Vellalar is a generic Tamil language, Tamil term used primarily to refer to various Caste system in India, castes who traditionally pursued agriculture as a profession in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and northeastern parts of Sri Lanka. The Vellalar are members of several endogamous castes such as the numerically strong Arunattu Vellalar, Chozhia Vellalar, Karkarthar, Karkarthar Vellalar, Kongu Vellalar, Thuluva Vellalar and Sri Lankan Vellalar.

Etymology

The earliest occurrence of the term ''Velaalar'' (வேளாளர்) in Sangam literature is in Paripatal, Paripadal where it is used in the sense of a landowner. The term Velaalar (வேளாளர்) can be derived from the word Vel (வேள்), Vel being a title that was borne by the Velir chieftains of Sangam age among other things. The word ''Vellalar'' (வெள்ளாளர் ) may come from the root ''Vellam'' for flood, which gave rise to various rights of land; and it is because of the acquisition of land rights that the Vellalar got their name.

History

Vellālas worshipping lingam, snake-stones and Ganēsa

The Vellalars have a long cultural history that goes back to over two millennia in southern India, where once they were the ruling and land-owning community. Though the Vellalar have generally been associated with the landed gentry and agriculture, they are not a homogenous group and various people from diverse backgrounds have identified themselves as a Vellalar in the course of history.

In Sangam literature

The Vellalar are spoken of as a group of people right from the Sangam period and are mentioned in many of the classical works of Sangam literature. The Tolkappiyam does not contain the term ''Vellalar'' but refers to a group of people called ''Velaan Maanthar'' who apart from practising agriculture had the right to carry weapons and wear garlands when they were involved in affairs of the state. The term ''Vellalar'' itself occurs in the sense of a landowner in Paripatal, Paripadal. The poem Pattinappalai, Pattinappaalai lists the six virtues of Vellalar as abstention from killing, abstention from stealing, propagation of religion, hospitality, justice and honesty.

Post-Sangam period

In the years that immediately followed the Sangam age (from third to sixth century CE), the Tamil lands were ruled by a dynasty called Kalabhras. Scholar and historian M. Raghava Iyengar identifies the Kalabhras with the Kalappalar section of the Vellalar and equates king Achyuta Vikranta with Achyuta Kalappala the father of Meykandar. Buddhadatta, the Pali writer who stayed in the Chola kingdom and authored Buddhist manuals refers (in the ''Nigamanagātha'' of ''Vinayavinicchaya'', verse 3179) to his patron Achyuta Vikranta who was then (fifth century CE) ruling the Chola kingdom as ''Kalamba-kula nandane'' meaning ''the favourite of the Kalamba family''. In Pali language as in Tamil language, Tamil, the word Kalamba or Kalambam (in Tamil) means the Kadamba tree, the sacred totem, totemic symbol that is associated with Tamil god Murugan.

The Velir

The Velir were an ancient group of Tamil chieftains who claimed Yadava (Yadu) descent. The Ay dynasty, Ay Vels were one such Velir group that ruled the territory in and around Venad during the Sangam period. The word Venad is derived from ''Vel'' -nadu, that is the country ruled by ''Vel'' chieftains. We know of a queen of Vikramaditya Varaguna, an Ay king of 9th century who is referred to as Murugan Chenthi and as Aykula Mahadevi from inscriptions. Her father, an Ay chief called Chathan Murugan is described as a Vennir Vellala that is a Vellala by birth, in the Huzur plates of king Karunandakkan, the predecessor of Vikramaditya Varaguna. The Irunkovel or Irukkuvel chieftains were another ancient Velir clan who ruled from their capital Kodumbalur (near Pudukottai district). They were related to the Cholas by marriage. In an inscription of Rajadhiraja Chola an Irukkuvel feudatory who was a high-ranking military officer (''Dandanayaka'') of the king is described as a Velala. The Irungovels are considered to be of the same stock as the Hoysalas as in one of the Sangam poems, the ancestor of the Irungovel chieftain is said to have ruled the fortified city of Tuvarai. This city is identified with the Hoysala capital Dwarasamudra by some historians. Also, the legend of the chief killing a tiger (''Pulikadimal'') has a striking resemblance to the origin legend of the Hoysalas where ‘'sala'’ kills the tiger to save a sage. As per historian Arokiaswami, the Hoysala title ‘'Ballala'’ is only a variant of the Tamil word ‘'Vellala'’. The Hoysala king Veera Ballala III is even now locally known as the ‘'Vellala Maharaja'’ in Thiruvannamalai, the town that served as their capital in 14th century.

The Chola period

According to the anthropologist Kathleen Gough, "the Vellalars were the dominant secular aristocratic caste under the Chola kings, providing the courtiers, most of the army officers, the lower ranks of the kingdom's bureaucracy, and the upper layer of the peasantry". Two identical Tamil language, Tamil inscriptions from Avani and Uttanur in Mulbagal Taluk dated in the 3rd year of Kulottunga I (about 1072-1073 CE) describe how the great army of the right hand class (''perumpadai valangai mahasenai'') having arrived with great weapons of war from the 78-nadus of Chola-mandalam and the 48000-bhumi of Jayangonda-cholamandalam (the northern districts of Tamil Nadu that is Tondaimandalam) conquered and colonized southern Karnataka (Kolar district) by the grace of Rajendrachola (Kulottunga I). Historian Burton Stein who has done a detailed analysis of this inscription equates the ''Valangai'' military forces and the ''Velaikkara'' troops of the Cholas with the Vellalas and notes that the contents of the above inscription confirm this identification. The ''Velaikkara'' troops were special units of armed forces drawn from the right-hand castes that were close to the king. The units were generally named after the king like ''Rajaraja-terinda-valangai-velaikkarar'', that is ''the known (terinda) forces of king Rajaraja Chola I''. The Chola inscriptions state that the Velaikkara forces pledged under oath to commit suicide in case they failed to defend their king or in the event of his death. The Chalukya kings were also known by the title ''Velpularasar'', that is kings of ''Vel'' country (''pulam'' means region or country in Tamil language, Tamil) and as ''Velkulattarasar'', that is kings of the ''Vel'' clan (''kulam''), in epigraphs and in the old Tamil lexicon Divakaram. The Vellalar also contributed to the Bhakti movement in south India from the seventh century CE onwards and helped revive Hinduism. Many of the Nayanmars, the Shaiva saints, were Vellalar. In the 12th century CE, saint Sekkizhar, Sekkilan Mahadevadigal Ramadeva sang the glories of these Nayanmars in his magnum opus, the Periyapuranam. Sekkizhar was born in a Vellala family in Kundrathur in Thondaimandalam and had the title Uttama Chola Pallavaraiyan. Sekkilan Mahadevadigal Ramadeva was an elder contemporary of Kulothunga Chola II, the king who is said to have persecuted the Brahmin philosopher Ramanuja for his Vaishnavite preachings by forcing him to sign a document stating Shiva is the greatest god.

Sri Lanka

The Vellalars of Sri Lanka have been chronicled in the ''Yalpana Vaipava Malai'' and other historical texts of the Jaffna kingdom. They form half of the Sri Lankan Tamils, Sri Lankan Tamil population and are the major Husbandman, husbandmen, involved in tillage and cattle cultivation. Local Sri Lankan literature, such as the ''Kailiyai Malai'', an account on Kalinga Magha, narrates the migration of Vellala Nattar chiefs from the Coromandel Coast to Sri Lanka. Their dominance rose under Dutch Ceylon, Dutch rule and they formed one of the colonial political elites of the island.

In Jainism

At present, most of the Tamil Jains are from the Vellalar social group. Also, the Saiva Velaalar sect are originally believed to have been Jainas before they embraced Hinduism. The Tamil Jains refer to the Saiva Velaalar as ''nīr-pūci-nayinārs'' or ''nīr-pūci-vellalars'' meaning the vellalars who left Jainism by smearing the sacred ash or ''(tiru)-nīru''. While some of the Jains assign this conversion to the period of the Bhakti movement in Tamil nadu others link it to a conflict with a ruler of the Vijayanagar empire in the 15th century. The villages and areas settled by the Saiva Velaalar even now have a small number of Jaina families and inscriptional evidence indicate that these were earlier Jaina settlements as is evident by the existence of old Jaina temples.

Current usage

Even though at present, the term Vellalar has come to mean a farmer or agricultural people, a number of non-cultivating landholding castes like Karkarthar, Kaarukaatha Velaalar and the Kondaikatti Vellalar, Kondaikatti Velaalar who served ruling dynasties in various capacities also identify themselves as Vellalar. Likewise, the Nankudi Vellalar, Kottai Pillaimar who were traditionally land-holders and lived inside forts, neither lease land for agriculture nor do they till their own fields. They also do not supervise cultivation directly due to the stigma attached to farming and manual labor. Similarly, the Vellala Chettis, a branch of the Chozhia Vellalars were traders and merchants. The Adi-saiva vellalar sect is a strictly vegetarian Saivite group that traditionally served as priests.

Social status

The Vellalar were considered to be of high status and enjoyed a high rank during the Chola period. They helped promote and stabilize Shaivism during the Chola era and many of the cult's leaders were drawn from the ranks of the Vellalar. They were a prosperous community of farmers and landowners who had provided economic support to Shiva temples in the Tamil country. In the Tamil region, Vellalar like Mudaliyar and Pillai along with certain other non-brahmin groups enjoyed a status equal to that of the Brahmins. The Vellalar also had more authority, power and status than the Brahmins in some social and ritual contexts. The Iyer, Smarta Brahmins have always competed with the Tamil Shaivites for religious influence in the temples in the Kaveri, Kaveri delta region. The Smarta adopted the worship of Hindu deities and combined their Sanskritic background with Tamil Saiva and Vaishnava devotionalism and eventually identified themselves as Shaivites and started worshipping in Shiva temples. Despite being a relatively lowly group, they were dominant communities in Tamil agrarian societies for 600 years until the decline of the Chola empire in the 13th century, with their chieftains able to practise state-level political authority after winning the support and legitimisation of Brahmins and other higher-ranked communities with grants of land and honours.

Varna Classification

During the British colonial period, the Vellalars who were land owners and tillers of the soil and held offices pertaining to land, were ranked as Sat-Shudra, Sudra in the 1901 census; with the Government of Madras recognising that the 4-fold division (four varnas) did not describe the South Indian, or Dravidian, society adequately. Following the arrival of Dutch missionaries in the early 18th century, some Vellalar converted to Christianity.