Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Anuppan
Anuppan.—The Anuppans are described, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, as "a small caste of Canarese farmers, found chiefly in the districts of Madura,Tinnevelly, and Coimbatore. Their original home appears to have been Mysore or South Canara, probably the former. Their language is a corrupt form of Canarese. The most important sub-division is Allikulam (lily clan). Some of them are Saivites, and others Vaishnavites. Brāhmans are employed as priests by the Vaishnavites, but not by the Saivites. Remarriage of widows is practised, but a woman divorced for adultery cannot remarry during the life-time of her husband."
In the Gazetteer of the Madura district, it is stated that "the Anuppans are commonest in the Kambam valley. They have a tradition regarding their migration thither, which closely resembles that current among the Kāppiliyans and Tottiyans (q.v.). Local tradition at Kambam says that the Anuppans were in great strength here in olden days, and that quarrels arose, in the course of which the chief of the Kāppiliyans, Rāmachcha Kavandan, was killed. With his dying breath he cursed the Anuppans, and thenceforth they never prospered, and now not one of them is left in the town. Their title is Kavandan. They are divided into six territorial groups called Mēdus, which are named after three villages in this district, and three in Tinnevelly. Over each of these is a headman called the Periyadanakkāran, and the three former are also subject to a Guru who lives at Sirupālai near Madura. These three are divided again into eighteen kilais or branches, each of which inter-marries only with certain of the others. Caste panchāyats (councils) are held on a blanket, on which (compare the Tottiyan custom) is placed a pot of water containing margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, to symbolise the sacred nature of the meeting. Women who go astray with men of other castes are expelled, and various ceremonies, including (it is said) the burying alive of a goat,are enacted to show that they are dead to the community.The right of a man to his paternal aunt's daughter is as vigorously maintained as among the Kāppiliyans and Tottiyans, and leads to the same curious state of affairs {i.e., a woman, whose husband is too young to fulfil the duties of his position, is allowed to consort with his near relations, and the children so begotten are treated as his). No tali (marriage badge) is tied at weddings, and the binding part of the ceremonies is the linking, on seven separate occasions, of the little fingers of the couple. Like the Kāppiliyans, the Anuppans have many caste and family deities, a number of whom are women who committed sati." {See Kāppiliyan).