Maravar (also known as Maravan and Marava) are a Tamil community in the state of Tamil Nadu. These people are one of the three branches of the Mukkulathor confederacy.[1] Members of the Maravar community often use the honorific title Thevar.[2][3][4] They are classified as an Other Backward Class or a Denotified Tribe in Tamil Nadu, depending on the district.[5]
The Sethupathi rulers of the erstwhile Ramnad kingdom were from this community.[6] The Maravar community, along with the Kallars, had a reputation for thieving and robbery from as early as the medieval period.[7][8][9][10][11]
Etymology
The term Maravar has diverse proposed etymologies;[12] it may come simply from a Tamil word maram, meaning such things as vice and murder.[13] or a term meaning "bravery".[14]
Social status
The Maravars were considered as Shudras and were free to worship in Hindu temples.[15] According to Pamela G, Price, the Maravar were warriors who were in some cases zamindars. The zamins of Singampatti, Urkadu, Nerkattanseval, Thalavankottai, all ruled by members of Maravar caste.[16] Occasionally the Setupathis had to respond to the charge they were not ritually pure.[17]
During the formation of Tamilaham, the Maravars were brought in as socially outcast tribes or traditionally as lowest entrants into the shudra category.[18]Template:Cn The Maravas to this day are feared as a thieving tribe and are an ostracised group in Tirunelveli region.[18][19]
Notable people
- Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, freedom fighter[20]
See also
References
- ↑ The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom{{#if:Dirks|, Dirks}. University of Michigan Press(1993). ISBN 978-0-47208-187-5
- ↑ A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707{{#if:Neill|, Neill}. Cambridge University Press(2004). ISBN 978-0-52154-885-4
- ↑ The Nadars of Tamilnad: The Political Culture of a Community in Change{{#if:Hardgrave|, Hardgrave}. University of California Press(1969)
- ↑ Crooked Stalks: Cultivating Virtue in South India{{#if:Pandian|, Pandian}. Duke University Press(2009). ISBN 978-0-82239-101-2
- ↑ List of Backward Classes Approved.
- ↑ Kingship and Political Practice in Colonial India{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Cambridge University Press, 14-Mar-1996 - History - 220 pages(14 March 1996). ISBN 9780521552479
- ↑ Women and Work in Precolonial India: A Reader{{#if:Ramaswamy|, Ramaswamy}. Sage Publications(2007). ISBN 9789351507406
- ↑ The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom{{#if:Dirks|, Dirks}. University of Michigan Press(2007). ISBN 9780472081875
- ↑ Social and Economic Dimensions of Caste Organisations in South Indian States{{#if:Balasubramanian|, Balasubramanian}. University of Madras(2001)
- ↑ Colonial Subjects{{#if:Oscar Salemink|, Oscar Salemink}. Wiesbaden(2002). ISBN 0472087460
- ↑ The Maze of fantasy in Tamil folktales{{#if:Ferro-Luzzi|, Ferro-Luzzi}. Wiesbaden(2002). ISBN 9783447045681
- ↑ Political Change and Agrarian Tradition in South India, C. 1600-1801: A Case Study{{#if:VenkatasubramanianIndia|, VenkatasubramanianIndia}. Mittal Publications(1986)
- ↑ Saints, Goddesses and Kings Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900{{#if:Bayly|, Bayly}. Taylor and Francis(2004). ISBN 9780521372015
- ↑ Historical dictionary of the Tamils{{#if:Ramaswamy|, Ramaswamy}. Scarecrow Press(2007). ISBN 978-0-8108-5379-9
- ↑ Structure and Change in Indian Society{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Transaction Publishers(1970). ISBN 978-0-202-36933-4
- ↑ A Manual of the Tinnevelly District in the Presidency of Madras{{#if:Stuart|, Stuart}. E. Keys, at the Government Press(1879)
- ↑ Kingship and Political Practice in Colonial India{{#if:Price|, Price}. University of Cambridge(1996). ISBN 9780521552479
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Women and work in Precolonial India{{#if:Ramasamy|, Ramasamy}. SAGE(2016). ISBN 9789351507406
- ↑ Perilous Transactions{{#if:Parkin|, Parkin}. Sikshasandhan(2001). ISBN 9788187982005
- ↑ Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s{{#if:Eugene F. Irschick|, Eugene F. Irschick}. Cre-A(1986)