| Paraiya | |
|---|---|
 A group of Paraiyars in the Madras Presidency, 1909 | |
| Classification | Scheduled Caste |
| Religions | Hinduism (Shaivism),Christianity,Buddhism,Islam |
| Languages | Tamil,Malayalam,Sanskrit |
| Country | India, Sri Lanka |
| Populated states | Tamil Nadu,Kerala,Puducherry |
| Ethnicity | Tamils |
| Related groups | Sri Lankan Tamils • otherDravidians |
Paraiyar,[1]Parayar[2] orMaraiyar (IPA:[pɐrɐ(i̯)jɐɾ], formerly anglicised asPariah/pəˈraɪ.ə/pə-RY-ə andParee)[3] is acaste group found in theIndian states ofTamil Nadu andKerala and inSri Lanka.
Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who worked in South India, was in agreement with some Indian writers of the same period who considered the name to derive from theTamil wordparai (drum).
According to thishypothesis, the Paraiyars were originally a community of drummers who performed at important events like weddings and funerals.[4]
M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, writing a little later, found this etymology unsatisfactory, arguing that beating of drums could not have been an occupation of so many people.
Sociologist Karthikeyan Damodaran also challenges the notion that the Paraiyars were primarily drum beaters, arguing they are the largest caste group in Tamil Nadu and engaged in diverse occupations like agriculture and weaving. He contends that the name's history is misleading, with some scholars even linking its etymology to the Malayalam word 'paraiy' (to speak). Damodaran asserts that their shared experience of untouchability, stemming from the "menial" perception of their various jobs, was the unifying factor.[4]
Some other writers, such asGustav Solomon Oppert, have derived the name from the Tamil wordporaian, the name of a regional subdivision mentioned by ancient Tamil grammarians, or theSanskritpahariya, meaning "hill man".[5]
More recently,George L. Hart's textual analysis of theSangam literature (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE) has led him to favour Caldwell's earlier hypothesis. The literature has references to the Tamil caste system and refers to a number of "low-born" groups variously calledPulaiyar andKinaiyar. Hart believes that one of the drums calledkiṇai in the literature later came to be calledpaṟai and the people that played the drum wereparaiyar (plural ofparaiyan).[6]
Paraiyar as a word referring to an occupational group first appears in the second century CE writings ofMangudi Kilar.[citation needed]
The 335th poem of thePurananuru mentions the Paraiyar:
Other than the Tutiyan drummers and the Panan singers
and the Paraiyans and the Katampans, there are no castes.[7]
This poem is sometimes interpreted as evidence of there being only four castes in ancientTamilakam. However, in their translation of the Purananuru, George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz argue that this interpretation is incorrect: as with other poems in this section of the Purananuru, this verse "deals with life in a marginal village... All these plants, food, castes, and gods are typically those found in such marginal areas," and thus the four castes mentioned here should not be taken as a comprehensive list of all Tamil castes in this period.[8]
Hart says that thepulaiyar performed a ritual function by composing and singing songs in the king's favour and beating drums, as well as travelling around villages to announce royal decrees. They were divided into subgroups based on the instruments they played and one of these groups – the Kinaiyan – "was probably the same as the modern Paraiyan".[9] He says that these people were believed to be associated with magical power and kept at a distance, made to live in separate hamlets outside villages. However, their magical power was believed to sustain the king, who had the ability to transform it into auspicious power.[10] Moffatt is less sure of this, saying that we do not know whether the distancing was a consequence of the belief in their magical powers or in Hinduism's ritual pollution as we know of it nowadays.[11]
Burton Stein describes an essentially continuous process of expansion of the nuclear areas of the caste society into forest and upland areas of tribal and warrior people, and their integration into the caste society at the lowest levels. Many of the forest groups were incorporated as Paraiyar either by association with theparai drum or by integration into the low-status labouring groups who were generically called Paraiyar. Thus, it is thought that Paraiyar came to have many subcastes.[14] According to 1961 Madras Census Report, castes that are categorised under Paraiyar include Koliyar, Panchamar, Thoti, Vettiyan, Vetti, Vellam, Vel, Natuvile, Pani, Pambaikaran, Ammaparaiyan, Urumikaran, Morasu, Tangalam, Samban, Paryan, Nesavukaraparayan, Thotiparayan, Kongaparayan, Mannaparayan, and Semban.[citation needed]
During theBhakti movement (c. 7th–9th centuries CE), the saints –ShaiviteNayanars and theVaishnaviteAlvars – contained one saint each from the untouchable communities. The Nayanar saintNandanar was born, according toPeriya Puranam, in a "threshold of the huts covered with strips of leather", with mango trees from whose branches were hung drums. "In this abode of the people of the lowest caste (kadainar), there arose a man with a feeling of true devotion to the feet ofSiva." Nandanar was described as a temple servant and leather worker, who supplied straps for drums and gut-string for stringed instruments used in theChidambaram temple, but he was himself not allowed to enter the temple.[15] The Paraiyar regard Nandanar as one of their own caste.[16] Paraiyars wear thesacred thread under rituals such as marriage and funeral.[17]
Scholars such as Burchett and Moffatt state that the Bhakti devotationalism did not undermine Brahmin ritual dominance. Instead, it might have strengthened it by warding off challenges fromJainism andBuddhism.[18][19]
According to historian Stalin Rajangham, the Paraiyar community's experience of untouchability is a relatively recent phenomenon, with little evidence before the 12th century BCE. He posits that their social decline was gradual, with untouchability becoming institutionalized under Chola, Nayak, and British rule, exacerbated by the appropriation of their lands. During these periods, negative portrayals in arts and literature, coupled with denial of temple access, further diminished the Paraiyars' social standing.[4]
By the early 19th century, the Paraiyars had a degraded status in the Tamil society.[20]Francis Buchanan's report on socio-economic condition of South Indians described them ("Pariar") as inferior caste slaves, who cultivated the lands held byBrahmins. This report largely shaped the perceptions of the British officials about contemporary society. They regarded Pariyars as an outcaste, untouchable community.[21] In the second half of the 19th century, there were frequent descriptions of the Paraiyars in official documents and reformist tracts as being "disinherited sons of the earth".[22][23] The first reference to the idea may be that written byFrancis Whyte Ellis in 1818, where he writes that the Paraiyars "affect to consider themselves as the real proprietors of the soil". In 1894, William Goudie, aWesleyan missionary, said that the Paraiyars were self-evidently the "disinherited children of the soil".[23] English officials such as Ellis believed that the Paraiyars wereserfs toiling under a system of bonded labour that resembled the Europeanvilleinage.[24] However, scholars such as Burton Stein argue that the agricultural bondage in Tamil society was different from the contemporary British ideas ofslavery.[25]
Historians such as David Washbrook have argued that the socio-economic status of the Paraiyars rose greatly in the 18th century during theCompany rule in India; Washbrook calls it the "Golden Age of the Pariah".[26] Raj Sekhar Basu disagrees with this narrative, although he agrees that there were "certain important economic developments".[27]
TheChurch Mission Society converted many Paraiyars to Christianity by the early 19th century.[28] During the British Raj, the missionary schools and colleges admitted Paraiyar students amid opposition from the upper-caste students. In 1893, the colonial government sanctioned an additional stipend for the Paraiyar students.[29] Many of the colonial officials, scholars, and missionaries expressed the opinion, that Paraiyars as a community, enjoyed a high status in the past.Edgar Thurston (1855–1935), is of the opinion, that their status was nearly equal to that of the Brahmins in the past.[30] H. A. Stuart, in his Census Report of 1891, claimed thatValluvars were a priestly class among the Paraiyars, and served as priests duringPallava reign.Robert Caldwell,J. H. A. Tremenheere andEdward Jewitt Robinson claimed that the ancient poet-philosopherThiruvalluvar was a Paraiyar.[31]
Iyothee Thass, aSiddha doctor by occupation, belonged to a Paraiyar elite. In 1892, he demanded access for Paraiyars to Hindu temples, but faced resistance fromBrahmins andVellalars. This experience led him to believe that it was impossible to emancipate the community within the Hindu fold. In 1893, he also rejectedChristianity andIslam as the alternatives to Hinduism, because caste differences hadpersisted among Indian Christians, while the backwardness of contemporary local Muslims made Islam unappealing.[32]
Thass subsequently attempted a Buddhist reconstruction of the Tamil religious history. He argued that the Paraiyars were originally followers ofBuddhism and constituted the original population of India. According to him, the Brahmanical invaders fromPersia defeated them and destroyed Buddhism in southern India; as a result, the Paraiyars lost their culture, religion, wealth and status in the society and become destitute. In 1898, Thass and many of his followers converted to Buddhism and founded the Sakya Buddha Society (cākkaiya putta caṅkam) with the influential mediation ofHenry Steel Olcott of theTheosophical Society. Olcott subsequently and greatly supported the Tamil Paraiyar Buddhists.[33]
Jean-Antoine Dubois, a French missionary who worked in India between 1792 and 1823 and had aBrahmin-centric outlook, recorded the community's name asPariah. He described them as people who lived outside the system of morals prescribed by Hinduism, accepted that outcaste position and were characterised by "drunkenness, shamelessness, brutality, truthlessness, uncleanliness, disgusting food practices, and an absolute lack of personal honour". Moffat says this led topariah entering the English language as "a synonym for the socially ostracised and the morally depraved".[34]
Iyothee Thass felt thatParaiyar was aslur, and campaigned against its usage. During the 1881census of India, he requested the government to record the community members under the nameAboriginal Tamils. He later suggestedDravidian as an alternative term, and formed the Dhraavidar Mahajana Sabhai (DravidianMahajana Assembly) in 1891. Another Paraiyar leader,Rettamalai Srinivasan, however, advocated using the termParaiyar with pride. In 1892, he formed the Parayar Mahajana Sabha (Paraiyar Mahajana Assembly), and also started a news publication titledParaiyan.[35]
Thass continued his campaign against the term, and petitioned the government to discontinue its usage, demanding punishment for those who used the term. He incorrectly claimed that the termParaiyar was not found in any ancient records (it has been, in fact, found in the 10th-centuryChola stone inscriptions fromKolar district).[35] Thass subsequently advocated the termAdi Dravida (Original Dravidians) to describe the community. In 1892, he used the termAdidravida Jana Sabhai to describe an organisation, which was probably Srinivasan's Parayar Mahajana Sabha. In 1895, he established the People's Assembly of Urdravidians (Adidravida Jana Sabha), which probably split off from Srinivasan's organisation. According to Michael Bergunder, Thass was thus the first person to introduce the concept ofAdi Dravida into political discussion.[36]
Another Paraiyar leader,M. C. Rajah — aMadras councillor — made successful efforts for adoption of the termAdi-Dravidar in the government records.[35] In 1914, theMadras Legislative Council passed a resolution that officially censured the usage of the termParaiyar to refer to a specific community, and recommendedAdi Dravidar as an alternative.[37] In the 1920s and 1930s,Periyar E. V. Ramasamy ensured the wider dissemination of the termAdi Dravida.[36]
Paraiyars belong to theValangai ("Right-hand caste faction"). Some of them assume the titleValangaimaan ("Head of the right-hand division"). TheValangai comprised castes with an agricultural basis while theIdangai consisted of castes involved in manufacturing.[38]Valangai were better organised politically.[39]
As of 2017[update], the Paraiyar were a listed as aScheduled Caste inTamil Nadu under India'ssystem of affirmative action.[40]
Malavazhiyattam is a ritualistic dance drama performed once a year by the Paraya community in Kerala.[41]Malavazhi is the mother goddesses who are installed in the homes of the Parayas and worshiped by them.Malavazhiyattam is performed to please the deities through music and drama.[42]
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Paraiya" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | This sectionmay beconfusing or unclear to readers. In particular, Most of these people seem to be from Dalit background, but not specifically from Paraiyar community. Can someone please clarify if they are from the Paraiyar community, if so please quote citations as well. Please helpclarify the section. There might be a discussion about this onthe talk page.(November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Citations
Ilayaraja was born in a Pariar family – a Tamil poorvakudi, one of the original Tamil castes.
Bibliography
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