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Rh Panans is, however, betrayed by about 5 per cent. of that caste who live in out-of-the-way villages of the Madura district returning Paraiya as the name of their main caste.

The Seminar is another important sub-division of the Paraiyas, whose existence is almost unknown outside the districts of Madura and Tinnevelly. It was once a numerous caste of Tamil leather-workers, (புகன்றதோற்றுன்னர் செம்மார்.—Nig.). Since the immigration of the Telugu and Canarese Madigas or Chakkiliyans, sometime after the fifteenth or sixteenth century, the Semmans have almost entirely given up their traditional occupation, and adopted, like the Panans, menial services in villages and tailoring and lime selling in towns.

We shall content ourselves with one more instance furnished to us by the artizan castes, whose social status has undergone within the past nine centuries a thorough change which never could have been dreamt of by their humble ancestors.

The Kammalas assert that they are the descendants of Visvakarma the architect of the gods, and in many parts of the country they wear the sacred thread calling themselves Visva-, Deva-, or Devagna. Brahınans and deliberately refuse to give precedence to the Brahmans. Without going into the details of their origin we shall simply indicate a few reasons to prove that they are one of the undoubted Naga