Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Tigala

by Edgar Thurston

Tigala.— Tigala is summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as "a Canarese synonym for the Tamil Palli ; applied also by the Canarese people to any Tamil Sūdras of the lower castes." In parts of the Mysore country, the Tamil language is called Tigalu, and the Canarese Mādhva Brāhmans speak of Tamil Smarta Brāhmans as Tigalaru.

Some of the Tigalas, who have settled in Mysore, have forgotten their mother-tongue, and speak only Canarese, while others, e.g., those who live round about Bangalore, still speak Tamil. In their type of cranium they occupy a position intermediate between the dolichocephalic Pallis and the sub-brachy cephalic Canarese classes.

The difference in the type of cranium of the Tigalas and Tamil Pallis is clearly brought by the following tabular statements of their cephalic indices :—

a. Tigala —

68 ♦

69

70

71 ♦

72 ♦♦♦♦♦

73 ♦♦♦♦

74 ♦

75 ♦

76 ♦♦♦♦♦

77 ♦♦♦♦

78 ♦♦♦♦♦

79 ♦♦♦

80 ♦♦♦

81 ♦♦♦♦

82 ♦

83

84 ♦♦

b. Palli—

64 ♦

65

66

67 ♦♦

68 ♦

69 ♦

70 ♦

71 ♦♦♦♦

72 ♦♦♦♦♦

73 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

74 ♦♦♦♦

75 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

76 ♦

77 ♦

78 ♦

79 ♦♦

80 ♦

The Tigalas are kitchen and market gardeners, and cuhivate the betel vine. They apparently have three divisions, called Ulli (garlic or onions), Elē (leaf), and Arava (Tamil). Among the Ulli Tigalas, several subdivisions, and septs or budas named after deities or prominent members of the caste, exist, e.g. :—

I. Lakkamma —

Tōta dēvaru (garden god).

Dodda dēvaru (big or chief god).

Dodda Narasayya.

Dodda Nanjappa.

II. Ellammā —

Narasayya.

Muddanna.

III. Sidde dēvaru.

The Tigalas have a headman, whose office is hereditary, and who is assisted by a caste servant called Mudrē. Council meetings are usually held at a fixed spot, called gōni mara kattē or mudrē gōni mara kattē, because those summoned by the Mudrē assemble beneath a gōni (Ficus mysorensis) tree, round which a stone platform is erected. The tree and platform being sacred, no one may go there on wearing shoes or sandals. The members of council sit on a woollen blanket spread before the tree.

Like the Pallis or Vanniyans, the Tigalas call themselves Agni Vanni, and claim to be descended from the fire-born hero Agni Bannirāya. In connection with the Tigalas who have settled in the Bombay Presidency, it is noted^[1] that "they are a branch of the Mysore Tigalas, who are Tamil Palli emigrants from the Madras Presidency, and, like the Palli, claim a Kshatriya origin." The Tigalas possess a manuscript, said to be a copy of a sasana at Conjeeveram (Kānchi), from which the following extracts are taken. "This is a Kānchi sāsana published by Aswaththa Narayanswami, who was induced to do so by the god Varadaraja of Conjeeveram. This sāsana is written to acquaint the descendants of the Mahapurusha Agni Bannirāya with the origin, doings, and gōōtra of their ancestor Banniraya. This Bannirāya sprang from fire, and so is much beloved by Vishnu the many-armed, the many-eyed, and the bearer of the chank and chakram, and who is no other than Narayana, the lord of all the worlds great and small, and the originator of the Vēdas and Vedanta . . . . All those who see or worship this sāsana relating to Agni Bannirāya, who obtained boons from the Trimurthis, Devatas, and Rishis, and who is the ancestor of the Tigalas, will be prosperous, and have plenty of grain and children. Those who speak lightly of this caste will become subject to the curses of Banniraya, Trimurthis, Rishis, and Dēvas. The glory of this sasana is great, and is as follows :— The keeping and worshipping of this purana will enable the Tigalas of the Karnataka country to obtain the merit of surapadavi (the state of Dēvas), merit of doing pūja to a thousand lingams, a lakh of cow gifts, and a hundred kannikadānams (gifts of virgins for marriage)." The sāsana is said to have been brought to the Canarese country because of a quarrel between the Pallis and the Tigalas at the time of a Tigala marriage. The Tigalas were prevented from bringing the various biruthus (insignia), and displaying them. The sāsana was brought by the Tigalas, at an expenditure of Rs. 215, which sum was subsequently recovered from the Pallis.

Tigala occurs further as the name of a sub-division of Holeya.

1. Monograph, Eth. Survey, Bombay, No. 93, Tigala, 1907.