Note 76 — B (continued 3)

Billava.—The Billavas are the Tulu-speaking toddy-drawers of the South Canara district. It is noted, in the Manual, that they are “the numerically largest caste in the district, and form close upon one-fifth of the total population. The derivation of the word Billava, as commonly accepted in the district, is that it is a contraction of Billinavaru, bowmen, and that the name was given as the men of that caste were formerly largely employed as bowmen by the ancient native rulers of the district. There is, however, no evidence whatever, direct or indirect, to show that the men of the toddy-drawing caste were in fact so employed. It is well known that, both before and after the Christian era, there were invasions and occupations of the northern part of Ceylon by the races then inhabiting Southern India, and Malabar tradition tells that some of these Dravidians migrated from Īram or Ceylon northwards to Travancore and other parts of the West Coast of India, bringing with them the cocoanut or southern tree (tenginamara), and being known as Tīvars (islanders) or Īravars, which names have since been altered to Tīyars and Ilavars. This derivation would also explain the name Dīvaru or Halepaik Dīvaru borne by the same class of people in the northern part of the district, and in North Canara. In Manjarabad above the ghauts, which, with Tuluva, was in olden days under the rule of the Humcha family, known later as the Bairasu Wodears of Kārakal, they are called Dēvaru Makkalu, literally God’s children, but more likely a corruption of Tīvaru Makkalu, children of the islanders. In support of this tradition, Mr. Logan has pointed out76 that, in the list of exports from Malabar given in the Periplus, in the first century A.D., no mention is made of the cocoanut. It was, however, mentioned by Cosmos Indico Pleustes (522 to 547 A.D.), and from the Syrian Christians’ copper-plate grants, early in the ninth century, it appears that the Tiyans were at that time an organised guild of professional planters. Although the cocoanut tree may have been introduced by descendants of immigrants from Ceylon moving up the coast, the practice of planting and drawing toddy was no doubt taken up by the ordinary Tulu cultivators, and, whatever the origin of the name Billava may be, they are an essentially Tulu class of people, following the prevailing rule that property vests in females, and devolves in the female line.”