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PARIAH

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 802 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PARIAH , a name See also:

long adopted in See also:European usage for the " outcastes " of See also:India. Strictly speaking the Paraiyans are the agricultural labourer See also:caste of the Tamil See also:country in See also:Madras, and are by no means the lowest of the See also:low. The See also:majority are ploughmen, formerly adscripti glebae, but some of them are weavers, and no less than 350 subdivisions have been distinguished. The name can be traced back to See also:inscriptions of the r rth See also:century, and the " Pariah poet," Tiruvalluvar, author of the famous Tamil poem, the Kurral, probably lived at about thattime. The accepted derivation of the word is from the Tamil parai, the large See also:drum of which the Paraiyans are the hereditary beaters at festivals, &c. In 1901 the See also:total number of Paraiyans in all India was 24 millions, almost confined to the See also:south of Madras, In the See also:Telugu country their See also:place is taken by the Malas, in the See also:Kanarese country by the Holeyas and in the See also:Deccan by the Mahars. Some of their privileges and duties seem to show that they represent the See also:original owners of the See also:land, subjected by a conquering See also:race. The Pariahs supplied a notable proportion of See also:Clive's sepoys, and are still enlisted in the Madras sappers and miners. They have always acted as domestic servants to Europeans. That they are not deficient in intelligence is proved by the high position which some of them, when converted to See also:Christianity, have occupied in the professions. In See also:modern See also:official usage the " outcastes " generally are termed Panchamas in Madras, and See also:special efforts are made for their See also:education. See Caldwell, See also:Comparative See also:Grammar of the See also:Dravidian See also:Languages (pp.

540-554), and the Madras See also:

Census Reports for 1891 and 1901.

End of Article: PARIAH

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