Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/424

VELLALA of any peculiarities pointing to a non-Tamil origin. . . . With regard to the assertion so commonly made that the Pāndyas belonged to the Vellāla caste, it is observable that tradition is at issue with it, and declares that the Pāndyas proper were Kshatriyas: but they were accustomed to marry wives of inferior castes as well as and in addition to wives of their own caste; and some of their descendants born of the inferior and irregularly married wives were Vellalāns, and, after the death of Kūn or Sundara Pāndya, formed a new dynasty, known as that of the pseudo-Pāndyas. Tradition also says that Arya Nāyaga Muthali, the great general of the sixteenth century, was dissuaded by his family priest from making himself a king on the ground that he was a Vellālan, and no Vellālan ought to be a king. And, looking at all the facts of the case, it is somewhat difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion that the reason assigned for his not assuming the crown was the true one. This, however, is a question, the settlement of which requires great antiquarian learning: and it must be settled hereafter."

In the Madras Census Report, 1871, the Vellālas are described as "a peace-loving, frugal, and industrious people, and, in the cultivation of rice, betel, tobacco, etc., have perhaps no equals in the world. They will not condescend to work of a degrading nature. Some are well educated, and employed in Government service, and as clerks, merchants, shop-keepers, etc., but the greater part of them are the peasant proprietors of the soil, and confine their attention to cultivation."In the Madura Manual, it is recorded that "most Vellālans support themselves by husbandry, which, according to native ideas, is their only proper means of livelihood. But they will not touch the plough, if they can help it, and