Vannar is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

caste found primarily 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 ...

and northeastern parts of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The community has traditionally been involved in

laundry Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with ...

. also agricultural workers They are in Tamil Nadu classified as Most Backward Class.

Etymology

The word ''Vannar'' is thought to be derived from the

word ''vannam'' meaning "beauty". The chief of this community use the title ''Kattadi'', meaning exorcist.

History

The Vannars traditionally occupy the

Sangam landscape The Sangam landscape (Tamil: அகத்திணை "inner classification") is the name given to a poetic device that was characteristic of love poetry in classical Tamil Sangam literature. The core of the device was the categorisation of poe ...

''Marutham''. The Vannars are known as the descendants of

Virabhadra Virabhadra (), also rendered Veerabhadra, Veerabathira, and Veerabathiran, is a fierce form of the Hindu god Shiva. He is created by the wrath of Shiva, when the deity hurls a lock of his matted hair upon the ground, upon hearing of the self- ...

and are considered to be the ancient inhabitants of the state The Vannars were also involved in the practice of

Ayurvedic medicine Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repor ...

. The Vannars served as ''kudimakkal'' or

domestic servant A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

s, who also gave importance as ceremonial officiators. The Vannas became the god of their clan

Murugan Kartikeya ( sa, कार्त्तिकेय, Kārttikeya), also known as Skanda, Subrahmanya, Shanmukha (), and Murugan ( ta, முருகன்), is the Hindu god of war. He is the son of Parvati and Shiva, the brother of Ganesha ...

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recogni ...

ed and all his

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

s are decorated with

Priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

Legacy

What is now available are the inscriptions on the famous Vannar monastery at

Chidambaram Chidambaram is a town and municipality in Cuddalore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Vellar River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Chidambaram taluk. The town is believed to be o ...

, which are available in two volumes. It is also known to have been established during the reign of King Vijayanagara. It is said that the first book of the three books and the second book of the same book belong to the same period. Among these, the

Shivalingam A lingam ( sa, लिङ्ग , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary ''murti'' or devotional i ...

, Nandi, Sulaam,

Surya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a ...

Chandra Chandra ( sa, चन्द्र, Candra, shining' or 'moon), also known as Soma ( sa, सोम), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) an ...

, Veeramanavalar

Devi Devī (; Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The conce ...

, etc. are said to have been carved in the sculptures, and it is said that the Vannarmadam was renovated during the reign of King Vijayanagara Meykirti and

Krishnadevaraya Krishnadevaraya (17 January 1471 – 17 October 1529) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Empire, reigning from 1509 to 1529. He was the third monarch of the Tuluva dynasty, and is considered to be one of the ...

r and Achutharayar. Datsun, Isan's father-in-law, who was created by

Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan ( Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 prov ...

to destroy him and the gods and goddesses who volunteered to perform the sacrifice without inviting Isan. Both destroyed the gods and goddesses in the same way. The gods and goddesses who destroyed both were then revived by the Lord and Goddess for the welfare of the world, and the blood of the wounds inflicted on them by Veerapathira and

Kali Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In this tra ...

was immortal on them. In order to remove that blood,

Eason Eason is a surname. The name comes from Aythe where the first recorded spelling of the family name is that of Aythe Filius Thome which was dated circa 1630, in the "Baillie of Stratherne". Aythe ''filius'' Thome received a charter of the lands of F ...

orders Varuna to rain, and Varuna rains in the same way. However the blood stain remained on the clothes. So Eason ordered the warriors to remove that stain, and he was created one of the lineage. He is named Veeran and is sent to bleach the clothes of the gods and goddesses. Those who came in the way of the heroes and the way of the hero were called Vannar. They came to earth and did the same business

Inscriptional sources

News about the Vannars has been available since ancient times, but back then the Vannars were not civil servants but paid laborers. such as vannar kanam, vannar karkasu are derived from vannar, vannars were

Textile arts Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials u ...

landowners In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...

and

donor A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as rep ...

s of land and temple artifacts to the temple. It is not known when these people became civil servants, but it is said to have been donated in the 14th century to the Karichunthamangalam Perumal temple as a gift.

Notes of Vannars

The castes on the

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

were castes engaged in

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

work, while the

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album '' Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * ...

were castes were non-agricultural castes engaged in handicrafts such as metal workers and weavers. The place followed during the

Chola period The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

is about the right-wingers in the history of the right-wing caste About Tamil Vannar and Vaduka Vannar As told in the histories of Bharatavarsha

Srilankan Vannars

In Sri Lanka, the Vannars worship King Periyathambiran, the ruler of the city of Valavai, as their tribal deity Each community is shown their identities by the "Nikandu Sulamani" in that order In the

Tolkāppiyam ''Tolkāppiyam'', also romanised as ''Tholkaappiyam'' ( ta, தொல்காப்பியம், ''lit.'' "ancient poem"), is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. The surviving manus ...

, Thumbai is taken as a department and Thumbai is said to be a separate grammar for the

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

Notable peoples

* Bannari Amman -a powerful goddess from the Tamil and Kannada folklore.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Social groups of Tamil Nadu Sri Lankan Tamil castes Indian castes