Shanan.--The great toddy-drawing caste of the Tamil country, which, a few years ago, came into special prominence owing to the Tinnevelly riots in 1899. "These were," the Inspector-General of Police writes, [165] "due to the pretensions of the Shanans to a much higher position in the religio-social scale than the other castes are willing to allow. Among other things, they claimed admission to Hindu temples, and the manager of the Visvanatheswara temple at Sivakasi decided to close it. This partial victory of the Shanans was keenly resented by their opponents, of whom the most active were the Maravans. Organised attacks were made on a number of the Shanan villages; the inhabitants were assailed; houses were burnt; and property was looted. The most serious occurrence was the attack on Sivakasi by a body of over five thousand Maravans. Twenty-three murders, 102 dacoities, and many cases of arson were registered in connection with the riots in Sivakasi, Chinniapuram, and other places. Of 1,958 persons arrested, 552 were convicted, 7 being sentenced to death. One of the ring-leaders hurried by train to distant Madras, and made a clever attempt to prove an alibi by signing his name in the Museum visitor's book. During the disturbance some of the Shanans are said to have gone into the Muhammadan fold. The men shaved their heads, and grew beards; and the women had to make sundry changes in their dress. And, in the case of boys, the operation of circumcision was performed." The immediate bone of contention at the time of the Tinnevelly riots was, the Census Superintendent, 1901, writes, "the claim of the Shanans to enter the Hindu temples, in spite of the rules in the Agama Shastras that toddy-drawers are not to be allowed into them; but the pretensions of the community date back from 1858, when a riot occurred in Travancore, because female Christian converts belonging to it gave up the caste practice of going about without an upper cloth." On this point Mr. G. T. Mackenzie informs us [166] that "in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the female converts to Christianity in the extreme south ventured, contrary to the old rules for the lower castes, to clothe themselves above the waist. This innovation was made the occasion for threats, violence, and series of disturbances. Similar disturbances arose from the same cause nearly thirty years later, and, in 1859, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras, interfered, and granted permission to the women of the lower castes to wear a cloth over the breasts and shoulders. The following proclamation was issued by the Maharaja of Travancore:--We hereby proclaim that there is no objection to Shanan women either putting on a jacket like the Christian Shanan women, or to Shanan women of all creeds dressing in coarse cloth, and tying themselves round with it as the Mukkavattigal (fisherwomen) do, or to their covering their bosoms in any manner