are a caste of agriculturists, who dwell in the Telugu country and
Ganjam. Concerning them Mr. H. A. Stuart writes as follows. [122]
"Who the Velamas were it seems difficult to decide. Some say they form
a sub-division of the Balijas, but this they themselves most vehemently
deny, and the Balijas derisively call them Guna Sakala (or Tsakala)
vandlu (hunch-backed washermen). The pride and jealousy of Hindu
castes was amusingly illustrated by the Velamas of Kalahasti. The
Deputy Tahsildar of that town was desired to ascertain the origin of
the name Guni Sakalavandlu, but, as soon as he asked the question, a
member of the caste lodged a complaint of defamation against him before
the District Magistrate. The nickname appears to have been applied
to them, because, in the northern districts, some print chintzes,
and, carrying their goods in a bundle on their backs, walk stooping
like a laden washerman. This derivation is more than doubtful, for,
in the Godavari district, the name is Guna Sakalavandlu, guna being
the big pot in which they dye the chintzes. Some Velamas say that
they belong to the Kammas, but divided from them in consequence of
a difference of opinion on the subject of gosha, most Velama females
being now kept in seclusion. [In the Kurnool Manual it is noted that
the Velama women are supposed to be gosha, but, owing to poverty, the
rule is not strictly observed.] Both Kammas and Velamas, before they
divided, are said to have adopted gosha from the Muhammadans, but,
finding that they were thus handicapped in their competition with
other cultivating castes, it was proposed that the original custom
of their ancestors should be reverted to. Those who agreed signed a
bond, which, being upon palm leaf, was called kamma, and from it they
took this name. The dissentients retained gosha, and were therefore
called outsiders or Velamas. This does not, however, explain what
the original name of the caste was, and the truth of the story is
doubtful. Since this dispute, the Velamas have themselves had a split
on the subject of gosha, those who have thrown it off being called Adi
or original Velamas, and the others Padma Velamas. The Velamas seem
to have come south with the Vijayanagara kings, and to have been made
Menkavalgars, from which position some rose to be Poligars. Now they
are chiefly the hangers-on of poligars or cultivators. To distinguish
them from the Vellalas in the southern taluks, they call themselves
Telugu Vellalas, but it seems very improbable that the Velamas and
Vellalas ever had any connection with one another. They are styled
Naidus." [The Velamas style themselves Telugu Vellalas, not because
of any connection between the two castes, but because they are at the
top of the Telugu castes as the Vellalas are of the Tamil castes. For
the same reason, Vellalas are sometimes called Arava (Tamil) Velamalu.]
The most important sub-divisions returned by the Velamas at the
census, 1891, were Kapu, Koppala, Padma, Ponneti, and Yanadi. "It
is," the Census Superintendent writes, "curious to find the Yanadi
sub-division so strongly represented, for there is at the present
day a wide gulf between Velamas and Yanadis" (a Telugu forest
tribe). In the Vizagapatam Manual, a class of cultivators called
Yanadulu is referred to; and, in the Madras Census Report, 1901,
it is recorded that entries under the name Yanati "were clubbed with
Yanadi; but it has since been reported that, in Bissam-Acuttack taluk
of the Vizagapatam Agency, there is a separate caste called Yanati
or Yeneti Dora which is distinct from Yanadi." It would appear that,
as in the south, the Velamas call themselves Telugu Vellalas, so in
the north they call themselves Yanatis.
Concerning the Guna Velamas, the Rev. J. Cain writes [123] that "in
years gone by, members of this class, who were desirous of getting
married, had to arrange and pay the expenses of two of the Palli
(fisherman) caste, but now it is regarded as sufficient to hang up a
net in the house during the time of the marriage ceremony." The custom
had its origin in a legend that, generations ago, when all the members
of the caste were in danger of being swept off the face of the earth
by some of their enemies, the Pallis came to the rescue with their
boats, and carried all the Guna Velamas to a place of safety. The
Guna Velamas, Mr. Cain continues, were "formerly regarded as quite
an inferior caste, but, as many members of it have been educated in
Anglo-Vernacular schools, they have found their way into almost every
department and risen in the social scale. Their caste occupation is
that of dyeing cloth, which they dip into large pots (gunas). The term
Guna Tsakala is one of reproach, and they much prefer being called
Velamalu to the great disgust of the Raca (Raja) Velamalu." To the
Raca Velama section belong, among other wealthy land-owners, the
Rajas of Bobbili, Venkatagiri, Pittapur, and Nuzvid. At the annual
Samasthanam meeting, in 1906, the Maharaja of Bobbili announced that
"none of the Velamavaru were working in any of the offices at the time
when I first came to Bobbili. There were then a small number acting
as mere supervisors without clerical work. Only from the commencement
of my administration these people have been gradually taken into the
office, and induced to read at the High School."
For the following note on the Velamas who have settled in the
Vizagapatam district, I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The
following sub-divisions of the caste may be noted:--
(1) Pedda or Padma found chiefly in the Bobbili taluk. Those composing
it are said to be the descendants of the military followers and
dependents of Pedda Rajudu, the founder of the Bobbili family, who
received a territorial grant in 1652 from Sher Muhammad Khan, the
Moghul Fauzdar of Chicacole. It is to this sub-division that Orme
refers, when he says [124] that they "esteem themselves the highest
blood of Native Indians, next to the Brahmans, equal to the Rajpoots,
and support their pre-eminence by the haughtiest observances, insomuch
that the breath of a different religion, and even of the meaner
Indians, requires ablution; their women never transfer themselves to a
second, but burn with the husband of their virginity." The remarriage
of widows is forbidden, and women remain gosha (in seclusion),
and wear gold or silver bangles on both wrists, unlike those of the
Koppala section. The title of members of this sub-division is Dora.
(2) Kamma Velama found chiefly in the Kistna district, from which
some families are said to have emigrated in company with the early
Rajas of Vizianagram. They are met with almost solely in the town of
Vizianagram. The remarriage of widows is permitted, but females are
gosha. The title is Nayudu.
(3) Koppala, or Toththala, who do not shave their heads, but tie
the hair in a knot (koppu) on the top of the head. They are divided
into sections, e.g., Naga (cobra), Sankha (chank shell, Turbinella
rapa), Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum), and Tabelu (tortoise). These
have no significance so far as marriage is concerned. They are
further divided into exogamous septs, or intiperulu, of which the
following are examples:--Nalla (black), Doddi (court-yard, cattle-pen
or sheep-fold), Reddi (synonym of Kapu). The custom of menarikam,
by which a man marries his maternal uncle's daughter, is observed. A
Brahman officiates at marriages. Widows are permitted to remarry seven
times, and, by an unusual custom, an elder brother is allowed to marry
the widow of his younger brother. Women wear on the right wrist a
solid silver bangle called ghatti kadiyam, and on the left wrist two
bangles called sandelu, between which are black glass bangles, which
are broken when a woman becomes a widow. The titles of members of this
sub-division are Anna, Ayya, and, when they become prosperous, Nayudu.
In a note on the Velamas of the Godavari district, Mr. F. R. Hemingway
writes that they "admit that they always arrange for a Mala couple
to marry, before they have a marriage in their own houses, and that
they provide the necessary funds for the Mala marriage. They explain
the custom by a story to the effect that a Mala once allowed a Velama
to sacrifice him in order to obtain a hidden treasure, and they say
that this custom is observed out of gratitude for the discovery of
the treasure which resulted. The Rev. J. Cain gives [125] a similar
custom among the Velamas of Bhadrachalam in the Godavari district,
only in this case it is a Palli (fisherman) who has to be married."
There is, a correspondent informs me, a regular gradation in the
social scale among the Velamas, Kammas, and Kapus, as follows:--
Velama Dora = Velama Esquire.
Kamma Varu = Mr. Kamma.
Kapu.
A complaint was once made on the ground that, in a pattah (title-deed),
a man was called Kamma, and not Kamma Varu.
It is noted by Mr. H. G. Prendergast [126] that the custom of sending
a sword to represent an unavoidably absent bridegroom at a wedding
is not uncommon among the Telugu Razus and Velamas.
Velampan (rope-dancer).--Possibly a name for the Koravas of Malabar,
who perform feats on the tight-rope.
Velan.--As a diminutive form of Vellala, Velan occurs as a title
assumed by some Kusavans. Velan is also recorded as a title of
Paraiyans in Travancore. (See Panan.)
For the following note on the Velans of the Cochin State, I am indebted
to Mr. L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer. [127]
The Velans, like the Panans, are a caste of devil-dancers, sorcerers
and quack doctors, and are, in the northern parts of the State, called
Perumannans or Mannans (washermen). My informant, a Perumannan at
Trichur, told me that their castemen south of the Karuvannur bridge,
about ten miles south of Trichur, are called Velans, and that they
neither interdine nor intermarry, because they give mattu (a washed
cloth) to carpenters to free them from pollution. The Mannans, who
give the mattu to Izhuvans, do not give it to Kammalans (artisan
classes), who are superior to them in social status. The Velans at
Ernakulam, Cochin, and other places, are said to belong to eight
illams. A similar division into illams exists among the Perumannans
of the Trichur taluk. The Perumannans of the Chittur taluk have no
knowledge of this illam division existing among them.
The following story was given regarding the origin of the Velans and
Mannans. Once upon a time, when Parameswara and his wife Parvati were
amusing themselves, the latter chanced to make an elephant with earth,
which was accidentally trodden on by the former, whence arose a man who
stood bowing before them. He was called the Mannan because he came out
of man (earth), and to him was assigned his present occupation. This
tradition is referred to in the songs which are sung on the fourth
day of a girl's first menses, when she takes a ceremonial bath to
free her from pollution.
The Velans are found all over the southern parts of the State, as
their brethren are in the northern parts. They live in thatched huts
in cocoanut gardens, while the Mannans occupy similar dwellings in
small compounds either of their own, or of some landlord whose tenant
they may be.
When a girl attains puberty, she is at once bathed, and located in a
room in the hut. Her period of seclusion is four days. On the morning
of the fourth day, she is seated in a pandal (booth) put up in front
of the hut, and made to hold in her hand a leafy vessel filled with
rice, a few annas and a lighted wick, when a few of the castemen
sing songs connected with puberty till so late as one or two o'clock,
when the girl is bathed. After this, the castemen and women who are
invited are feasted along with the girl, who is neatly dressed and
adorned in her best. Again the girl takes her seat in the pandal
and the tunes begin, and are continued till seven or eight o'clock
next morning, when the ceremony comes to an end. The songsters are
remunerated with three paras of paddy (unhusked rice), twenty-eight
cocoanuts, thirteen annas and four pies, and two pieces of cloth. The
songs are in some families postponed till the sixteenth day, or to
the day of the girl's marriage. Very poor people dispense with them
altogether. The following is a translation of one of the songs.
One day a girl and her friends were playing merrily on the banks of
a river, when one of them noticed some blood on her dress. They took
her home, and her parents believed it to have been caused by some
wound, but on enquiry knew that their daughter was in her menses. The
daughter asked her mother as to what she did with the cloth she wore
during her menses, when she was told that she bathed and came home,
leaving it on a branch of a mango tree. On further enquiry, she knew
that the goddess Ganga purified herself by a bath, leaving her cloth
in the river; that the goddess earth buried it in earth; and that
Panchali returned home after a bath, leaving her dress on a branch of
a banyan tree. Unwilling to lose her dress, the girl went to the god
Parameswara, and implored his aid to get somebody to have her cloth
washed. When muttering a mantram (prayer), he sprinkled some water,
a few drops of which went up and became stars, and from a few more,
which fell on the leaves of a banyan tree, there came out a man,
to whom was assigned the task of washing the cloths of the women in
their courses, wearing which alone the women are purified by a bath.
When a young man of the Velan caste has attained the marriageable
age, his father and maternal uncle select a suitable girl as a wife,
after a proper examination and agreement of their horoscopes. The
preliminaries are arranged in the hut of the girl, and a portion of
the bride's price, fifteen fanams, is paid. The auspicious day for the
wedding is fixed, and the number of guests that should attend it is
determined. The wedding is celebrated at the girl's hut, in front of
which a shed is put up. The ceremony generally takes place at night. A
few hours before it, the bridegroom and his party arrive at the bride's
hut, where they are welcomed, and seated on mats spread on the floor
in the pandal (shed). At the auspicious hour, when the relatives on
both sides and the castemen are assembled, the bridegroom's enangan
(relation by marriage) hands over a metal plate containing the wedding
suit, the bride's price, and a few packets of betel leaves and nuts
to the bride's enangan, who takes everything except the cloth to
be given to the bride's mother, and returns the plate to the same
man. The bridegroom's sister dresses the bride in the new cloth, and
takes her to the pandal, to seat her along with the bridegroom, and to
serve one or two spoonfuls of milk and a few pieces of plantain fruit,
when the bride is formally declared to be the wife of the young man and
a member of his family. The guests assembled are treated to a feast,
after which they are served with betel leaves, nuts, and tobacco. The
rest of the night is spent in merry songs and dancing. The songs refer
to the marriage of Sita, the wife of Rama, of Subhadra, wife of Arjuna,
and of Panchali, wife of the Pandavas. Next morning, the bride's party
is treated to rice kanji (gruel) at eight o'clock, and to a sumptuous
meal at twelve o'clock, after which they repair to the bridegroom's
hut, accompanied by the bride, her parents and relations, all of
whom receive a welcome. The formalities are gone through here also,
and the bride's party is feasted. On the fourth morning, the newly
married couple bathe and dress themselves neatly, to worship the deity
at the local temple. After dinner they go to the bride's hut, where
they spend a week or two, after which the bridegroom returns to his
hut with his wife. It is now that the bride receives a few ornaments,
a metal dish for taking meals, a lamp, and a few metal utensils, which
vary according to the circumstances of her parents. Henceforward, the
husband and wife live with the parents of the former in their family.
Among the Mannans of the northern parts of the State, the following
marriage customs are found to prevail. The bridegroom's father,
his maternal uncle, enangan, and the third or middle man, conjointly
select the girl after due examination and agreement of horoscopes. The
preliminaries are arranged as before, and the day for the wedding is
determined. At the auspicious moment on the wedding day, when the
relatives on both sides and the castemen are assembled at the shed
in front of the bride's hut, the bridegroom's father takes up a metal
plate containing the wedding dress, the bride's price (twelve fanams),
and a few bundles of betel leaves, nuts and tobacco, and repeats a
formula, of which the substance runs thus. "A lighted lamp is placed
in the shed. Four mats are spread round it in the direction of east,
west, north and south. A metal plate, containing rice, flowers and
betel leaves, is placed in front of the lamp, and the elderly members
of the caste and the relatives on both sides are assembled. According
to the traditional custom of the caste, the young man's father,
maternal uncle, enangan, and the middle man conjointly selected the
girl after satisfying themselves with due agreement of horoscopes,
and ascertaining the illams and kriyams on both sides. They have
negotiated for the girl, and settled the day on which the marriage is
to take place. In token of this, they have taken meals in the bride's
family. The claims of the girl for two pieces of cloth for the Onam
festival, two fanams or nine annas for Thiruwatira (a festival in
Dhanu, i.e., December-January), and Vishu, are satisfied, and she is
by the young man taken to the village festival. They have now come
for the celebration of the wedding. There have been times when he
has heard of 101 fanams as the price of the bride, and has seen 51
fanams as the price of the same, but it is now 21 fanams. It thus
varies, and may be increased or diminished according to the will,
pleasure, and means of the parties. With four fanams as the price
of the bride and eight fanams for ornaments, and with the bundles
of betel leaves, nuts, and the wedding dress in a metal plate, may
I, ye elderly members, give it to the girl's parents?" "Shall I,"
answers the girl's father, "accept it?" Receiving it, he gives it
to his brother-in-law, who gives it to the enangan, and he takes
everything in it except the wedding suit, which he hands over to the
bridegroom's enangan, who gives it to the bridegroom's sister, to have
the bride dressed in it. The other portions of the ceremony are the
same as those described above. In Palghat and the Chittur taluk, the
following declaration is made. "According to the customary traditions
of the caste, when a young man of one locality comes to tame a girl
of another locality, and takes her as his wife, ye elderly members
assembled here, may these four bundles of betel leaves, four measures
of rice, two pieces of cloth, and ten fanams be given to the bride's
parents?" "Shall these be accepted?" says the bride's enangan. When
the bride accompanies the bridegroom to his hut, the following formal
statement is made. "Thrash thou mayst, but not with a stick. Thou
mayst not accuse her of bad conduct. Thou mayst not cut off her ears,
breasts, nose and tufts of hair. Thou mayst not take her to a tank
(to bathe), or to a temple (for swearing). Thou mayst keep and protect
her as long as thou wantest. When thou dost not want her, give her
maintenance, and take back the children, for they are thine own."
Polygamy is not prohibited, but is rarely practiced by the Velans and
Mannans. They are very poor, and find it difficult to support their
wives and children born in a single married life. Want of children,
bodily defect or incurable disease, or want of additional hands for
work, may sometimes induce them to take more than one wife. Polyandry
does not prevail among the Velans, but is common among the Mannans
of the northern parts of the State. A Velan woman who loses her
husband may marry another of her caste, if she likes, a year after her
husband's death. The formalities of the wedding consist in the husband
giving two pieces of cloth to the woman who wishes to enter into
wedlock with him. After this she forfeits all claim on the property
of her former husband. Among the Mannans, a widow may marry any one of
her brothers-in-law. A woman committing adultery with a member of her
own caste is well thrashed. One who disposes of herself to a member of
a lower caste is sent out of caste. She may then become a Christian
or Muhammadan convert. If an unmarried young woman becomes pregnant,
and this is known to her castemen, they convene a meeting, and find
out the secret lover, whom they compel to take her as his wife. Very
often they are both fined, and the fine is spent on toddy. Both among
the Velans and Mannans, divorce is easy. A man who does not like his
wife has only to take her to her original home and give charge of
her to her parents, informing them of the circumstances which have
induced him to adopt such a course. A woman who does not like her
husband may relinquish him, and join her parents. In both cases,
the woman is at liberty to marry again.
When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of
tamarind juice) is performed for her during the ninth month at the
hut of her husband. The juice is extracted from tamarind (Tamarindus
indica), kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), nerinjampuli (Hibiscus
surattensis) and the leaves of ambazhampuli (Spondias mangifera). A
large branch of ambazhampuli is stuck in the ground in the central
courtyard, near which the pregnant woman is seated. The husband gives
her three small spoonfuls, and then seven times with her cherutali
(neck ornament) dipped in the juice. Among the washermen, the woman's
brother gives it three times to her. Should her sister-in-law give it
in a small vessel, she has a claim to two pieces of cloth. After this,
a quarter measure of gingelly (Sesamum) oil is poured upon her head,
to be rubbed all over her body, and she bathes, using Acacia Intsia
as soap. Those of her relatives and the castemen who are invited
are sumptuously fed. Some of them crack jokes by asking the pregnant
woman to promise her baby son or daughter to theirs when grown up. All
bless her for a safe delivery and healthy child.
A woman who is about to become a mother is lodged in a separate room
for her delivery, attended by her mother and one or two grown-up women,
who act as midwives. The period of pollution is fifteen days. For
the first three days the woman is given a dose of dried ginger mixed
with palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) jaggery (crude sugar), and for
the next three days a mixture of garlic and jaggery. Her diet during
the first three days is rice kanji with scrapings of cocoanut, which
are believed to help the formation of the mother's milk. For the next
three days, the juice of kotapuli (Garcinia Cambogia), cumin seeds,
and kotal urikki (Achyranthes aspera), and of the leaves of muringa
(Moringa pterygosperma) is given, after which, for a few more days,
a dose of the flesh of fowl mixed with mustard, cumin seeds and uluva
(Trigonella foenum-græcum) boiled in gingelly oil is taken. She bathes
in water boiled with medicinal herbs on the fourth, seventh, ninth,
eleventh, and sixteenth days. On the morning of the sixteenth day,
her enangathi (enangan's wife) cleans her room with water mixed with
cow-dung, and sweeps the compound. Wearing a mattu (washed cloth)
brought by a washerman, she bathes to be freed from pollution. She
may now enter the hut, and mingle with the rest of the family.
Among Velans and Mannans, the sons inherit the property of their
fathers, but they are very poor, and have little or nothing to inherit.
Velans and Mannans practice magic and sorcery. All diseases that
flesh is heir to are, in the opinion of these people, caused by
malignant demons, and they profess to cure, with the aid of their
mantrams and amulets, people suffering from maladies. The muttering
of the following mantram, and throwing of bhasmam (holy ashes),
in propitiation of the small-pox demon is believed to effect a cure.
(1) Om, Oh! thou, Pallyamma, mother with tusk-like teeth, that in
demoniacal form appearest on the burning ground called omkara, with
burning piles flaming around, with one breast on one of thy shoulders,
and playing with the other as with a ball, with thy tongue stretched
out and wound round thy head, with grass, beans, and pepper in thy
left hand, with gingelly seeds and chama grains in thy right hand,
that scatterest and sowest broadcast the seeds of small-pox; Oh! let
the seeds that thou hast sown, and those that thou hast not sown,
dry up inside, and get charred outside. Be thou as if intoxicated
with joy! Protect thou, protect thou!
(2) Malign influence of birds on children.
Oh! thou round-eyed, short Karinkali with big ears, born from the
third incessantly burning eye of Siva, come, come and be in possession.
If this mantram be muttered sixteen times, and bhasmam thrown over
the body of a child, the operator breathing violently the while,
a cure will be effected. If the mantram be muttered in a vessel of
water the same number of times, and the child bathed in it, the cure
will be equally effective.
(3) To cure fits and fever.
Oh! thou swine-faced mother, thou catchest hold of my enemy, coming
charging me, by the neck with thy tusks thrust into his body; draggest
him on the ground, and standest slowly chewing and eating, thrusting
thy tusks, rubbing again, and wearing down his body, chewing once
more and again; thou, mother that controllest 41,448 demons presiding
over all kinds of maladies, seventy-two Bhiravans, eighteen kinds of
epileptic fits (korka), twelve kinds of muyalis and all other kinds
of illness, as also Kandakaranans (demons with bell-shaped ears),
be under my possession so long as I serve thee.
This mantram should be repeated sixteen times, with bhasmam thrown
on the body of the patient.