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The Kallar (or Kallan, formerly spelled as Colleries) are one of the three related castes of southern India which constitute the Mukkulathor confederacy. The Kallar, along with the Maravar and Akamudayar, constitute a united social caste on the basis of parallel professions, though their locations and heritages are wholly separate from one another.

Etymology

Kallar is a Tamil language word meaning "Brave warrior". Their history has included periods of banditry. Other proposed etymological origins include "black skinned", "hero", and "toddy-tappers".

The anthropologist Susan Bayly notes that the name, as with that of Maravar, was a title bestowed by Tamil poligars (warrior-chiefs) on pastoral peasants who acted as their armed retainers. The majority of those poligars, who during the late 17th- and 18th-centuries controlled much of the Tamil area, had themselves come from the Kallar, Maravar and Agamudaiyar communities. Kallar is synonymous with the western Indian term, Kalvar, having connotations of Black skin people but also of upland pastoralism. According to Bayly, Kallar should be considered a "title of rural groups in Tamil Nadu with warrior-pastoralist ancestral traditions."

Caste origins

The kings Cholas, Thondaimon are belongs to Kallar community. They ruled entire Tamilnadu for many years. They are having more than 3000 surnames like Devar, Vanniar etc and many of other castes now had taken Kallar's surnames as their caste name to pretend that they are ancient origin of Tamilnadu. Kallar community is having long history and Thondaiman families are of one among the example

Culture

Among the traditional customs of the Kallar noted by colonial officials was the use of the "collery stick" (Template:Lang-ta), a bent throwing stick or "false boomerang" which could be thrown up to 100 yards. Though described as a boomerang, other writers indicate that it was capable of returning to its thrower, and also noted the weapon was used in deer-hunting. Writing in 1957, Louis Dumont noted that despite the weapon's frequent mention in literature, it had disappeared amongst the Pramalai Kallar.

Diet

The Kallar were traditionally a non-vegetarian people, though a 1970s survey of Tamil Nadu indicated that 30% of Kallar surveyed, though non-vegetarian, refrained from eating fish after puberty. Meat, though present in the Kallar diet, was not frequently eaten but restricted to Saturday nights and festival days. Even so, this small amount of meat was sufficient to affect perceptions of Kallar social status.

References

1. Kingship and Political Practice in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 62, 87, 193.
2. Sociology and Social Research. Vol. 11. University of Southern California. p. 121.
3. Sadasivan, S. N. A Social History of India. p. 287.
4. Dirks, Nicholas B. (1993). The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom (2nd ed.). University of Michigan Press. p. 242. ISBN 9780472081875.
5. Kuppuram, G. (1988). India through the ages: history, art, culture, and religion, Volume 1. Sundeep Prakashan. p. 366.
6. Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
7. Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
8. Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
9. Sir Henry Yule; Arthur Coke Burnell (1903). Hobson-Jobson: a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. J. Murray. pp. 236–. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
10. Gustav Salomon Oppert; Lakshmīkānta Varmā; Śukra (1880). On the weapons, army organisation, and political maxims of the ancient Hindus: with special reference to gunpowder and firearms. Higginbotham. pp. 18–. Retrieved 21 March 2012. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
11. Louis Dumont; A. Stern; Michael Moffatt (1986). A South Indian subcaste: social organization and religion of the Kallar. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
12. Criminal gods and demon devotees: essays on the guardians of popular Hinduism - Alf Hiltebeitel
13. Food, ecology, and culture: readings in the anthropology of dietary practices - John R. K. Robson - Google Books
14. A South Indian subcaste: social organization and religion of the Pramalai Kallar - Louis Dumont, A. Stern, Michael Moffatt - Google Books

• Mukkulathor