In some places a Pallan family is attached to a land-holder, for whom they work, and, under ordinary conditions, they do not change masters. The attachment of the Pallan to a particular individual is maintained by the master paying a sum of money as an advance, which the Pallan is unable to repay.

The Pallans are the Jāti Pillais of the Pāndya Kammālans, or Kammālans of the Madura country. The story goes that a long while ago the headman of the Pallans came begging to the Kollan section of the Pāndya Kammālans, which was employed in the manufacture of ploughs and other agricultural implements, and said “Worshipful sirs, we are destitute to the last degree. If you would but take pity on us, we would become your slaves. Give us ploughs and other implements, and we shall ever afterwards obey you.” The Kollans, taking pity on them, gave them the implements and they commenced an agricultural life. When the harvest was over, they brought the best portion of the crop, and gave it to the Kollans. From that time, the Pallans became the “sons” of the Pāndya Kammālans, to whom even now they make offerings in gratitude for a bumper crop.

At times of census the Pallans return a number of sub-divisions, and there is a proverb that one can count the number of varieties of rice, but it is impossible to count the divisions of the Pallans. As examples of the sub-divisions, the following may be quoted:—

These sub-divisions are endogamous, and Aiya and Ammā Pallans of the Sivaganga zemindāri and adjacent parts of the Madura district possess exogamous septs or kīlais, which, like those of the Maravans, Kallans, and some other castes, run in the female line. Children belong to the same kīlai as that of their mother and maternal uncle, and not of their father.

The headman of the Pallans is, in the Madura country, called Kudumban, and he is assisted by a Kālādi, and, in large settlements, by a caste messenger entitled Vāriyan, who summons people to attend council-meetings, festivals, marriages and funerals. The offices of Kudumban and Kālādi are hereditary. When a family is under a ban of excommunication, pending enquiry, the caste people refuse to give them fire, and otherwise help them, and even the barber and washerman are not permitted to work for them. As a sign of excommunication, a bunch of leafy twigs of margosa (Melia Azadirachta) is stuck in the roof over the entrance to the house. Restoration to caste necessitates a purificatory ceremony, in which cow’s urine is sprinkled by the Vāriyan. When a woman is charged with adultery, the offending man is brought into the midst of the assembly, and tied to a harrow or hoeing plank. The woman has to carry a basket of earth or rubbish, with her cloth tied so as to reach above her knees. She is sometimes, in addition, beaten on the back with tamarind switches. If she confesses her guilt, and promises not to misconduct herself again, the Vāriyan cuts the waist-thread of her paramour, who ties it round her neck as if it was a tāli (marriage badge). On the following day, the man and woman are taken early in the morning to a tank (pond) or well, near which seven small pits are made, and filled with water. The Vāriyan sprinkles some of the water over their heads, and has subsequently to be fed at their expense. If the pair are in prosperous circumstances, a general feast is insisted on.

At Coimbatore, the headman is called Pattakāran, and he is assisted by various subordinate officers and a caste messenger called Ōdumpillai. In cases of theft, the guilty person has to carry a man on his back round the assembly, while two persons hang on to his back-hair. He is beaten on the cheeks, and the Ōdumpillai may be ordered to spit in his face. A somewhat similar form of punishment is inflicted on a man proved guilty of having intercourse with a married woman.

In connection with the caste organisation of the Pallans in the Trichinopoly district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway writes as follows. “They generally have three or more headmen for each village, over whom is the Nāttu Mūppan. Each village also has a peon called Ōdumpillai (the runner). The main body of the caste, when attending council-meetings, is called ilam katchi (the inexperienced). The village councils are attended by the Mūppans and the Nāttu Mūppan. Between the Nāttu Mūppan and the ordinary Mūppans, there is, in the Karūr tāluk, a Pulli Mūppan. All these offices are hereditary. In this tāluk a rather different organisation is in force, to regulate the supply of labour to the landholders. Each of the village Mūppans has a number of karais or sections of the wet-land of the village under him, and he is bound to supply labourers for all the land in his karai, and is remunerated by the landowner with 1¼ marakkāls of grain for every 20 kalams harvested. The Mūppans do not work themselves, but maintain discipline among their men by flogging or expulsion from the caste. In the Karūr tāluk, the ordinary Pallans are called Manvettaikārans (mamoty or digging-tool men).”

The Pallans have their own washermen and barbers, who are said to be mainly recruited from the Sōzhia section, which, in consequence, holds an inferior position; and a Pallan belonging to another section would feel insulted if he was called a Sōzhian.

When a Pallan girl, at Coimbatore, attains puberty, she is bathed, dressed in a cloth brought by a washerwoman, and presented with flowers and fruits by her relations. She occupies a hut constructed of cocoanut leaves, branches of Pongamia glabra, and wild sugarcane (Saccharum arundinaceum). Her dietary includes jaggery (crude sugar) and milk and plantains. On the seventh day she is again bathed, and presented with another cloth. The hut is burnt down, and for three days she occupies a corner of the pial of her home. On the eleventh day she is once more bathed, presented with new cloths by her relations, and permitted to enter the house.