Udayar (caste)
The Udayar, also called Parkavakulam, is a caste found in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.
| Udayar or Parkavakulam | |
|---|---|
| Religions | Hinduism, Christianity |
| Languages | Tamil |
| Country | India |
| Populated states | Tamil Nadu |
| Related groups | Tamil people |
Etymology
The word Udayar in Tamil means Lord or Possessor as in Possessor of land or kingdom.
Present status
According to Selva Raj, the Udayar are "socially humbler" than the Vellalar community[1] but, together with the Pallar and Kallar, form the Marava castes, who are quite dominant in the region variously known as Ramnad and the Maravar country.[2]
Religion
In Ramnad and the nearby areas of Pudukottai, Madurai, Salem, Namakkal, Tanjore and Trichy, they and their two fellow Maravar caste groups are prominent in their cult worship of the shrine at Oriyur that commemorates John de Britto, a 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr. Raj says, "A notable feature of the Britto cult is that it is centered around caste identities rather than religious affiliation", and thus members of the caste-group, irrespective of their religious affiliation regard Britto as their clan-deity.[3]
Some Udayars are Roman Catholic Christians.[4][3]
References
- Raj, Selva J. (2010). "Serious Levity at the Shrine of St. Anne in South India". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Sacred Play: Ritual Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions. SUNY Press. p. 87. ISBN 9781438429793. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
- Raj, Selva J. (2002). "Transgressing Boundaries, Transcending Turner: The Pilgrimage Tradition at the Shrine of St. John de Britto". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines. SUNY Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780791455197. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
- Raj, Selva J. (2002). "Transgressing Boundaries, Transcending Turner: The Pilgrimage Tradition at the Shrine of St. John de Britto". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines. SUNY Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-79145-519-7.
- Palanithurai, Ganapathy; Ragupathy, Varadarajan (2008). Communities Panchayats and Governance at Grassroots. Concept Publishing Company. p. 138. ISBN 9788180695636. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
Further reading
- Burkhart, Geoffrey (June 1972). "Ranges of Endogamy in a Tamil Group". Indian Anthropologist. 2 (1): 1–6. JSTOR 41919203.
- Burkhart, Geoffrey (January 1976). "On the absence of descent groups among some Udayars of South India". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 10 (1): 31–61. doi:10.1177/006996677601000102.