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Paraiyar, Parayar or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah and Paree) is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka.
According to this hypothesis, the Paraiyars were originally a community of drummers who performed at auspicious events like weddings and funerals.
M. Srinivasa Aiyangar, writing a little later, found this etymology unsatisfactory, arguing that beating of drums could not have been an occupation of so many people.
Sociologist Karthikeyan Damodaran also challenges the notion that the Paraiyars were primarily drum beaters, arguing they are the largest caste group in Tamil Nadu and engaged in diverse occupations like agriculture and weaving. He contends that the name's history is misleading, with some scholars even linking its etymology to the Malayalam word 'paraiy' (to speak). Damodaran asserts that their shared experience of untouchability, stemming from the "menial" perception of their various jobs, was the unifying factor.
Some other writers, such as Gustav Solomon Oppert, have derived the name from the Tamil word poraian, the name of a regional subdivision mentioned by ancient Tamil grammarians, or the Sanskrit pahariya, meaning "hill man".
More recently, George L. Hart's textual analysis of the Sangam literature ( 300 BCE – 300 CE) has led him to favour Caldwell's earlier hypothesis. The literature has references to the Tamil caste system and refers to a number of "low-born" groups variously called Pulaiyar and Kinaiyar. Hart believes that one of the drums called kiṇai in the literature later came to be called paṟai and the people that played the drum were paraiyar (plural of paraiyan).
Paraiyar as a word referring to an occupational group first appears in the second century CE writings of Mangudi Kilar.
The 335th poem of the Purananuru mentions the Paraiyar:
This poem is sometimes interpreted as evidence of there being only four castes in ancient Tamilakam. However, in their translation of the Purananuru, George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz argue that this interpretation is incorrect: as with other poems in this section of the Purananuru, this verse "deals with life in a marginal village... All these plants, food, castes, and gods are typically those found in such marginal areas," and thus the four castes mentioned here should not be taken as a comprehensive list of all Tamil castes in this period.
Burton Stein describes an essentially continuous process of expansion of the nuclear areas of the caste society into forest and upland areas of tribal and warrior people, and their integration into the caste society at the lowest levels. Many of the forest groups were incorporated as Paraiyar either by association with the parai drum or by integration into the low-status labouring groups who were generically called Paraiyar. Thus, it is thought that Paraiyar came to have many subcastes. According to 1961 Madras Census Report, castes that are categorised under Paraiyar include Koliyar, Panchamar, Thoti, Vettiyan, Vetti, Vellam, Vel, Natuvile, Pani, Pambaikaran, Ammaparaiyan, Urumikaran, Morasu, Tangalam, Samban, Paryan, Nesavukaraparayan, Thotiparayan, Kongaparayan, Mannaparayan, and Semban.
During the Bhakti movement ( 7th–9th centuries CE), the saints – Shaivism Nayanars and the Vaishnavism Alvars – contained one saint each from the untouchable communities. The Nayanar saint Nandanar was born, according to Periya Puranam, in a "threshold of the huts covered with strips of leather", with mango trees from whose branches were hung drums. "In this abode of the people of the lowest caste ( kadainar), there arose a man with a feeling of true devotion to the feet of Shiva." Nandanar was described as a temple servant and leather worker, who supplied straps for drums and gut-string for stringed instruments used in the Chidambaram temple, but he was himself not allowed to enter the temple. The Paraiyar regard Nandanar as one of their own caste. Paraiyars wear the sacred thread under rituals such as marriage and funeral.
Scholars such as Burchett and Moffatt state that the Bhakti devotationalism did not undermine Brahmin ritual dominance. Instead, it might have strengthened it by warding off challenges from Jainism and Buddhism.
According to historian Stalin Rajangham, the Paraiyar community's experience of untouchability is a relatively recent phenomenon, with little evidence before the 12th century BCE. He posits that their social decline was gradual, with untouchability becoming institutionalized under Chola, Nayak, and British rule, exacerbated by the appropriation of their lands. During these periods, negative portrayals in arts and literature, coupled with denial of temple access, further diminished the Paraiyars' social standing.
Historians such as David Washbrook have argued that the socio-economic status of the Paraiyars rose greatly in the 18th century during the Company rule in India; Washbrook calls it the "Golden Age of the Pariah". Raj Sekhar Basu disagrees with this narrative, although he agrees that there were "certain important economic developments".
The Church Mission Society converted many Paraiyars to Christianity by the early 19th century. During the British Raj, the missionary schools and colleges admitted Paraiyar students amid opposition from the upper-caste students. In 1893, the colonial government sanctioned an additional stipend for the Paraiyar students. Many of the colonial officials, scholars, and missionaries expressed the opinion, that Paraiyars as a community, enjoyed a high status in the past. Edgar Thurston (1855–1935), is of the opinion, that their status was nearly equal to that of the Brahmins in the past. H. A. Stuart, in his Census Report of 1891, claimed that Valluvars were a priestly class among the Paraiyars, and served as priests during Pallava dynasty reign. Robert Caldwell, J. H. A. Tremenheere and Edward Jewitt Robinson claimed that the ancient poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar was a Paraiyar.
Thass subsequently attempted a Buddhist reconstruction of the Tamil religious history. He argued that the Paraiyars were originally followers of Buddhism and constituted the original population of India. According to him, the Brahmanical invaders from Persia defeated them and destroyed Buddhism in southern India; as a result, the Paraiyars lost their culture, religion, wealth and status in the society and become destitute. In 1898, Thass and many of his followers converted to Buddhism and founded the Sakya Buddha Society ( cākkaiya putta caṅkam) with the influential mediation of Henry Steel Olcott of the Theosophical Society. Olcott subsequently and greatly supported the Tamil Paraiyar Buddhists.
Iyothee Thass felt that Paraiyar was a pejorative, and campaigned against its usage. During the 1881 census of India, he requested the government to record the community members under the name Aboriginal Tamils. He later suggested Dravidian as an alternative term, and formed the Dhraavidar Mahajana Sabhai (Dravidian Mahajana Assembly) in 1891. Another Paraiyar leader, Rettamalai Srinivasan, however, advocated using the term Paraiyar with pride. In 1892, he formed the Parayar Mahajana Sabha (Paraiyar Mahajana Assembly), and also started a news publication titled Paraiyan.
Thass continued his campaign against the term, and petitioned the government to discontinue its usage, demanding punishment for those who used the term. He incorrectly claimed that the term Paraiyar was not found in any ancient records (it has been, in fact, found in the 10th-century Chola dynasty stone inscriptions from Kolar district). Thass subsequently advocated the term Adi Dravida ( Original Dravidians) to describe the community. In 1892, he used the term Adidravida Jana Sabhai to describe an organisation, which was probably Srinivasan's Parayar Mahajana Sabha. In 1895, he established the People's Assembly of Urdravidians (Adidravida Jana Sabha), which probably split off from Srinivasan's organisation. According to Michael Bergunder, Thass was thus the first person to introduce the concept of Adi Dravida into political discussion.
Another Paraiyar leader, M. C. Rajah — a Madras councillor — made successful efforts for adoption of the term Adi-Dravidar in the government records. In 1914, the Madras Legislative Council passed a resolution that officially censured the usage of the term Paraiyar to refer to a specific community, and recommended Adi Dravidar as an alternative. In the 1920s and 1930s, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy ensured the wider dissemination of the term Adi Dravida.
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