Isai Vellalar

Isai Vellalar is a community found in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They are traditionally involved as performers of classical dance and music in Hindu temples and courts of the patrons.[1] The term "Isai Vellalar" is a recent community identity, and people of minstrel occupation from various castes such as Ambattar, Agamudayar, Melakkarar, Nanayakkarar, Nattuvanar, Sengunthar and Vellalar come under this term.[2][3][4]

The females of this community were occupied as Devadasi (ritual temple dancers), while the male were occupied as musicians associated with the nadaswaram (windpipe instrument) and the melam (drum).[1]

Etymology

The term Isai Vellalar derives from the Tamil words Isai meaning "music" and Vellalar a generic term roughly meaning "cultivator", thus translates as "cultivators of music".[4] This term was introduced after the legal abolition of the Devadasi system as a result of the reform and anti-nautch movement in 1947.[1] The term "devadasi" is a Sanskritized form of the Tamil term tevaratiyāl (tevaratiyar in plural form) derived from thevar meaning "god" and atiyal meaning "female devotee".[5]

History

The Isai Vellalar communities were originally nomads.[6] Bardic traditions are referred in early Sangam literature and well into the early Pallava and Pandya periods. These were primarily ritualistic and defensive in nature. The artistic side of music and dance came to be strengthened during the Chola and Vijayanagara periods, where these elements were observed in the courts and temples.[7]

Early Chola inscriptions mentions Tevaratiyar as recipients of food offering and ritual performers of the temples, and was a term carrying honorific and high connotations.[5] Inscriptional evidences indicates the Tevaratiyar women to have been independent professionals who enjoyed property (made large land donations to temples) and a respectable position in the society. The 11th-century inscription of Rajaraja I states that the Tevaratiyar were invited to serve the Brihadisvara Temple and were given land near the temple.[8]

Under the patronage of the Nayaks of Tanjavur and Thanjavur Maratha kings, Telugu musicians from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra migrated to the Thanjavur region. The Melakkarars of Thanjavur are therefore divided in two distinct linguistic groups – the Tamil and Telugu Melakkarar.[1]

With the entry of Colonial India, great loss of temple patronage resulted the Tevaratiyar to perceive other ways of income which degraded their social status.[8] The Devadasi system was legally abolished in 1947 after the campaigns of the social reformers Moovalur Ramamirtham and Muthulakshmi Reddi. The entry of Tamil Brahmins in music and dance was seen as a threat to the traditional performers of these art forms. This led communities traditionally associated with music and dance to start forming a politicized non-Brahmin caste association which they coined as "Isai Vellalar Sangam" and thereby created a political unified identity.[1]

Notable people

Historical personalities

Social activists

Moovalur Ramamirtham

Politicians

Business personalities

Kalanithi Maran

Arts

Cinema

Arulnithi

References

University, Vijaya Ramaswamy, Jawaharlal Nehru (25 August 2017). Historical Dictionary of the Tamils. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 114–115, 161–162. ISBN 9781538106860.
Bannerji, Himani; Mojab, Shahrzad; Whitehead, Judith (2001). Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism. University of Toronto Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780802081926.
Soneji, Davesh (15 January 2012). Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India. University of Chicago Press. pp. 143–144. ISBN 978-0-226-76809-0.
Pillai, Swarnavel Eswaran (27 January 2015). Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema. SAGE Publications India. p. 231. ISBN 9789351502128.
Orr, Leslie C. (9 March 2000). Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu. Oxford University Press. pp. 5, 52, 56. ISBN 9780195356724.
Arunachalam, M. (1979). The Kalabhras in the Pandiya country and their impact on the life and letters there. University of Madras. p. 90.
Srilata, K. (2003). The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-respect History : an Anthology of Self-respect Literature (1928-1936). Kali for Women. p. 94. ISBN 9788186706503.
Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (2011). Approaches to History: Essays in Indian Historiography. Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). p. 206. ISBN 9789380607177.

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[:1-1] University, Vijaya Ramaswamy, Jawaharlal Nehru (25 August 2017). Historical Dictionary of the Tamils. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 114–115, 161–162. ISBN 9781538106860.

[2] Bannerji, Himani; Mojab, Shahrzad; Whitehead, Judith (2001). Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism. University of Toronto Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780802081926.

[3] Soneji, Davesh (15 January 2012). Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India. University of Chicago Press. pp. 143–144. ISBN 978-0-226-76809-0.

[:0-4] Pillai, Swarnavel Eswaran (27 January 2015). Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema. SAGE Publications India. p. 231. ISBN 9789351502128.

[:2-5] Orr, Leslie C. (9 March 2000). Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of God: Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu. Oxford University Press. pp. 5, 52, 56. ISBN 9780195356724.

[6] Arunachalam, M. (1979). The Kalabhras in the Pandiya country and their impact on the life and letters there. University of Madras. p. 90.

[7] Srilata, K. (2003). The Other Half of the Coconut: Women Writing Self-respect History : an Anthology of Self-respect Literature (1928-1936). Kali for Women. p. 94. ISBN 9788186706503.

[:3-8] Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (2011). Approaches to History: Essays in Indian Historiography. Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). p. 206. ISBN 9789380607177.