Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/66

PANDARAM sacerdotal order of the servile caste to the religious disputes, which terminated in the suppression of the Jain religion in the Pāndian (Madura) kingdom, and the influence which they attained by the aid which they rendered to the Brāhmans in that controversy, but this origin seems to require confirmation. In a large portion, perhaps in the whole of the Brāhmanical temples dedicated to Siva in the provinces of Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly, the Pandāram is the highest of the temple, and has the entire direction of the revenues, but allows the Brāhmans to officiate in the ceremonial part according to their own good pleasure, as a concern altogether below his note. He has generally the reputation of an irreproachable life, and is treated by the Brāhmans of the temple with great reverence, while on his part he looks with compassion at the absurd trifles which occupy their attention. These facts seem to point to some former revolution, in which a Jangam government obtained a superiority over the Brāhmanical establishments, and adopted this mode of superseding the substantial part of their authority. It is a curious instance of the Sooder (Sūdra) being the spiritual lord of the Brāhman, and is worthy of further historical investigation." Dr. Wilson * also thinks that the Pandārams are Lingāyats. Mr.H. A. Stuart † says that they are a class of priests who serve the non- Brāhman castes. They have returned 115 sub-divisions, of which only two are sufficiently large to require mention, Āndi of Tinnevelly and Malabar, and Lingadāri of Chingleput and Tinnevelly. Āndi is a quasi-caste of beggars recruited from all castes, and the Lingadāri Pandārams are the same as Jangams.