Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Todupuzha Vellāla
Todupuzha Vellāla. — For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar. Besides the Nanchinād Vellālas, there are, in Travancore, two sections of the Vellāla caste, inhabiting the mountainous Todupuzha tāluk. These are the Tenkanchi and Kumbakōnam Vellālas. The former are known by the popular name of Anjuttilkar, or the five hundred, and the latter are designated Munnutilkar, or the three hundred, in reference to the number of families which originally settled in the taluk. Like the Nanchinād Vellālas, they take the title of Pillai, and, in special cases, the honorific prefix Kanakku.
The Tenkanchi Vellālas appear to have dwelt originally in the Tenkāsi taluk of the Tinnevelly district, and to have emigrated, as the legend goes, on account of the demand of a Vaduka ruler for the hand of a member of their community in marriage. The Vadakkumkur Rājas were ruling over Todupuzha at the time of their migration, and afforded them a safe asylum. The Kumbakōnam Vellālas believe that they emigrated to Travancore about the commencement of the Malabar era from Kumbakōnam in the Tanjore district. Both divisions speak Malayālam, but there are clear indications in their speech that their mother-tongue was once Tamil, and they always use that language in their ceremonial writings. The Anjuttilkar women have adopted the dress and ornaments of the Nāyars. Both sections wear the tuft of hair in front, but the Munnutilkar women do not tie the hair on the left side like the Nāyars and Anjuttilkars, but behind like the Pāndi Vellālas. Nor do the Anjuttilkar women wear a white dress like the Tenkanchis, but a coloured cloth, sixteen cubits in length, in orthodox Tamil fashion. Again, while the Tenkanchi women largely resort to the todu and other Nāyar ornaments, the Kumbakōnam women are more conservative, and wear only the pampadam and melidu, though they sometimes wear jewels, such as the nāgapata tāli for the neck. Both sections are Saivites, in the sense that they abstain from flesh and fish.
Their principal occupation is agriculture. They worship the two mountain deities Bhadrakāli and Durgā. In the Kirikkot muri of the Karikkod proverty there is a temple dedicated to Siva or Unnamalanathar, with a large amount of property attached to it. This belongs to the Tenkanchi Vellālas, and a Malayālam Brāhman performs the priestly functions. The Kumbakōnam Vellālas have their own temples, such as the Ankalamma koil, Annamala matam, Vīrabhadran koil, etc., and worship, besides the principal gods of the Hindu pantheon, such minor deities as Vīrabhadran, Karuppan, Bhairavan, Māriamman, and Muttaramman. The priests of both sections are East Coast Brāhmans, who live in the Todupuzha tāluk. As their profession is regarded by other Brāhmans as degrading, they, especially in the case of the Kumbakōnam Vellālas, perform their duties stealthily. The headman of the Kumbakōnam section lives in the Periyakulam tāluk of the Madura district, and, by his order, an image of Siva is worshipped at their homes. Divorce is not permitted on any ground, and, in ancient days, widow remarriage was forbidden. There is a legend that a woman of this caste, who was a friend of the daughter of a certain Vadakkumkur Rājah, was so aggrieved at the news of her newly married husband's death that, at her intercession, the Rājah issued a proclamation permitting the remarriage of widows. If no husband has been found for a girl before she reaches puberty, certain propitiatory rites have to be performed, at which one of her female relations represents her. On the fourth day of the marriage ceremony, the bride and bridegroom, before they bathe, rub each other's bodies with oil, and, going to a large caldron containing water, throw a gold and silver ring into it, and pick them out three times. Inheritance of both sections is from father to son (makkathāyam). A sambandham alliance does not confer any rite of inheritance.
The names of both sections are such as are unknown among Nāyars, e.g., Sivalingam, Arunāchalam, Chidambaram, Arumukham. The Tenkanchis are considered to be higher in the social scale than the Kumbakōnam section, as they observe only twelve days' death pollution, whereas the latter are under pollution for sixteen days. The Tenkanchis may enter the temple, and, like Nāyars, stand on the left side of the inner shrine, whereas the Kumbakōnam Vellālas may proceed only as far as the balikkalpura, or out-house of the temple, and not enter the nalambalam. Again, butter-milk is freely received by Brāhmans from the Tenkanchis, but not from members of the Kumbakōnam section. While Pāndi Vellālas will not receive food from the Tenkanchis, or give their daughters in marriage to them, the latter will not intermarry with the Nānchinād Vellālas.