"The caste is first of all split up into four main divisions, named after the tract of country in which the ancestors of each originally resided. These are (1) Tondamandalam, or the dwellers in the Pallava country, the present Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the titles of which division are Mudali, Reddi and Nainar; (2) Soliya (or Sozhia), or men of the Chola country, the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts of the present day, the members of which are called Pillai; (3) Pandya, the inhabitants of the Pandyan Kingdom of Madura and Tinnevelly, which division also uses the title of Pillai; and (4) Konga, or those who resided in the Konga country, which corresponded to Coimbatore and Salem, the men of which are called Kavandans. The members of all these four main territorial divisions resemble one another in their essential customs. Marriage is either infant or adult, the Puranic wedding ceremonies are followed, and (except among the Konga Vellalas) Brahmans officiate. They all burn their dead, observe fifteen days' pollution, and perform the karumantaram ceremony to remove the pollution on the sixteenth day. There are no marked occupational differences amongst them, most of them being cultivators or traders. Each division contains both Vaishnavites and Saivites, and (contrary to the rule among the Brahmans) differences of sect are not of themselves any bar to intermarriage. Each division has Pandarams, or priests, recruited from among its members, who officiate at funerals and minor ceremonies, and some of these wear the sacred thread, while other Vellalas only wear it at funerals. All Vellalas perform sraddhas (memorial services), and observe the ceremony of invoking their ancestors on the Mahalaya days (a piece of ritual which is confined to the twice-born and the higher classes of Sudras); all of them decline to drink alcohol or to eat in the houses of any but Brahmans; and all of them may dine together. Yet no member of any of these four main divisions may marry into another, and, moreover, each of them is split into sub-divisions (having generally a territorial origin), the members of which again may not intermarry. Thus Tondamandalam are sub-divided into the Tuluvas, who are supposed to have come from the Tulu country; the Poonamallee (or Pundamalli) Vellalas, so called from the town of that name near Madras; and the Kondaikattis (those who tie their hair in a knot without shaving it). None of these three will intermarry. The Soliya Vellalas are sub-divided into the Vellan Chettis, meaning the Vellala merchants (who are again further split up into three or four other territorial divisions); the Kodikkals (betel-garden), who grow the betel-vine; and the Kanakkilinattar, or inhabitants of Kanakkilinadu. These three similarly may not intermarry, but the last is such a small unit, and girls in it are getting so scarce, that its members are now going to other sub-divisions for their brides.