus to find that in every village the Paraiyans as a community possess a house-site.  There are many cases in which more than one cheri is attached to a gramam.   This seems to repudiate the suggestion that at some period or periods the higher castes relegated the Paraiyans to these cheris. Indeed, in some cases the very names of the cheris suggest, what appears to be the more correct view, viz., that the cheris had a distinct origin. For instance the whole revenue village (ur) of Teiyur near Chingleput, consists of one Sudra gramam and seven Paraiya cheris, each with a name of its own; Periyapilleri, Komancheri, & c. In other cases e.g., Ideipalayam to the north of the district, and Varadarajapuram near Vandalur, only Paraiya hamlets exist; there is no gramam.

In South Arcot there are at least two villages ( Govindanallur in the Chidambaram taluq and Andapet in the Tiruvanamalai taluq ) inhabited only by Paraiyans, where even the maniyakkaran ( munsiff, village  headman) is a Paraiyan.

Other instances might be quoted in proof of the same opinion. And, when the ceremonial antipathy between Brahman and Paraiyan is examined, it points in the same direction. It is well known that a Brahman considers himself polluted by the touch, the presence, or the shadow of a Paraiyan, and will not allow him to enter his house, or even the street in which he lives, if it is an agrahara. But it is not so well known that the Paraiyans will not allow a Brahman to enter the cheri. There is more in this than the aversion of a ceremonially strict vegetarian for a degraded flesh-eating serf. Many Sudras eat mutton, but their presence does not pollute the Brahman. The gipsy mat-makers, called Koravans and Kuruvikkarans in Tamil, and Yerukalas in Telugu, eat cats, rats and even the village  pig, but they are allowed to draw water from the caste wells that a Paraiyan may not look into Mr. Padfield ( Hindu at Home, p.265) says that this is because  the Paraiyan eats carrion. But all Paraiyans do not do so. The separation of the Paraiyan from the caste Hindu is based on a more ancient distinction than that occasional and local habit would account for.

[Should a Brahman venture into a paracheri, water with which cowdung has been mixed is thrown on his head, and he is driven out. Some Brahmans consider a forsaken paracheri an auspicious site for an agrahara.] Taken together, these facts seem to show that the Paraiya priests (Valluvans), and therefore the Paraiyans as a race, are very ancient, that ten centuries ago they were respectable, and that many were weavers. The privileges they enjoy are relics of an exceedingly long association with the land. The institution of the paracheri points to original independence, and even to possession of much of the land. If the account of the colonization of Tondeimandalam by Vellalans in the eighth century A.D. is historic, then it is possible that at that date the Paraiyans lost the land and that about that time their degradation as a race began.

I do not venture to assert for this hypothesis that it does more than fit in with such facts as are known. At any rate, it bears out Dr. Oppert’s conclusion that the Paraiyan is ‘the representative of an ancient Dravidian population.’ _