View source for Paraiyar

{{Short description|Dominant Scheduled Caste found in South India and Sri Lanka}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox caste
|caste_name= Paraiyar
|image=Paraiyar group picture.png
|image_size=
|languages=[[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]]
|religions=[[Hinduism]] ([[Shaivism]]), [[Christianity]], [[Buddhism]], [[Islam]]
|country=India, Sri Lanka
|classification=[[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes|Scheduled Caste]]
|populated_states=[[Tamil Nadu]], [[Kerala]], [[Puducherry (union territory)|Puducherry]]
|ethnicity=[[Tamils]]
|related=[[Sri Lankan Tamils]]{{*}}other [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidians]]
|caption=Group of Paraiyars in the Madras Presidency, 1909
}}
'''Paraiyar''',<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nq2MAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 |title=Global Capital and Peripheral Labour: The History and Political Economy of Plantation Workers in India |publisher=Routledge |last=Raman |first=Ravi |year=2010 |page=67 |isbn=978-1-13519-658-5}}</ref> '''Parayar'''<ref>{{cite book |title=Rural Society in Southeast India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last=Gough |first=Kathleen |author-link=Kathleen Gough |year=2008 |orig-year=1981 |page=32 |isbn=978-0-52104-019-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZwD7EqLcAUC}}</ref> or '''Maraiyar'''  (formerly anglicised as '''Pariah''' {{IPAc-en|p|ə|'|r|ai|.|ə}} {{respell|pə|RY|ə}} and '''Paree''')<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Light and the Dark: Dualism in ancient Iran, India, and China|last=Fontaine|first=Petrus Franciscus Maria|date=1990|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|isbn=9789050630511|page=100|language=en}}</ref> is a [[Jāti|caste]] group found in the [[States and union territories of India|Indian state]]s of [[Tamil Nadu]] and [[Kerala]] and in [[Sri Lanka]].
== Etymology ==
[[Robert Caldwell]], a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who worked in South India, was in agreement with some Indian writers of the same period who considered the name to derive from the [[Tamil language|Tamil]] word ''[[parai]]'' (''drum'').
According to this [[hypothesis]], the Paraiyars were originally a community of drummers who performed at auspicious events like weddings and funerals.
M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, writing a little later, found this etymology unsatisfactory, arguing that beating of drums could not have been an occupation of so many people.
Some other writers, such as [[Gustav Solomon Oppert]], have derived the name from the Tamil word ''poraian'', the name of a regional subdivision mentioned by ancient Tamil grammarians, or the [[Sanskrit]] ''pahariya'', meaning "hill man".{{sfnp|Basu|2011|pp=2–4}}
More recently, [[George L. Hart]]'s textual analysis of the [[Sangam literature]] ({{circa}} 300 BCE – 300 CE) has led him to favour Caldwell's earlier hypothesis. The literature has references to the Tamil caste system and refers to a number of "low-born" groups variously called ''Pulaiyar'' and ''Kinaiyar''. Hart believes that one of the drums called ''kiṇai'' in the literature later came to be called ''paṟai'' and the people that played the drum were ''paraiyar'' (plural of ''paraiyan'').{{sfnp|Hart|1987|pp=467–468}}
''Paraiyar'' as a word referring to an occupational group first appears in the second century CE writings of [[Mangudi Kilar]].{{cn|date=December 2023}}
The 335th poem of the ''[[Purananuru]]'' mentions the Paraiyar:
{{quote|text=<poem>
Other than the Tutiyan drummers and the Panan singers
and the Paraiyans and the Katampans, there are no castes.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil, the Purananuru|last1=Hart|first1=George L.|last2=Heifetz|first2=Hank|year=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|page=191|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=cI3osJ5Pz8MC |isbn=9780231115636}}</ref></poem>}}
This poem is sometimes interpreted as evidence of there being only four castes in ancient [[Tamilakam]]. However, in their translation of the Purananuru, George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz argue that this interpretation is incorrect: as with other poems in this section of the Purananuru, this verse "deals with life in a marginal village... All these plants, food, castes, and gods are typically those found in such marginal areas," and thus the four castes mentioned here should not be taken as a comprehensive list of all Tamil castes in this period.{{sfn|Hart|Heifetz|2001|p=322}}
== History ==
=== Pre-British period ===
Hart says that the ''pulaiyar'' performed a ritual function by composing and singing songs in the king's favour and beating drums, as well as travelling around villages to announce royal decrees. They were divided into subgroups based on the instruments they played and one of these groups {{ndash}} the Kinaiyan {{ndash}} "was probably the same as the modern Paraiyan".{{sfnp|Hart|1987|p=468}} He says that these people were believed to be associated with magical power and kept at a distance, made to live in separate hamlets outside villages. However, their magical power was believed to sustain the king, who had the ability to transform it into auspicious power.{{sfnp|Hart|1987|pp=482–483}} Moffatt is less sure of this, saying that we do not know whether the distancing was a consequence of the belief in their magical powers or in Hinduism's ritual pollution as we know of it nowadays.{{sfnp|Moffat|1979|p=37}}
* Inscriptions, especially those from the [[Thanjavur district]], mention ''paraicceri''s, which were separate hamlets of the Paraiyars.{{sfnp|Orr|2000|pp=236–237}} Also living in separate hamlets were the artisans such as goldsmiths and cobblers, who were also recorded in the Sangam literature.{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|p=38}}
* In a few inscriptions (all of them from outside Thanjavur district), Paraiyars are described as temple patrons.{{sfnp|Orr|2000|pp=236–237}}
* There are also references to "Paraiya chieftainships" in the 8th and 10th centuries, but it is not known what these were and how they were integrated into the Chola political system.{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|p=38}}
[[Burton Stein]] describes an essentially continuous process of expansion of the nuclear areas of the caste society into forest and upland areas of tribal and warrior people, and their integration into the caste society at the lowest levels. Many of the forest groups were incorporated as Paraiyar either by association with the ''parai'' drum or by integration into the low-status labouring groups who were generically called Paraiyar. Thus, it is thought that Paraiyar came to have many subcastes.{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|p=41}} According to 1961 Madras Census Report, castes that are categorised under Paraiyar include Koliyar, Panchamar, Thoti, Vettiyan, Vetti, Vellam, Vel, Natuvile, Pani, Pambaikaran, Ammaparaiyan, Urumikaran, Morasu, Tangalam, Samban, Paryan, Nesavukaraparayan, Thotiparayan, Kongaparayan, Mannaparayan, and Semban.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
During the [[Bhakti movement]] ({{circa}} 7th–9th centuries CE), the saints – [[Shaivism|Shaivite]] [[Nayanars]] and the [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnavite]] [[Alvars]] – contained one saint each from the untouchable communities. The Nayanar saint [[Nandanar]] was born, according to ''[[Periya Puranam]]'', in a "threshold of the huts covered with strips of leather", with mango trees from whose branches were hung drums. "In this abode of the people of the lowest caste (''kadainar''), there arose a man with a feeling of true devotion to the feet of [[Shiva|Siva]]." Nandanar was described as a temple servant and leather worker, who supplied straps for drums and gut-string for stringed instruments used in the [[Chidambaram]] temple, but he was himself not allowed to enter the temple.{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|pp=38–39}} The Paraiyar regard Nandanar as one of their own caste.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vincentnathan |first=Lynn |title=Nandanar: Untouchable Saint and Caste Hindu Anomaly |journal=Ethos |volume=21 |number=2 |date=June 1993 |pages=154–179 |jstor=640372 |doi=10.1525/eth.1993.21.2.02a00020}}</ref> Paraiyars wear the [[sacred thread]] under rituals such as marriage and funeral.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Caste System in Tamil Nadu|last=Kolappa Pillay|first=Kanakasabhapathi|date=1977|publisher=University of Madras|page=33|language=en}}</ref>
Scholars such as Burchett and Moffatt state that the Bhakti devotationalism did not undermine Brahmin ritual dominance. Instead, it might have strengthened it by warding off challenges from [[Jainism]] and [[Buddhism]].{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|p=39}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Patton |last=Burchett |journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=115–141 |date=August 2009 |title=Bhakti Rhetoric in the Hagiography of 'Untouchable' Saints: Discerning Bhakti's Ambivalence on Caste and Brahminhood |jstor=40608021 |doi=10.1007/s11407-009-9072-5 |s2cid=143000307 }}</ref>
=== British colonial era ===
By the early 19th century, the Paraiyars had a degraded status in the Tamil society.{{sfnp|Basu|2011|p=16}} [[Francis Buchanan-Hamilton|Francis Buchanan]]'s report on socio-economic condition of South Indians described them ("Pariar") as inferior caste slaves, who cultivated the lands held by [[Brahmin]]s. This report largely shaped the perceptions of the British officials about contemporary society. They regarded Pariyars as an outcaste, untouchable community.{{sfnp|Basu|2011|p=2}} In the second half of the 19th century, there were frequent descriptions of the Paraiyars in official documents and reformist tracts as being "disinherited sons of the earth".{{sfnp|Irschick|1994|pp=153–190}}{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=68}} The first reference to the idea may be that written by [[Francis Whyte Ellis]] in 1818, where he writes that the Paraiyars "affect to consider themselves as the real proprietors of the soil". In 1894, William Goudie, a [[Wesleyanism|Wesleyan]] missionary, said that the Paraiyars were self-evidently the "disinherited children of the soil".{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=68}} English officials such as Ellis believed that the Paraiyars were [[serf]]s toiling under a system of bonded labour that resembled the European [[villein]]age.{{sfnp|Basu|2011|pp=9–11}} However, scholars such as Burton Stein argue that the agricultural bondage in Tamil society was different from the contemporary British ideas of [[slavery]].{{sfnp|Basu|2011|p=4}}
Historians such as David Washbrook have argued that the socio-economic status of the Paraiyars rose greatly in the 18th century during the [[Company rule in India]]; Washbrook calls it the "Golden Age of the Pariah".{{sfnp|Basu|2011|pp=33–34}} Raj Sekhar Basu disagrees with this narrative, although he agrees that there were "certain important economic developments".{{sfnp|Basu|2011|p=39}}
The [[Church Mission Society]] converted many Paraiyars to Christianity by the early 19th century.{{sfnp|Kanjamala|2014|p=127}} During the British Raj, the missionary schools and colleges admitted Paraiyar students amid opposition from the upper-caste students. In 1893, the colonial government sanctioned an additional stipend for the Paraiyar students.{{sfnp|Kanjamala|2014|p=66}} The colonial officials, scholars, and missionaries attempted to rewrite the history of the Paraiyars, characterising them as a community that enjoyed a high status in the past. [[Edgar Thurston]] (1855–1935), for example, claimed that their status was nearly equal to that of the Brahmins in the past.{{sfnp|Basu|2011|pp=24–26}} H. A. Stuart, in his Census Report of 1891, claimed that [[Valluvar (caste)|Valluvars]] were a priestly class among the Paraiyars, and served as priests during [[Pallava dynasty|Pallava]] reign. [[Robert Caldwell]], [[J. H. A. Tremenheere]] and [[Edward Jewitt Robinson]] claimed that the ancient poet-philosopher [[Thiruvalluvar]] was a Paraiyar.{{sfnp|Moffatt|1979|pp=19–21}}
=== Buddhist advocacy by Iyothee Thass ===
[[Iyothee Thass]], a [[Siddha medicine|Siddha doctor]] by occupation, belonged to a Paraiyar elite. In 1892, he demanded access for Paraiyars to Hindu temples, but faced resistance from [[Brahmin]]s and [[Vellalar]]s. This experience led him to believe that it was impossible to emancipate the community within the Hindu fold. In 1893, he also rejected [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] as the alternatives to Hinduism, because caste differences had [[Caste system among Indian Christians|persisted among Indian Christians]], while the backwardness of contemporary local Muslims made Islam unappealing.{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=70}}
Thass subsequently attempted a Buddhist reconstruction of the Tamil religious history. He argued that the Paraiyars were originally followers of [[Buddhism in India|Buddhism]] and constituted the original population of India. According to him, the Brahmanical invaders from [[Persia]] defeated them and destroyed Buddhism in southern India; as a result, the Paraiyars lost their culture, religion, wealth and status in the society and become destitute. In 1898, Thass and many of his followers converted to Buddhism and founded the Sakya Buddha Society (''cākkaiya putta caṅkam'') with the influential mediation of [[Henry Steel Olcott]] of the [[Theosophical Society]]. Olcott subsequently and greatly supported the Tamil Paraiyar Buddhists.{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|pp=67–71}}
=== Controversy over the community's name ===
[[Jean-Antoine Dubois]], a French missionary who worked in India between 1792 and 1823 and had a [[Brahmin]]-centric outlook, recorded the community's name as ''Pariah''. He described them as people who lived outside the system of morals prescribed by Hinduism, accepted that outcaste position and were characterised by "drunkenness, shamelessness, brutality, truthlessness, uncleanliness, disgusting food practices, and an absolute lack of personal honour". Moffat says this led to ''pariah'' entering the English language as "a synonym for the socially ostracised and the morally depraved".{{sfnp|Moffat|1979|pp=6–7}}
Iyothee Thass felt that ''Paraiyar'' was a [[pejorative|slur]], and campaigned against its usage. During the 1881 [[Census of India prior to independence|census of India]], he requested the government to record the community members under the name ''Aboriginal Tamils''. He later suggested ''Dravidian'' as an alternative term, and formed the Dhraavidar Mahajana Sabhai (Dravidian [[Mahajana]] Assembly) in 1891. Another Paraiyar leader, [[Rettamalai Srinivasan]], however, advocated using the term ''Paraiyar'' with pride. In 1892, he formed the Parayar Mahajana Sabha (Paraiyar Mahajana Assembly), and also started a news publication titled ''Paraiyan''.{{sfnp|Srikumar|2014|p=357}}
Thass continued his campaign against the term, and petitioned the government to discontinue its usage, demanding punishment for those who used the term. He incorrectly claimed that the term ''Paraiyar'' was not found in any ancient records (it has been, in fact, found in the 10th-century [[Chola dynasty|Chola]] stone inscriptions from [[Kolar district]]).{{sfnp|Srikumar|2014|p=357}} Thass subsequently advocated the term ''[[Adi Dravida]]'' (''Original Dravidians'') to describe the community. In 1892, he used the term ''Adidravida Jana Sabhai'' to describe an organisation, which was probably Srinivasan's Parayar Mahajana Sabha. In 1895, he established the People's Assembly of Urdravidians (Adidravida Jana Sabha), which probably split off from Srinivasan's organisation. According to Michael Bergunder, Thass was thus the first person to introduce the concept of ''Adi Dravida'' into political discussion.{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=69}}
Another Paraiyar leader, [[M. C. Rajah]]&nbsp;— a [[Madras Presidency|Madras]] councillor&nbsp;— made successful efforts for adoption of the term ''Adi-Dravidar'' in the government records.{{sfnp|Srikumar|2014|p=357}} In 1914, the [[Madras Legislative Council]] passed a resolution that officially censured the usage of the term ''Paraiyar'' to refer to a specific community, and recommended ''Adi Dravidar'' as an alternative.{{sfnp|Bergunder|Frese|Schröder|2011|p=260}} In the 1920s and 1930s, [[Periyar E. V. Ramasamy]] ensured the wider dissemination of the term ''Adi Dravida''.{{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=69}}
== Right-hand caste faction ==
Paraiyars belong to the ''[[Valangai]]'' ("Right-hand caste faction"). Some of them assume the title ''Valangaimaan'' ("Head of the right-hand division"). The ''Valangai'' comprised castes with an agricultural basis while the ''[[Idangai]]'' consisted of castes involved in manufacturing.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.cmi.ac.in/gift/Epigraphy/epig_tambarammore.htm|title=More inscriptions from the Tambaram area |access-date=21 September 2008|first=Gift |last=Siromoney|journal=Madras Christian College Magazine |volume=44 |year=1975}}</ref> ''Valangai'' were better organised politically.<ref>{{cite book |title=Caste Ideology and Interaction |volume=9 |series=Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology |editor-first=Dennis B. |editor-last=McGilvray |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-52124-145-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/casteideologyint0000unse/page/105 105] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA105 |first=Stephen C. |last=Levinson |chapter=Caste rank and verbal interaction in western Tamilnadu |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/casteideologyint0000unse }}</ref>
== Present status ==
{{as of|2017}}, the Paraiyar were a listed as a [[Scheduled Caste]] in [[Tamil Nadu]] under India's [[reservation in India|system of affirmative action]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://socialjustice.nic.in/UserView/index?mid=76750 |publisher=Ministry of Social Justice |date=2017 |access-date=2020-07-20 |title=Tamil Nadu}}</ref>
==Culture==
[[Malavazhiyattam]] is a ritualistic dance drama performed once a year by the Paraya community in Kerala.<ref name="puzha1">{{cite web |last1=Varavoor |first1=Prashanth |title=അവതരണങ്ങളിൽ അപമാനിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന അനുഷ്‌ഠാനകലകൾ|date=August 2011 |url=https://www.puzha.com/blog/magazine-prasanth_varavoor-essay1_nov3/}}</ref> ''Malavazhi'' is the mother goddesses who are installed in the homes of the Parayas and worshiped by them. [[Malavazhiyattam]] is performed to please the deities through music and drama.<ref name="Hindu">{{cite news |last1=M |first1=Athira |title=Malayalam docu-fiction 'Thevan' pays tribute to folk artiste Thevan Peradipurathu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/docu-fiction-on-folk-artiste-thevan-directed-by-najma-naseera-majeed/article65254898.ece |work=The Hindu |date=24 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
== Notable people ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=November 2022}} {{Clarify|date=November 2022|reason= Most of these people seem to be from Dalit background, but not specifically from Paraiyar community. Can someone please clarify if they are from the Paraiyar community, if so please quote citations as well }}
=== Religious and spiritual leaders ===
* [[Poykayil Yohannan]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies|author2=I.S.P.C.K. (Organisation)|title=Christianity is Indian: the emergence of an indigenous community|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vsrYAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Published for MIIS, Mylapore by ISPCK|isbn=978-81-7214-561-3|page=322}}</ref> rejected Christianity and Hinduism to found the [[Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha]]
* [[Nandanar]]<ref name="Dalal2011">{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide|date=2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-341421-6|pages = 68, 271, 281}}</ref>
* [[Thiruppaan Alvar]]
* [[Swami Sahajananda (Chidambaram MLA)|Swami Sahajananda]], spiritual leader, social activist, politician and founder of Nandanar school, Chidambaram
=== Social reformers and activists ===
* [[M. C. Rajah]] (1883–1943), politician, social and political activist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu{{sfnp|Srikumar|2014|p=357}}<ref name="silentrevolution">{{cite book|title=India's silent revolution: Rise of lower castes in North India|year=2003|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-670-8|page=169}}</ref>
* [[Rettamalai Srinivasan]] (1860–1945), Paraiyar activist, politician from Tamil Nadu{{sfnp|Srikumar|2014|p=356}}
* [[Iyothee Thass]] (1845–1914), founder of the Sakya Buddhist Society (also known as Indian Buddhist Association){{sfnp|Bergunder|2004|p=68}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u82MAgAAQBAJ&q=Iyothee+Thass+paraiyar&pg=PT202|title=Party System Change in South India: Political Entrepreneurs, Patterns and Processes|isbn=9781135182014|last1=Wyatt|first1=Andrew|date=16 December 2009|publisher=Routledge }}</ref>
* [[Annai Meenambal Shivaraj]], first woman president of the Scheduled Caste Federation and Deputy Mayor of Madras
* [[Kavarikulam Kandan Kumaran]], social reformer and [[Sree Moolam Popular Assembly|Sree Moolam Prajasabha]] member who founded the organization Brahma Pratyaksha Sadhujana Paripalana Parayar Sangam<ref name="Deshabhimani">{{cite news |title=കാവാരികുളം കണ്ടന്‍ കുമാരനും ദളിത് പ്രശ്നവും |url=https://www.deshabhimani.com/special/news-13-10-2019/827465 |work=Deshabhimani |language=ml}}</ref>
===Politics===
* [[P. Kakkan]], Minister for Home Affairs, Agriculture, Public Works, Member of Parliament (1946–1967) in Kamaraj's cabinet
* [[Thol. Thirumavalavan]], politician and chairperson of [[Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19RjDwAAQBAJ&q=thirumavalavan+paraiyar&pg=PT359|title=Untouchable Citizens: Dalit Movements and Democratization in Tamil Nadu|isbn=9789352803057|last1=Gorringe|first1=Hugo|date=7 January 2005|publisher=SAGE Publishing India }}</ref>
* [[A. Raja|A Raja]], [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]] leader and former Union Minister
* [[V. I. Munuswamy Pillai]], Minister for Agriculture & Rural development in Rajaji's cabinet
* [[B. Parameswaran]], Minister for Transport, Hindu Religious Endowments, Harijan Welfare in Kamaraj's cabinet
* [[N. Sivaraj]], founding member of the Justice Party, former mayor of Madras and President of the Republican Party of India
===Arts and entertainment===
* [[Raghava Lawrence]], actor and director
* [[Jai (actor)|Jai]], actor
* [[Pa. Ranjith]], Tamil film director
* [[Mari Selvaraj]], Tamil film director
* [[Shankar–Ganesh|Ganesh]], music director (part of the Shankar Ganesh duo)
* [[Sivamani (percussionist)|Drums Sivamani]], Indian percussionist
* {{ill|Pandalam Balan|ml|പന്തളം ബാലൻ}}, Malayalam singer
== References ==
{{Refbegin}}
'''Citations'''
{{Reflist}}
'''Bibliography'''
* {{Cite book |first=Raj Sekhar |last=Basu |title=Nandanar's Children: The Paraiyans' Tryst with Destiny, Tamil Nadu 1850 - 1956 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4NeGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |year=2011 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-81-321-0679-1 }}
* {{Cite journal |first=Michael |last=Bergunder |url=http://www.theologie.uni-hd.de/rm/online-artikel/bergunder-2004-contested-past.pdf |title=Contested Past: Anti-brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of early Indian history |journal=Historiographia Linguistica |volume=31 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=95–104 |doi=10.1075/hl.31.1.05ber }}
* {{Cite book |editor1-last=Bergunder |editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last=Frese |editor2-first=Heiko |editor3-last=Schröder |editor3-first=Ulrike |title=Ritual, Caste, and Religion in Colonial South India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcEM2IsnA1AC |year=2011 |publisher=Primus Books |isbn=978-93-80607-21-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hart |first=George L. |author-link=George L. Hart |chapter=Early Evidence for Caste in South India |editor-last=Hockings |editor-first=Paul |title=Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in honor of David B. Mandelbaum |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |year=1987 |isbn=978-3-11084-685-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERQp5YCXiWsC}}
* {{Cite book |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=gwEOfHfUFTkC |last=Irschick |first=Eugene F. |author-link=Eugene Irschick |year=1994 |title=Dialogue and History: Constructing South India, 1795–1895 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520914322 }}
** {{Cite book |url =http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft038n99hg;brand=eschol |title = Irschick, Eugene F. (1994), Complete book at Cdlib, but without page numbering}}
* {{Cite book |first=Augustine |last=Kanjamala |title=The Future of Christian Mission in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FaENBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 |year=2014 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |isbn=978-1-63087-485-8 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Moffatt |first=Michael |title=An Untouchable Community in South India: Structure and Consensus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4t9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |year=1979 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-7036-3 |pages=37–}}
* {{Cite book |first=Leslie C. |last=Orr |title=Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F___xKcP8lMC&pg=PA236 |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535672-4 }}
* {{Cite book |first=S |last=Srikumar |title=Kolar Gold Field: (Unfolding the Untold) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrWEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA356 |year=2014 |publisher=Partridge Publishing India |isbn=978-1-4828-1507-8 }}
{{Refend}}
{{Sri Lankan Tamil people}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Social groups of Kerala]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Tamil society]]
[[Category:Dalit communities]]
[[Category:Scheduled Castes of Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Tamil castes]]
[[Category:South Indian communities]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Kerala]]
[[Category:Indian castes]]
[[Category:Social groups of Sri Lanka]]