Vellalar - History

History

The Vellalars have a long cultural history that goes back to over two millennia in southern India.

In Sangam literature, the chiefs of the vellala tribes were called the Velir. The Velir or the Vellalar tribes are described as a landed gentry who irrigated the wet lands and the Karalar were the landed gentry in the dry lands. Numerous poems in the ancient Sangam literature extol these chieftains' charity and truthfulness. Among the most prominent were those known as the 'seven patrons' (kadaiyezhu vallal); Vel-Pari, Malayaman Thirumudi Kaari, Ori, Adigaman, Began, Nalli and Ay Kandiran.

They had close associations and held high positions of office with the three main Tamil dynasties, Chera, Chola and Pandya. Some of them had marital relations; Ilamcetcenni, the king known for his fleet of warships, married a Velir princess, and his son Karikala Chola also married a Velir princess from Nangur.

Cultivation in South Asia was spread by force, people would move out into virgin land, which was used by hunter gatherer or tribal people for slash and burn agriculture or for hunting and convert into prime agricultural land. This was an honorific title of select few people who would organize such raids and settlements like chiefs who were also called as Vel. Today everybody uses it but once it was restricted to village headman or founding chief's lineage.

According to historical sources, scholars, Vellalars are the scions of the Velir chieftains who belonged to the Yadu Kshatriya clan. In Hindu texts, the Yadus are often described as an agro pastoral warrior clan.

Old sources tell about the migration of the Velir/Vellalar tribe from North to South India under the leadership of the Vedic sage Agastya: because of Gods congregation on Mount Meru, the earth started tilting, lowering Meru and raising the southern corner. Gods requested Agastya to remedy this situation. On his way, the Sage visited Dvārakā and led 18 Velir families to the south where they settle down, clearing the forest and cultivating the land.

The Vellalas who were land owners and tillers of the soil and held offices pertaining to land, were ranked as Sat-Sudra in the 1901 census; with the Government of Madras recognising that the 4-fold division did not describe the South Indian, or Dravidian, society adequately. It was pointed out that land-based communities quite distinct from the Vellala have claimed Vellala status and in course of time have gained acceptance and intermarried with older Vellalar families. In Post-Independent India too, it was noted that families regarded as pure Vellalar caste (Saiva Vellalars) were reluctant to question the bona fides of those pretending to be Vellalar, since the line between them was noted to be very thin indeed; with the former occasionally drawing partners for marriage from the ranks of the latter. In colonial India, the priests of the Senaikkudaiyans were noted to be the Vellalas, and occasionally the Brahmans.