Dr. Caldwell, alluding to Xavier's letters, says*[1] that these Badages were no doubt Vadages or men from the North, and is of opinion that a Jesuit writer of the time who called them Nayars was mistaken, and that they were really Nayakans from Madura. I believe, however, that the Jesuit rightly called them Nayars, for I find that Father Organtino, writing in 1568, speaks of these Badages as people from Narasinga, a kingdom north of Madura, lying close to Bishnaghur. Bishnaghur is, of course, Vijayanagar, and the kingdom of Narasinga was the name frequently given by the Portuguese to Vijayanagar. There is a considerable amount of evidence to show that the Nayars of Malabar are closely connected by origin with the Nayakans of Vijayanagar." (See Nāyar.)
Vadugāyan (Telugu shepherd). — A Tamil synonym for Golla.
Vagiri or Vāgirivāla. — See Kuruvikkāran.
Vāgiti (doorway or court-yard). — An exogamous sept of Jōgi.
Vaguniyan.— See Vayani.
Vaidyan.———Vaidyon or Baidya, meaning physician or medicine-man, occurs as a title of Kshaurakas, Billavas, and Pulluvans, and, at times of census, has been returned as an occupational sub-division of Paraiyans.
Village physicians are known as Vaidyans, and may belong to any caste, high or low. The Vaidyan diagnoses all diseases by feeling the pulse, and, after doing this for a sufficiently long time, remarks that there is an excess of vātham, pitham, ushnam, and so on. His stock phrases are vātham, pitham, ushnam, slēshmam, kārakam, mēgham or mēham, saithyam, etc. Orthodox men and women do not allow the Vaidyan to feel the pulse by
- ↑ • History of Tinnevelly.
