Valangai or the right hand refers to a caste-based division of communities in the Indian state of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
that was in vogue from ancient times right up to the 19th and even the early decades of the 20th century AD. Since India's independence, the differences have practically vanished.
[ G. S.Ghurye, Pg 359]
The ''Valangai'' or right-handed faction was made up of castes with an agricultural basis while the ''
Idangai'' was made of metal workers, weavers, etc. i.e. castes involved in manufacturing.
The Valangai faction was numerically superior to the ''
Idangai'' or left-handed faction. There were 6 castes in the ''Idangai'' faction as opposed to sixty in the ''Valangai'' faction.
The ''Valangai'' faction was better organized, politically, than the ''Idangai''.
[ Caste Ideology and Interaction, Pg 105]
Jean-Antoine Dubois on ''Valangai'' writes, The ''
Paraiyars'' are its chief support, as a proof of which they glory in the title ‘Valangai-Mougattar’, or friends of the Right-hand.
[Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. Dubois, J. A. (Jean Antoine),1899(Page.25.)]
During the
Chola period, the left and right-hand factions comprised ninety-eight castes each, but by the 19th century, the right-hand faction was made of 60 castes, and the left-hand, only six.
See also
*
Caste system in India
*
Idangai
Notes
References
*
Indian castes
Social groups of India
Social groups of Tamil Nadu
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