some from vellam, flood, and alan, a ruler, hence a cultivator ; while others derive it from vellanmai, cultivation. Neither seems to be quite correct, for the right form of this word is Vellân and it occurs in early Tamil inscriptions. In Tamil the words allied to it are vel, the god of war ; vel-ir, the ruling class among the ancient Tamils ; vel-akkaran,a foot-soldier (now obsolete, but found in the inscriptions of Raja-raja Chola); vel, help ; vel-anmai, truth ; and Vell-alan, a cultivator. The last two are rarely to be met with in early Tamil literature, while in the others we hear the sound of the war drum. Compare the word padai (படை) which meant an army, a weapon of war and a plough ; and to distinguish 'a plough' from the other implements it is now called உழுபடை or a ploughing weapon. And it may be pointed out that all the modern cultivating castes-the Bants, the Nayars, the Pallis and the Telagas or Velainas-were formerly martial tribes like the ancient Vellalas.
Literary evidence : (a) The artificial irrigation of the soil by constructing large reservoirs and canals on an extensive scale was encouraged by the early Tamils.
நிலனெளி மருங்கி னீர்நிலைபெருகத்
தட்டோரம் மவிவட்டட்டோரே.-Pur.
(Verily, he who has turned the bent (low) land into a reservoir to arrest the flow of the running water is one who has established a name in this world.)
This system, says Meadows Taylor, 'existed probably in no other country except Babylon.'
