Note 24 — V

Vāniyan.—The Vāniyans are, Mr. Francis writes,24 “oil-pressers among the Tamils, corresponding to the Telugu Gāndlas, Canarese Gānigas, Malabar Chakkāns, and Oriya Tellis. For some obscure reason, Manu classed oil-pressing as a base occupation, and all followers of the calling are held in small esteem, and, in Tinnevelly, they are not allowed to enter the temples. In consequence, however, of their services in lighting the temples (in token of which all of them, except the Malabar Vāniyans and Chakkāns, wear the sacred thread), they are earning a high position, and some of them use the sonorous title of Jōti Nagarattār (dwellers in the city of light) and Tiru-vilakku Nagarattār (dwellers in the city of holy lamps). They employ Brāhmans as priests, practice infant marriage, and prohibit widow marriage, usually burn their dead, and decline to eat in the houses of any caste below Brāhmans. However, even the washermen decline to eat with them. Like the Gāndlas they have two sub-divisions, Ottai-sekkān and Irattai-sekkān, who use respectively one bullock and two bullocks in their mills. Oddly enough, the former belong to the right-hand faction, and the latter to the left. Their usual title is Chetti. The name Vānuvan has been assumed by Vāniyans, who have left their traditional occupation, and taken to the grain and other trades.”