The terms Sambhu and Sāmbhava Rāyan are connected with the Pallis. The story goes that Agni was the original ancestor of all kings. His son was Sambhu, whose descendants called themselves Sambhukula, or those of the Sambhu family. Some inscriptions[11] of the time of the Chōla kings Kulōttunga III and Rāja Rāja III record Sambukula Perumāl Sāmbuvarāyan and Alagiya Pallavan Ēdirili Sōla Sāmbuvarāyan as titles of local chiefs. A well-known verse of Irattayar in praise of Conjeeveram Ēkāmranāthaswāmi refers to the Pallava king as being of the Sambu race. The later descendants of the Pallavas apparently took Sāmbuvarāyar and its allied forms as their titles, as the Pallis in Tanjore and South Arcot still do. At Conjeeveram there lives the family of the Mahānāttār of the Vanniyans, which calls itself “of the family of Vīra Sambu.”
Pallas performing Pongal ceremonies.
“The name Vanniyan,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,[12] seems to have been introduced by the Brāhmans, possibly to gratify the desire of the Pallis for genealogical distinction. Padaiyāchi means a soldier, and is also of late origin. That the Pallis were once an influential and independent community may be admitted, and in their present desire to be classed as Kshatriyas they are merely giving expression to this belief, but, unless an entirely new meaning is to be given to the term Kshatriya, their claim must be dismissed as absurd. After the fall of the Pallava dynasty, the Pallis became agricultural servants under the Vellālas, and it is only since the advent of British rule that they have begun to assert their claims to a higher position.” Further, Mr. W. Francis writes[13] that “this caste has been referred to as being one of those which are claiming for themselves a position higher than that which Hindu society is inclined to accord them. Their ancestors were socially superior to themselves, but they do not content themselves with stating this, but in places are taking to wearing the sacred thread of the twice-born, and claim to be Kshatriyas. They have published pamphlets to prove their descent from that caste, and they returned themselves in thousands, especially in Godāvari, as Agnikula Kshatriyas or Vannikula Kshatriyas, meaning Kshatriyas of the fire race.” “As a relic,” it has been said,[14] “of the origin of the Vannikula Kshatriyas from fire, the fire-pot, which comes in procession on a fixed day during the annual festivities of Draupadi and other goddesses, is borne on the head of a Vanniya. Also, in dramatic plays, the king personæ (sic) has always been taken by a Kshatriya, who is generally a Vanniya. These peculiarities, however, are becoming common now-a-days, when privileges peculiar to one caste are being trenched upon by other caste men. In the Tirupporur temple, the practice of beating the mazhu (red-hot iron) is done by a dancing-girl serving the Vanniya caste. The privilege of treading on the fire is also peculiar to the Vanniyas.” It is recorded by Mr. Francis[15] that, in the South Arcot district, “Draupadi’s temples are very numerous, and the priest at them is generally a Palli by caste, and Pallis take the leading part in the ceremonies at them. Why this should be so is not clear. The Pallis say it is because both the Pāndava brothers and themselves were born of fire, and are therefore related. Festivals to Draupadi always involve two points of ritual—the recital or acting of a part of the Mahābhārata and a fire-walking ceremony. The first of these is usually done by the Pallis, who are very fond of the great epic, and many of whom know it uncommonly well. [In the city of Madras there are several Draupadi Amman temples belonging to the Pallis. The fire-walking ceremony cannot be observed thereat without the help of a member of this caste, who is the first to walk over the hot ashes.]
Kūvvākkam is known for its festival to Aravān (more correctly Irāvān) or Kūttāndar, which is one of the most popular feasts with Sūdras in the whole district. Aravān was the son of Arjuna, one of the five Pāndava brothers. Local tradition says that, when the great war which is described in the Mahābhārata was about to begin, the Kauravas, the opponents of the Pāndavas, sacrificed, to bring them success, a white elephant. The Pāndavas were in despair of being able to find any such uncommon object with which to propitiate the gods, until Arjuna suggested that they should offer up his son Aravān. Aravān agreed to yield his life for the good of the cause, and, when eventually the Pāndavas were victorious, he was deified for the self-abnegation which had thus brought his side success. Since he died in his youth, before he had been married, it is held to please him if men, even though grown up and already wedded, come now and offer to espouse him, and men who are afflicted with serious diseases take a vow to marry him at his annual festival in the hope of thereby being cured. The festival occurs in May, and for eighteen nights the Mahābhārata is recited by a Palli, large numbers of people, especially of that caste, assembling to hear it read. On the eighteenth night, a wooden image of Kūttāndar is taken to a tope (grove), and seated there. This is the signal for the sacrifice of an enormous number of fowls. Every one who comes brings one or two, and the number killed runs literally into thousands. Such sacrifices are most uncommon in South Arcot, though frequent enough in other parts of the Presidency—the Ceded Districts for example—and this instance is noteworthy. While this is going on, all the men who have taken vows to be married to the deity appear before his image dressed like women, make obeisance, offer to the priest (who is a Palli by caste) a few annas, and give into his hands the tālis (marriage badges) which they have brought with them. These the priest, as representing the God, ties round their necks. The God is brought back to his shrine that night, and when in front of the building he is hidden by a cloth being held before him. This symbolises the sacrifice of Aravān, and the men who have just been married to him set up loud lamentations at the death of their husband. Similar vows are taken and ceremonies performed, it is said, at the shrines to Kūttāndar at Kottattai (two miles north-west of Porto Novo), and Ādivarāhanattum (five miles north-west of Chidambaram), and, in recent years, at Tiruvarkkulam (one mile east of the latter place); other cases probably occur.”
The Pallis, Mr. Francis writes further,[16] “as far back as 1833 tried to procure a decree in Pondicherry, declaring that they were not a low caste, and of late years they have, in this (South Arcot) district, been closely bound together by an organisation managed by one of their caste, who was a prominent person in these parts. In South Arcot they take a somewhat higher social rank than in other places—Tanjore, for example—and their esprit de corps is now surprisingly strong. They are tending gradually to approach the Brāhmanical standard of social conduct, discouraging adult marriage, meat-eating, and widow re-marriage, and they also actively repress open immorality or other social sins, which might serve to give the community a bad name. In 1904 a document came before one of the courts, which showed that, in the year previous, the representatives of the caste in thirty-four villages in this district had bound themselves in writing, under penalty of excommunication, to refrain (except with the consent of all parties) from the practices formerly in existence of marrying two wives, and of allowing a woman to marry again during the lifetime of her first husband. Some of the caste have taken to calling themselves Vannikula Kshatriyas or Agnikula Kshatriyas, and others even declare that they are Brāhmans. These last always wear the sacred thread, tie their cloths in the Brāhman fashion (though their women do not follow the Brāhman ladies in this matter), forbid widow remarriage, and are vegetarians.”
Palli worshipping Munēswara.
Some Palli Poligars have very high-sounding names, such as Agni Kudirai Eriya Rāya Rāvutha Minda Nainar, i.e., Nainar who conquered Rāya Rāvutha and mounted a fire horse. This name is said to commemorate a contest between a Palli and a Rāvutha, at which the former sat on a red-hot metal horse. Further names are Sāmidurai Surappa Sozhaganar and Anjāda Singam (fearless lion). Some Pallis have adopted Gupta as a title.
A few Palli families now maintain a temple of their own, dedicated to Srīnivāsa, at the village of Kumalam in the South Arcot district, live round the temple, and are largely dependent on it for their livelihood. Most of them dress exactly like the temple Battars, and a stranger would certainly take them for Battar Brāhmans. Some of them are well versed in the temple ritual, and their youths are being taught the Sandyavandhana (morning prayer) and Vēdas by a Brāhman priest. Ordinary Palli girls are taken by them in marriage, but their own girls are not allowed to marry ordinary Pallis; and, as a result of this practice of hypergamy, the Kumalam men sometimes have to take to themselves more than one wife, in order that their young women may be provided with husbands. These Kumalam Pallis are regarded as priests of the Pallis, and style themselves Kōvilar, or temple people. But, by other castes, they are nicknamed Kumalam Brāhmans. They claim to be Kshatriyas, and have adopted the title Rāyar.