Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Sādhana Sūrulu
Sādhana Sūrulu.— Sādhanasūra is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a synonym of Samayamuvādu. In a note on this class of itinerant mendicants, Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao states that, unlike the Samayamuvāru, they are attached only to the Padma Sālē section of the Sālē caste. "They say," he writes, "that their name is an abbreviated form of Rēnukā Sakthini Sādhinchinavāru, i.e., those who conquered Rēnukā Sakthi. According to tradition, Rēnukā was the mother of Parasurāma, one of the avatars of Vishnu, and is identified with the goddess Yellammā, whom the Padma Sālēs revere. The Sādhana Sūrulu are her votaries. Ages ago, it is said, they prayed to her on behalf of the Padma Sālēs, and made her grant boons to them. Since that time they have been treated with marked respect by the Padma Sālēs, who pay them annually four annas, and see to their marriages."