Velichchapād.
Velivēyabadina Rāzu.—The name, denoting Rāzus who were thrown out, of a class said to be descended from Rāzus who were excommunicated from their caste.[45]
Veliyam.—Recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as a title of Nāyars. In the same report Veliyattu is described as synonymous with Pulikkappanikkan, a sub-division of Nāyar.
Vellaikāran (white man).—A Tamil name for European.
Vellāla.—“The Vellālas,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,[46] “are the great farmer caste of the Tamil country, and they are strongly represented in every Tamil district. The word Vellālan is derived from vellānmai [vellam, water, anmai, management?] meaning cultivation, tillage. Dr. Oppert[47] considers Vellālan to be etymologically connected with Pallan, Palli, etc., the word meaning the lord of the Vallas or Pallas. The story of their origin is as follows. Many thousands of years ago, when the inhabitants of the world were rude and ignorant of agriculture, a severe drought fell upon the land, and the people prayed to Bhūdēvi, the goddess of the earth, for aid. She pitied them, and produced from her body a man carrying a plough, who showed them how to till the soil and support themselves. His offsprings are the Vellālas, who aspire to belong to the Vaisya caste, since that includes Gōvaisyas, Bhūvaisyas, and Dhanavaisyas (shepherds, cultivators and merchants). A few, therefore, constantly wear the sacred thread, but most put it on only during marriages or funerals as a mark of the sacred nature of the ceremony.”
The traditional story of the origin of the Vellālas is given as follows in the Baramahal Records.[48] “In ancient days, when the God Paramēsvaradu and his consort the goddess Parvati Dēvi resided on the top of Kailāsa Parvata or mount of paradise, they one day retired to amuse themselves in private, and by chance Visvakarma, the architect of the Dēvatas or gods, intruded on their privacy, which enraged them, and they said to him that, since he had the audacity to intrude on their retirement, they would cause an enemy of his to be born in the Bhūlōka or earthly world, who should punish him for his temerity. Visvakarma requested they would inform him in what part of the Bhūlōka or earthly world he would be born, and further added that, if he knew the birth place, he would annihilate him with a single blow. The divine pair replied that the person would spring up into existence from the bowels of the earth on the banks of the Ganga river. On this, Visvakarma took his sword, mounted his aerial car, and flew through the regions of ether to the banks of the Ganga river, where he anxiously waited the birth of his enemy. One day Visvakarma observed the ground to crack near him, and a kiritam or royal diadem appeared issuing out of the bowels of the earth, which Visvakarma mistook for the head of his adversary, and made a cut at it with his sword, but only struck off the kiritam. In the meantime, the person came completely out of the earth, with a bald pate, holding in his hand a golden ploughshare, and his neck encircled with garlands of flowers. The angry Visvakarma instantly laid hold on him, when the Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and the supporters of the eight corners of the universe, appeared in all their glory, and interceded for the earth-born personage, and said to Visvakarma thou didst vow that thou wouldst annihilate him with a single blow, which vow thou hast not performed; therefore with what justice hast thou a second time laid violent hands on him? Since thou didst not succeed in thy first attempt, it is but equitable that thou shouldst now spare him. At the intercession and remonstrance of the gods, Visvakarma quitted his hold, and a peace was concluded between him and his enemy on the following stipulation, viz., that the pancha jāti, or five castes of silversmiths, carpenters, ironsmiths, stone-cutters, and braziers, who were the sons of Visvakarma, should be subservient to the earth-born person. The deities bestowed on the person these three names. First Bhūmi Pālakudu or saviour of the earth, because he was produced by her. Second, Ganga kulam or descendant of the river Ganga, by reason of having been brought forth on her banks. Third, Murdaka Pālakudu or protector of the plough, alluding to his being born with a ploughshare in his hand, and they likewise ordained that, as he had lost his diadem, he should not be eligible to sovereignty, but that he and his descendants should till the ground with this privilege, that a person of the caste should put the crown on the king’s head at the coronation. They next invested him with the yegnōpavitam or string, and, in order that he might propagate his caste, they gave him in marriage the daughters of the gods Indra and Kubēra. At this time, the god Siva was mounted on a white bullock, and the god Dharmarāja on a white buffalo, which they gave him to plough the ground, and from which circumstance the caste became surnamed Vellal Wārus or those who plough with white bullocks. After the nuptials, the deities departed to their celestial abodes. Murdaka Pālakulu had fifty-four sons by the daughter of the god Indra, and fifty-two by the daughter of the god Kubēra, whom he married to the one hundred and six daughters of Nala Kubarudu, the son of Kubēra, and his sons-in-law made the following agreement with him, viz., that thirty-five of them should be called Bhūmi Pālakulu, and should till the ground; thirty-five of them named Vellal Shetti, and their occupation be traffic; and thirty-five of them named Gōvu Shetlu, and their employment breeding and feeding of cattle. They gave the remaining one the choice of three orders, but he would not have any connexion with any of them, from whence they surnamed him Agmurdi or the alien. The Agmurdi had born to him two thousand five hundred children, and became a separate caste, assuming the appellation of Agmurdi Vellal Wāru. The other brothers had twelve thousand children, who intermarried, and lived together as one caste, though their occupations were different.... During the reign of Krishna Rāyalu, whose capital was the city of Vijayanagaram or city of victory, a person of the Vellal caste, named Umbhi or Amultan Mudaliyar, was appointed sarvadhikari or prime minister, who had a samprati or secretary of the caste of Gollavāru or cowherds, whose name was Venayaterthapalli. It so happened that a set of Bhāgavata Sēvar, or strolling players, came to the city, and one night acted a play in the presence of Krishna Rāyalu and his court. In one of the acts, a player appeared in the garb and character of a female cowherd, and, by mimicking the actions and manners of that caste, afforded great diversion both to the Rāja and his courtiers. But no person seemed to be so much pleased as the prime minister, which being perceived by his secretary, he determined on making him pay dear for his mirth by turning the Vellal caste into ridicule, and thus hurt his pride, and take revenge for the pleasure he expressed at seeing the follies of the cowherd caste exposed. For that purpose, he requested the players, when they acted another play, to dress themselves up in the habit of a female of the Vellal caste. This scheme came to the ears of the prime minister, who, being a proud man, was sadly vexed at the trick, and resolved on preventing its being carried into execution; but, having none of his own caste present to assist him, and not knowing well how to put a stop to the business, he got into his palanquin, and went to a Canardha Shetti or headman of the right-hand caste, informed him of the circumstance, and begged his advice and assistance. The Shetti replied ‘Formerly the left-hand caste had influence enough with Government to get an order issued forbidding the right-hand caste to cultivate or traffic; therefore, when we quarrel again, do you contrive to prevent the ryots of the Vellal caste from cultivating the ground, so that the public revenue will fall short, and Government will be obliged to grant us our own terms; and I will save you from the disgrace that is intended to be put on you. The prime minister agreed to the proposal, and went home. At night, when the players were coming to the royal presence to act, and one of them had on the habit of a female of the Vellal caste, the Canardha Shetti cut off his head, and saved the honour of the prime minister. The death of the player being reported to the Rāja Krishna Rāyalu, he enquired into the affair, and finding how matters stood, he directed the prime minister and his secretary to be more circumspect in their conduct, and not to carry their enmity to such lengths.’ Since that time, the Vellal castes have always assisted the right-hand against the left-hand castes.” (See Kammālan.)
At the time of the census, 1871, some Vellālas claimed that they had been seriously injured in reputation, and handled with great injustice, in being classed as Sūdras by the Municipal Commissioners of Madras in the classification of Hindus under the four great divisions of Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sūdras. In their petition it was stated that “we shall first proceed to show that the Vellālas do come exactly within the most authoritative definition given of Vysias, and then point out that they do not come within the like definition of Sūdras. First then to the definition of Vysia, Manu, the paramount authority upon these matters, says in paragraph 90 of his Institutes:—‘To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to read the scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to cultivate land, are prescribed or permitted to a Vysia.’” In the course of the petition, the Vellālas observed that “it is impossible to imagine that the Vellālas, a race of agriculturists and traders, should have had to render menial service to the three higher classes; for the very idea of service is, as it needs must be, revolting to the Vellāla, whose profession teaches him perfect independence, and dependence, if it be, upon the sovereign alone for the protection of his proper interests. Hence a Vellāla cannot be of the Sūdra or servile class. Besides, that the Vellālas are recognised as a respectable body of the community will also appear from the following. There was a ceremony called tulabhāram (weighing in scales) observed by the ancient kings of, at some part of their lives, distributing in charity to the most deserving gold and silver equal to the weight of their persons; and tradition alleges that, when the kings of Tanjore performed this ceremony, the right to weigh the king’s person was accorded to the Vellālan Chettis. This shows that the Vellālas have been recognised as a respectable body of mercantile men in charge of weights and measures (Manu 30, chap. 9). So also, in the Halasya Purānam of Madura, it is said that, when the King Somasundara Pandien, who was supposed to be the very incarnation of Siva, had to be crowned, there arose a contention as to who was to put the crown on his head. After much discussion, it was agreed that one of the Vellālas, who formed the strength of the community (note the fact that Manu says that Vysia came from the thighs of the Supreme Deity, which, as an allegory, is interpreted to mean the strength of the State) should be appointed to perform that part of the ceremony. Also, in Kamban’s Rāmayana, written 1,000 and odd years ago, it is said that the priest Vasista handed the crown to a Vellāla, who placed it upon great Rama’s head.”
In ‘The Tamils eighteen hundred years ago,’ Mr. V. Kanakasabhai writes that “among the pure Tamils, the class most honoured was the Arivar or Sages. Next in rank to the Arivar were the Ulavar or farmers. The Arivars were ascetics, but, of the men living in society, the farmers occupied the highest position. They formed the nobility, or the landed aristocracy, of the country. They were also called Vellālar, ‘lords of the flood,’ or ‘Karalar,’ ‘lords of the clouds,’ titles expressive of their skill in controlling floods, and in storing water for agricultural purposes. The Chera, Chola and Pandyan Kings, and most of the petty chiefs of Tamilakam, belonged to the tribe of Vellālas. The poor families of Vellālas who owned small estates were generally spoken of as the Veelkudi-Uluvar or ‘the fallen Vellālas,’ implying thereby that the rest of the Vellālas were wealthy land-holders. When Karikāl the Great defeated the Aruvālar, and annexed their territory to his kingdom, he distributed the conquered lands among Vellāla chiefs.[49] The descendants of some of these chiefs are to this day in possession of their lands, which they hold as petty zamindars under the British Government.[50] The Vellāla families who conquered Vadukam, or the modern Telugu country, were called Velamas, and the great zamindars there still belong to the Velama caste. In the Canarese country, the Vellālas founded the Bellāl dynasty, which ruled that country for several centuries. The Vellālas were also called the Gangakula or Gangavamsa, because they derived their descent from the great and powerful tribe named Gāngvida, which inhabited the valley of the Ganges, as mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy. A portion of Mysore which was peopled mostly by Vellālas was called Gangavādi in the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian era. Another dynasty of kings of this tribe, who ruled Orissa in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was known as the Gangavamsa.... In the earliest Tamil grammar extant, which was composed by a Brāhman named Tholkāppiyan, in the first or second century B.C., frequent allusions are made to the Arivar or Sages. But, in the chapter in which he describes the classes of society, the author omits all mention of the Arivar, and places the Brahmins who wear the sacred thread as the first caste. The kings, he says, very guardedly, and not warriors, form the second caste, as if the three kings Chera, Chola and Pāndy could form a caste; all who live by trade belong to the third caste. He does not say that either the kings or the merchants wear the sacred thread. Then he singles out the Vellālas, and states that they have no other calling than the cultivation of the soil. Here he does not say that the Vellālas are Sudras, but indirectly implies that the ordinary Vellālas should be reckoned as Sudras, and that those Vellālas who were kings should be honoured as Kshatriyas. This is the first attempt made by the Brahmins to bring the Tamils under their caste system. But, in the absence of the Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra castes in Tamilakam, they could not possibly succeed; and to this day the Vellāla does not take meals at the hands of a Padaiyadchi, who calls himself a Kshatriya, or a merchant who passes for a Vaisya.” In speculating on the origin of the Vellālas, Mr. J. H. Nelson[51] states that “tradition uniformly declares them to be the descendants of foreign immigrants, who were introduced by the Pāndyas: and it appears to be extremely probable that they are, and that an extensive Vellāla immigration took place at a rather remote period, perhaps a little before or after the colonization of the Tonda-mandala by Adondai Chakravarti. The Vellālas speak a pure dialect of Tamil, and no other language. I have not heard of anything extraordinary in the customs prevailing among them, or of any peculiarities pointing to a non-Tamil origin.... With regard to the assertion so commonly made that the Pāndyas belonged to the Vellāla caste, it is observable that tradition is at issue with it, and declares that the Pāndyas proper were Kshatriyas: but they were accustomed to marry wives of inferior castes as well as and in addition to wives of their own caste; and some of their descendants born of the inferior and irregularly married wives were Vellālans, and, after the death of Kūn or Sundara Pāndya, formed a new dynasty, known as that of the pseudo-Pāndyas. Tradition also says that Arya Nāyaga Muthali, the great general of the sixteenth century, was dissuaded by his family priest from making himself a king on the ground that he was a Vellālan, and no Vellālan ought to be a king. And, looking at all the facts of the case, it is somewhat difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion that the reason assigned for his not assuming the crown was the true one. This, however, is a question, the settlement of which requires great antiquarian learning: and it must be settled hereafter.”
In the Madras Census Report, 1871, the Vellālas are described as “a peace-loving, frugal, and industrious people, and, in the cultivation of rice, betel, tobacco, etc., have perhaps no equals in the world. They will not condescend to work of a degrading nature. Some are well educated, and employed in Government service, and as clerks, merchants, shop-keepers, etc., but the greater part of them are the peasant proprietors of the soil, and confine their attention to cultivation.” In the Madura Manual, it is recorded that “most Vellālans support themselves by husbandry, which, according to native ideas, is their only proper means of livelihood. But they will not touch the plough, if they can help it, and ordinarily they do everything by means of hired servants and predial slaves. In the Sathaga of Nārāyanan may be found a description of their duties and position in society, of which the following translation appears in Taylor’s work, the Oriental MSS. The Vellālans, by the effect of their ploughing (or cultivation), maintain the prayers of the Brāhmans, the strength of kings, the profits of merchants, the welfare of all. Charity, donations, the enjoyments of domestic life, and connubial happiness, homage to the gods, the Sāstras, the Vēdas, the Purānas, and all other books, truth, reputation, renown, the very being of the gods, things of good report or integrity, the good order of castes, and (manual) skill, all these things come to pass by the merit (or efficacy) of the Vellālan’s plough. Those Vellālans who are not farmers, husbandmen, or gardeners, are employed in various ways more or less respectable; but none of them will condescend to do work of a degrading nature. Some of them are merchants, some shop-keepers, some Government servants, some sepoys, some domestic servants, some clerks, and so forth.” In the Tanjore Manual, it is stated that “many Vellālars are found in the Government service, more especially as karnams or village accountants. As accountants they are unsurpassed, and the facility with which, in by-gone days, they used to write on cadjan or palmyra leaves with iron styles, and pick up any information on any given points from a mass of these leaves, by lamp-light no less than by daylight, was most remarkable. Running by the side of the Tahsildar’s (native revenue officer) palanquin, they could write to dictation, and even make arithmetical calculations with strictest accuracy. In religious observances, they are more strict than the generality of Brāhmans; they abstain from both intoxicating liquors and flesh meat.” In the Coimbatore Manual, the Vellālas are summed up as “truly the backbone of the district. It is they who, by their industry and frugality, create and develop wealth, support the administration, and find the money for imperial and district demands. As their own proverb says:—The Vellālar’s goad is the ruler’s sceptre. The bulk of them call themselves Goundans.” In the Salem Manual, the Vellāla is described as “frugal and saving to the extreme; his hard-working wife knows no finery, and the Vellālichi, (Vellāla woman) willingly wears for the whole year the one blue cloth, which is all that the domestic economy of the house allows her. If she gets wet, it must dry on her; and, if she would wash her sole garment, half is unwrapped to be operated upon, which in its turn relieves the other half, that is then and there similarly hammered against some stone by the side of the village tank (pond), or on the bank of the neighbouring stream. Their food is the cheapest of the ‘dry’ grains which they happen to cultivate that year, and not even the village feasts can draw the money out of a Vellālar’s clutches. It is all expended on his land, if the policy of the revenue administration of the country be liberal, and the acts of Government such as to give confidence to the ryots or husbandmen; otherwise their hoarded gains are buried. The new moon, or some high holiday, may perhaps see the head of the house enjoy a platter of rice and a little meat, but such extravagance is rare.” The Vellālas are summed up by ‘A Native,’[52] as being “found in almost every station of life, from the labourer in the fields to the petty zamindar (landholder); from the owner of plantations to the cooly who works at coffee-picking; from the Deputy Collector to the peon in his office.” It is recorded, in the Census Report, 1871, that a Vellāla had passed the M.A. degree examination of the Madras University. The occupations of the Vellālas whom I examined in Madras were as follows:—