Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/264

NANCHINAD VELLALA appears that the Vellālas must have settled on the west coast in the ninth century at the latest. The Nanchinād Vellālas were not originally different from their Pāndyan analogues, but settled in the tāluks above mentioned, over which the Pāndyans held sway during several periods in mediæval times. On one occasion, when there was a dispute about the territorial jurisdiction of Nanchinād between the Mahārāja of Travancore and the Pāndyan ruler, the leading Vellālas of these tāluks went over in a body to the Travancore camp, and swore allegiance to the Travancore throne. They gradually renounced even the law of inheritance, which their brethren of the Tamil country followed, and adopted many novel customs, which they found prevalent in Kērala. From Nanchinād the caste spread in all directions, and, as most of them were respectable men with good education and mathematical training, their services were utilised for account-keeping in the civil and military departments of the State. They must, of course, be clearly distinguished from the Tamil makkathayam Vellālas of Kuttamperūr in Tiruvella, who have also become naturalised in Travancore. For the following note, I am indebted to Mr.N. Subramani Aiyar.

Like the Tamil Vellālas, the Nanchinād Vellālas are divided into two classes, Saiva and Asaiva, of which the former abstain from flesh and fish, while the latter have no such scruple. Asaivas will take food in the houses of Saivas, but the Saivas cook their own food when they go to an Asaiva house. Again, though the Saivas marry girls from Asaiva families, they are taught the Saiva hymn by the Gurukal immediately afterwards, and prohibited from dining with their former relatives. This custom is, however, only known to prevail in the south.