Note 43 — K (Continued) (continued 2)

Kunnuvan.—The Kunnuvans are described, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, as “the principal cultivating caste on the Palni hills. They speak Tamil. Their own traditions say that their ancestors were Vellālans from the Dhārāpuram and Kāngayam country in Coimbatore, who went up the Palnis some four or five centuries ago because the low country was so disturbed by war (other accounts say devastated by famine), and they call themselves Kunnuva Vellālas, and state that the name Kunnuva is derived from Kunnūr village in Coimbatore. Other traditions add that the Virūpākshi and Ayyakudi poligars (feudal chieftains) helped them to settle on their land in the hills, which up to then had only been cultivated by indolent Pulaiyans. The Kunnuvans ousted these latter, and eventually turned them into predial serfs—a position from which they have hardly yet freed themselves. In every village is a headman, called the Mannādi, who has the usual powers. The caste is divided into three endogamous sections, called Vaguppus, namely, Periya (big) Kunnuvar, Kunnuvar, and Chinna (little) Kunnuvar. They will eat together. The dress of the women is characteristic. They wear rough metal necklets, brass bangles and anklets, silver bangles on their upper arms, and rings in their noses; and they knot their upper cloths in front across the breasts, and bind them round their waists in a sort of bandage. White cloths used to be forbidden them, but are common enough nowadays. [It was noted by Mr. M. J. Walhouse, in 1881,43 in connection with the Kuneivar on the lower slopes of the Palnis, that women were never allowed to wear white clothes. None could tell why, but it was said that, within memory, women offending against the rule had been cast from a high rock.] The claim of a man to his paternal aunt’s daughter is rigidly maintained, and the evasions of the rule allowed by other castes when the ages of the parties are disproportionate are not permitted. Consequently, a boy sometimes marries more than one of these cousins of his, and, until he reaches manhood, those of them who are much older than he is live with other men of the caste, the boy being the nominal father of any children which may be born. A boy of nine or ten may thus be the putative father of a child of two or three. [In this connection, Mr. J. H. Nelson writes44 that Madura Collectors have sometimes been puzzled not a little by evidence adduced to show that a child of three or four years was the son or daughter of a child of ten or twelve.] When a man has no children except a girl, and his family is in danger of coming to an end, a curious practice, called keeping up the house, is followed. The girl cannot be claimed by her maternal uncle’s son as usual, but may be married to one of the door-posts of the house. A silver bangle is put on her right wrist instead of a tali (marriage badge) round her neck; she is allowed to consort with any man of her caste; her earnings go to her parents; she becomes their heir, and, if she has a son, the boy inherits their property through her. The custom is a close parallel to the system of making girls Basavis, which is so common in the western part of Bellary and the neighbouring parts of Dharwar and Mysore. Divorce is readily obtained, on the petitioner paying the amount of the bride-price, but the children all go to the father. Divorcées and widows may remarry, and they do so with a frequency which has made the caste a byword among its neighbours. The Kunnuvans worship the usual deities of the plains. They generally burn their dead.”