Tollakkādan (one with a big hole in the lobes of his ears).—Taken, at the census, 1901, as a sub-caste of Shānān, as those returning the name, who are vendors of husked rice in Madras, used the Shānān title Nādān. The equivalent Tollakādu was returned as a sub-division of Konga Vellāla.

Tōl Mēstri.—A sub-division of Semmān.

Tondamān.—It is stated, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, that the Tondamāns are “also called Sunnāmbukkāran (q.v.), a Tamil caste of lime (chunam) burners found only in the Tinnevelly district. They are said to be a branch of the Kallans who migrated to Tinnevelly from Pudukkōttai, or the Tondamān’s country. Its members are now drummers and pipers as well as lime-burners. Brāhmans are their purōhits, but they are not allowed to go into Hindu temples. They will eat in the houses of Maravans. Their title is Sōlagan.” It is noted, in the same report, that the Semmān caste “has two sub-divisions, Tondamān and Tōl-mēstri, and men of the former take wives from the latter, but men of the latter may not marry girls of the former.” Tondamān is the family name of the Rāja of Pudukkōttai, a Native State surrounded by the British districts of Tanjore, Madura, and Trichinopoly. The Rāja is the head of the Kallan caste. Copper coins, called amman kāsu, are current only within the State, and their greatest distribution is during Navarātri or Dusserah, when they are issued to the people with a dole of rice every day during the nine days of the festival. They bear on one side the word “Vijaya,” meaning victory, or more probably having reference to our faithful ally Vijaya Ragunātha Tondamān, in whose reign they were first struck, it is said in 1761, after the surrender of Pondicherry to the British.

Tondamandalam.—The name of a sub-division of Vellāla, derived from Tondanādu, the ancient Pallava country.

Tonti.—The Tontis are said to be cotton-weavers of Bengal, who have settled in Ganjam.[56] The name denotes threadmen, and the weaving of rough white cloths is the traditional occupation of the caste. All Tontis belong to a single gōtra named after Kāsyapa, one of the seven important rishis, and the priest of Parasurāma. Various bamsams or exogamous septs, the names of some of which occur also as titles, exist, e.g., Biswālo, Dasso, Pālo, Bono, Chondo, Parimaniko, Korono, Bēhara, and Mahāpātro. The marriage and death ceremonies conform to the standard Oriya type. On the fourth day of the marriage rites, a Bhondāri (barber) is presented with some beaten rice and sugar-candy in a new earthen pot. These are sold to those who have assembled, and the proceeds go to the Bhondāri. The corpse of a dead person is washed at the burning ground, instead of, in accordance with the common custom among other castes, at the house.

Toppa Tāli.—A name applied to certain Vāniyans in the North Arcot district, owing to the peculiar tāli (marriage badge) which married women wear.

Torai.—A title of various Oriya castes.

Toreya.—The Toreyas are a Canarese class, living chiefly in the Tamil districts of Coimbatore and Salem. They are said to have been originally fishermen and palanquin bearers, and the name is derived from turai, a river ghāt. Most of them are now cultivators, especially of the betel vine (Piper betle). Those whom I examined at Coimbatore were earning their living as betel and sugar-cane cultivators, vendors of tobacco, bakers, cloth merchants, contractors, petty traders, and police constables.

By the Coimbatore Toreyas, the following endogamous divisions were returned:—