Paraiyar

Clans and Kinship

Thurston (1909), drawing on the Rev. A. C. Clayton and the census, found the community divided into many sub-divisions, 348 of them returned at the 1891 census, whose members did not marry each other. Within a sub-division it was usual for a man to marry his father's sister's daughter or his mother's brother's daughter, and a girl was expected to marry her mother's brother's son if he was old enough; Clayton called this the usual Tamil custom, though often not kept. Christian and Hindu families married each other. In each settlement a few men called Panakkaran, a hereditary and respected rank, formed a council that settled quarrels and could dissolve a marriage. Families told one person from another by the father's name, but the sources used do not name exogamous clans or say how descent is reckoned. The Paraiyar belong to the valangai, the right-hand division of Tamil castes, and some take the title Valangaimaan (Thurston gives Valangamattan). Since the 1890s the community's own associations, such as the Parayar Mahajana Sabha and the Adi Dravida sabhas, have spoken for it.

No list is given: Thurston (1909) names sub-divisions that married within themselves, not exogamous clans, and no list of Paraiyar clans was found.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Caste

  Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka

  Listed as: Paraiyan

  Tamil Nadu 'Paraiyan, Parayan, Sambavar'; Puducherry 'Parayan, Sambavar'; Kerala 'Paraiyan, Parayan, Sambavar, Sambavan, Sambava, Paraya, Paraiya, Parayar'; Karnataka 'Paraiyan, Paraya' (Census 2011, Table A-10 Appendix).

Checked in Census 2011 Table A-10 Appendix for the four states and against Wikipedia's compilation of the Scheduled Castes order. Adi Dravida, the name promoted for the community since the 1890s, is a separate entry in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh (which then included Telangana), and some families may be recorded under it.

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

The name is usually derived from parai, the Tamil drum; Robert Caldwell and some Indian writers of his time held this view, while others doubted it, and the name is found in tenth-century Chola inscriptions. Iyothee Thass argued that the community were the first Buddhists and the original people of the Tamil country, who lost their place when Buddhism declined. The community regards the Nayanar saint Nandanar as one of its own.

History

The Church Mission Society had brought many families into Christianity by the early nineteenth century, and mission schools admitted Paraiyar students; in 1893 the government sanctioned an additional stipend for them. Iyothee Thass (1845 to 1914), a Siddha physician, demanded temple entry in 1892, formed the Dravida Mahajana Sabha in 1891, and in 1898 became a Buddhist with many followers and founded the Sakya Buddha Society. He felt the name Paraiyar was a slur and campaigned for Adi Dravida instead; Rettamalai Srinivasan (1860 to 1945), on the other hand, used the name with pride, forming the Parayar Mahajana Sabha in 1892 and starting the journal Paraiyan. In 1914 the Madras Legislative Council passed a resolution against the official use of the name Paraiyar for a community and recommended Adi Dravidar, a change M. C. Rajah also worked for.

Faith and Worship

Paraiyar families are Hindu, Christian or Buddhist. The Church Mission Society had brought many families into Christianity by the early nineteenth century, and since Iyothee Thass's conversion of 1898 some families have followed Buddhism. Among the Paraya of Kerala, the mother goddesses called Malavazhi are installed in homes and honoured once a year with the dance drama Malavazhiyattam.

Notable Personalities