Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/426

VELLALA and flesh meat." In the Coimbatore Manual, the Vellālas are summed up as "truly the backbone of the district. It is they who, by their industry and frugality, create and develop wealth, support the administration, and find the money for imperial and district demands. As their own proverb says: — The Vellālar's goad is the ruler's sceptre. The bulk of them call themselves Goundans." In the Salem Manual, the Vellāla is described as "frugal and saving to the extreme; his hard-working wife knows no finery, and the Vellālichi, (Vellāla woman) willingly wears for the whole year the one blue cloth, which is all that the domestic economy of the house allows her. If she gets wet, it must dry on her; and, if she would wash her sole garment, half is unwrapped to be operated upon, which in its turn relieves the other half, that is then and there similarly hammered against some stone by the side of the village tank (pond), or on the bank of the neighbouring stream. Their food is the cheapest of the ' dry ' grains which they happen to cultivate that year, and not even the village feasts can draw the money out of a Vellālar's clutches. It is all expended on his land, if the policy of the revenue administration of the country be liberal, and the acts of Government such as to give confidence to the ryots or husbandmen; otherwise their hoarded gains are buried. The new moon, or some high holiday, may perhaps see the head of the house enjoy a platter of rice and a little meat, but such extravagance is rare." The Vellālas are summed up by ' A Native,'* as being " found in almost every station of life, from the labourer in the fields to the petty zamindar (landholder); from the owner of plantations to the cooly who works at coffee-picking;