Agamudayar

Agamudayar
Total population
1981-1982: 5 per cent of the Other Backwards Class population of Tamil Nadu[1]
Languages
Tamil

Agamudayar (otherwise Agamudaiyar, Akamudayar, Agamudayan) is a Tamil community found in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Together with the Kallar and Maravar castes, they form the Thevar (Mukkulathor) community, although attempts to create a political coalition comprising the three groups have never succeeded. According to the anthropologist Zoe E Headley, the three communities are the "numerically dominant rural backward castes of the southern districts of Tamil Nadu".[2]The 1891 Census of India listed them as a part of the Martial Races.[3]

Thuluva Vellalar or Thozhu Vellalar, whose presence is significant in the Northern part of Tamil Nadu is a sub-caste of Agamudayar.[4]

Etymology

The term Agamudayar is a Tamil word meaning "Householder" or "Landholder". The Agamudayars are chiefly known by their title 'Servai' or 'Servaikkaran' meaning "Captain" in Sangam Tamil.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Radhakrishnan, P. (10 June 1989). "Ambasankar Commission and Backward Classes". Economic and Political Weekly 24 (23): 1265–1268. JSTOR 4394921.
  2. ↑ Headley, Zoe E. (2011). "Caste and Collective Memory in South Asia". In Clark-Decès, Isabelle. A Companion to the Anthropology of India. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1982, 1985. ISBN 978-1-44439-058-2.
  3. ↑ People Of India:Maharashtra by Kumar Suresh Singh,Anthropological Survey of India:http://books.google.co.in/books?id=4bfmnmsBfQ4C&pg=PA1991
  4. ↑ http://www.bcmbcmw.tn.gov.in/bclist.htm
  5. ↑ Madras (India : State); B. S. Baliga (1967). Madras District Gazetteers: Salem. by Ramaswami, A. Printed by the Superintendent, Govt. Press. p. 124.
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