Page:Tamil studies.djvu/381

354 Eruman appears in the Tanjore inscriptions of the e venth century. It is not surprising that the Tan Idaiyars are treated as a sub-caste of Nayars, when w find some of them elevated even to the rank of Kshatriya Samantas. The Siviyar (palankeen bearers) and the Agattu-Charna sub-divisions of the Tamil Idaiyanl caste are note-worthy, as affording a connecting link between them and the Samantas and Nayars of Malabar. The words குட்டி and கிடாவு and கிடாங்கள், which in the Tamil districts signify the 'young ones of cattle', denote in Malabar children. This shows that the Idaiyars held a dominant place in the constitution of the Nayar and the Samanta castes, Idaiyans, especia ally of the Kongu country, had their own chieftains and they were good cavalry men. They contributed soldiers and commanders to the Chera army after the conquest of the Kongu country by the Chera kings about the first or second century.

பொருமுர ணெய்திய கழுவுள் புறம்பெற்று

& NOW 400 WOOLCOL.4.-Pad. 88. (Defeated the Idaiya chieftains who opposed him and routed the Idaiyans of the swift-footed cavalry.)

The word Cheruman or Chiruvan means a small man, and the Cherumans were really so in comparison with the robust Kongu Idaiyans and Vellalas who constituted the Nayar or the Nayakar caste. In a Malayalam deed of 1523 A.D. the name of this caste appears as Valli-Alar or Valli-Sattanmar, but not as

1. It will be curious to observe that in one sub-caste of Idaiyans in the Madura district, called the Pendukku -mekki, the Marumakkattayam law of inheritance is followed.