Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/199

Rh :(7) Boy, aged 6. White spot painted between eyebrows. Hair shaved on top and sides of head, and in median strip from vertex to forehead. Hair brought forward in fringe over forehead on either side of median strip, and hanging down back of neck.
 * (8) Male child, aged 18 months. White spot painted between eyebrows. Shaved on top and sides of head.

 '''Todupuzha Vellāla. —''' For the following note, I am indebted to Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar. Besides the Nanchinād Vellālas, there are, in Travancore, two sections of the Vellāla caste, inhabiting the mountainous Todupuzha tāluk. These are the Tenkanchi and Kumbakōnam Vellālas. The former are known by the popular name of Anjuttilkar, or the five hundred, and the latter are designated Munnutilkar, or the three hundred, in reference to the number of families which originally settled in the taluk. Like the Nanchinād Vellālas, they take the title of Pillai, and, in special cases, the honorific prefix Kanakku.

The Tenkanchi Vellālas appear to have dwelt originally in the Tenkāsi taluk of the Tinnevelly district, and to have emigrated, as the legend goes, on account of the demand of a Vaduka ruler for the hand of a member of their community in marriage. The Vadakkumkur Rājas were ruling over Todupuzha at the time of their migration, and afforded them a safe asylum. The Kumbakōnam Vellālas believe that they emigrated to Travancore about the commencement of the Malabar era from Kumbakōnam in the Tanjore district. Both divisions speak Malayālam, but there are clear indications in their speech that their mother-tongue was once Tamil, and they always use that language in their ceremonial writings. The Anjuttilkar women have 