Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7Thurston, Edgar
General
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
There is yet another variant of the story of the exodus, which is
obviously of recent manufacture, for a Pattar Brahman is brought in,
and gives cunning advice. We know that the Pattars are comparatively
new comers in Malabar.
The Tiyans have recently been summed up as follows. [31] "The Tiyas
have always been characterised by their persevering and enterprising
habits. A large percentage of them are engaged in various agricultural
pursuits, and some of the most profitable industries of Malabar have
from time out of mind been in their hands. They are exclusively engaged
in making toddy and distilling arrack. Many of them are professional
weavers, the Malabar mundu being a common kind of cloth made by
them. The various industries connected with cocoanut cultivation are
also successfully carried on by the Tiyas. For example, the manufacture
of jaggery (crude sugar) is an industry in which a considerable
number of the Tiyas are profitably engaged. The preparation of coir
from cocoanut fibre is one of their hereditary occupations, and this
is done almost wholly by their women at home. They are very skilful
in the manufacture of coir matting and allied industries. Commercial
pursuits are also common among them. Apart from their agricultural and
industrial inclinations, the Tiyas give evidence of a literary taste,
which is commendable in a people who are living under conditions which
are anything but conducive to literary life. They have among them good
Sanskrit scholars, whose contributions have enriched the Malayalam
literature; physicians well versed in Hindu systems of medicine;
and well-known astrologers, who are also clever mathematicians. In
British Malabar, they have made considerable progress in education. In
recent years, there has been gaining ground among the Tiyas a movement,
which has for its object the social and material improvement of the
community. Their leaders have very rightly given a prominent place
to industry in their schemes of progress and reform. Organisations
for the purpose of educating the members of the community on the
importance of increased industrial efforts have been formed. The
success which has attended the Industrial Exhibition conducted by
the members of the community at Quilon, in 1905, has induced them to
make it a permanent annual event. Some of their young men have been
sent to Japan to study certain industries, and, on their return,
they hope to resuscitate the dying local industries, and to enter
into fresh fields of industry awaiting development. Factories for the
manufacture of coir matting and allied articles have been established
by the Tiyas in some parts of Travancore and Cochin."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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