Note 52 — V (continued 2)

In the Madras Census Report, 1871, the Vellālas are described as “a peace-loving, frugal, and industrious people, and, in the cultivation of rice, betel, tobacco, etc., have perhaps no equals in the world. They will not condescend to work of a degrading nature. Some are well educated, and employed in Government service, and as clerks, merchants, shop-keepers, etc., but the greater part of them are the peasant proprietors of the soil, and confine their attention to cultivation.” In the Madura Manual, it is recorded that “most Vellālans support themselves by husbandry, which, according to native ideas, is their only proper means of livelihood. But they will not touch the plough, if they can help it, and ordinarily they do everything by means of hired servants and predial slaves. In the Sathaga of Nārāyanan may be found a description of their duties and position in society, of which the following translation appears in Taylor’s work, the Oriental MSS. The Vellālans, by the effect of their ploughing (or cultivation), maintain the prayers of the Brāhmans, the strength of kings, the profits of merchants, the welfare of all. Charity, donations, the enjoyments of domestic life, and connubial happiness, homage to the gods, the Sāstras, the Vēdas, the Purānas, and all other books, truth, reputation, renown, the very being of the gods, things of good report or integrity, the good order of castes, and (manual) skill, all these things come to pass by the merit (or efficacy) of the Vellālan’s plough. Those Vellālans who are not farmers, husbandmen, or gardeners, are employed in various ways more or less respectable; but none of them will condescend to do work of a degrading nature. Some of them are merchants, some shop-keepers, some Government servants, some sepoys, some domestic servants, some clerks, and so forth.” In the Tanjore Manual, it is stated that “many Vellālars are found in the Government service, more especially as karnams or village accountants. As accountants they are unsurpassed, and the facility with which, in by-gone days, they used to write on cadjan or palmyra leaves with iron styles, and pick up any information on any given points from a mass of these leaves, by lamp-light no less than by daylight, was most remarkable. Running by the side of the Tahsildar’s (native revenue officer) palanquin, they could write to dictation, and even make arithmetical calculations with strictest accuracy. In religious observances, they are more strict than the generality of Brāhmans; they abstain from both intoxicating liquors and flesh meat.” In the Coimbatore Manual, the Vellālas are summed up as “truly the backbone of the district. It is they who, by their industry and frugality, create and develop wealth, support the administration, and find the money for imperial and district demands. As their own proverb says:—The Vellālar’s goad is the ruler’s sceptre. The bulk of them call themselves Goundans.” In the Salem Manual, the Vellāla is described as “frugal and saving to the extreme; his hard-working wife knows no finery, and the Vellālichi, (Vellāla woman) willingly wears for the whole year the one blue cloth, which is all that the domestic economy of the house allows her. If she gets wet, it must dry on her; and, if she would wash her sole garment, half is unwrapped to be operated upon, which in its turn relieves the other half, that is then and there similarly hammered against some stone by the side of the village tank (pond), or on the bank of the neighbouring stream. Their food is the cheapest of the ‘dry’ grains which they happen to cultivate that year, and not even the village feasts can draw the money out of a Vellālar’s clutches. It is all expended on his land, if the policy of the revenue administration of the country be liberal, and the acts of Government such as to give confidence to the ryots or husbandmen; otherwise their hoarded gains are buried. The new moon, or some high holiday, may perhaps see the head of the house enjoy a platter of rice and a little meat, but such extravagance is rare.” The Vellālas are summed up by ‘A Native,’52 as being “found in almost every station of life, from the labourer in the fields to the petty zamindar (landholder); from the owner of plantations to the cooly who works at coffee-picking; from the Deputy Collector to the peon in his office.” It is recorded, in the Census Report, 1871, that a Vellāla had passed the M.A. degree examination of the Madras University. The occupations of the Vellālas whom I examined in Madras were as follows:—