Holeya.—The bulk of the Holeyas are, in the Madras Presidency, found in South Canara, but there are a considerable number in Coimbatore and on the Nīlgiris (working on cinchona, tea, and coffee estates). In the Manual of the South Canara district it is noted that “Holeyas are the field labourers, and former agrestic serfs of South Canara, Pulayan being the Malayālam and Paraiyan the Tamil form of the same word. The name is derived by Brāhmins from holē, pollution, and by others from hola, land or soil, in recognition of the fact that, as in the case of the Paraiyan, there are customs remaining which seem to indicate that the Holeyas were once masters of the land; but, whatever the derivation may be, it is no doubt the same as that of Paraiyan and Pulayan. The Holeyas are divided into many sub-divisions, but the most important are Māri, Mēra, and Mundala or Bākuda. The Mēra Holeyas are the most numerous, and they follow the ordinary law of inheritance through males, as far as that can be said to be possible with a class of people who have absolutely nothing to inherit. Of course, demon propitiation (bhūta worship) is practically the exclusive idea of the Holeyas, and every one of the above sub-divisions has four or five demons to which fowls, beaten rice, cocoanuts and toddy, are offered monthly and annually. The Holeyas have, like other classes of South Canara, a number of balis (exogamous septs), and persons of the same bali cannot intermarry. Though the marriage tie is as loose as is usual among the depressed and low castes of Southern India, their marriage ceremony is somewhat elaborate. The bridegroom’s party goes to the bride’s house on a fixed day with rice, betel leaf and a few areca nuts, and waits the whole night outside the bride’s hut, the bridegroom being seated on a mat specially made by the bride. On the next morning the bride is made to sit opposite the bridegroom, with a winnowing fan between them filled with betel leaf, etc. Meanwhile the men and women present throw rice over the heads of the couple. The bride then accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, carrying the mat with her. On the last day the couple take the mat to a river or tank where fish may be found, dip the mat into the water, and catch some fish, which they let go after kissing them. A grand feast completes the marriage. Divorce is easy, and widow marriage is freely practiced. Holeyas will eat flesh including beef, and have no caste scruples regarding the consumption of spirituous liquor. Both men and women wear a small cap made of the leaf of the areca palm.” The Holeyas who were interviewed by us all said that they do not go through the ceremony of catching fish, which is performed by Shivalli Brāhmans and Akkasāles.
“All Tulu Brāhmin chronicles,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes[10] “agree in ascribing the creation of Malabar and Canara, or Kērala, Tuluva, and Haiga to Parasu Rāma, who reclaimed from the sea as much land as he could cover by hurling his battle-axe from the top of the Western Ghauts. A modified form of the tradition states that Parasu Rāma gave the newly reclaimed land to Nāga and Machi Brāhmins, who were not true Brāhmins, and were turned out or destroyed by fishermen and Holeyas, who held the country till the Tulu Brāhmins were introduced by Mayūr Varma (of the Kadamba dynasty). All traditions unite in attributing the introduction of the Tulu Brāhmins of the present day to Mayūr Varma, but they vary in details connected with the manner in which they obtained a firm footing in the land. One account says that Habāshika, chief of the Koragas, drove out Mayūr Varma, but was in turn expelled by Mayūr Varma’s son, or son-in-law, Lōkāditya of Gōkarnam, who brought Brāhmins from Ahi-Kshētra, and settled them in thirty-two villages. Another makes Mayūr Varma himself the invader of the country, which till then had remained in the possession of the Holeyas and fishermen who had turned out Parasu Rāma’s Brāhmins. Mayūr Varma and the Brāhmins whom he had brought from Ahi-Kshētra were again driven out by Nanda, a Holeya chief, whose son Chandra Sayana had, however, learned respect for Brāhmins from his mother, who had been a dancing-girl in a temple. His admiration for them became so great that he not only brought back the Brāhmins, but actually made over all his authority to them, and reduced his people to the position of slaves. A third account makes Chandra Sayana, not a son of a Holeya king, but a descendant of Mayūr Varma and a conqueror of the Holeya king.”
In Coorg, the Rev. G. Richter writes,[11] “the Holeyas are found in the Coorg houses all over the country, and do all the menial work for the Coorgs, by whom, though theoretically freemen under the British Government, they were held as glebœ adscripti in a state of abject servitude until lately, when, with the advent of European planters, the slave question was freely discussed, and the ‘domestic institution’ practically abolished. The Holeyas dress indifferently, are of dirty habits, and eat whatever they can get, beef included. Their worship is addressed to Eiyappa Dēvaru and Chāmundi, or Kāli goddess once every month; and once every year they sacrifice a hog or a fowl.”
Of the Holeyas of the Mysore province, the following account is given in the Mysore Census Reports, 1891 and 1901. “The Holeyas number 502,493 persons, being 10.53 per cent. of the total population. They constitute, as their name implies, the back-bone of cultivation in the country. Hola is the Kanarese name for a dry-crop field, and Holeya means the man of such field. The caste has numerous sub-divisions, among which are Kannada, Gangadikāra, Maggada (loom), and Morasu. The Holeyas are chiefly employed as labourers in connection with agriculture, and manufacture with hand-looms various kinds of coarse cloth or home-spun, which are worn extensively by the poorer classes, notwithstanding that they are being fast supplanted by foreign cheap fabrics. In some parts of the Mysore district, considerable numbers of the Holeyas are specially engaged in betel-vine gardening. As labourers they are employed in innumerable pursuits, in which manual labour preponderates. The Alēman sub-division furnishes recruits as Barr sepoys. It may not be amiss to quote here some interesting facts denoting the measure of material well-being achieved by, and the religious recognition accorded to the outcastes at certain first-class shrines in Mysore. At Mēlkōtē in the Mysore district, the outcastes, i.e., the Holeyas and Mādigs, are said to have been granted by the great Visishtādvaita reformer, Rāmānujāchārya, the privilege of entering the Vishnu temple up to the sanctum sanctorum, along with Brāhmans and others, to perform worship there for three days during the annual car procession. The following anecdote, recorded by Buchanan,[12] supplies the raison d’être for the concession, which is said to have also been earned by their forebears having guarded the sacred mūrti or idol. On Rāmānujāchārya going to Melkōta to perform his devotions at that celebrated shrine, he was informed that the place had been attacked by the Turk King of Delhi, who had carried away the idol. The Brāhman immediately set out for that capital, and on arrival found that the King had made a present of the image to his daughter, for it is said to be very handsome, and she asked for it as a plaything. All day the princess played with the image, and at night the god assumed his own beautiful form, and enjoyed her bed, for Krishna is addicted to such forms of adventures. Rāmānujāchārya, by virtue of certain mantras, obtained possession of the image, and wished to carry it off. He asked the Brāhmans to assist him, but they refused; on which the Holeyas volunteered, provided the right of entering the temple was granted to them. Rāmānujāchārya accepted their proposal, and the Holeyas, having posted themselves between Delhi and Mēlkōta, the image of the god was carried down in twenty-four hours. The service also won for the outcastes the envied title of Tiru-kulam or the sacred race. In 1799, however, when the Dewān (prime minister) Pūrnaiya visited the holy place, the right of the outcastes to enter the temple was stopped at the dhvaja stambham, the consecrated monolithic column, from which point alone can they now obtain a view of the god. On the day of the car procession, the Tiru-kulam people, men, women and children, shave their heads and bathe with the higher castes in the kalyāni or large reservoir, and carry on their head small earthen vessels filled with rice and oil, and enter the temple as far as the flagstaff referred to above, where they deliver their offerings, which are appropriated by the Dāsayyas, who resort simultaneously as pilgrims to the shrine. Besides the privilege of entering the temple, the Tiru-kula Holeyas and Mādigs have the right to drag the car, for which service they are requited by getting from the temple two hundred seers of rāgi (grain), a quantity of jaggery (crude sugar), and few bits of the dyed cloth used for decorating the pandal (shed) which is erected for the procession. At the close of the procession, the representatives of the aforesaid classes receive each a flower garland at the hands of the Sthānik or chief worshipper, who manages to drop a garland synchronously into each plate held by the recipients, so as to avoid any suspicion of undue preference. In return for these privileges, the members of the Tiru-kulam used to render gratuitous services such as sweeping the streets round the temple daily, and in the night patrolling the whole place with drums during the continuance of the annual procession, etc. But these services are said to have become much abridged and nearly obsolete under the recent police and municipal régime. The privilege of entering the temple during the annual car procession is enjoyed also by the outcastes in the Vishnu temple at Bēlūr in the Hassan district. It is, however, significant that in both the shrines, as soon as the car festival is over, i.e., on the 10th day, the concession ceases, and the temples are ceremonially purified.
“In the pre-survey period, the Holeya or Mādig Kulvādi, in the maidān or eastern division, was so closely identified with the soil that his oath, accompanied by certain formalities and awe-inspiring solemnities, was considered to give the coup de grâce to long existing and vexatious boundary disputes. He had a potential voice in the internal economy of the village, and was often the fidus Achates of the patel (village official). In the malnād, however, the Holeya had degenerated into the agrestic slave, and till a few decades ago under the British rule, not only as regards his property, but also with regard to his body, he was not his own master. The vargdār or landholder owned him as a hereditary slave. The genius of British rule has emancipated him, and his enfranchisement has been emphasized by the allurements of the coffee industry with its free labour and higher wages. It is, however, said that the improvement so far of the status of the outcastes in the malnād has not been an unmixed good, inasmuch as it is likewise a measure of the decadence of the supāri (betel) gardens. Be that as it may, the Holeya in the far west of the province still continues in many respects the bondsman of the local landholder of influence; and some of the social customs now prevailing among the Holeyas there, as described hereunder, fully bear out this fact.
“In most of the purely malnād or hilly taluks, each vargdār, or proprietor of landed estate, owns a set of servants called Huttālu or Huttu-Ālu and Mannālu or Mannu-Ālu. The former is the hereditary servitor of the family, born in servitude, and performing agricultural work for the landholder from father to son. The Mannālu is a serf attached to the soil, and changes with it. These are usually of the Holeya class, but in some places men of the Hasalar race have been entertained. To some estates or vargs only Huttu-ālūs are attached, while Mannu-ālūs work on others. Notwithstanding the measure of personal freedom enjoyed by all men at the present time, and the unification of the land tenures in the province under the revenue survey and settlement, the traditions of birth, immemorial custom, ignorance, and never-to-be-paid-off loads of debt, tend to preserve in greater or less integrity the conditions of semi-slavery under which these agrestic slaves live. It is locally considered the acme of unwisdom to loosen the immemorial relations between capital and labour, especially in the remote backwoods, in which free labour does not exist, and the rich supāri cultivation whereof would be ruined otherwise. In order furthermore to rivet the ties which bind these hereditary labourers to the soil, it is alleged that the local capitalists have improvised a kind of Gretna Green marriage among them. A legal marriage of the orthodox type contains the risk of a female servant being lost to the family in case the husband happened not to be a Huttālu or Mannālu. So, in order to obviate the possible loss, a custom prevails according to which a female Huttālu or Mannālu is espoused in what is locally known as the manikattu form, which is neither more nor less than licensed concubinage. She may be given up after a time, subject to a small fine to the caste, and anybody else may then espouse her on like conditions. Not only does she then remain in the family, but her children will also become the landlord’s servants. These people are paid with a daily supply of paddy or cooked food, and a yearly present of clothing and blankets (kamblis). On special occasions, and at car feasts, they receive in addition small money allowances.
“In rural circles, in which the Holeyas and Mādigs are kept at arm’s length by the Brāmanical bodies, and are not allowed to approach the sacerdotal classes beyond a fixed limit, the outcastes maintain a strict semi-religious rule, whereby no Brāhman can enter the Holeya’s quarters without necessitating a purification thereof. They believe that the direst calamities will befall them and theirs if otherwise. The ultraconservative spirit of Hindu priestcraft casts into the far distance the realization of the hope that the lower castes will become socially equal even with the classes usually termed Sūdrās. But the time is looming in the near distance, in which they will be on a level in temporal prosperity with the social organisms above them. Unlike the land tenures said to prevail in Chingleput or Madras, the Mysore system fully permits the Holeyas and Mādigs to hold land in their own right, and as sub-tenants they are to be found almost everywhere. The highest amount of land assessment paid by a single Holeya is Rs. 279 in the Bangalore district, and the lowest six pies in the Kolar and Mysore districts. The quota paid by the outcastes towards the land revenue of the country aggregates no less than three lakhs of rupees, more than two-thirds being paid by the Holeyas, and the remainder by the Mādigs. These facts speak for themselves, and afford a reliable index to the comparative well-being of these people. Instances may also be readily quoted, in which individual Holeyas, etc., have risen to be money-lenders, and enjoy comparative affluence. Coffee cultivation and allied industries have thrown much good fortune into their lap. Here and there they have also established bhajanē or prayer houses, in which theistic prayers and psalms are recited by periodical congregation. A beginning has been made towards placing the facilities of education within easy reach of these depressed classes.”
In connection with the Holeyas of South Canara, it is recorded[13] that “the ordinary agricultural labourers of this district are Holeyas or Pariahs of two classes, known as Mūlada Holeyas and Sālada Holeyas, the former being the old hereditary serfs attached to Mūli wargs (estates), and the latter labourers bound to their masters’ service by being in debt to them. Nowadays, however, there is a little difference between the two classes. Neither are much given to changing masters, and, though a Mūlada Holeya is no longer a slave, he is usually as much in debt as a Sālada Holeya, and can only change when his new master takes the debt over. To these labourers cash payments are unknown, except occasionally in the case of Sālada Holeyas, where there is a nominal annual payment to be set off against interest on the debt. In other cases interest is foregone, one or other of the perquisites being sometimes docked as an equivalent. The grain wage consists of rice or paddy (unhusked rice), and the local seer is, on the average, as nearly as possible one of 80 tolas. The daily rice payments to men, women, and children vary as follows:—
| Men | from | 1 | seer to | 2 | seers. |
| Women | from | ⅔ | seer to | 2 | seers. |
| Children | from | ⅜ | seer to | 1 | seer. |
“In addition to the daily wages, and the midday meal of boiled rice which is given in almost all parts, there are annual perquisites or privileges. Except on the coast of the Mangalore tāluk and in the Coondapoor tāluk, every Holeya is allowed rent free from ⅛ to ⅓ acre of land, and one or two cocoanut or palmyra trees, with sometimes a jack or mango tree in addition. The money-value of the produce of this little allotment is variously estimated at from 1 to 5 rupees per annum. Throughout the whole district, cloths are given every year to each labourer, the money value being estimated at 1 rupee per adult, and 6 annas for a child. It is also customary to give a cumbly (blanket) in the neighbourhood of the ghauts, where the damp and cold render a warm covering necessary. On three or four important festivals, presents of rice and other eatables, oil and salt are given to each labourer, or, in some cases, to each family. The average value of these may be taken at 1 rupee per labourer, or Rs. 4 per family. Presents are also made on the occasion of a birth, marriage, or funeral, the value of which varies very much in individual cases. Whole families of Holeyas are attached to the farms, but, when their master does not require their services, he expects them to go and work elsewhere in places where such work is to be got. In the interior, outside work is not to be had at many seasons, and the master has to pay them even if there is not much for them to do, but, one way or another, he usually manages to keep them pretty well employed all the year round.”