Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/44

PALLI OR VANNIYAN On one of these occasions, owing to a difference which had arisen between the Seniyans (weavers), who form a considerable portion of the population of Conjeeveram, on one side, and the Pallis or Vanniyans on the other, some members of the former caste, who were adepts in magic, through sheer malevolence worked spells upon the cars of the Pallis, whose progress through the streets first became slow and tedious, and was finally completely arrested, the whole lot of them having come to a stand-still, and remaining rooted on the spot in one of the much frequented thoroughfares of the city. The Pallis put on more men to draw the cars, and even employed elephants and horses to haul them, but all to no purpose. As if even this was not sufficient to satisfy their malignity, the unscrupulous Seniyars actually went to King Salivahana, and bitterly complained against the Pallis of having caused a public nuisance by leaving their cars in a common highway to the detriment of the public traffic. The king summoned the Pallis, and called them to account, but they pleaded that it was through no fault of theirs that the cars had stuck in a thoroughfare, that they had not been negligent, but had essayed all possible methods of hauling them to their destination by adding to the number of men employed in pulling them, and by having further tried to accelerate their progress with the aid of elephants, camels, and horses, but all in vain. They further declared their conviction that the Seniyars had played them an ill-turn, and placed the cars under a spell. King Salivahana, however, turned a deaf ear to these representations, and decreed that It was open to the Pallis to counteract the spells of their adversaries, and he prescribed a period within which this was to be effected. He also tacked on a threat that, in default of compliance with his mandate, the Pallis must leave his