of the Kandasami temple, which every other Beri Chetti has a right to. It may be noted that the Deva-dasis, whose treachery is said to have led to the destruction of the Kammalan caste, were Kaikolans by caste, and that their illegitimate children, like their progenitors, became weavers. The weavers of South India, according to old Tamil poems, were formerly included in the Kammiyan or Kammalan caste. [70] Several inscriptions show that, as late as 1013 A.D., the Kammalans were treated as an inferior caste, and, in consequence, were confined to particular parts of villages. [71] A later inscription gives an order of one of the Chola kings that they should be permitted to blow conches, and beat drums at their weddings and funerals, wear sandals, and plaster their houses. [72] "It is not difficult," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, [73] "to account for the low position held by the Kammalans, for it must be remembered that, in those early times, the military castes in India, as elsewhere, looked down upon all engaged in labour, whether skilled or otherwise. With the decline of the military power, however, it was natural that a useful caste like the Kammalans should generally improve its position, and the reaction from their long oppression has led them to make the exaggerated claims described above, which are ridiculed by every other caste, high or low." The claims here referred to are that they are descended from Visvakarma, the architect of the gods, and are Brahmans. From a note by Mr. F. R. Hemingway, I gather that the friendship between the Muhammadans and Kammalans, who call each other mani (paternal uncle) "originated in the fact that a holy Muhammadan, named Ibrahim Nabi, was brought up in the house of a Kammalan, because his father was afraid that he would be killed by a Hindu king named Namaduta, who had been advised by his soothsayers that he would thus avoid a disaster, which was about to befall his kingdom. The Kammalan gave his daughter to the father of Ibrahim in exchange. Another story (only told by Kammalans) is to the effect that the Kammalans were once living in a magnetic castle, called Kanda Kottai, which could only be destroyed by burning it with varagu straw; and that the Musalmans captured it by sending Musalman prostitutes into the town, to wheedle the secret out of the Kammalans. The friendship, according to the story, sprang up because the Kammalans consorted with the Musalman women."