from the Deputy Collector to the peon in his office." It is recorded, in the Census Report, 1871, that a Vellāla had passed the M.A. degree examination of the Madras University. The occupations of the Vellālas whom I examined in Madras were as follows: —
| Cart-driver. | Cultivator. |
| Bricklayer. | Gardener. |
| Cooly. | Compositor. |
| Varnisher. | Railway fireman. |
| Painter. | Peon. |
| Watchman. | Student. |
In an excellent summary of the Vellālas *[1] Mr. W. Francis writes as follows. "By general consent, the first place in social esteem among the Tamil Sūdra castes is awarded to them. To give detailed descriptions of the varying customs of a caste which numbers, as this does, over two and a quarter millions, and is found all over the Presidency, is unnecessary, but the internal construction of the caste, its self-contained and distinct sub-divisions, and the methods by which its numbers are enhanced by accretions from other castes, are so typical of the corresponding characteristics of the Madras castes, that it seems to be worth while to set them out shortly.
"The caste is first of all split up into four main divisions, named after the tract of country in which the ancestors of each originally resided. These are (1) Tondamandalam, or the dwellers in the Pallava country, the present Chingleput and North Arcot districts, the titles of which division are Mudali, Reddi and Nainar; (2) Sōliya (or Sōzhia), or men of the Chōla country, the Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts of the present day, the members of which are called Filial; (3) Pāndya, the
- ↑ * Madras Census Report, 1901.
