Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 2 of 7

In Short

Edgar Thurston’s monumental reference work documents the social structure of southern India, focusing in this volume on communities spanning the alphabetical range from "C" to "J". Through field observations, physical anthropology measurements, local legends, and census notes, the text examines group identities, occupational roles, and religious practices. It covers agrarian serfdom in Malabar, tribal customs in the hill forests, trade communities, and distinct urban enclaves. The work serves as a enduring record of how caste rules, social pollution distances, and hereditary professions functioned under the administrative lens of the early twentieth-century British Raj.

The Story

The volume opens with a catalog of caste names, occupational titles, and exogamous septs beginning with the letter C. Early entries outline small occupational groups such as the Chakkans, oil-pressers of Malabar who live alongside the Nayars but face strict prohibitions regarding temple entry and intermarriage. The text moves quickly into the complex rules governing social distance and physical pollution in the western region, detailing how communities like the Pulayas, Cherumas, and Parayas are required to maintain precise distances from higher-caste Brahmans and Nayars to avoid defilement. The account describes how these social boundaries dictate daily interactions, funeral rites, and agrarian labor across Malabar and Cochin.

As the narrative progresses through the interior forests and hill tracts, the study documents tribal groups whose origins and boundaries often confounded early colonial administrators. Groups like the Chenchus, Irulas, and Yanadis are examined through their linguistic features, oral traditions, and forest livelihoods. The volume details how these communities collect wild produce, offer worship to forest deities like Kanniamma, and retain distinct marriage customs such as menarikam (marrying a maternal uncle's daughter). Alongside these accounts, Thurston introduces physical measurements—such as stature, head length, and nasal indices—to contrast jungle-dwelling tribes with urban populations and Eurasian communities in Madras City.

Moving into settled agricultural regions, the work outlines the institutionalized serfdom of the malnad backwoods, where hereditary laborers known as Huttalu and Mannalu remain attached to landed estates from generation to generation. The narrative details how local landowners use traditional debt obligations and custom-sanctioned marriages to retain agricultural labor for betel and coffee cultivation. Interspersed among these rural accounts are detailed profiles of specialized occupational castes: Dudekula cotton-cleaners, Godagula bamboo-basket makers, Gamalla toddy-drawers, and Jetti professional wrestlers whose historical role included public combat and serving as executioners.

The latter portion of the volume transitions into urban and religious communities, examining groups that defy typical Hindu caste frameworks. The text documents the history, social organization, and legal rights of the Devadasis (dancing-girls), highlighting their unique legal status regarding property inheritance and girl adoption under British courts. It then explores local folklore surrounding the Jains, such as the mythic origin of Madura’s surrounding rock formations (Anaimalai, Nagamalai, and Pasumalai) created through magical battles with Saivites. The volume culminates in an extensive historical and sociological examination of the Black and White Jewish communities of Cochin, detailing their ancient copper-plate charters, historical rivalries, synagogue administration, and the rigid caste-like distinctions that developed between them over centuries of settlement on the Malabar coast.

How It Unfolds

The survey begins The text opens with brief entries on exogamous clan names, such as the Canji sept of weavers, before detailing regional occupational castes like the Chakkan oil-pressers and the ritual pollution rules governing daily life in Malabar.

Rules of pollution and grief Detailed accounts outline the exact physical distances required between agricultural workers and upper castes, followed by step-by-step descriptions of Cheruma death ceremonies involving specialized drumming, purificatory baths, and community rice distribution.

Tribal identities and physical measurement The work examines forest communities including the Chenchus and Irulas, attempting to resolve historical confusion over their origins while recording physical measurements, body ornamentation, and traditional dietary habits.

Serfdom in the backwoods An analysis of agricultural labor in the malnad tracts reveals systemized serfdom, where hereditary workers remain tied to landowners through traditional debt, custom, and local marriage arrangements.

Specialized trades and folklore The survey documents distinct occupational classes, detailing the cotton-cleaning techniques of the Dudekulas, the basket-making legends of the Godagulas, and the traditional combat gear of the Jetti wrestlers.

Urban institutions and ancient colonies The closing sections detail the unique inheritance rights of dancing-girl communities, local Saivite legends regarding the Jains, and the complex history and social divide between the Black and White Jews of Cochin.

The People

Edgar Thurston and K. Rangachari The primary compilers and ethnographers who systematically gather anthropometric data, census reports, local gazetteers, and field notes. They aim to classify southern India's complex social landscape into a comprehensive reference work.

The Malabar Landowners and Agrestic Serfs The central economic actors of the western agricultural tracts. Landowners rely on traditional labor structures to maintain betel and coffee estates, while hereditary serfs—such as the Huttalu and Mannalu—navigate strict distance-pollution rules and lifelong obligations tied to the soil.

The Devadasis and Nattuvans Members of the temple dancing community who preserve ancient systems of Indian music and danceA meticulous survey of southern Indian social organization reveals how identity, lineage, and labor were codified across diverse communities at the turn of the twentieth century.

In Short

This second volume of Edgar Thurston’s monumental ethnographic study surveys the castes, tribes, and social groups of Southern India spanning the alphabetical range from C to J. Blending field measurements, official census data, colonial gazetteers, and local folklore, Thurston outlines the structural hierarchies, marriage rules, occupational divisions, and religious practices that define each community. The work documents everything from forest-dwelling tribes to elite landholders, military lineages, and urban artisan guilds. It remains an essential historical record of early twentieth-century British colonial anthropology, illustrating the complex intersection of social custom, economic status, and ritual purity that shaped South Indian life under the Raj.

The Story

The narrative of this volume is structural and taxonomic, moving methodically through the alphabetical entries of South Indian communities. Edgar Thurston begins with various subdivisions and occupational groups under the letter C, examining how social status is inextricably bound to hereditary labor, diet, and perceived ritual purity. He documents the exogamous clan systems—or septs—of communities such as the Padma Sales and Kammas, where sub-groups take their names from everyday objects, trees, or customs, such as Canji (rice gruel) or Chintala (tamarind).

As the survey proceeds, Thurston details the rigid spatial and physical distances required to maintain ritual purity among different social strata. In Malabar and Cochin, for instance, lower-caste groups like the Pulayas and Cherumas are subjected to strict rules of physical distance, forced to stand tens of feet away from higher-caste Brahmans and Nayars to avoid bestowing pollution. Thurston documents the elaborate purificatory rituals—such as multi-tank bathing, blood-letting, or changing holy threads—required when these spatial boundaries are inadvertently violated. Alongside these harsh social divisions, the text records the internal funeral customs, death ceremonies, and hereditary ties that bind these communities to their ancestral lands, even under conditions of hereditary serfdom like the Huttalu and Mannalu systems in the malnad tracts.

Moving into the mid-alphabetical entries, the work explores specialized occupational and artistic groups. Thurston examines the Dasi castes (dancing-girls), recording their unique legal standing under British courts regarding property inheritance and adoption, as well as their role as custodians of classical music and dance. He turns his analytical lens toward regional artisans, such as the brass-working Chitra Ghasis, and forest-dwelling populations like the Chenchus and Irulas. In describing these jungle groups, Thurston highlights the ongoing confusion among colonial ethnographers regarding tribal classifications, tracing how forest communities adapt to urban surroundings while retaining ancient practices like worshipping local deities or using specialized hunting tools.

The volume also examines groups that defy simple classification within the traditional Hindu social order, such as the Anglo-Indian Eurasian population, the Dudekula cotton-cleaners, and foreign trader communities like the Gujaratis. Thurston includes anthropometric measurements—evaluating stature, head breadth, and skin tone—to compare these populations against European and local Indian standards.

Toward the end of the volume, the focus shifts to distinct religious and athletic communities, including the Jains of Madura and South Arcot, the Jetti wrestlers of Mysore, and the ancient Jewish populations of Cochin. Thurston recounts local mythological legends, such as the Saivite stories explaining the origins of Nagamalai and Pasumalai hills near Madura as petrified monsters created by Jain sorcery. He concludes the volume's substantive entries with an extensive investigation into the White and Black Jews of Malabar, examining their conflicting claims to ancient lineage, their copper-plate charters, and the rigid caste-like distinctions based on skin color that developed between them over centuries of trade along the Malabar Coast.

How It Unfolds

Mapping the septs and social distance The work opens with an alphabetical breakdown of occupational groups and exogamous clans, highlighting how everyday items like rice gruel or tamarind give their names to family lineages. Thurston outlines the precise, distance-based pollution rules in Malabar that govern interactions between high-caste landholders and agricultural laborers.

Documenting funeral rites and hereditary ties The entry on Cherumas details traditional death observances, including the landlord's gift of tools and cloth, ritual drumming (parayadikka), the distribution of palm-leaf baskets, and the strict post-obituary meals that reinforce community solidarity.

Examining artistic and marginal communities Thurston turns to specialized groups such as the Chitra Ghasi artisans and the Devadasis, surveying the latter's unique legal rights regarding adoption and inheritance under Hindu law, alongside popular proverbs regarding their profession.

Measuring physical traits and forest tribes The narrative shifts toward physical anthropology, compiling measurement tables of head length and stature for Eurasian populations and describing the changing habits of forest tribes like the Irulas and Chenchus as they interact with town life.

Uncovering traditional arts and religious history The volume concludes by documenting the brutal historical role and athletic combat of the Jetti wrestlers in Mysore, the local Saivite legends surrounding Jain monuments in Madura, and the distinct historical origins of the Black and White Jewish communities in Cochin.

The People

• Edgar Thurston: The primary author and Superintendent of the Madras Government Museum, who approaches his subjects with a meticulous, taxonomic desire to measure, classify, and record the physical and social attributes of every South Indian community.
• K. Rangachari: An assistant at the Madras Government Museum who provides critical field research, local linguistic knowledge, and detailed cultural observations that ground the volume's technical documentation.
• C. Hayavadana Rao: A contributing ethnographer whose detailed notes on specific castes—such as the Chitra Ghasis and Godagulas—provide intimate local knowledge regarding bride-prices, caste councils, and religious myths.
• The Devadasis: Female performers dedicated to temples who exist outside traditional housewife roles, maintaining unique legal rights of female-line inheritance and adoption while acting as primary custodians of classical Indian music.
• The Cherumas and Holeyas: Agricultural laborers and serfs whose lives are bound to local landlords (jenmis) through ancient customs, strict spatial pollution rules, and hereditary labor systems like Huttalu and Mannalu.
• The Black and White Jews of Cochin: Two distinct branches of a long-standing merchant enclave in Malabar, divided by claims of original ancestry, ancient copper-plate charters, and caste-like distinctions based on skin tone.

In Its Own Voice

"When defiled by the touch of a Nayadi, a Cheruman has to bathe in seven tanks, and let a few drops of blood flow from one of his fingers." This detail illustrates the extreme ritual rules surrounding physical contact and pollution among lower-caste groups in Malabar.

"The dancing-girl castes, and their allies the Melakkarans, are now practically the sole repository of Indian music, the system of which is probably one of the oldest in the world." Thurston notes the vital artistic role played by courtesan communities in preserving South India's classical music tradition.

"In India caste is varna, which means colour, and their difference in colour has produced caste distinctions among the Indian Jews." An observation on how Indian social structures influenced the division between the White and Black Jewish communities of Cochin.

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume is an investigation into how human societies construct, maintain, and enforce social hierarchies. Through its dry, catalogic structure, the book demonstrates how arbitrary markers—such as occupation, diet, clan names, and skin tone—are transformed into rigid institutional systems. It reveals the complex mechanisms of social distance and ritual purity that dictated daily survival, land ownership, and interpersonal contact in colonial South India. Beyond mere British administrative cataloging, the text reflects the tension between ancient tribal traditions and modernizing economic forces, showing how local communities adapted their identity, legal status, and customs under the shifting authority of the British colonial state.

Why Read It Today

This volume serves as a vital historical primary source for readers interested in Indian social history, anthropology, and colonial studies. Rather than presenting a smooth narrative, it offers an unvarnished, highly detailed cross-section of early twentieth-century South Indian society. Readers will find a rich tapestry of local folklore, wedding rituals, funeral rites, and legal anomalies that bring the period to life with exceptional specificity.

However, modern readers must navigate the obvious limitations of its era. Thurston’s approach is heavily shaped by colonial bias and nineteenth-century physical anthropology, complete with formal skull measurements, rigid caste classifications, and contemporary European attitudes toward race and status. The language can be dryly bureaucratic, and the sheer density of named clans, local terminology, and census tables requires patient reading. Yet, for those willing to engage with its historical context, the volume offers an irreplaceable, eyewitness record of the intricate customs, oral traditions, and social structures that defined South India over a century ago.