Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Panikkar

by Edgar Thurston

Panikkar.— Panikkar, meaning teacher or worker, has been recorded, in the Malayālam country, as a title of barbers, Kammālan, Mārān, Nāyar, Pānān, and Paraiyan. In former times, the name was applied, in Malabar, to fencing-masters, as the following quotations show: —

1518. "And there are very skilful men who teach this art (fencing), and they are called Panicars." — Barbosa.

1553. "And when the Naire comes to the age of 7 years, he is obliged to go to the fencing-school, the master of which (whom they call Panical) they regard as a father, on account of the instruction he gives them." — Barros.

1583. "The maisters which teach them be graduates in the weapons which they teach, and they be called in their language Panycaes." — Castaneda.

A class of people called Panikkan are settled in the Madura and Tinnevelly districts. Some of them are barbers to Shānāns. Others have taken to weaving as a profession, and will not intermarry with those who are employed as barbers. "The Panikkans are," Mr. Francis writes,*^[1] "weavers, agriculturists, and traders. They employ Brāhmans as priests, but these are apparently not received on terms of equality by other Brāhmans. The Panikkans now frequently call themselves Illam Vellālas, and change their title in deeds and official papers from Panikkan to Pillai. They are also taking to wearing the sacred thread and giving up eating meat. The caste is divided into three vagais or endogamous classes, namely, Mitāl, Pattanam, and Malayālam, and each of these again has five partly exogamous septs or illams (families), namely, Mūttillam, Tōranattillam, Pallikkillam, Manjanāttillam, and Sōliya-illam. It is stated that the Mitāl and Pattanam sections will eat together though they do not intermarry, but that the Malayālam section can neither dine with nor marry into the other two. They are reported to have an elaborate system of caste government, under which eleven villages form a gadistalam (or stage), and send representatives to its council to settle caste matters; and eleven gadistalams form a nādu (or country), and send representatives to a chief council, which decides questions which are beyond the competence of the gadistalams." The occurrence of Malayām as the name of a sub-division, and of the Malayālam word illam as that of the exoga- mous septs, would seem to indicate that the Panikkans are immigrants from the westward into the Tamil country.

1. * Madras Census Report, 1901.