Note 4 — P (Continued)

The terms Vanni and Vanniyan are used in Tamil poems to denote king. Thus, in the classical Tamil poem Kallādam, which has been attributed to the time of Tiruvalluvar, the author of the sacred Kural, Vanni is used in the sense of king. Kamban, the author of the Tamil Rāmāyana, uses it in a similar sense. In an inscription dated 1189 A.D., published by Dr. E. Hultzsch,4 Vanniya Nāyan appears among the titles of the local chief of Tiruchchūram, who made a grant of land to the Vishnu temple at Manimangalam. Tiruchchūram is identical with Tiruvidaichūram about four miles south-east of Chingleput, where there is a ruined fort, and also a Siva temple celebrated in the hymns of Tirugnāna Sambandhar, the great Saiva saint who lived in the 9th century. Local tradition, confirmed by one of the Mackenzie manuscripts,5 says that this place was, during the time of the Vijayanagar King Krishna Rāya (1509–30 A.D.), ruled over by two feudal chiefs of the Vanniya caste named Kāndavarāyan and Sēndavarāyan. They, it is said, neglected to pay tribute to their sovereign lord, who sent an army to exact it. The brothers proved invincible, but one of their dancing-girls was guilty of treachery. Acting under instructions, she poisoned Kāndavarāyan. His brother Sēndavarāyan caught hold of her and her children, and drowned them in the local tank. The tank and the hillock close by still go by the name of Kuppichi kulam and Kuppichi kunru, after Kuppi the dancing-girl. An inscription of the Vijayanagar king Dēva Rāya II (1419–44 A.D.) gives him the title of the lord who took the heads of the eighteen Vanniyas.6 This inscription records a grant by one Muttayya Nāyakan, son of Mūkkā Nāyakan of Vannirāya gōtram. Another inscription,7 dated 1456 A.D., states that, when one Rāja Vallabha ruled at Conjeeveram, a general, named Vanniya Chinna Pillai, obtained a piece of land at Sāttānkād near Madras. Reference is made by Orme8 to the assistance which the Vaniah of Sevagherry gave Muhammad Yūsuf in his reduction of Tinnevelly in 1757. The Vaniah here referred to is the Zamindar of Sivagiri in the Tinnevelly district, a Vanniya by caste. Vanniyas are mentioned in Ceylon archives. Wanni is the name of a district in Ceylon. It is, Mr. W. Hamilton writes,9 “situated towards Trincomalee in the north-east quarter. At different periods its Wannies or princes, taking advantage of the wars between the Candian sovereigns and their European enemies, endeavoured to establish an authority independent of both, but they finally, after their country had been much desolated by all parties, submitted to the Dutch.” Further, Sir J. E. Tennent writes,10 that “in modern times, the Wanny was governed by native princes styled Wannyahs, and occasionally by females with the title of Wunniches.”