Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/433

Rh :4. Kodikkāl. Derived from kodi, a flag. Standard-bearers of the fighting men. According to another version, the word means a betel garden, in reference to those who were betel cultivators.
 * 5. Mēl-nātar (mēl, west). Those who live in the western part of Tinnevelly and in Travancore.

At the census, 1891, Konga (territorial) and Madurai were returned as sub-divisions. The latter apparently receives its name, not from the town of Madura, but from a word meaning sweet juice. At the census, 1901, Tollakkādan (man with a big hole in his ears) was taken as being a sub-caste of Shānān, as the people who returned it, and sell husked rice in Madras, used the title Nādān. Madura and Tinnevelly are eminently the homes of dilated ear-lobes. Some Tamil traders in these two districts, who returned themselves as Pāndyan, were classified as Shānāns, as Nādān was entered as their title. In Coimbatore, some Shānāns, engaged as shop-keepers, have been known to adopt the name of Chetti. In Coimbatore, too, the title Mūppan occurs. This title, meaning headman or elder, is also used by the Ambalakāran, Valayan, Sudarmān, Sēnaikkudaiyān, and other castes. In the Tanjore Manual, the Shānāns are divided into Tennam, Panam, and Ichcham, according as they tap the cocoanut, palmyra, or wild date (Phœnix sylvestris). The name Enādi for Shānāns is derived from Enādi Nayanar, a Saivite saint. But it also means a barber.

The community has, among its members, landowners, and graduates in theology, law, medicine, and the arts. Nine-tenths of the Native clergy in Tinnevelly are said to be converted Shānāns, and Tinnevelly claims Native missionaries working in Madagascar, Natal, Mauritius, and the Straits. The occupations