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THE TAMIL CASTES
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inference that Ambalakkaran, Muttiriyan, Kallan, Kurumban and Vanniyan belonged to the race of Nagas who inhabited the Northern Tamil districts, which constituted the ancient Pallava country or Tondaimandalam. When the power of the Pallavas was in its Zenith, that is about the sixth and seventh centuries A. D., their conquests extended to the south as far as Trichinopoly, and it must have been then that the Kallan and the Muttiriyan sections of the great Pallava, Palli or Malla tribe migrated to the Chola country—Tanjore and Trichinopoly. As a caste name neither Palli nor Kallan[1] occurs in early Tamil literature or inscriptions, but this extensive tribe was known as Pallava, and Mallava (பல்லவர்கோன், P. T.). The Pallava army was recruited from this martial tribe of Pallis or Kurumbas, and some of them were also feudal governors under the Pallava kings. Like the Paraiyas some of them claim their descent from Sambu or Siva, while all Pallis style themselves Vahni Kshatriyas. One section of the Palli or Pallava tribe, called the Muttarasar (Tel. Mutracha) ruled in the Chola country, first as feudatories of the Pallava and then of the Pandya kings during the eighth century A.D. It was during this period that Naladiyar was composed under the auspices of the Muttarasa governors. The Pallavas were the hereditary enemies of the three Tamil kings-Chera, Chola and Pandya-and their subjects

  1. There is a doubtful reference to the kalvars or kallar in the Agananuru, and it corresponds to the 'Dasyus' of the Indo-Aryans.