Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/420

VELLALA home. At night, when the players were coming to the royal presence to act, and one of them had on the habit of a female of the Vellal caste, the Canardha Shetti cut off his head, and saved the honour of the prime minister. The death of the player being reported to the Rāja Krishna Rāyalu, he enquired into the affair, and finding how matters stood, he directed the prime minister and his secretary to be more circumspect in their conduct, and not to carry their enmity to such lengths.' Since that time, the Vellal castes have always assisted the right-hand against the left-hand castes." (See Kammālan.) At the time of the census, 1871, some Vellālas claimed that they had been seriously injured in reputation, and handled with great injustice, in being classed as Sūdras by the Municipal Commissioners of Madras in the classification of Hindus under the four great divisions of Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sūdras. In their petition it was stated that " we shall first proceed to show that the Vellālas do come exactly within the most authoritative definition given of Vysias, and then point out that they do not come within the like definition of Sūdras. First then to the definition of Visya, Manu, the paramount authority upon these matters, says in paragraph 90 of his Institutes: — ' To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to read the scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to cultivate land, are prescribed or permitted to a Vysia.' " In the course of the petition, the Vellālas observed that "it is impossible to imagine that the Vellālas, a race of agriculturists and traders, should have had to render menial service to the three higher classes; for the very idea of service is, as it needs must be, revolting to the Vellāla, whose profession teaches him perfect independence, and dependence, if it be, upon the sovereign alone for the protection of his