A. Vadagalai (northerners).
(a) Sri Vaishnava.
(b) Vaikhanasa.
(c) Pancharatra.
(d) Hebbar.
B. Thengalai (southerners).
(a) Sri Vaishnava.
(b) Vaikhanasa.
(c) Pancharatra.
(d) Hebbar.
(e) Mandya.
I. Smartha--(a) Vadama.--The Vadamas claim to be superior to
the other classes, but will dine with all the sections, except
Gurukkals and Prathamasakis, and, in some places, will even eat with
Prathamasakis. The sub-divisions among the Vadamas are:--
1. Choladesa (Chola country).
2. Vadadesa (north country).
3. Savayar or Sabhayar.
4. Inji.
5. Thummagunta Dravida.
All these are Smarthas, who use as their sect mark either the
urdhvapundram (straight mark made with sandal paste) or the circular
mark, and rarely the cross lines. They worship both Siva and Vishnu,
and generally read Puranas about Vishnu. Some Vadamas use the Vaishnava
namam as their sect mark, and are called Kiththunamakkarar. They follow
the Smartha customs in every way. There is a common saying "Vadamam
muththi Vaishnavam," i.e., a Vadama ripens into a Vaishnava. This is
literally true. Some Vadama families, who put on the urdhvapundram
mark, and follow the Smartha customs, observe pollution whenever a
death occurs in certain Sri Vaishnava families. This is because the
Sri Vaishnavas are Vadamas recently converted into Vaishnava families.
(b) Kesigal.--The Kesigals, or Hiranyakesikal (men of the silvery
hair), as they are sometimes called, closely resemble the Vadamas,
but are an exclusive endogamous unit, and highly conservative and
orthodox. They are called Hiranyakesikal or Hiranyakesis because they
follow the Grihya Sutras of Hiranyakesi. It is noted, in the Gazetteer
of the Tanjore district, that they "are peculiar in all having one
common Sutram called the Sathyashada after a common ancestor."
(c) Brahacharnam (the great sect).--The Brahacharnams are more
Saivite, and more orthodox than the Vadamas. They put on vibhuti
(sacred ashes) and sandal paste horizontal lines as their sect
mark. The sub division Sathyamangalam Brahacharnam seems, however,
to be an exception, as some members thereof put on the Vaishnavite
sect mark at all times, or at least during the month of Purattasi,
which is considered sacred to the god Venkataramana of Tirupati. The
more orthodox Brahacharnams wear a single rudraksha bead, or a necklace
of beads, and some make lingams out of these beads, which they put on
the head during worship. They generally worship five gods, viz., Siva
in the form of a lingam, spatika (crystal) lingam, Vishnu, Ganesa,
and Iswara. It is said that Brahacharnam women can be distinguished
by the mode of tying the cloth, which is not worn so as to reach to
the feet, but reaches only to just below the knees. The Brahacharnams
are sub-divided into the following sections:--
1. Kandramanicka.
2. Milaganur.
3. Mangudi.
4. Palavaneri or Pazhamaneri.
5. Musanadu.
6. Kolaththur.
7. Maruthancheri.
8. Sathyamangalam.
9. Puthur Dravida.
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Tanjore district, that "one
ceremony peculiar to the Milaganur Brahacharnams is that, before the
principal marriage ceremonies of the first day, a feast is given to
four married women, a widow, and a bachelor. This is called the adrisya
pendugal (invisible women) ceremony. It is intended to propitiate
four wives belonging to this sub-division, who are said to have been
cruelly treated by their mother-in-law, and cursed the class. They
are represented to have feasted a widow, and to have then disappeared."
(d) Vathima.--The Vathimas, or Madhimas, are most numerous in the
Tanjore district, and are thus described in the Gazetteer:--"The
Vattimas are grouped into three smaller sub-sections, of which one
is called 'the eighteen village Vattimas,' from the fact that they
profess (apparently with truth) to have lived till recently in only
eighteen villages, all of them in this district. They have a marked
character of their own, which may be briefly described. They are
generally money-lenders, and consequently are unpopular with their
neighbours, who are often blind to their virtues and unkind to their
failings. [There is a proverb that the Vadamas are always economical,
and the Vathimas always unite together.] It is a common reproach
against them that they are severe to those who are in their debt,
and parsimonious in their household expenditure. To this latter
characteristic is attributed their general abstinence from dholl
(the usual accompaniment of a Brahman meal), and their preference for
a cold supper instead of a hot meal. The women work as hard as the
men, making mats, selling buttermilk, and lending money on their own
account, and are declared to be as keen in money-making and usury as
their brothers. They, however, possess many amiable traits. They are
well known for a generous hospitality on all great occasions, and no
poor guest or Brahman mendicant has ever had reason to complain in
their houses that he is being served worse than his richer or more
influential fellows. Indeed, if anything, he fares the better for his
poverty. Again, they are unusually lavish in their entertainments
at marriages; but their marriage feasts have the peculiarity that,
whatever the total amount expended, a fixed proportion is always paid
for the various items--so much per cent. for the pandal, so much per
cent. for food, and so on. Indeed it is asserted that a beggar who
sees the size of the marriage pandal will be able to guess to a nicety
the size of the present he will get. Nor, again, at their marriages,
do they haggle about the marriage settlement, since they have a scale,
more or less fixed and generally recognised, which determines these
matters. There is less keen competition for husbands among them,
since their young men marry at an earlier age more invariably than
among the other sub-divisions. The Vattimas are clannish. If a man
fails to pay his dues to one of them, the word is passed round, and no
other man of the sub-division will ever lend his money. They sometimes
unite to light their villages by private subscription, and to see to
its sanitation, and, in a number of ways, they exhibit a corporate
unity. Till quite recently they were little touched by English
education; but a notable exception to this general statement existed
in the late Sir A. Seshayya Sastri, who was of Vattima extraction."