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82 caste Hindus. Of course, learned Brahmans discovered decent Hindu pedigrees for the low but highly serviceable tribes and stamped them with the seal of sanctity in the name of puranas.

The Kaikolas, who trace their descent from Virabahu, one of the nine commanders of god Subrahmanya, seem to have been originally (before the tenth century A.D.) Eyina weavers like the Koliya Paraiyas, though some of them have very recently caught the infection of wearing the sacred thread to claim an equal position with the high caste Hindus. Five reasons may be adduced in favour of this origin:

(1) They are chiefly found in the districts where the Paraiyas and Brahmans are most numerous-S. Arcot, Tanjore, and Trichinopoly.

(2) The word Kaikolan is simply the Tamil equivalent of the Sanskrit. 'Virabahu', a mythological hero from whom both the Kaikolas and a section of the Paraiyas claim descent.

(3) It is said that they were formerly soldiers like the Eyinas and Paraiyas, under a monkey-faced king named Muchukundan; and that the art of weaving was taught to them by Tiru-Valluvar at the command of Subrahmanya, the patron deity of the Kaikolas and other Naga tribes. Two of the Tillaistanam (Neyttanam) inscriptions of Gandaraditya (A. D. 960) record the gifts made by Samara Kesari-terinja Kaikolar, Vikrama-Singa-terinja Kaikular and Virachola terinja-Kaikolar'. They were natives of Tanjore and