Who are Vellalas?

Question

On eof the Dravidian communities of cultivators

Answer 1

Vellalars are agricultural people and in Tamilnadu they are classified into Vellalars and Karalars. Vellalars are one who control the "Vellam" i.e floods in the river and grow crops and Karalars are one who control "Kar" i.e Clouds in the form of Tanks and Lakes and grow crops. Later when Southern parts of Tamilnadu came into the control of Telegu Nayak Chieftains, both Vellars and Karalars(Karkathars) came to work under the chieftains. They maintained Accounts in palayakaras offices, and hence they assumed the title kanakku "pillays "and then Pillays. Vellalas in Tamilnadu are concerned, they have broadly three layers. The first layer consists of Saiva Vellalars (Saiva Mudaliars and Pillais). They are vegetarian, literate and sophisticated like Brahmins except priestly duties but also were major landowners, feudal lords and powerful like Rajputs or Thakurs of Northern India except individual violent nature of Rajputs and were village administrators like Kayasthas of Central and Eastern India. There are a number of sub-castes/clans among them like Thondaimandala vellalar, Karkatha vellalar, Tirunelveli saiva vellalar, etc., and most of them intermarry these days.The second layer consists of a number of unique castes, which do not intermarry at all. The castes like Kongu Vellalar, (Western Tamilnadu) Pandia Vellalar,(Madurai) Chozhia Vellalar,(Trichy & Thanjavur) Tuluva Vellalar (North Tamilnadu), Arcot Mudaliar,(North Tamilnadu) Nanjil Vellalar (Kanya Kumari) are concentrated in specific parts of Tamilnadu and are similar to Reddies, Kammas,Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Equating them to Jats may not be appropriate since these vellala castes have a long-standing history of agriculture and leadership whereas Jats have grown to the current position recently and are considered not very cultured in Northern India.But care has to be taken with reference to Lingayats. Lingayat is a large conglomeration that has the top creamy layer similar to Vellalars (Patels, Patils, etc.,) but also has other caste groupings like Barber, Washerman, etc., within it.The third layer consists of certain castes who have started using the title of vellalar like Isai vellalar (Temple musicians and dancers), Devendrakula Vellalars (Pallars, agricultural labourers), etc.,