sub-castes of the Pallis, recorded in the Census Report, 1901, are Kallangi in Chlngleput, bearing the title Reddi, and Kallavēli, or Kallan's fence, in the Madura district. The occupational title Kottan (bricklayer) was returned by some Pallis in Coimbatore. In the Salem district some Pallis are divided into Anju-nāl (five days) and Pannendū-nāl (twelve days), according as they perform the final death ceremonies on the fifth or twelfth day after death, to distinguish them from those who perform them on the sixteenth day.*[1] Another division of Pallis in the Salem district is based on the kind of ear ornament which is worn. The Ōlai Pallis wear a circular ornament (ōlai), and the Nāgavadam Pallis wear an ornament in shape like a cobra and called nāgavadam.
The Pallis are classed with the left-hand section. But the Census Superintendent, 1871, records that "the wives of the agricultural labourers (Pallis) side with the left hand, while the husbands help in fighting the battles of the right; and the shoe-makers' (Chakkiliyan) wives also take the side opposed to their husbands. During these factional disturbances, the ladies deny to their husbands all the privileges of the connubial state." This has not, however, been confirmed in recent investigations into the customs of the caste.
The Pallis are Saivites or Vaishnavites, but are also demonolaters, and worship Mutyālamma, Māriamma, Ayanar, Munēswara, Ankālamma, and other minor deities. Writing nearly a century ago concerning the Vana Pallis settled at Kolar in Mysore, Buchanan states † [2]that "they are much addicted to the worship of the saktis, or destructive powers, and endeavour to avert their wrath by bloody sacrifices. These are performed
