Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
It is stated, in the Gazetteer of the Madura district, that the
inscription at Mandasor in Western Malwa "relates how the Pattavayas,
as the caste was then called, were induced to migrate thither from
Lata on the coast of Gujarat by king Kumara Gupta (or one of his
lieutenants), to practice there their art of silk-weaving. The
inscription says many flattering things about the community, and
poetically compares the city to a beautiful woman, and the immigrants
to the silk garments in which she decks herself when she goes to meet
her lover. [The inscription further records that, while the noble
Bandhuvarman was governing this city of Dasapura, which had been
brought to a state of great prosperity, a noble and unequalled temple
of the bright-rayed (sun) was caused to be built by the silk-cloth
weavers (pattavayair) as a guild with the stores of wealth acquired by
(the exercise of their) craft.] On the destruction of Mandasor by the
Mussalmans, the Pattavayas seem to have travelled south to Devagiri,
the modern Daulatabad, the then capital of the Yadavas, and thence,
when the Mussalmans again appeared on the scene at the beginning of
the fourteenth century, to Vijayanagar, and eventually to Madura. A
curious ceremony confirming this conjecture is performed to this
day at Patnulkaran weddings in South India. Before the date of the
wedding, the bridegroom's party go to the bride's house, and ask
formally for the girl's hand. Her relations ask them in a set form
of words who they are, and whence they come, and they reply that
they are from Sorath (the old name for Saurashtra or Kathiawar),
resided in Devagiri, travelled south (owing to Mussalman oppression)
to Vijayanagar, and thence came to Madura. They then ask the bride's
party the same question, and receive the same reply. A Marathi MS.,
prepared in 1822 at Salem under the direction of the then Collector,
Mr. M. D. Cockburn, contains the same tradition. Mr. Sewell's 'A
Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar' shows how common silk clothing and
trappings were at Vijayanagar in the days of its glory. Most of the
Patnulkarans can still speak Telugu, which raises the inference
that they must have resided a long time in the Telugu country,
while their Patnuli contains many Canarese and Telugu words, and
they observe the feast of Basavanna (or Boskanna), which is almost
peculiar to the Bellary country. After the downfall of Vijayanagar,
some of the caste seem to have gone to Bangalore, for a weaving
community called Patvegars, who speak a dialect similar to Patnuli,
still reside there." Concerning the Patnulis who have settled in
the Mysore Province, it is noted, in the Mysore Census Report, 1891,
that "with silk they manufacture a fine stuff called katni, which no
other weavers are said to be able to prepare. It is largely used by
Mussalmans for trousers and lungas (gowns). It is said that Haider
Ali, while returning from his expeditions against Madras, forcibly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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