Sri Lankan Vellalar

Sri Lankan Vellalar (Tamil: இலங்கை வெள்ளாளர், lit. 'Ilaṅkai veḷḷāḷar') is a caste found in Sri Lanka, who comprise about half of the Sri Lankan Tamil population. They were traditionally involved in agriculture, but also included merchants, landowners and temple patrons.[2][3] They also form part of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.[4]

Sri Lankan Vellalar
ReligionsHinduism, Christianity
LanguagesTamil
Subdivisions
  • Periye Vellalar
  • Chinna Vellalar
[1]
Related groupsTamil people, Vellalar

They are reputed as a ritually and numerical dominant caste, who have contributed among the political elites of the Sri Lankan Tamils.[5] Many of the Tamil Mudaliyars, a high colonial rank, were drawn from the Vellalar caste.[6] In Eastern Sri Lanka are the Vellalars further divided into kudi's or matrilineal clans.[7]

Etymology

The word Vellalar is derived from their art of irrigation and cultivation.[8] The word comes from the Tamil words veḷḷam ("flood", "water" or "abundance") and āṇmai ("lordship" or "management"); thus the word literally means "those who manage water" or "lords of the floods".[9][10] Dutch archives registered the Vellalar and the Govigama under the term Bellalas.[11]

History
See also: Vellalar

Mythological origin

Some claim according to their myth to be the children of the Hindu goddess Parvati.[12] According to the myth of the Pallars, are the Vellalar and Pallar descendant of two farmer brothers.[13] The property of the younger brother Pallan got destroyed by a storm. The older brother Vellalan gave his younger brother Pallan shelter for him and his family.[6][12] After the death of Vellalan, became the wife of Vellalan the owner of the property and made the Pallan and his family their agricultural labor.[14]

Early history

The Sri Lankan Vellalars share common origins with the Vellalars of Tamil Nadu. The Vellalar traditionally inhabited the Sangam landscape of Marutham.[15] The earliest reference to the Vellala is attested to in the Tolkāppiyam, which divided the society into four classes Arasar, Andanar, Vanigar, and Vellalar.[16][17] There were two types of the Vellalars, the cultivators called Velkudi Ulavar and the wealthy landowners called Kaniyalar or Kodikkalar.[18] The Vellalar tribes are described as a landed gentry who irrigated the wet lands and the Karalar (use Vellalar as title) were the landed gentry in the dry lands. Karalar means "lord of clouds".[19]

Medieval era

The Kailayamalai, an account on Kalinga Magha, the founder of Jaffna Kingdom, narrates the migration of Vellalar Nattar chiefs from the Coromandel Coast of South India.[20] Vellalar chiefs from the Malavar and Gangeyar clans were appointed to administrative office by the first Jaffna king Cinkaiariyan (ca. 1280 AD).[21] The Vellalars who were village headmen and landlords bore the title Udaiyar.[22][23]

Colonial era
Arumuka Navalar, a 19th-century Shaivite scholar and reputed patron of Shaiva Siddhanta.

In the time of Portuguese Ceylon, the Vellalars were described as husbandmen, who were involved in tillage and cattle cultivation.[24] According to S. Arasaratnam, Vellalar dominance was strengthened by Dutch colonizers after the fall of the Portuguese.[25] The Portuguese had appointed the affluent Karaiyars and Madapallis to administrative offices. Karaiyars and Madapallis revolted against the new Dutch rule in September 1658, consequently leading to the Dutch favoring the Vellalars to administrative positions.[21] The Dutch interpreted the local laws, later codified as Thesavalamai, as allowing landlords to own slaves. Thus the Vellalar chiefs and other landlord castes had the Koviars and also the Panchamar ("the fives") consisting of the Nalavars, Pallars, Paraiyars, Vannars,and Ambattars working under them as domestic servants altogether known as Kudimakkal.[26][27][28] These castes were originally bonded to the service of the state, however, they were often illegally turned to be bonded to individual Vellalars as their dominance started growing. The growing power of the Vellalars was counterbalanced by removing the Madapallis from earlier suspicion and equally appoint them to the administrative office by the Dutch in the 1690s.[21]

The Thesavalamai mentions the Koviars as descendant of the Vellalars, and intermarriage between them was not uncommon.[29] According to historians, the Vellalar population increased between the 17th and 19th-century due to other castes and communities assimilating in Vellalar society after the fall of Jaffna Kingdom, which included castes such as the Agampadiyar (palace servants), Chettiar (merchants), Thanakkarar (temple managers), Madapallis (palace cooks and stewards), Malayalis and Paradesis (foreigners, skilled workers).[30][31][32][33] There used to be a concept of Periya Vellalan and Chinna Vellalan, where the latter was a subdivision compromising the castes who had assimilated in the Vellalar identity.[12][34]

During colonial rule, some Vellalars converted to Christianity.[35] These conversions allowed them to hold land, properties and government offices.[6] The Dutch minister Philippus Baldaeus of the 17th century, described the Christian Vellalars, Karaiyars and Madapallis as the most influential classes of Christians on the peninsula.[36] Under Dutch rule in the 18th century, some Vellalars earned fortunes through tobacco cultivation.[6] The Vellalars started to become a dominant caste in the Jaffna Peninsula and also the most numerous in the Dutch census.[37]

Due to the effort of the religious reformer, Arumuka Navalar, the conversion to Christianity of many Hindu Vellalars was prevented.[38] They became under his patronage, strict followers of Shaiva Siddhanta, and achieved dominance through ritual design.[20][39] Well-to-do Vellalars from Jaffna and Colombo formed one of the political Sri Lankan Tamil elites, one of such being the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family.[40][41]

Modern era

Vellalar political and ritual dominance was severely restricted due to the post-1983 Sri Lankan civil war domination of Tamil politics by the main rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) whose top leaders, such as Velupillai Prabhakaran, were mostly from the Vellalar caste.[30][42] The LTTE did not have caste distinctions and one of their ideologies were anti-casteism, seeking a united Tamil identity through recruiting of other castes and achieving a mixed-caste leadership.[43][44] Following the old order, where the Karaiyars formed partners with the Vellalars, the LTTE gained support and recruitment from the Vellalars who also contributed as leaders and cadres.[45][46]

The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) and Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) were Vellalar dominated organizations, with several Vellalar cadres of these organization later joining the LTTE.[20][47][48]

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See also

References
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  2. Bush, Kenneth (2003-12-09). The Intra-Group Dimensions of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Learning to Read Between the Lines. Springer. p. 52. ISBN 9780230597822.
  3. Derges, Jane (2013-05-20). Ritual and Recovery in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136214882.
  4. Pfaffenberger, Bryan (1985). "Vellalar domination". Man. 20 (1): 158. JSTOR 2802228.
  5. Welhengama, Gnanapala; Pillay, Nirmala (2014-03-05). The Rise of Tamil Separatism in Sri Lanka: From Communalism to Secession. Routledge. p. 168. ISBN 9781135119713.
  6. Manogaran, Chelvadurai; Pfaffenberger, Bryan (1994). The Sri Lankan Tamils: ethnicity and identity. Westview Press. pp. 35, 43, 147, 149. ISBN 9780813388458.
  7. Thurnheer, Katharina (2014-06-30). Life Beyond Survival: Social Forms of Coping After the Tsunami in War-affected Eastern Sri Lanka. Transcript Verlag. p. 143. ISBN 9783839426012.
  8. Rangaswamy, M. A. Dorai; Araṅkacāmi, Mor̲appākkam Appācāmi Turai (1968). The surnames of the Caṅkam age: literary & tribal. University of Madras. p. 152.
  9. Kent, Eliza F. (2004-04-01). Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India. Oxford University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780198036951.
  10. Journal of the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society By Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Ceylon Branch, Colombo: "'Vellalar' is also said to be a contract form of 'Vella-Alar', meaning 'the lords of the Vellam', flood..."[1]
  11. Dewasiri, Nirmal Ranjith (2007-12-12). The Adaptable Peasant: Agrarian Society in Western Sri Lanka under Dutch Rule, 1740-1800. BRILL. p. 189. ISBN 9789047432821.
  12. David, Kenneth (1977-01-01). The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 189, 190, 204. ISBN 9783110807752.
  13. Vincentnathan, Lynn (1987). Harijan Subculture and Self-esteem Management in a South Indian Community. University of Wisconsin--Madison. p. 385.
  14. Contributions to Indian Sociology. University of Oxford: Mouton. 1993. p. 69.
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  19. India's Communities. Oxford University Press. 1998. ISBN 9780195633542.
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  22. Gunasingam, M. Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, p. 62
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  24. Fernando, A. Denis N. (1987). "PENINSULAR JAFFNA FROM ANCIENT TO MEDIEVAL TIMES: Its Significant Historical and Settlement Aspects". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka. 32: 84. JSTOR 23731055.
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  26. A., Geetha, K. (2010-07-01). "In Need of Translation: An Analysis of Sri Lankan Tamil Dalit Literature". ARIEL. 41 (3–4). ISSN 0004-1327.
  27. Geetha, K. A. (2015-01-12). Contesting Categories, Remapping Boundaries: Literary Interventions by Tamil Dalits. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443873048.
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