right-hand section, and the other for the left. This division is purely
professional, and there is apparently no bar to intermarriage between
the two classes. The insignia of a Panisavan are the conch-shell
(Turbinella rapa) and tharai, which he supports from the ground by
means of a bamboo pole while he blows it. At marriage processions,
it is his duty to go in front, sounding the tharai from time to
time. On such occasions, and at festivals of the village goddesses,
the tharai is decorated with a string bearing a number of small
triangular pieces of cloth, and tufts of yak's hair. The cloth
should be white for the right-hand section, and of five different
colours for the left. At the present day, the Panisavan is more in
request for funerals than for weddings. In the city of Madras, all
the materials necessary for the bier are sold by Panisavans, who also
keep palanquins for the conveyance of the corpse in stock, which are
let out on hire. At funerals, the Panisavan has to follow the corpse,
blowing his conch-shell. The tharai is only used if the deceased was
an important personage. When the son goes round the corpse with a pot
of water, the Panisavan accompanies him, and blows the conch. On the
last day of the death ceremonies (karmandhiram), the Panisavan should
be present, and blow his conch, especially when the tali (marriage
badge) is removed from a widow's neck. In some places, the Panisavan
conveys the news of death, while in others this duty is carried out by
a barber. In the Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the Panisavans
constitute a separate caste, and have no connection with the Nokkans,
who are beggars attached to the Palli or Vanniyan caste. In South
Arcot and Tanjore, on the other hand, the name Nokkan is used to
signify the caste, which performs the duties of the Panisavan, for
which it seems to be a synonym. The Panisavans of the Tinnevelly
district have nothing in common with those of the northern districts,
e.g., Chingleput and North Arcot, whose duty it is to attend to the
funeral ceremonies of the non-Brahman castes. The main occupations
of the Tinnevelly Panisavans are playing in temples on the nagasaram
(reed instrument), and teaching Deva-dasis dancing. Another occupation,
which is peculiar to the Tinnevelly Panisavans, is achu velai, i.e.,
the preparation of the comb to which the warp threads of a weaving loom
are tied. Socially the Panisavans occupy a lowly position, but they use
the title Pulavar. Their other titles are Pandaram, Pillai, and Mudali.
Paniyan.--The Paniyans are a dark-skinned tribe, short in stature,
with broad noses, and curly or wavy hair, inhabiting the Wynad,
and those portions of the Ernad, Calicut, Kurumbranad and Kottayam
taluks of Malabar, which skirt the base of the ghats, and the Mudanad,
Cherangod, and Namblakod amshams of the Nilgiri district.
A common belief, based on their general appearance, prevails among
the European planting community that the Paniyans are of African
origin, and descended from ancestors who were wrecked on the Malabar
coast. This theory, however, breaks down on investigation. Of their
origin nothing definite is known. The Nayar Janmis (landlords)
say that, when surprised in the act of some mischief or alarmed,
the Paniyan calls out 'Ippi'! 'Ippi'! as he runs away, and they
believe this to have been the name of the country whence they came
originally; but they are ignorant as to where Ippimala, as they
call it, is situated. Kapiri (Africa or the Cape?) is also sometimes
suggested as their original habitat, but only by those who have had
the remarks of Europeans communicated to them. The Paniyan himself,
though he occasionally puts forward one or other of the above places
as the home of his forefathers, has no fixed tradition bearing on
their arrival in Malabar, beyond one to the effect that they were
brought from a far country, where they were found living by a Raja,
who captured them, and carried them off in such a miserable condition
that a man and his wife only possessed one cloth between them, and
were so timid that it was only by means of hunting nets that they
were captured.
The number of Paniyans, returned at the census, 1891, was 33,282,
and nine sub-divisions were registered; but, as Mr. H. A. Stuart,
the Census Commissioner, observes:--"Most of these are not real, and
none has been returned by any considerable number of persons." Their
position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave,
for every Paniyan is some landlord's 'man'; and, though he is, of
course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care
is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere.
In the fifties of the last century, when planters first began to settle
in the Wynad, they purchased the land with the Paniyans living on it,
who were practically slaves of the land-owners. The Paniyans used
formerly to be employed by rich receivers as professional coffee
thieves, going out by night to strip the bushes of their berries,
which were delivered to the receiver before morning. Unlike the
Badagas of the Nilgiris, who are also coffee thieves, and are afraid
to be out after dark, the Paniyans are not afraid of bogies by night,
and would not hesitate to commit nocturnal depredations. My friend,
Mr. G. Romilly, on whose estate my investigation of the Paniyans was
mainly carried out, assures me that, according to his experience,
the domesticated Paniyan, if well paid, is honest, and fit to be
entrusted with the responsible duties of night watchman.
In some localities, where the Janmis have sold the bulk of their land,
and have consequently ceased to find regular employment for them,
the Paniyans have taken kindly to working on coffee estates, but
comparatively few are thus employed. The word Paniyan means labourer,
and they believe that their original occupation was agriculture as it
is, for the most part, at the present day. Those, however, who earn
their livelihood on estates, only cultivate rice and ragi (Eleusine
coracana) for their own cultivation; and women and children may be
seen digging up jungle roots, or gathering pot-herbs for food. They
will not eat the flesh of jackals, snakes, vultures, lizards, rats,
or other vermin. But I am told that they eat land-crabs, in lieu of
expensive lotions, to prevent baldness and grey hairs. They have a
distinct partiality for alcohol, and those who came to be measured
by me were made more than happy by a present of a two-anna piece,
a cheroot, and a liberal allowance of undiluted fiery brandy from the
Meppadi bazar. The women are naturally of a shy disposition, and used
formerly to run away and hide at the sight of a European. They were
at first afraid to come and see me, but confidence was subsequently
established, and all the women came to visit me, some to go through the
ordeal of measurement, others to laugh at and make derisive comments
on those who were undergoing the operation.
Practically the whole of the rice cultivation in the Wynad is carried
out by the Paniyans attached to edoms (houses or places) or devasoms
(temple property) of the great Nayar landlords; and Chettis and
Mappillas also frequently have a few Paniyans, whom they have bought
or hired by the year at from four to eight rupees per family from a
Janmi. When planting paddy or herding cattle, the Paniyan is seldom
seen without the kontai or basket-work protection from the rain. This
curious, but most effective substitute for the umbrella-hat of the
Malabar coast, is made of split reeds interwoven with 'arrow-root'
leaves, and shaped something like a huge inverted coal-scoop turned
on end, and gives to the individual wearing it the appearance of a
gigantic mushroom. From the nature of his daily occupation the Paniyan
is often brought in contact with wild animals, and is generally a
bold, and, if excited, as he usually is on an occasion such as the
netting of a tiger, a reckless fellow. The young men of the villages
vie with each other in the zeal which they display in carrying out
the really dangerous work of cutting back the jungle to within a
couple of spear-lengths of the place where the quarry lies hidden,
and often make a show of their indifference by turning and conversing
with their friends outside the net.
Years ago it was not unusual for people to come long distance for the
purpose of engaging Wynad Paniyans to help them in carrying out some
more than usually desperate robbery or murder. Their mode of procedure,
when engaged in an enterprise of this sort, is evidenced by two cases,
which had in them a strong element of savagery. On both these occasions
the thatched homesteads were surrounded at dead of night by gangs of
Paniyans carrying large bundles of rice straw. After carefully piling
up the straw on all sides of the building marked for destruction,
torches were, at a given signal, applied, and those of the wretched
inmates who attempted to escape were knocked on the head with clubs,
and thrust into the fiery furnace.
The Paniyans settle down happily on estates, living in a settlement
consisting of rows of huts and detached huts, single or double storied,
built of bamboo and thatched. During the hot weather, in the unhealthy
months which precede the advent of the south-west monsoon, they shift
their quarters to live near streams, or in other cool, shady spots,
returning to their head quarters when the rains set in.
They catch fish either by means of big flat bamboo mats, or, in a
less orthodox manner, by damming a stream and poisoning the water
with herbs, bark, and fruit, which are beaten to a pulp and thrown
into the water. The fish, becoming stupified, float on the surface,
and fall an easy and unfairly earned prey.
It is recorded by Mr. H. C. Wilson [44] that the section of the
Moyar river "stretching from the bottom of the Pykara falls down to
the sheer drop into the Mysore ditch below Teppakadu is occupied
principally by Carnatic carp. In the upper reaches I found traces
of small traps placed across side runners or ditches, which were
then dry. They had evidently been in use during the last floods, and
allowed to remain. Constructed of wood in the shape of a large rake
head with long teeth close together, they are fastened securely across
the ditch or runner at a slight angle with teeth in the gravel. The
object is to catch the small fry which frequent these side places for
protection during flood times. Judging by their primitive nature and
poor construction, they are not effective, but will do a certain amount
of damage. The nearest hamlet to this place is called Torappalli,
occupied by a few fisher people called Paniyans. These are no doubt
the makers of the traps, and, from information I received, they are
said to possess better fry and other traps. They are also accredited
with having fine-mesh nets, which they use when the waters are low."
In 1907, rules were issued, under the Indian Fisheries Act, IV of 1897,
for the protection of fish in the Bhavani and Moyar rivers. These rules
referred to the erection and use of fixed engines, the construction
of weirs, and the use of nets, the meshes of which are less than one
and a half inches square for the capture or destruction of fish, and
the prohibition of fishing between the 15th March and 15th September
annually. Notice of the rules was given by beat of tom-tom (drum)
in the villages lying on the banks of the rivers, to which the rules
applied.
The Paniyan language is a debased Malayalam patois spoken in a curious
nasal sing-song, difficult to imitate; but most of the Paniyans
employed on estates can also converse in Kanarese.
Wholly uneducated and associating with no other tribes, the Paniyans
have only very crude ideas of religion. Believing in devils of all
sorts and sizes, and professing to worship the Hindu divinities,
they reverence especially the god of the jungles, Kad Bhagavadi,
or, according to another version, a deity called Kuli, a malignant
and terrible being of neither sex, whose shrines take the form of a
stone placed under a tree, or sometimes a cairn of stones. At their
rude shrines they contribute as offerings to the swami (god) rice
boiled in the husk, roasted and pounded, half-a-cocoanut, and small
coins. The banyan and a lofty tree, apparently of the fig tribe,
are reverenced by them, inasmuch as evil spirits are reputed to
haunt them at times. Trees so haunted must not be touched, and,
if the Paniyans attempt to cut them, they fall sick.
Some Paniyans are believed to be gifted with the power of changing
themselves into animals; and there is a belief among the Paniyan
dwellers in the plains that, if they wish to secure a woman whom
they lust after, one of the men gifted with this special power goes
to her house at night with a hollow bamboo, and encircles the house
three times. The woman then comes out, and the man, changing himself
into a bull or dog, works his wicked will. The woman, it is believed,
dies in the course of two or three days.
In 1904 some Paniyans were employed by a Mappilla (Muhammadan) to
murder his mistress, who was pregnant, and threatened that she would
noise abroad his responsibility for her condition. He brooded over
the matter, and one day, meeting a Paniyan, promised him ten rupees
if he would kill the woman. The Paniyan agreed to commit the crime,
and went with his brothers to a place on a hill, where the Mappilla
and the woman were in the habit of gratifying their passions. Thither
the man and woman followed the Paniyans, of whom one ran out, and
struck his victim on the head with a chopper. She was then gagged
with a cloth, carried some distance, and killed. The two Paniyans
and the Mappilla were sentenced to be hanged.
Monogamy appears to be the general rule among the Paniyans, but there
is no obstacle to a man taking unto himself as many wives as he can
afford to support.
Apparently the bride is selected for a young man by his parents, and,
in the same way that a wealthy European sometimes sends his betrothed
a daily present of a bouquet, the more humble Paniyan bridegroom-elect
has to take a bundle of firewood to the house of the fiancée every
day for six months. The marriage ceremony (and the marriage knot
does not appear to be very binding) is of a very simple nature. The
ceremony is conducted by a Paniyan Chemmi (a corruption of Janmi). A
present of sixteen fanams (coins) and some new cloths is given by the
bridegroom to the Chemmi, who hands them over to the parents of the
bride. A feast is prepared, at which the Paniyan women (Panichis)
dance to the music of drum and pipe. The tali (or marriage badge)
is tied round the neck of the bride by the female relations of the
bridegroom, who also invest the bride with such crude jewelry as
they may be able to afford. The Chemmi seals the contract by pouring
water over the head and feet of the young couple. It is said [45]
that a husband has to make an annual present to his wife's parents;
and failure to do so entitles them to demand their daughter back. A
man may, I was told, not have two sisters as wives; nor may he marry
his deceased wife's sister. Remarriage of widows is permitted. Adultery
and other forms of vice are adjudicated on by a panchayat (or council)
of headmen, who settle disputes and decide on the fine or punishment
to be inflicted on the guilty. At nearly every considerable Paniyan
village there is a headman called Kuttan, who has been appointed by
Nayar Janmi to look after his interests, and be responsible to him for
the other inhabitants of the village. The investiture of the Kuttan
with the powers of office is celebrated with a feast and dance, at
which a bangle is presented to the Kuttan as a badge of authority. Next
in rank to the Kuttan is the Mudali or head of the family, and they
usually constitute the panchayat. Both Kuttan and Mudali are called
Muppanmar or elders. The whole caste is sometimes loosely spoken of
as Muppan. In a case of proved adultery, a fine of sixteen fanams
(the amount of the marriage fee), and a sum equal to the expenses
of the wedding, including the present to the parents of the bride,
is the usual form of punishment.
The Chemmi or Shemmi is, I am informed, a sort of priest or
minister. He was appointed, in olden days, by the chieftains under whom
the Paniyans worked, and each Chemmi held authority over a group of
villages. The office is hereditary, but, should a Chemmi family fail,
it can be filled up by election.
No ceremony takes place in celebration of the birth of children. One
of the old women of the village acts as midwife, and receives a small
present in return for her services. As soon as a child is old enough
to be of use, it accompanies its parents to their work, or on their
fishing and hunting expeditions, and is initiated into the various
ways of adding to the stock of provisions for the household.
The dead are buried in the following manner. A trench, four or five
feet deep, and large enough to receive the body to be interred, is
dug, due north and south, on a hill near the village. At the bottom
of this excavation the earth is scooped out from the western side on
a level with the floor throughout the length of the grave, so as to
form a receptacle for the corpse, which, placed on a mat, is laid
therein upon its left side with the head pointing to the south and
the feet to the north. After a little cooked rice has been put into
the grave for the use of the departed spirit, the mat, which has been
made broad enough for the purpose, is folded up and tucked in under
the roof of the cavity, and the trench filled up. It has probably
been found by experience that the corpse, when thus protected,
is safe from the ravages of scavenger jackals and pariah dogs. For
seven days after death, a little rice gruel is placed at distance
of from fifty to a hundred yards from the grave by the Chemmi, who
claps his hands as a signal to the evil spirits in the vicinity, who,
in the shape of a pair of crows, are supposed to partake of the food,
which is hence called kaka conji or crow's rice.
The noombu or mourning ceremonies are the ti polay, seven days after
death; the kaka polay or karuvelli held for three years in succession
in the month of Magaram (January-February); and the matham polay
held once in every three or four years, when possible, as a memorial
service in honour of those who are specially respected. On all these
occasions the Chemmi presides, and acts as a sort of master of the
ceremonies. As the ceremonial carried out differs only in degree,
an account of the kaka polay will do for all.
In the month of Magaram, the noombukarrans or mourners (who have lost
relatives) begin to cook and eat in a pandal or shed set apart from
the rest of the village, but otherwise go about their business as
usual. They wash and eat twice a day, but abstain from eating meat or
fish. On the last day of the month, arrangements are made, under the
supervision of the Chemmi, for the ceremony which brings the period
of mourning to a close. The mourners, who have fasted since daybreak,
take up their position in the pandal, and the Chemmi, holding on his
crossed arms two winnowing sieves, each containing a seer or two of
rice, walks round three times, and finally deposits the sieves in the
centre of the pandal. If, among the male relatives of the deceased, one
is to be found sufficiently hysterical, or actor enough, to simulate
possession and perform the functions of an oracle, well and good; but,
should they all be of a stolid temperament, there is always at hand
a professional corresponding to the Komaran or Vellichipad of other
Hindus. This individual is called the Patalykaran. With a new cloth
(mundu) on his head, and smeared on the body and arms with a paste
made of rice flour and ghi (clarified butter), he enters on the scene
with his legs girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to drive
away the attendant evil spirits (payanmar). Advancing with short steps
and rolling his eyes, he staggers to and fro, sawing the air with two
small sticks which he holds in either hand, and works himself up into
a frenzied state of inspiration, while the mourners cry out and ask
why the dead have been taken away from them. Presently a convulsive
shiver attacks the performer, who staggers more violently and falls
prostrate on the ground, or seeks the support of one of the posts
of the pandal, while he gasps out disjointed sentences, which are
taken to be the words of the god. The mourners now make obeisance,
and are marked on the forehead with the paste of rice flour and
ghi. This done, a mat is spread for the accommodation of the headmen
and Chemmi; and the Patalykaran, from whose legs the bells have been
removed and put with the rice in the sieves, takes these in his hands,
and, shaking them as he speaks, commences a funeral chant, which lasts
till dawn. Meanwhile food has been prepared for all present except the
mourners, and when this has been partaken of, dancing is kept up round
the central group till daybreak, when the pandal is pulled down and
the kaka polay is over. Those who have been precluded from eating make
up for lost time, and relatives, who have allowed their hair to grow
long, shave. The ordinary Paniyan does not profess to know the meaning
of the funeral orations, but contents himself with a belief that it
is known to those who are initiated. The women attend the ceremony,
but do not take part in the dance. In fact, the nearest approach to
a dance that they ever attempt (and this only on festive occasions)
resembles the ordinary occupation of planting rice, carried out in
dumb show to the music of a drum. The bodies of the performers stoop
and move in time with the music, and the arms are swung from side to
side as in the act of placing the rice seedlings in their rows. To see
a long line of Paniyan women, up to their knees in the mud of a rice
field, bobbing up and down and putting on the pace as the music grows
quicker and quicker, and to hear the wild yells of Hou! Hou! like
a chorus of hungry dogs, which form the vocal accompaniment as they
dab the green bunches in from side to side, is highly amusing.
The foregoing account of the Paniyan death ceremonies was supplied
by Mr. Colin Mackenzie, to whom, as also to Mr. F. Fawcett,
Mr. G. Romilly, and Martelli, I am indebted for many of the facts
recorded in the present note. From Mr. Fawcett the following account
of a further ceremony was obtained:--
At a Paniyan village, on a coffee estate where the annual ceremony
was being celebrated, men and boys were dancing round a wooden
upright to the music of a small drum hanging at the left hip. Some
of the dancers had bells round the leg below the knee. Close to the
upright a man was seated, playing a pipe, which emitted sounds like
those of a bagpipe. In dancing, the dancers went round against the
sun. At some little distance a crowd of females indulged in a dance
by themselves. A characteristic of the dance, specially noticeable
among the women, was stooping and waving of the arms in front. The
dancers perspired freely, and kept up the dance for many hours to
rhythmic music, the tune of which changed from time to time. There
were three chief dancers, of whom one represented the goddess, the
others her ministers. They were smeared with streaks on the chest,
abdomen, arms and legs, had bells on the legs, and carried a short
stick about two feet in length in each hand. The sticks were held
over the head, while the performers quivered as if in a religious
frenzy. Now and again, the sticks were waved or beaten together. The
Paniyans believe that, when the goddess first appeared to them, she
carried two sticks in her hands. The mock goddess and her attendants,
holding the sticks above the head and shivering, went to each male
elder, and apparently received his blessing, the elder placing his
hand on their faces as a form of salutation, and then applying his
hand to his own face. The villagers partook of a light meal in the
early morning, and would not eat again until the end of the ceremony,
which concluded by the man-goddess seating himself on the upright,
and addressing the crowd on behalf of the goddess concerning their
conduct and morality.
The Paniyans "worship animistic deities, of which the chief is Kuli,
whom they worship on a raised platform called Kulitara, offering
cocoanuts, but no blood." [46] They further worship Kattu Bhagavati,
or Bhagavati of the woods. "Shrines in her honour are to be found at
most centres of the caste, and contain no image, but a box in which
are kept the clothing and jewels presented to her by the devout. An
annual ceremony lasting a week is held in her honour, at which the
Komaran and a kind of priest, called Nolambukaran, take the chief
parts. The former dresses in the goddess' clothing, and the divine
afflatus descends upon him, and he prophesies both good and evil."
Games.--A long strip of cane is suspended from the branch of a tree,
and a cross-bar fixed to its lower end. On the bar a boy sits, and
swings himself in all directions. In another game a bar, twelve
to fourteen feet in length, is balanced by means of a point in a
socket on an upright reaching about four feet and-a-half above the
ground. Over the end of the horizontal bar a boy hangs, and, touching
the ground with the feet, spins himself round.
Some Paniyans have a thread tied round the wrist, ankle, or neck,
as a charm to ward off fever and other diseases. Some of the men have
the hair of the head hanging down in matted tails in performance of
a vow. The men wear brass, steel, and copper rings on their fingers
and brass rings in the ears.
The women, in like manner, wear finger rings, and, in addition,
bangles on the wrist, and have the lobes of the ears widely dilated,
and plugged with cadjan (palm leaf) rolls. In some the nostril is
pierced, and plugged with wood.