a few years ago, came into special prominence owing to the Tinnevelly
riots in 1899. "These were," the Inspector-General of Police writes,
[165] "due to the pretensions of the Shanans to a much higher position
in the religio-social scale than the other castes are willing to
allow. Among other things, they claimed admission to Hindu temples,
and the manager of the Visvanatheswara temple at Sivakasi decided to
close it. This partial victory of the Shanans was keenly resented by
their opponents, of whom the most active were the Maravans. Organised
attacks were made on a number of the Shanan villages; the inhabitants
were assailed; houses were burnt; and property was looted. The most
serious occurrence was the attack on Sivakasi by a body of over
five thousand Maravans. Twenty-three murders, 102 dacoities, and
many cases of arson were registered in connection with the riots in
Sivakasi, Chinniapuram, and other places. Of 1,958 persons arrested,
552 were convicted, 7 being sentenced to death. One of the ring-leaders
hurried by train to distant Madras, and made a clever attempt to prove
an alibi by signing his name in the Museum visitor's book. During
the disturbance some of the Shanans are said to have gone into the
Muhammadan fold. The men shaved their heads, and grew beards; and the
women had to make sundry changes in their dress. And, in the case of
boys, the operation of circumcision was performed."
The immediate bone of contention at the time of the Tinnevelly
riots was, the Census Superintendent, 1901, writes, "the claim of the
Shanans to enter the Hindu temples, in spite of the rules in the Agama
Shastras that toddy-drawers are not to be allowed into them; but the
pretensions of the community date back from 1858, when a riot occurred
in Travancore, because female Christian converts belonging to it gave
up the caste practice of going about without an upper cloth." On this
point Mr. G. T. Mackenzie informs us [166] that "in the first quarter
of the nineteenth century, the female converts to Christianity in the
extreme south ventured, contrary to the old rules for the lower castes,
to clothe themselves above the waist. This innovation was made the
occasion for threats, violence, and series of disturbances. Similar
disturbances arose from the same cause nearly thirty years later,
and, in 1859, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras, interfered,
and granted permission to the women of the lower castes to wear a
cloth over the breasts and shoulders. The following proclamation was
issued by the Maharaja of Travancore:--We hereby proclaim that there
is no objection to Shanan women either putting on a jacket like the
Christian Shanan women, or to Shanan women of all creeds dressing in
coarse cloth, and tying themselves round with it as the Mukkavattigal
(fisherwomen) do, or to their covering their bosoms in any manner
whatever, but not like women of high castes." "Shortly after 1858,
pamphlets began to be written and published by people of the caste,
setting out their claims to be Kshatriyas. In 1874 they endeavoured
to establish a right to enter the great Minakshi temple at Madura,
but failed, and they have since claimed to be allowed to wear the
sacred thread, and to have palanquins at their weddings. They say
they are descended from the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings; they have
styled themselves Kshatriyas in legal papers; labelled their schools
Kshatriya academy; got Brahmans of the less particular kind to do
purohit's work for them; had poems composed on their kingly origin;
gone through a sort of incomplete parody of the ceremony of investiture
with the sacred thread; talked much but ignorantly of their gotras;
and induced needy persons to sign documents agreeing to carry them
in palanquins on festive occasions." [During my stay at Nazareth in
Tinnevelly, for the purpose of taking measurements of the Shanans,
I received a visit from some elders of the community from Kuttam,
who arrived in palanquins, and bearing weapons of old device.] Their
boldest stroke was to aver that the coins commonly known as Shanans'
cash were struck by sovereign ancestors of the caste. The author
of a pamphlet entitled 'Bishop Caldwell and the Tinnevelly Shanars'
states that he had met with men of all castes who say that they have
seen the true Shanar coin with their own eyes, and that a Eurasian
gentleman from Bangalore testified to his having seen a true Shanar
coin at Bangalore forty years ago. The coin referred to is the gold
Venetian sequin, which is still found in considerable numbers in the
south, and bears the names of the Doges (Paul Rainer, Aloy Mocen,
Ludov Manin, etc.) and a cross, which the Natives mistake for a toddy
palm. "If," Mr. Fawcett writes, [167] "one asks the ordinary Malayali
(native of Malabar) what persons are represented on the sequin, one
gets for answer that they are Rama and Sita: between them a cocoanut
tree. Every Malayali knows what an Amâda is; it is a real or imitation
Venetian sequin. I have never heard any explanation of the word Amâda
in Malabar. The following comes from Tinnevelly. Amâda was the consort
of Bhagavati, and he suddenly appeared one day before a Shanar,
and demanded food. The Shanar said he was a poor man with nothing
to offer but toddy, which he gave in a palmyra leaf. Amâda drank the
toddy, and performing a mantram (consecrated formula) over the leaf,
it turned into gold coins, which bore on one side the pictures of
Amâda, the Shanar, and the tree, and these he gave to the Shanar as
a reward for his willingness to assist him."
In a petition to myself from certain Shanans of Nazareth, signed by
a very large number of the community, and bearing the title "Short
account of the Cantras or Tamil Xatras, the original but down-trodden
royal race of Southern India," they write as follows. "We humbly
beg to say that we are the descendants of the Pandya or Dravida
Xatra race, who, shortly after the universal deluge of Noah, first
disafforested and colonized this land of South India under the guidance
of Agastya Muni. The whole world was destroyed by flood about B.C. 3100
(Dr. Hale's calculation), when Noah, otherwise called Vaivasvata-manu
or Satyavrata, was saved with his family of seven persons in an
ark or covered ship, which rested upon the highest mountain of the
Aryavarta country. Hence the whole earth was rapidly replenished by
his descendants. One of his grandsons (nine great Prajapatis) was
Atri, whose son Candra was the ancestor of the noblest class of the
Xatras ranked above the Brahmans, and the first illustrious monarch
of the post-diluvian world."
"Apparently," the Census Superintendent continues, "judging from the
Shanan's own published statements of their case, they rest their
claims chiefly upon etymological derivations of their caste name
Shanan, and of Nadan and Gramani, their two usual titles. Caste
titles and names are, however, of recent origin, and little can
be inferred from them, whatever their meaning may be shown to
be. Brahmans, for example, appear to have borne the titles of
Pillai and Mudali, which are now only used by Sudras, and the
Nayak kings, on the other hand, called themselves Aiyar, which
is now exclusively the title of Saivite Brahmans. To this day the
cultivating Vellalas, the weaving Kaikolars, and the semi-civilised
hill tribe of the Jatapus use equally the title of Mudali, and the
Balijas and Telagas call themselves Rao, which is properly the title
of Mahratta Brahmans. Regarding the derivation of the words Shanan,
Nadan and Gramani, much ingenuity has been exercised. Shanan is not
found in the earlier Tamil literature at all. In the inscriptions
of Rajaraja Chola (A. D. 984-1013) toddy-drawers are referred to as
Iluvans. According to Pingalandai, a dictionary of the 10th or 11th
century, the names of the toddy-drawer castes are Palaiyar, Tuvasar,
and Paduvar. To these the Chudamani Nikandu, a Tamil dictionary of
the 16th century, adds Saundigar. Apparently, therefore, the Sanskrit
word Saundigar must have been introduced (probably by the Brahmans)
between the 11th and 16th centuries, and is a Sanskrit rendering of
the word Iluvan. From Saundigar to Shanan is not a long step in the
corruption of words. The Shanans say that Shanan is derived from the
Tamil word Sanrar or Sanror, which means the learned or the noble. But
it does not appear that the Shanans were ever called Sanrar or Sanror
in any of the Tamil works. The two words Nadan and Gramani mean the
same thing, namely, ruler of a country or of a village, the former
being a Tamil, and the latter a Sanskrit word. Nadan, on the other
hand, means a man who lives in the country, as opposed to Uran, the
man who resides in a village. The title of the caste is Nadan, and
it seems most probable that it refers to the fact that the Iluvan
ancestors of the caste lived outside the villages. (South Indian
Inscriptions, vol. II, part 1.) But, even if Nadan and Gramani both
mean rulers, it does not give those who bear these titles any claim
to be Kshatriyas. If it did, all the descendants of the many South
Indian Poligars, or petty chiefs, would be Kshatriyas."
The Census Superintendent, 1891, states that the "Shanans are in
social position usually placed only a little above the Pallas and
the Paraiyans, and are considered to be one of the polluting castes,
but of late many of them have put forward a claim to be considered
Kshatriyas, and at least 24,000 of them appear as Kshatriyas in the
caste tables. This is, of course, absurd, as there is no such thing as
a Dravidian Kshatriya. But it is by no means certain that the Shanans
were not at one time a warlike tribe, for we find traces of a military
occupation among several toddy-drawing castes of the south, such
as the Billavas (bowmen), Halepaik (old foot soldiers), Kumarapaik
(junior foot). Even the Kadamba kings of Mysore are said to have
been toddy-drawers. 'The Kadamba tree appears to be one of the palms,
from which toddy is extracted. Toddy-drawing is the special occupation
of the several primitive tribes spread over the south-west of India,
and bearing different names in various parts. They were employed by
former rulers as foot-soldiers and bodyguards, being noted for their
fidelity. [168]' The word Shanan is ordinarily derived from Tamil saru,
meaning toddy; but a learned missionary derives it from san (a span)
and nar (fibre or string), that is the noose, one span in length,
used by the Shanans in climbing palm-trees." The latter derivation
is also given by Vellalas.
It is worthy of note that the Tiyans, or Malabar toddy-drawers,
address one another, and are addressed by the lower classes as Shener,
which is probably another form of Shanar. [169]
The whole story of the claims and pretensions of the Shanans is
set out at length in the judgment in the Kamudi temple case (1898)
which was heard on appeal before the High Court of Madras. And I may
appropriately quote from the judgment. "There is no sort of proof,
nothing, we may say, that even suggests a probability that the Shanars
are descendants from the Kshatriya or warrior castes of Hindus,
or from the Pandiya, Chola or Chera race of kings. Nor is there any
distinction to be drawn between the Nadars and the Shanars. Shanar is
the general name of the caste, just as Vellala and Maravar designate
castes. 'Nadar' is a mere title, more or less honorific, assumed by
certain members or families of the caste, just as Brahmins are called
Aiyars, Aiyangars, and Raos. All 'Nadars' are Shanars by caste, unless
indeed they have abandoned caste, as many of them have by becoming
Christians. The Shanars have, as a class, from time immemorial,
been devoted to the cultivation of the palmyra palm, and to the
collection of the juice, and manufacture of liquor from it. There
are no grounds whatever for regarding them as of Aryan origin. Their
worship was a form of demonology, and their position in general social
estimation appears to have been just above that of Pallas, Pariahs,
and Chucklies (Chakkiliyans), who are on all hands regarded as unclean,
and prohibited from the use of the Hindu temples, and below that of
Vellalas, Maravans, and other classes admittedly free to worship in
the Hindu temples. In process of time, many of the Shanars took to
cultivating, trade, and money-lending, and to-day there is a numerous
and prosperous body of Shanars, who have no immediate concern with
the immemorial calling of their caste. In many villages they own much
of the land, and monopolise the bulk of the trade and wealth. With
the increase of wealth they have, not unnaturally, sought for social
recognition, and to be treated on a footing of equality in religious
matters. The conclusion of the Sub-Judge is that, according to the
Agama Shastras which are received as authoritative by worshippers of
Siva in the Madura district, entry into a temple, where the ritual
prescribed by these Shastras is observed, is prohibited to all those
whose profession is the manufacture of intoxicating liquor, and the
climbing of palmyra and cocoanut trees. No argument was addressed to
us to show that this finding is incorrect, and we see no reason to
think that it is so.... No doubt many of the Shanars have abandoned
their hereditary occupation, and have won for themselves by education,
industry and frugality, respectable positions as traders and merchants,
and even as vakils (law pleaders) and clerks; and it is natural to
feel sympathy for their efforts to obtain social recognition, and
to rise to what is regarded as a higher form of religious worship;
but such sympathy will not be increased by unreasonable and unfounded
pretensions, and, in the effort to rise, the Shanars must not invade
the established rights of other castes. They have temples of their own,
and are numerous enough, and strong enough in wealth and education, to
rise along their own lines, and without appropriating the institutions
or infringing the rights of others, and in so doing they will have the
sympathy of all right-minded men, and, if necessary, the protection
of the Courts."
In a note on the Shanans, the Rev. J. Sharrock writes [170] that they
"have risen enormously in the social scale by their eagerness for
education, by their large adoption of the freedom of Christianity,
and by their thrifty habits. Many of them have forced themselves
ahead of the Maravars by sheer force of character. They have still
to learn that the progress of a nation, or a caste, does not depend
upon the interpretation of words, or the assumption of a title, but
on the character of the individuals that compose it. Evolutions are
hindered rather than advanced by such unwise pretensions resulting
in violence; but evolutions resulting from intellectual and social
development are quite irresistible, if any caste will continue to
advance by its own efforts in the path of freedom and progress."
Writing in 1875, Bishop Caldwell remarks [171] that "the great majority
of the Shanars who remain heathen wear their hair long; and, if they
are not allowed to enter the temples, the restriction to which they
are subject is not owing to their long hair, but to their caste,
for those few members of the caste, continuing heathens, who have
adopted the kudumi--generally the wealthiest of the caste--are as
much precluded from entering the temples as those who retain their
long hairs. A large majority of the Christian Shanars have adopted
the kudumi together with Christianity."
By Regulation XI, 1816, it was enacted that heads of villages have, in
cases of a trivial nature, such as abusive language and inconsiderable
assaults or affrays, power to confine the offending members in the
village choultry (lock-up) for a time not exceeding twelve hours;
or, if the offending parties are of the lower castes of the people,
on whom it may not be improper to inflict so degrading a punishment,
to order them to be put in the stocks for a time not exceeding six
hours. In a case which came before the High Court it was ruled that
by "lower castes" were probably intended those castes which, prior to
the introduction of British rule, were regarded as servile. In a case
which came up on appeal before the High Court in 1903, it was ruled
that the Shanars belong to the lower classes, who may be punished by
confinement in the stocks.
With the physique of the Shanans, whom I examined at Nazareth and
Sawyerpuram in Tinnevelly, and their skill in physical exercises I
was very much impressed. The programme of sports, which were organised
in my honour, included the following events:--
Fencing and figure exercises with long sticks of iron-wood
(Mesua ferrea).
Figure exercises with sticks bearing flaming rags at each end.
Various acrobatic tricks.
Feats with heavy weights, rice-pounders, and pounding stones.
Long jump.
Breaking cocoanuts with the thrust of a knife or the closed fist.
Crunching whiskey-bottle glass with the teeth.
Running up, and butting against the chest, back, and shoulders.
Swallowing a long silver chain.
Cutting a cucumber balanced on a man's neck in two with a sword.
Falconry.
One of the good qualities of Sir Thomas Munro, formerly Governor of
Madras, was that, like Rama and Rob Roy, his arms reached to his knees,
or, in other words, he possessed the kingly quality of an Ajanubahu,
which is the heritage of kings, or those who have blue blood in
them. This particular anatomical character I have met with myself
only once, in a Shanan, whose height was 173 cm. and span of the arms
194 cm. (+ 21 cm.). Rob Roy, it will be remembered, could, without
stooping, tie his garters, which were placed two inches below the knee.
For a detailed account of demonolatry among the Shanans, I would refer
the reader to the Rev. R. (afterwards Bishop) Caldwell's now scarce
'Tinnevelly Shanans' (1849), written when he was a young and impulsive
missionary, and the publication of which I believe that the learned
and kind-hearted divine lived to regret.
Those Shanans who are engaged in the palmyra (Borassus flabellifer)
forests in extracting the juice of the palm-tree climb with marvellous
activity and dexterity. There is a proverb that, if you desire to
climb trees, you must be born a Shanan. A palmyra climber will,
it has been calculated, go up from forty to fifty trees, each forty
to fifty feet high, three times a day. The story is told by Bishop
Caldwell of a man who was sitting upon a leaf-stalk at the top of a
palmyra palm in a high wind, when the stalk gave way, and he came down
to the ground safely and quietly, sitting on the leaf, which served
the purpose of a natural parachute. Woodpeckers are called Shanara
kurivi by birdcatchers, because they climb trees like Shanars. "The
Hindus," the Rev. (afterwards Canon) A. Margöschis writes, [172]
"observe a special day at the commencement of the palmyra season,
when the jaggery season begins. Bishop Caldwell adopted the custom,
and a solemn service in church was held, when one set of all the
implements used in the occupation of palmyra-climbing was brought
to the church, and presented at the altar. Only the day was changed
from that observed by the Hindus. The perils of the palmyra-climber
are great, and there are many fatal accidents by falling from trees
forty to sixty feet high, so that a religious service of the kind was
particularly acceptable, and peculiarly appropriate to our people." The
conversion of a Hindu into a Christian ceremonial rite, in connection
with the dedication of ex votos, is not devoid of interest. In a note
[173] on the Pariah caste in Travancore, the Rev. S. Mateer narrates
a legend that the Shanans are descended from Adi, the daughter of a
Pariah woman at Karuvur, who taught them to climb the palm tree, and
prepared a medicine which would protect them from falling from the high
trees. The squirrels also ate some of it, and enjoy a similar immunity.
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that Shanan
toddy-drawers "employ Pallans, Paraiyans, and other low castes to
help them transport the liquor, but Musalmans and Brahmans have,
in several cases, sufficiently set aside the scruples enjoined
by their respective faiths against dealings in potent liquor to
own retail shops, and (in the case of some Musalmans at least)
to serve their customers with their own hands." In a recent note,
[174] it has been stated that "L.M.S. Shanar Christians have, in many
cases, given up tapping the palmyra palm for jaggery and toddy as a
profession beneath them; and their example is spreading, so that a
real economic impasse is manifesting itself. The writer knows of one
village at least, which had to send across the border (of Travancore)
into Tinnevelly to procure professional tree-tappers. Consequent on
this want of professional men, the palm trees are being cut down,
and this, if done to any large extent, will impoverish the country."
In the palmyra forests of Attitondu, in Tinnevelly, I came across a
troop of stalwart Shanan men and boys, marching out towards sunset,
to guard the ripening cholum crop through the night, each with a
trained dog, with leash made of fibre passed through a ring on the
neck-collar. The leash would be slipped directly the dog scented a
wild pig, or other nocturnal marauder. Several of the dogs bore the
marks of encounters with pigs. One of the party carried a musical
instrument made of a 'bison' horn picked up in the neighbouring jungle.
The Shanans have a great objection to being called either Shanan or
Marameri (tree-climber), and much prefer Nadan. By the Shanans of
Tinnevelly, whom I visited, the following five sub-divisions were
returned:--
1. Karukku-pattayar (those of the sharp sword), which is considered
to be superior to the rest. In the Census Report, 1891, the division
Karukku-mattai (petiole of the palmyra leaf with serrated edges)
was returned. Some Shanans are said to have assumed the name of
Karukku-mattai Vellalas.
2. Kalla. Said to be the original servants of the Karukku-pattayar,
doing menial work in their houses, and serving as palanquin-bearers.
3. Nattati. Settled at the village of Nattati near Sawyerpuram.
4. Kodikkal. Derived from kodi, a flag. Standard-bearers of the
fighting men. According to another version, the word means a betel
garden, in reference to those who were betel cultivators.
5. Mel-natar (mel, west). Those who live in the western part of
Tinnevelly and in Travancore.
At the census, 1891, Konga (territorial) and Madurai were returned as
sub-divisions. The latter apparently receives its name, not from the
town of Madura, but from a word meaning sweet juice. At the census,
1901, Tollakkadan (man with a big hole in his ears) was taken as
being a sub-caste of Shanan, as the people who returned it, and sell
husked rice in Madras, used the title Nadan. Madura and Tinnevelly are
eminently the homes of dilated ear-lobes. Some Tamil traders in these
two districts, who returned themselves as Pandyan, were classified
as Shanans, as Nadan was entered as their title. In Coimbatore,
some Shanans, engaged as shop-keepers, have been known to adopt the
name of Chetti. In Coimbatore, too, the title Muppan occurs. This
title, meaning headman or elder, is also used by the Ambalakaran,
Valayan, Sudarman, Senaikkudaiyan, and other castes. In the Tanjore
Manual, the Shanans are divided into Tennam, Panam, and Ichcham,
according as they tap the cocoanut, palmyra, or wild date (Phoenix
sylvestris). The name Enadi for Shanans is derived from Enadi Nayanar,
a Saivite saint. But it also means a barber.
The community has, among its members, land-owners, and graduates in
theology, law, medicine, and the arts. Nine-tenths of the Native clergy
in Tinnevelly are said to be converted Shanans, and Tinnevelly claims
Native missionaries working in Madagascar, Natal, Mauritius, and the
Straits. The occupations of those whom I saw at Nazareth were merchant,
cultivator, teacher, village munsif, organist, cart-driver, and cooly.
The Shanans have established a school, called Kshatriya Vidyasala,
at Virudupati in Tinnevelly. This is a free school, for attendance at
which no fee is levied on the pupils, for the benefit of the Shanan
community, but boys of other castes are freely admitted to it. It
is maintained by Shanans from their mahimai fund, and the teachers
are Brahmans, Shanans, etc. The word mahimai means greatness, glory,
or respectability.
Shanbog.--The Magane Shanbog takes the place, in South Canara, of the
village Karnam or accountant. There are also temple Shanbogs, who are
employed at the more important temples. When social disputes come up
for decision at caste council meetings, the Shanbog appointed by the
caste records the evidence, and the Moktessor or Mukhtesar (chief
man) of the caste decides upon the facts. In some places in South
Canara Shanbog is used as a synonym for Sarasvat Brahman. In Mysore,
the Shanbog is said [175] to be "the village accountant, with hardly
an exception of the Brahman caste. The office is hereditary. In
some places they hold land free of rent, and in others on light
assessment. In some few places a fixed money allowance is given. In
all instances there are certain fixed fees payable to them in money
or kind by the ryots."