Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/431

Rh as Vellālas, in accordance with their tradition that they are Vellālas who migrated to the hills. Some thieving Koravas style themselves Aghambadiar Vellāla or Pillai, and have to some extent adopted the dress and manners of the Vellālas.* In Travancore, to which State some Vellālas have migrated, males of the Dēva-dāsi (dancing-girl) caste sometimes call themselves Nanchīnād Vellālas. There is a Tamil proverb to the effect that a Kallan may come to be a Maravan. By respectability he may develop into an Agamudaiyan, and, by slow degrees, become a Vellāla. According to another proverb, the Vellālas are compared to the brinjal (Solanum Melongena)fruit, which will mix palatably with anything. The account of the divisions and sub-divisions of the Vellālas recorded above may be supplemented from various sources: —

1. Arampukutti, or Arambukatti (those who tie flower-buds). According to Mr. J. A. Boyle,† the name indicates Vellālas with wreaths of the aram flower, which is one of the decorations of Siva. They are, he writes, "a tribal group established in a series of villages in the Ramnad territory. The family tradition runs that they emigrated five centuries ago from the Tondamandalam, and that the migration was made in dēvendra vimānam or covered cars; and this form of vehicle is invariably used in marriage ceremonies for the conveyance of the bride and bridegroom round the village. The women never wear a cloth above the waist, but go absolutely bare on breast and shoulders. The two rivers which bound this district on the north and south are rigid limits to the travels of the women, who are on no pretext allowed to cross them. It is said that, if they make