Thondaimandala Vellalar

Thondaimandala Vellalar is a high-ranking subcaste of the Vellalar caste in the state of Tamil Nadu, India who tend, to adopt the title of Mudaliar[1] and they have been traditional "landlords, warriors, and officials of the state class" described by the anthropologist Kathleen Gough.[2]

Background

Susan Neild notes the Kondaikatti Vellalar, Thondai Mandala Aadhi Saiva Vellalar and Thuluva Vellalars as being the "predominant" subcastes of the Thondamandala Vellala.[3][lower-alpha 1]They practice endogamy and have a least two subgroups themselves, being the higher-status Melnadu and the lower-ranked Kilnadu.[5]

According to Burton Stein the Thondaimandala Vellalar appeared to be linked to the Morasu Vokkaligas of Bangalore and Kolar.[6]

In her study concentrated on two villages in 1951-53, Kathleen Gough noted the Thondamandala Vellala subjects there to have been traditionally "landlords, warriors, and officials of the state class". She thought it likely that they had moved to their present area in Thanjavur around the 15th century when the Vijayanagaras were making incursions on their former heartland of Kanchipuram in the Pallava country. She noted those households studied as being the highest-ranked members of the village community after the Brahmins, and possibly to have in some cases increased their wealth and land by being appointed as revenue collectors for the Kingdom of Mysore when it took over the area in the period after 1780.[2]

References

Notes

Susan Bayly has noted of the Vellalar communities generally that "they were never a tighly-knit community ... In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Vellala affiliation was a vague and uncertain as that of most other south Indian caste groups. Vellala identity was certainly thought of as a source of prestige, but for that very reason there were any number of groups who sought to claim Vellala status for themselves".[4]

Citations

Gough (1982), p. 19
Gough (1982), pp. vii, 358
Neild (1979)
Bayly (2004), p. 411
Gough (1982), p. 25
Stein, Burton (1980). Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-19-563507-2.:”The Gangadikara peasantry of Gangavadi appears to have been more significantly linked to the Kongu peasantry to the south than to peasant peoples in the central and northern parts of medieval Karnataka. Similarly, the Marasu Vokkaligas of eastern Bangalore and central and southern Kolar districts appear to have been linked to Tondaimandalam”

Bibliography

Bayly, Susan (2004) [1989]. Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52189-103-5.
Gough, Kathleen (1982). Rural Society in South East Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52104-019-8.
Neild, Susan M. (1979). "Colonial Urbanism: The Development of Madras City in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries". Modern Asian Studies. 13 (2): 217–246. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00008301. JSTOR 312124.

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[5] Susan Bayly has noted of the Vellalar communities generally that "they were never a tighly-knit community ... In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Vellala affiliation was a vague and uncertain as that of most other south Indian caste groups. Vellala identity was certainly thought of as a source of prestige, but for that very reason there were any number of groups who sought to claim Vellala status for themselves".[4]

[FOOTNOTEGough198219-1] Gough (1982), p. 19

[FOOTNOTEGough1982vii,_358-2] Gough (1982), pp. vii, 358

[FOOTNOTENeild1979-3] Neild (1979)

[FOOTNOTEBayly2004411-4] Bayly (2004), p. 411

[FOOTNOTEGough198225-6] Gough (1982), p. 25

[7] Stein, Burton (1980). Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-19-563507-2.:”The Gangadikara peasantry of Gangavadi appears to have been more significantly linked to the Kongu peasantry to the south than to peasant peoples in the central and northern parts of medieval Karnataka. Similarly, the Marasu Vokkaligas of eastern Bangalore and central and southern Kolar districts appear to have been linked to Tondaimandalam”