Note 24 — M (Continued)

“The Maravans”, Mr. F. S. Mullaly writes,24 “furnish nearly the whole of the village police (kāvilgars, watchmen), robbers and thieves of the Tinnevelly district. Very often the thief and the watchman are one and the same individual. The Maravans of the present time, of course, retain only a shadow of the power which their ancestors wielded under the poligars, who commenced the kavil system. Still the Marava of to-day, as a member of a caste which is numerous and influential, as a man of superior physique and bold independent spirit, thief and robber, village policeman and detective combined—is an immense power in the land.”