In recent times, an alarming narrative has emerged within the Malaysian blogosphere, suggesting a historical event that appears to be a misinterpretation or perhaps a deliberate misinformation campaign. The claim revolves around a so called Malay prince named Manabharana from Srivijaya, purportedly attacking and conquering the Chola kingdom. This misleading story has gained traction and is spreading like wildfire across various social media platforms. The need to address and rectify such inaccuracies is crucial not only for the sake of historical accuracy but also for fostering a responsible and informed online community. To delve into the matter, it is essential to clarify that historical records reveal the existence of multiple individuals named Manabharana throughout history. However, a nuanced understanding reveals that all these figures were Tamils (Damila) hailing from the Pandya kingdom, with references to their exploits documented in Tamil inscriptions and Sri Lankan chronicles...
Part 5: The suppression of Tamil military castes
by
D.P.
Sivaram
[courtesy:
Lanka
Guardian,
July
15,
1992,
pp.15-16;
prepared
by
Sachi
Sri
Kantha,
for
the
electronic
record]
One
of
the
first
concerns
of
the
British
as
soon
as
they
conquered
the
southern
parts
of
India
was
with
the
ancient
and
ingrained
"habits
of
predatory
war"
among
the
Tamils.
The
extirpation
of
these
"habits"
and
culture
was
considered
essential
to
establishing
their
authority
in
Tamil
society.
The
Tamil
region
was
ceded
to
the
British
in
July
1801;
a
proclamation
was
issued
by
them
in
December
the
same
year,
whereby
the
use
of
arms
was
suppressed
and
the
military
service
traditionally
rendered
by
the
Tamil
military
castes
was
abolished.
It
was
stated
in
the
proclamation
that
"wherefore
the
Right
Honourable
Edward
Lord
Clive…with
the
view
of
preventing
the
occurrence
of
the
fatal
evils
which
have
attended
the
possession
of
arms
by
the
Poligars
and
Servaikaras
of
the
southern
provinces…formally
announces
to
the
Poligars,
Servaikaras
and
inhabitants
of
the
southern
provinces,
the
positive
determination
of
His
Lordship
to
suppress
the
use
and
exercise
of
all
weapons
of
offence"
and
that
the
Palayams
would
be
turned
into
Zamindari
estates
for
the
purpose
of
preventing
the
Tamil
military
castes
from
engaging
in
their
customary
military
services.
The
British
proclamation
abolished
the
Palayam
system
"In
the
confident
expectation
of
redeeming
the
people
of
the
southern
provinces
from
the
habits
of
predatory
warfare",
and
in
the
hope
of
inducing
them
to
take
up
"the
arts
of
peace
and
agriculture".
The
ban
carrying
weapons
was
crucial
to
the
urgent
task
of
depriving
the
Tamil
military
castes
of
their
traditional
status
in
the
southern
provinces.
The
woods
and
fortresses
of
the
turbulent
Poligars
were
destroyed
and
removed
from
all
maps
and
official
documents
(They
remained
so,
until
the
time
of
Karunanidhi).
Lushington,
one
of
the
first
British
officials
to
be
sent
to
the
Tamil
region,
had
noted
that
the
military
castes
by
remaining
armed
amidst
an
un-warlike
population
wholly
devoted
to
agriculture
stood
between
the
East
India
Company’s
coffers
and
the
vast
revenues
of
the
land
(Caldwell:
1888,
chapter
9).
The
demilitarization
of
the
Tamil
region
did
not
spare
even
the
Kallar
caste
which
had
rendered
valuable
service
to
the
British
in
the
important
wars
of
the
Carnatic,by
which
they
subjugated
the
whole
of
south
India.
The
hereditary
chiefs
of
this
military
caste
were
the
kings
of
Pudukottai
–
the
Thondamans,
who
had
sided
with
the
British
against
Hyder
Ali
and
later
his
son,
Tippu
Sultan.
In
many
of
the
early
wars,
the
British
fought
on
behalf
of
the
Nawab
of
Arcot
in
south
India,
the
Kallar
had
made
up
a
sizeable
portion
of
their
forces.
But
the
Kallar
and
the
other
Tamil
military
castes
had
to
be
disfranchised
to
rid
Tamil
society
of
its
ancient
habits
and
culture
of
predatory
warfare.
What
did
the
British
mean
by
the
Tamil
habit
of
predatory
war?
The
Tamil
works
which
contain
treatises
on
martial
life
and
the
conduct
of
war
define
it
as
Thannuru
tholil
(a
task
undertaken
on
one’s
own)
and
Mannuru
tholil
(a
task
undertaken
on
behalf
of
the
king
or
commander)
–
Tholkappiyam,
Purathinaiyiyal,
[no.]60.
Unlike
many
other
martial
castes
of
the
subcontinent,
the
Kallar
and
the
Maravar
were
not
yeoman
peasants
who
dropped
the
plough
for
the
sword
only
in
times
of
war.
They
had
to
seek
battles
even
when
their
king
or
chieftain
was
not
at
war.
Most
of
the
hero-stones
found
in
Tamilnadu
commemorate
such
battles
between
groups
of
Kallar
or
Maravar.
Some
of
the
warrior
gods
who
are
worshipped
to
this
day
in
southern
Tamil
Nadu
are
Maravar,
who
distinguished
themselves
in
such
battles
which
took
place
even
after
the
British
began
to
abolish
the
culture
of
predatory
war.
The
bow-song
of
Eena
Muthu
Pandian,
a
Tamil
demigod,
describes
the
martial
life
and
heroic
deeds
of
that
Maravar
warrior
who
lived
in
British
times.
The
warrior’s
virtue
was
to
desire
the
bliss
of
the
hero’s
heaven;
it
was
degrading
for
him
to
seek
fertile
lands.
The
Purananooru
(an
anthology
of
Tamil
heroic
poems)
derides
the
newly
arisen
kings
for
their
interest
in
rice
yielding
fields
(verse
287).
War
was
the
sole
occupation
and
aim
of
the
Tamil
warrior
clans.
A
mother
describes
the
Tamil
martial
ethos
–
‘To
bring
forth
and
rear
a
son
is
my
duty;
To
make
him
a
warrior
is
the
father’s
duty’.
To
make
spears
for
him,
is
the
blacksmith’s;
to
bear
bright
sword
and
do
battle,
to
butcher
enemy’s
elephants
and
return,
that
is
the
young
man’s
duty"
(verse
312).
In
many
seventeenth
and
eighteenth
century
British
reports
the
epithet
"fierce
and
turbulent"
is
very
often
used
to
describe
the
Tamil
military
classes.
Their
ancient
and
deep-rooted
cultural
hegemony
in
Tamil
society
was
seen
as
a
positive
threat
to
the
perpetuation
of
colonial
rule.
To
eradicate
it,
the
British
adopted
a
dual
strategy.
On
the
one
hand
they
attempted
to
destroy
the
social
structures
which
sustained
this
culture;
on
the
other,
they
promoted
castes
which
stood
to
gain
from
the
suppression
of
the
military
castes.
The
most
important
structure
which
gave
the
Kallar
and
Maravar
immense
power
in
the
Tamil
country-side
was
the
system
of
kaval.
It
was
abolished
in
1832.
This
has
been
the
traditional
means
by
which
the
Kallar,
Maravar
and
Ahampadiyar
derived
their
livelihood
in
times
of
peace
when
they
were
not
employed
as
soldiers.
The
manual
of
the
Tinnevely
district,
described
the
origins
of
the
Maravar
kavalkarars
thus:
"As
feudal
chiefs
and
heads
of
a
numerous
class
of
the
population,
and
one
whose
characteristics
were
eminently
adapted
for
the
followers
of
a
turbulent
chieftain,
bold
active,
enterprising,
cunning
and
capricious,
this
class
constituted
themselves
or
were
constituted
by
the
peaceful
cultivators,
their
protectors
in
times
of
bloodshed
and
rapine,
when
no
central
authority
existed.
Hence
arose
the
system
of
desha
and
stalum
kaval,
or
the
guard
of
separate
villages.
The
feudal
chieftain
(and
his
Kallar
and
Maravar)
received
a
contribution
from
the
area
around
his
fort
in
consideration
of
protection
afforded
against
armed
invastion."
The
village
and
district
kaval
system
permeated
many
levels
of
rural
Tamil
society
and
hence
was
hinderance
to
the
effective
implementation
of
new
form
of
administration
and
revenue
collection.
In
some
instances
kaval
was
taken
over
from
the
military
castes
and
was
handed
over
to
the
Shanar
(Caldwell;
1888,
p.224)
or
anti-Kaval
movements
were
encouraged
among
non-military
castes
to
coerce
them
to
give
up
kaval,
sell
their
lands
and
leave
(Madras
Presidency
Police
Administration,
1896).
Many
efforts
were
taken
to
put
a
stop
to
the
kaval
services
of
the
Tamil
military
castes
in
the
countryside
in
the
first
half
of
th
nineteenth
century,
culminating
in
the
organization
of
a
new
police
system
in
1860,
which
recruited
mostly
from
among
castes
which
were
considered
favourable
to
the
British.
The
Adi-Dravidas
or
Parayar
were
recruited
heavily
into
the
Indian
Army.
The
Nadu-Ambalakarar
institution
of
the
Kallar
by
which
justice
was
traditionally
dispensed
in
regions
dominated
by
them
was
also
abolished
to
make
way
for
the
penal
and
judiciary
system
introduced
by
the
British.
Deprived
of
their
traditional
occupations
of
kaval
and
soldiering
and
in
some
instances
of
their
lands,
a
large
section
of
the
Tamil
military
castes
became,
in
the
eyes
of
the
colonial
government,
a
delinquent
mass,
a
danger
to
the
rural
social
order.
A
body
of
administrative
and
ethnographic
literature
arose
on
this
perception
and
on
the
need
to
portray
and
classify
the
Tamil
martial
castes
as
criminal.
It
also
relegated
them
to
the
margins
of
Tamil
history
and
culture.
The
Kallar
and
Maravar
who
had
been
referred
to
as
the
military
tribes
of
the
southern
provinces
by
early
British
writers
were
classified
as
criminal
tribes
towards
the
end
of
the
nineteenth
century.
The
task
of
disfranchising
the
Tamil
military
castes
and
destroying
the
structures
of
their
traditional
power
in
Tamil
society
was
strengthened
by
the
promotion
of
the
Vellalas,
Shanars
(Nadars),
Adi-Dravidas
and
the
Nattampadis,
who
constrasted
favourably
with
the
Maravar
and
suited
the
aims
of
revenue,
security
and
conversion.
Among
these,
the
Vellalas
acquired
the
most
favoured
status
for
the
following
reasons:
(A)
They
were,
according
to
the
1871
Madras
census
report,
"a
peace
loving,
frugal,
and
industrious
people".
They
were
essential
to
consolidating
the
new
revenue
and
the
Administrative
Manual
(Coimbatore)
noted
that
the
Vellalas
were
"truly
the
backbone
of
the
district.
It
is
they
who
by
their
industry
and
frugality
create
and
develop
wealth,
support
the
administration,
and
find
the
money
for
imperial
and
district
demands."
(B)
It
was
ascertained
that
"according
to
native
ideas",
husbandry
was
their
only
proper
means
of
livelihood
and
that
they
had
no
established
traditions
of
kingship,
like
Kallar
and
Maravar.
The
Madurai
Manual
noted
that
Aryanayaga
Mudali,
the
great
general
of
the
sixteenth
century
was
dissuaded
from
making
himself
a
king
on
the
ground
that
no
Vellalan
ought
to
be
a
king.
(C)
They
were
found
suitable
for
the
expanding
manpower
needs
of
British
administration.
They
were
unsurpassed
as
accountants
and
many
of
them
were
employed
as
Karnams
or
village
accountants.
(D)
They
were
extremely
conservative
in
their
outlook.
The
Tanjore
Manual
observed,
"in
religious
observances,
they
are
more
strict
than
the
generaliry
of
of
Brahmins;
they
abstain
from
both
intoxicating
liquors
and
meat."
It
is
in
this
milieu
that
the
Dravidian
movement
took
shape
as
the
pro-British
of
the
de-martialized
Tamil
social
order.
Letter
of
Correspondent
M.Raja
Joganantham[Colombo
6]:
Militarism
and
Caste
[Lanka
Guardian,
July
15,
1992,
p.16]
With
the
reference
to
the
above
article
in
Lanka
Guardian
(1
July)
1992.
In
the
article
[by]
the
writer
Mr.
D.P.Sivaram,
some
facts
are
incorrectly
stated.
The
statement
a
strong
narrative
is
found
in
Myliddy
is
correct.
The
names
of
the
chieftains
are
Veera
Maniccathevan,
Periya
Nadduthevan
&
Narasinhathevan.
The
statement
that
the
Marava
chieftains
and
their
castemen
married
among
Karaiyar
of
the
village
is
also
correct.
But
the
statement
about
Thuraiyar
and
Panivar
is
incorrect.
The
clans
known
as
Thuraiyar
and
Panivar
in
this
village
are
the
descendants
of
the
ancient
families
of
Myliddy.
The
martial
arts
of
Marava
are
popular
among
these
two
clans,
though
the
Thuraiyar
is
considered
as
superior.
Thuraiyar
as
well
as
Panivar
were
connected
by
marriage
to
Ramnad,
the
home
country
of
the
Maravar,
for
which
evidence
is
available.
I
am
one
of
the
descendants
of
the
ancient
family
of
the
village,
and
the
writer
of
an
article
titled
as,
‘Ancient
Villages
in
Jaffna’,
which
appeared
in
Eelanadu
on
13.07[July]
1986.
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