Paniya

Clans and Kinship

Each Paniya settlement traditionally had a headman, the Kuttan, appointed by the landlord on whose land it stood, and next to him the Mudali, the head of a family; the two, both called muppanmar, elders, usually formed the council that settled disputes (Thurston). KIRTADS describes a wider order in which groups of settlements formed a nadu under a hereditary headman, the Koyma, with the Chemmi as head of each settlement, assisted by a messenger, the Karayma. The Chemmi also conducts weddings and funeral rites. Marriage is monogamous as a rule, widows may remarry, and a man may not marry his deceased wife's sister (Thurston; KIRTADS).

The sources used (Thurston 1909; KIRTADS studies of 2018 and 2020; the Encyclopedia of World Cultures) describe Paniya settlements, headmen and marriage rules but no named clans, so none are listed.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka

  Listed as: Paniyan

In Tamil Nadu the Paniyan are one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs); in Kerala they are not. Checked against the Census 2011 tables and Wikipedia's compilation of the order.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

Paniyan is generally taken to come from pani, work: 'workers', as against the landlords (KIRTADS, citing K. S. Singh). Paniya legend says they came from Ippimala, which KIRTADS places near Banasura peak in Wayanad; Thurston (1909) recorded a tradition that a raja captured them with hunting nets in a far country and brought them to Malabar. Thurston also mentions the planters' belief that the Paniya came from Africa, and rejects it.

History

In Thurston's time nearly all the rice cultivation of the Wynad was done by Paniya families attached to the houses and temple lands of Nayar landlords, and every Paniyan was some landlord's 'man', traced and kept from other work if he left; when planters came to the Wynad in the 1850s they bought land together with the Paniya families living on it. KIRTADS studies record that landlords bought Paniya labourers by advance payment at the yearly festival of the Valliyurkavu temple near Mananthavady. Bonded labour was abolished in 1976. KIRTADS studies of 2018 and 2020 find landlessness, poor health and low schooling among the main problems the Paniya still face.

Faith and Worship

Thurston names Kad Bhagavadi, the goddess of the jungle, and Kuli as the deities the Paniya most honour, with shrines of a stone under a tree or a cairn of stones; the banyan and certain tall fig trees are held in awe as haunts of spirits and are not cut. KIRTADS describes the worship of many deities, a large body of mantrams, and belief in life after death.

Deities named in the sources: Kad Bhagavathi, Kuli

Customs

Thurston records that a bridegroom took a bundle of firewood to the bride's house every day for six months before the wedding, that the Chemmi conducted the marriage and was given sixteen coins and new cloths for the bride's parents, and that the groom's female relatives tied the tali. The dead are buried on a hill near the settlement, and for seven days the Chemmi sets out rice gruel, kaka conji, for the spirits. Mourning rites (polay) follow on the seventh day, for three years in the month of Makaram, and every three or four years in memory of respected elders. Paniya women dance to drum and pipe at weddings, and KIRTADS notes rites for birth, ear-piercing and puberty.