Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The proverb that the sense of an Idaiyan is on the back of his neck,
for it was there that he received the blows, refers to "the story
of the shepherd entering the gate of his house with a crook placed
horizontally on his shoulders, and finding himself unable to get in,
and his being made able to do so by a couple of blows on his back,
and the removal of the crook at the same time. Another proverb is
that there is neither an Andi among Idaiyans, nor a Tadan among the
potters. The Andi is always a Saivite beggar, and, the Idaiyans being
always Vaishnavites, they can never have in their midst a beggar of
the Saivite sect, or vice versâ. Being extremely stupid, whenever
any dispute arises among them, they can never come to any definite
settlement, or, as the proverb says, the disputes between Idaiyans
are never easily settled. Keeping and rearing cattle, grazing and
milking them, and living thereby, are their allotted task in life,
and so they are never good agriculturists. This defect is alluded to
in the proverb that the field watered by the Idaiyan, or by a member
of the Palli caste, must ever remain a waste." [175]
Other proverbs, quoted by the Rev. H. Jensen, [176] are as follows:--
The shepherd can get some fool to serve him.
Like a shepherd who would not give anything, but showed an ewe
big with young.
The shepherd destroyed half, and the fool half.
In 1904, an elementary school for Idaiyans, called the Yadava school,
was established at Madura.
The usual title of the Idaiyans is Konan or Kon meaning King, but,
in the Census Report, 1901, the titles Pillai and Kariyalan are also
recorded. In the Census Report, 1891, Idaiya is given as a sub-division
of Vakkaiga; and, in the Salem Manual, Idaiyan appears as a synonym
of Shanan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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