P (Continued)
Palli or Vanniyan.—Writing concerning this caste the Census Superintendent, 1871, records that “a book has been written by a native to show that the Pallis (Pullies or Vanniar) of the south are descendants of the fire races (Agnikulas) of the Kshatriyas, and that the Tamil Pullies were at one time the shepherd kings of Egypt.” At the time of the census, 1871, a petition was submitted to Government by representatives of the caste, praying that they might be classified as Kshatriyas, and twenty years later, in connection with the census, 1891, a book entitled ‘Vannikula Vilakkam: a treatise on the Vanniya caste,’ was compiled by Mr. T. Aiyakannu Nayakar, in support of the caste claim to be returned as Kshatriyas, for details concerning which claim I must refer the reader to the book itself. In 1907, a book entitled Varuna Darpanam (Mirror of Castes) was published, in which an attempt is made to connect the caste with the Pallavas.
Kulasēkhara, one of the early Travancore kings, and one of the most renowned Ālwars reverenced by the Srī Vaishnava community in Southern India, is claimed by the Pallis as a king of their caste. Even now, at the Parthasārathi temple in Triplicane (in the city of Madras), which according to inscriptions is a Pallava temple, Pallis celebrate his anniversary with great éclat. The Pallis of Kōmalēsvaranpettah in the city of Madras have a Kulasēkhara Perumāl Sabha, which manages the celebration of the anniversary. The temple has recently been converted at considerable cost into a temple for the great Ālwar. A similar celebration is held at the Chintādripettah Ādikēsava Perumāl temple in Madras. The Pallis have the right to present the most important camphor offering of the Mylapore Siva temple. They allege that the temple was originally theirs, but by degrees they lost their hold over it until this bare right was left to them. Some years ago, there was a dispute concerning the exercise of this right, and the case came before the High Court of Madras, which decided the point at issue in favour of the Pallis. One of the principal gōpuras (pyramidal towers) of the Ēkāmranātha temple at Big Conjeeveram, the ancient capital of the Pallavas, is known as Palligōpuram. The Pallis of that town claim it as their own, and repair it from time to time. In like manner, they claim that the founder of the Chidambaram temple, by name Swēta Varman, subsequently known as Hiranya Varman (sixth century A.D.) was a Pallava king. At Pichavaram, four miles east of Chidambaram, lives a Palli family, which claims to be descended from Hiranya Varman. A curious ceremony is even now celebrated at the Chidambaram temple, on the steps leading to the central sanctuary. As soon as the eldest son of this family is married, he and his wife, accompanied by a local Vellāla, repair to the sacred shrine, and there, amidst crowds of their castemen and others, a hōmam (sacrificial fire) is raised, and offerings are made to it. The couple are then anointed with nine different kinds of holy water, and the Vellāla places the temple crown on their heads. The Vellāla who officiates at this ceremony, assisted by the temple priests, is said to belong to the family of a former minister of a descendant of Hiranya Varman. It is said that, as the ceremony is a costly one, and the expenses have to be paid by the individual who undergoes it, it often happens that the eldest son of the family has to remain a bachelor for half his lifetime. The Pallis who reside at St. Thomé in the city of Madras allege that they became Christians, with their King Kandappa Rāja, who, they say, ruled over Mylapore during the time of the visit of St. Thomas. In 1907, Mr. T. Varadappa Nayakar, the only High Court Vakil (pleader) among the Palli community practising in Madras, brought out a Tamil book on the history of the connection of the caste with the ancient Pallava kings.
In reply to one of a series of questions promulgated by the Census Superintendent, it was stated that “the caste is known by the following names:—Agnikulas and Vanniyas. The etymology of these is the same, being derived from the Sanskrit Agni or Vahni, meaning fire. The following, taken from Dr. Oppert’s article on the original inhabitants of Bharatavarsa or India, explains the name of the caste with its etymology:—‘The word Vanniyan is generally derived from the Sanskrit Vahni, fire. Agni, the god of fire, is connected with regal office, as kings hold in their hands the fire-wheel or Agneya-chakra, and the Vanniyas urge in support of their name the regal descent they claim.’ The existence of these fire races, Agnikula or Vahnikula (Vanniya), in North and South India is a remarkable fact. No one can refuse to a scion of the non-Aryan warrior tribe the title of Rajputra, but in so doing we establish at once Aryan and non-Aryan Rajaputras or Rajputs. The Vanniyan of South India may be accepted as a representative of the non-Aryan Rajput element.”
The name Vanniyan is, Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,[1] “derived from the Sanskrit vanhi (fire) in consequence of the following legend. In the olden times, two giants named Vātāpi and Māhi, worshipped Brahma with such devotion that they obtained from him immunity from death from every cause save fire, which element they had carelessly omitted to include in their enumeration. Protected thus, they harried the country, and Vātāpi went the length of swallowing Vāyu, the god of the winds, while Māhi devoured the sun. The earth was therefore enveloped in perpetual darkness and stillness, a condition of affairs which struck terror into the minds of the dēvatas, and led them to appeal to Brahma. He, recollecting the omission made by the giants, directed his suppliants to desire the rishi Jāmbava Mahāmuni to perform a yāgam, or sacrifice by fire. The order having been obeyed, armed horse men sprung from the flames, who undertook twelve expeditions against Vātāpi and Māhi, whom they first destroyed, and afterwards released Vāyu and the sun from their bodies. Their leader then assumed the government of the country under the name Rūdra Vanniya Mahārāja, who had five sons, the ancestors of the Vanniya caste. These facts are said to be recorded in the Vaidīswara temple in the Tanjore district.”
The Vaidīswara temple here referred to is the Vaidīswara kōvil near Shiyāli. Mr. Stuart adds that “this tradition alludes to the destruction of the city of Vāpi by Narasimha Varma, king of the Pallis or Pallavas.” Vāpi, or Vā-api, was the ancient name of Vātāpi or Bādāmi in the Bombay Presidency. It was the capital of the Chālukyas, who, during the seventh century, were at feud with the Pallavas of the south. “The son of Mahēndra Varman I,” writes Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, “was Narasimha Varman I, who retrieved the fortunes of the family by repeatedly defeating the Chōlas, Kēralas, Kalabhras, and Pāndyas. He also claims to have written the word victory as on a plate on Pulikēsin’s[2] back, which was caused to be visible (i.e., which was turned in flight after defeat) at several battles. Narasimha Varman carried the war into Chālukyan territory, and actually captured Vātāpi their capital. This claim of his is established by an inscription found at Bādāmi, from which it appears that Narasimha Varman bore the title Mahāmalla. In later times, too, this Pallava king was known as Vātāpi Konda Narasingapottaraiyan. Dr. Fleet assigns the capture of the Chālukya capital to about A.D. 642. The war of Narasimha Varman with Pulikēsin is mentioned in the Sinhalese chronicle Mahāvamsa. It is also hinted at in the Tamil Periyapurānam. The well-known saint Siruttonda, who had his only son cut up and cooked in order to satisfy the appetite of the god Siva disguised as a devotee, is said to have reduced to dust the city of Vātāpi for his royal master, who could be no other than the Pallava king Narasimha Varman.”
I gather, from a note by Mr. F. R. Hemingway, that the Pallis “tell a long story of how they are descendants of one Vīra Vanniyan, who was created by a sage named Sambuha when he was destroying the two demons named Vātāpi and Enatāpi. This Vīra Vanniyan married a daughter of the god Indra, and had five sons, named Rūdra, Brahma, Krishna, Sambuha, and Kai, whose descendants now live respectively in the country north of the Pālār in the Cauvery delta, between the Pālār and Pennar. They have written a Purānam and a drama bearing on this tale. They declare that they are superior to Brāhmans, since, while the latter must be invested with the sacred thread after birth, they bring their sacred thread with them at birth itself.”
“The Vanniyans,” Mr. Nelson states,[3] “are at the present time a small and obscure agricultural caste, but there is reason to believe that they are descendants of ancestors who, in former times, held a good position among the tribes of South India. A manuscript, abstracted at page 90 of the Catalogue raisonné (Mackenzie Manuscripts), states that the Vanniyans belong to the Agnikula, and are descended from the Muni Sambhu; and that they gained victories by means of their skill in archery. And another manuscript, abstracted at page 427, shows that two of their chiefs enjoyed considerable power, and refused to pay the customary tribute to the Rayar, who was for a long time unable to reduce them to submission. Armies of Vanniyans are often mentioned in Ceylon annals. And a Hindu History of Ceylon, translated in the Royal As. Soc. Journal, Vol. XXIV, states that, in the year 3300 of the Kali Yuga, a Pandya princess went over to Ceylon, and married its king, and was accompanied by sixty bands of Vanniyans.”
The terms Vanni and Vanniyan are used in Tamil poems to denote king. Thus, in the classical Tamil poem Kallādam, which has been attributed to the time of Tiruvalluvar, the author of the sacred Kural, Vanni is used in the sense of king. Kamban, the author of the Tamil Rāmāyana, uses it in a similar sense. In an inscription dated 1189 A.D., published by Dr. E. Hultzsch,[4] Vanniya Nāyan appears among the titles of the local chief of Tiruchchūram, who made a grant of land to the Vishnu temple at Manimangalam. Tiruchchūram is identical with Tiruvidaichūram about four miles south-east of Chingleput, where there is a ruined fort, and also a Siva temple celebrated in the hymns of Tirugnāna Sambandhar, the great Saiva saint who lived in the 9th century. Local tradition, confirmed by one of the Mackenzie manuscripts,[5] says that this place was, during the time of the Vijayanagar King Krishna Rāya (1509–30 A.D.), ruled over by two feudal chiefs of the Vanniya caste named Kāndavarāyan and Sēndavarāyan. They, it is said, neglected to pay tribute to their sovereign lord, who sent an army to exact it. The brothers proved invincible, but one of their dancing-girls was guilty of treachery. Acting under instructions, she poisoned Kāndavarāyan. His brother Sēndavarāyan caught hold of her and her children, and drowned them in the local tank. The tank and the hillock close by still go by the name of Kuppichi kulam and Kuppichi kunru, after Kuppi the dancing-girl. An inscription of the Vijayanagar king Dēva Rāya II (1419–44 A.D.) gives him the title of the lord who took the heads of the eighteen Vanniyas.[6] This inscription records a grant by one Muttayya Nāyakan, son of Mūkkā Nāyakan of Vannirāya gōtram. Another inscription,[7] dated 1456 A.D., states that, when one Rāja Vallabha ruled at Conjeeveram, a general, named Vanniya Chinna Pillai, obtained a piece of land at Sāttānkād near Madras. Reference is made by Orme[8] to the assistance which the Vaniah of Sevagherry gave Muhammad Yūsuf in his reduction of Tinnevelly in 1757. The Vaniah here referred to is the Zamindar of Sivagiri in the Tinnevelly district, a Vanniya by caste. Vanniyas are mentioned in Ceylon archives. Wanni is the name of a district in Ceylon. It is, Mr. W. Hamilton writes,[9] “situated towards Trincomalee in the north-east quarter. At different periods its Wannies or princes, taking advantage of the wars between the Candian sovereigns and their European enemies, endeavoured to establish an authority independent of both, but they finally, after their country had been much desolated by all parties, submitted to the Dutch.” Further, Sir J. E. Tennent writes,[10] that “in modern times, the Wanny was governed by native princes styled Wannyahs, and occasionally by females with the title of Wunniches.”