Saliyar or Saliya or Chaliyan or Sali or Sale is an Indian

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

. Their traditional occupation was that of weaving and they are found mostly in the regions of northern

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, southern coastal

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

Caste names

The oldest names for weavers in Kannada and Telugu regions were Saliga (or its variants, Sale, Sali, Saliya etc.) or Jeda (or its variants Jada, Jandra etc.). However, the present day names like

Devanga Devanga (also known as Lingayat Devanga, Devanga Shetty, Devanga Chettiar) is a Hindu caste from South India that traditionally followed the occupation of textile merchandise, weaving and farming mostly found in the Indian states of Karnataka ...

and

Padmasali Padmasali (also spelt as Padmashali, Padmasale) is a Hindu caste residing in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Their traditional occupation is weaving. Etymology The term ''Pa ...

. The original names simply meant weaver (spider). While ''Saliga'' is

tadbhava (Sanskrit: तद्भव, , lit. "arising from that") is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, alongside tatsama and deśi words. at pp. 67-69. A "tadbhava" is a w ...

of jalikha, spider or weaver in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, ''Jeda'' is a Kannada word for spider. According to Ramaswamy, as part of the Virasaiva movement weavers initially championed caste negation or anti-casteism initially. However, as time passed even that movement became caste-ridden and various communities started claiming ritual superiority vis-a-vis other communities part of the same religion and also against non-Virasaiva communities like

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

s. As caste negation gave way to caste exaltation even weavers tried to obtain higher caste credentials and privileges. In 1231, at Chintamani (in the present day Karnataka region with a mixed Kannada/Telugu population) it is said (a dubious claim according to Vijaya Ramaswamy) that a king granted privileges like right to the ''yajnopavita'' (the

sacred thread ''Upanayana'' ( sa, उपनयनम्, lit=initiation, translit=Upanāyanam) is a Hindu educational sacrament, one of the traditional saṃskāras or rites of passage that marked the acceptance of a student by a preceptor, such as a ''guru'' ...

worn by Brahmins), right to ride a palanquin, right to one's own flag and symbol etc... to ''Devanga'' weavers. Many of these privileges were later granted to ''Padmashali'' weavers too.

Edanga and Valanga

According to Ramaswamy, Sali and Devanga weavers were always part of right hand castes while Kaikkola Sengunthar were part of left hand castes.

Relationship to other Malayali castes

In Kannur, Ashtamachal Bhagavathy temple part of

Payyannur Payyanur, , is a municipal town and a taluk, a sub-district administrative unit, in the Kannur district of Kerala, India. On 10 March 2018, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated Payyanur as the fifth taluk in the district. Payyan ...

Teru has a unique tradition of a festival called ''Meenamrithu'' which is related to sea trading culture of the past. It was believed to have belonged to a merchant community called '' Valanjiyar'' belonging to left-hand caste group in the past. However, now Saliyas conduct this ritual. But relationship between Valanjiyar and Saliya communities at present is still a speculation.Meenamruthu Festival
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070413224936/http://www.payyanur.com/meenamrithu.htm , date=2007-04-13

References and notes

Additional references

* ''Caste and Race in India'' by G.S. Ghurye * Report on Growth and Prospects of the Handloom industr

Indian castes Social groups of Kerala Social groups of Tamil Nadu Weaving communities of South Asia Other Backward Classes

Caste names

Edanga and Valanga

Relationship to other Malayali castes

See also

References and notes

Additional references