Tirumudi (holy knot).—Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as “bricklayers, whose women are usually prostitutes; found chiefly in Salem and Coimbatore. They are either Vēttuvans or Kaikōlans. Kaikōlan women, when they are dedicated to the temple, are supposed to be united in wedlock with the deity.
Tiruvalluvan.—A sub-division of Valluvan. Tiruvalluvar, the author of the Kurāl, is said to have belonged to the Valluva caste.
Tiru-vilakku-nagarattar (dwellers in the city of holy lamps).—A name assumed by Vāniyans (oil-pressers).
Tiyadi.—A synonym of the Tiyāttunni section of Ambalavāsis (see Unni).
Tiyan.—The Tiyans, and Izhuvans or Iluvans, are the Malayālam toddy-drawing castes of Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. The following note, except where otherwise indicated, is taken from an account of the Tiyans of Malabar by Mr. F. Fawcett.
The Tiyans in Malabar number, according to the census returns, 512,063, or 19·3 per cent. of the total population. The corresponding figures for the Izhuvans are 101,638, or 3·8 per cent. The Tiyans have been summed up[16] as the middle class of the west coast, who cultivate the ground, take service as domestics, and follow trades and professions—anything but soldiering, of which they have an utter abhorrence.
The marumakkatāyam system (inheritance through the female line), which obtains in North Malabar, has favoured temporary connections between European men and Tiyan women, the children belonging to the mother’s tarvad. Children bred under these conditions, European influence continuing, are often as fair as Europeans. It is recorded, in the Report of the Malabar Marriage Commission, 1894, that “in the early days of British rule, the Tiyan women incurred no social disgrace by consorting with Europeans, and, up to the last generation, if the Sūdra girl could boast of her Brāhman lover, the Tiyan girl could show more substantial benefits from her alliance with a white man of the ruling race. Happily, the progress of education, and the growth of a wholesome public opinion, have made shameful the position of a European’s concubine; and both races have thus been saved from a mode of life equally demoralising to each.” On this point, Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer writes as follows.[17] “It is true that there is an elevation both physically and mentally in the progeny of such a parentage. On making enquiries about this, I learn from a respectable and educated Tiyan gentleman that this union is looked upon with contempt by the respectable class of people, and by the orthodox community. I am further informed that such women and children, with their families, are under a ban, and that respectable Tiya gentlemen who have married the daughters of European parentage are not allowed to enjoy the privileges of the caste. There are, I hear, several such instances in Calicut, Tellicherry, and Cannanore. Women of respectable families do not enter into such connection with Europeans.”
It is commonly supposed that the Tiyans and Izhuvans came from Ceylon. It is recorded, in the South Canara Manual, that “it is well known that both before and after the Christian era there were invasions and occupations of the northern part of Ceylon by the races then inhabiting Southern India, and Malabar tradition tells us that some of these Dravidians migrated again from Īram or Ceylon northwards to Travancore and other parts of the west coast of India, bringing with them the cocoanut or southern tree (tengina mara), and being known as Tīvars (islanders) or Īravars, which names have since been altered to Tīyars and Ilavars. Dr. Caldwell derives Īram from the Sanskrit Simhala through the Pali Sihala by the omission of the initial S.” It is noted by Bishop Caldwell[18] that there are traces of a common origin of the Iluvans and Shānars, Shānar (or Shēnēr), for instance, being a title of honour amongst the Travancore Ilavars. And it is further recorded[19] that there is a tradition that the Shānars came originally from Ceylon. The Izhuvans are supposed to derive their caste name from Izha dwipa (island) or Simhala dwipa (both denoting Ceylon). In a Tamil Puranic work, quoted by Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer, mention is made of a King Illa of Ceylon, who went to Chidambaram in the Tamil country of Southern India, where a religious discussion took place between the Buddhist priests and the Saivite devotee Manickavachakar in the presence of King Illa, with the result that he was converted to the Saivite faith. From him the Iluvans are said to be descended.
The Tiyans are always styled Izhuvan in documents concerning land, in which the Zamorin, or some Brāhman or Nāyar grandee, appears as landlord. The Tiyans look down on the Izhuvans, and repudiate the relationship. Yet they cannot but submit to be called Izhuvan in their documents, for their Nāyar or Brāhman landlord will not let them have the land to cultivate, unless they do so. It is a custom of the country for a man of a superior caste to pretend complete ignorance of the caste of an individual lower in the social scale. Thus, in the Wynād, where there are several jungle tribes, one is accustomed to hear a man of superior caste pretending that he does not know a Paniyan from a Kurumba, and deliberately miscalling one or the other, saying “This Paniyan,” when he knows perfectly well that he is a Kurumba. It is quite possible, therefore, that, though Tiyans are written down as Izhuvans, the two were not supposed to be identical. State regulations keep the Izhuvans of Cochin and Travancore in a position of marked social inferiority, and in Malabar they are altogether unlettered and uncultured. On the other hand, the Tiyans of Malabar provide Magistrates, Sub-Judges, and other officials to serve His Majesty’s Government. It may be noted that, in 1907, a Tiya lady matriculate was entertained as a clerk in the Tellicherry post-office.
A divagation must be made, to bring the reader to a comprehension of the custom surrounding māttu, a word signifying change, i.e., change of cloth, which is of sufficient importance to demand explanation. When a man or woman is outcasted, the washerwoman (or man) and the barber of the community (and no other is available) are prohibited from performing their important parts in the ceremonies connected with birth, death, and menstruation. A person who is in a condition of impurity is under the same conditions; he or she is temporarily outcasted. This applies to Nambūtiris and Nāyars, as well as to the Tiyans. Now the washerwoman is invariably of the Tiyan caste. There are Mannāns, whose hereditary occupation is washing clothes for Nambūtiris and Nāyars, but, for the most part, the washerwoman who washes for the Nāyar lady is of the Tiyan caste. A woman is under pollution after giving birth to a child, after the death of a member of her tarvad, and during menstruation. And the pollution must be removed at the end of the prescribed period, or she remains an outcaste—a very serious thing for her. The impurity is removed by receiving a clean cloth from the washerwoman, and giving in exchange her own cloth to be washed. This is māttu, and, be it noted, the cloth which gives māttu is one belonging to the washerwoman, not to the person to be purified. The washerwoman gives her own cloth to effect the purification. Theoretically, the Tiyan has the power to give or withhold māttu, and thus keep any one out of caste in a state of impurity; but it is a privilege which is seldom if ever exercised. Yet it is one which he admittedly holds, and is thus in a position to exercise considerable control over the Nambūtiri and Nāyar communities. It is odd that it is not a soiled cloth washed and returned to the person which gives purification, but one of the washerwoman’s own cloths. So the māttu may have a deeper meaning than lies in mere change of cloth, dressing in a clean one, and giving the soiled one to a person of inferior caste to wash. This māttu is second in importance to no custom. It must be done on the last day of pollution after birth and death ceremonies, and menstruation, or the person concerned remains outcasted. It is noteworthy that the Izhuvans know nothing of māttu.