In a note on the weaving industry, Mr. E. B. Havell writes thus.[5] “The principle of the Danish co-operative system as applied to dairy-farming is the combination of a number of small proprietors for sending their products to a central factory, in which each of them has a share proportionate to the quantity of his contributions. In the management of the factory, each member has an absolutely equal voice, irrespective of his holdings. Adapting such a system to the Indian weaving industry, each weaving community would have a central establishment under its own control, which would arrange the purchase of material at wholesale rates, prepare warps for the weavers’ looms, and organise the sale of the finished products. The actual weaving would be carried on as at present in the weavers’ houses by the master weavers and their apprentices. If a system of this kind would retain the economic advantages of the factory system, and eliminate its many evils, it is obvious that a factory, owned and controlled by the weavers themselves, and worked only for their advantage, is a very different thing to a factory controlled by capitalists only for the purpose of exploiting the labour of their employees.”

As bearing on the general condition of the weaving community, the following extract from the Report of the Famine in the Madras Presidency, 1896–97, may be quoted. “Among the people who felt the distress at the beginning were the weavers. It is a well-known fact that the people of the weaver castes, as well as Mussalman weavers, are generally improvident, and consequently poor. In favourable times, the weavers generally earn fair wages. They, however, spend all they earn without caring to lay by anything, so that very few of their caste are in well-to-do circumstances. The same is the case with the Mussalman weavers. All these weavers are entirely in the hands of the sowcars (money-lenders), who make advances to them, and get cloths in return. The cloths thus obtained by the sowcars are exported to other parts of the country. It may be taken as a general fact that most of the professional weavers are indebted to the sowcars, and are bound to weave for them. So long as the seasons are favourable, and sowcars get indents for cloths from their customers, they continue their advances to their dependent weavers. But when, owing to any cause, the demand decreases, the sowcars curtail their advances proportionately, and the weavers are at once put to difficulty. According to the fineness and kind of fabrics turned out by the weavers, they may be divided into fine cloth weavers and silk weavers, and weavers of coarse cloths. It is the coarse cloth weavers that would be affected with the first appearance of distress. The consumers of their manufactures are the poorer classes, and, with the appearance of scarcity and high prices, the demand for the coarser kinds of cloths would cease. Such was actually the case at the beginning of the recent distress. The weavers are, as a class, not accustomed to hard manual labour, nor are they able to work exposed to heat and sun. If such people are put on earth-work, they would certainly fail to turn out the prescribed task, and consequently earn insufficient wages. They would thus be, as it were, punished for no fault of theirs. This state of things would last at least for some time, until the weavers got accustomed to earth-work. Again, these people have, by constant work at their own craft, attained to a certain degree of skill and delicacy, and, if compelled to do earth-work during the temporary unfavourable season, they would certainly lose, to some extent, their skill and delicacy of hand, and would become unfit, in that degree, for their accustomed work when favourable season returns. They would thus be put to inconvenience doubly. During the first part of the distress, their skill of hand, and delicacy of constitution would stand in their way, and, after the return of good season, the loss of manual skill and delicacy would place them at a disadvantage. It can be easily seen that giving relief to the weavers in their own calling is the most economical form of relief. In this form of special relief, Government advances materials to the weavers to be woven into different kinds of cloths. Government has no doubt to incur a large initial expenditure in the shape of value of materials, and wages for weavers for making these materials into cloths. But all the materials are returned woven into cloths, so that, at the close of the operations, Government has a stock of cloths, which can be disposed of without difficulty on the return of favourable times, and the cost incurred recovered. In this way, Government not only administers relief to a pretty large section of its poor subjects, but keeps up, with little or no cost to itself, the industrial skill of this section of the people.”

Of proverbs relating to the weaver, one runs to the effect that, “if you want to narrow the breadth of a river, you should plant reeds on its margin; and, if you desire to destroy the sanitation of a village, you should bring weavers to it, and settle them there.” When the dyes have to be fixed, and the dyed twist has to be washed, the weavers generally resort to running water, and pollute it. The several processes of twisting and untwisting threads, preparing skeins, etc., make combined labour a necessity in the weaving industry; and, wherever one finds a weaver settlement, he must find there a large number of these people, as is explained by the proverb that “the Chetti (merchant) lost by partnership, while the weaver came to grief by isolation.” When plying shuttles in the weaving process, the weavers always use their feet in shifting the warp, by treading on a press. Thus, if a weaver unfortunately happens to have a sore on his foot, it means loss to him; or, as the proverb says, “If a dog gets a sore on its head, it never recovers from it; and even so a weaver who gets a sore on his foot.”[6]

Salige (wire).—A gōtra of Kurni.

Sāliyan.—The Sāliyan weavers of Kornād and Ayyampet, in the Tanjore district, are a Tamil-speaking class, who must not be confused with the Telugu Sālēs. They afford an interesting example of how a limited number of families, following the same occupation, can crystallise into a separate caste. They claim to have a Purānam relating to their origin, which is said to be found in the Sthalapurānam of the Nallādai temple. They believe that they are the descendants of one Sāliya Mahā Rishi, a low-caste man, who did service for one Visākar, who was doing penance near Nallādai. Through the grace of the rishi Visākar, Sāliya became a rishi, and married two wives. The Sāliyans are said to be descended from the offspring of the first wife, and the Mottai Sāliyans from the offspring of the second.

The Sāliyans have taken to wearing the sacred thread, engage Brāhman purōhits, and are guided by Brāhman priests. They are said to have had their own caste priests until a Brāhman from Sendangudi, near Mayāvaram, accepted the office of priest. It is reported that, in former days, the Sāliyans were not allowed to sell their goods except in a fixed spot called māmaraththumēdu, where they set out their cloths on bamboos. High-caste people never touched the cloths, except with a stick. At the present day the Sāliyans occupy a good position in the social scale, and employ Brāhman cooks, though no other castes will eat in their houses.

A curious feature in connection with the Sāliyans is that, contrary to the usual rule among Tamil castes, they have exogamous septs or vīdu (house), of which the following are examples:—

Mandhi, black monkey. Kottāngkachchi, cocoanut shell. Thuniyan, cloth. Kachchandhi, gunny-bag. Vellai parangi, white vegetable marrow. Ettadiyan, eight feet. Thadiyan, stout. Kazhudhai, donkey. Thavalai, frog. Sappaikālan, crooked-legged. Malaiyan, hill. Kāththan, an attendant on Aiyanar. Ozhakkan, a measure. Thondhi, belly. Mungināzhi, bamboo measure. Ōdakkazhinjan, one who defæcated when running. Kamban, the Tamil poet. Ōttuvīdu, tiled house. Kalli, Euphorbia Tirucalli. Sirandhān, a noble person. Thambirān, master or lord. Kollai, backyard. Mādīvīdu, storeyed house. Murugan, name of a person.