"The Vanniyans," Mr. Nelson states, [3] "are at the present time a small and obscure agricultural caste, but there is reason to believe that they are descendants of ancestors who, in former times, held a good position among the tribes of South India. A manuscript, abstracted at page 90 of the Catalogue raisonné (Mackenzie Manuscripts), states that the Vanniyans belong to the Agnikula, and are descended from the Muni Sambhu; and that they gained victories by means of their skill in archery. And another manuscript, abstracted at page 427, shows that two of their chiefs enjoyed considerable power, and refused to pay the customary tribute to the Rayar, who was for a long time unable to reduce them to submission. Armies of Vanniyans are often mentioned in Ceylon annals. And a Hindu History of Ceylon, translated in the Royal As. Soc. Journal, Vol. XXIV, states that, in the year 3300 of the Kali Yuga, a Pandya princess went over to Ceylon, and married its king, and was accompanied by sixty bands of Vanniyans." The terms Vanni and Vanniyan are used in Tamil poems to denote king. Thus, in the classical Tamil poem Kalladam, which has been attributed to the time of Tiruvalluvar, the author of the sacred Kural, Vanni is used in the sense of king. Kamban, the author of the Tamil Ramayana, uses it in a similar sense. In an inscription dated 1189 A.D., published by Dr. E. Hultzsch, [4] Vanniya Nayan appears among the titles of the local chief of Tiruchchuram, who made a grant of land to the Vishnu temple at Manimangalam. Tiruchchuram is identical with Tiruvidaichuram about four miles south-east of Chingleput, where there is a ruined fort, and also a Siva temple celebrated in the hymns of Tirugnana Sambandhar, the great Saiva saint who lived in the 9th century. Local tradition, confirmed by one of the Mackenzie manuscripts, [5] says that this place was, during the time of the Vijayanagar King Krishna Raya (1509-30 A.D.), ruled over by two feudal chiefs of the Vanniya caste named Kandavarayan and Sendavarayan. They, it is said, neglected to pay tribute to their sovereign lord, who sent an army to exact it. The brothers proved invincible, but one of their dancing-girls was guilty of treachery. Acting under instructions, she poisoned Kandavarayan. His brother Sendavarayan caught hold of her and her children, and drowned them in the local tank. The tank and the hillock close by still go by the name of Kuppichi kulam and Kuppichi kunru, after Kuppi the dancing-girl. An inscription of the Vijayanagar king Deva Raya II (1419-44 A.D.) gives him the title of the lord who took the heads of the eighteen Vanniyas. [6] This inscription records a grant by one Muttayya Nayakan, son of Mukka Nayakan of Vanniraya gotram. Another inscription, [7] dated 1456 A.D., states that, when one Raja Vallabha ruled at Conjeeveram, a general, named Vanniya Chinna Pillai, obtained a piece of land at Sattankad near Madras. Reference is