The Bhakti Movements 189a small hamlet of Pulaiyas studded with small huts under old thatches
overspread by creepers.... In the threshhold of the huts covered with
strips of leather, little chicks were seen moving about in groups; dark
children who wore bracelets of black iron were prancing about carrying
little puppies whose yelps were drowned by the tinkling bells which
girdled their waists. In the shade of the mardutrees, a female labourer
sent her baby to sleep on a sheet of leather; there were mango trees
from whose branchs drums were seen hanging; and under the coconut
palms in little hollows on the ground, tiny-headed bitches were found
lying quiet after pupping. The red-crested cocks crowed before dawn
calling the brawny Pulaiyar to their day’s work; and by day...spread
the voice of the wavy-haired Pulaiya women singing as they were
husky paddy. By the side of tanks...the music of many instruments
accompanied the drinking fetes of Pulaiya women who wore on their
heads fragrant flowers and ears of paddy-corn and who staggered in
their dance as the result of increasing intoxication.The long work hours, the very limited property (only chickens
and dogs) and the association with drums remained for long char-
acteristic of the Paraiyas.
According to the Periyapuranam, Nandanar was a puratton-
dan,one of the Dalit temple servants who sang and danced to
Shiva but remained outside the temple, serving the god by providing
skin coverings and leather straps for making temple drums and
other musical instruments. Nandanar’s rebellion lies in the fact
that he wanted to go further, to enter the temple itself to have a
glimpse of the magnificantly carved idols of Shiva. This desire
brings him out of his own village, and he embarks on a pilgrimage
to the great Shiva temple at Chidambaram, supporting himself
through various services, such as repairing a temple tank which
had fallen into disuse. In spite of this, he is unable even to enter
the town or pass through the Brahman streets towards the temple
and finally only allowed to have a sight of the deity, or darshan,
from far off, near the temple car-shed. The Nandi or bull of Shiva
standing in his way is ordered aside by the god himself. The
climax comes when the Brahmans of the town decide to give
Nandanar a homakundam, a ‘fire bath’; after passing through
this fire, Nandanar is revealed to be a Brahman sage with a
sacred thread, while angelic hosts break into a tumult of joy
and shower fresh petals of fragrant flowers on all (Manickar
1990: 23–28).188 Buddhism in India
This conflict of Brahmanism with the samana tradition is marked
by stories of violence, for instance, Sastri mentions the ‘unpleasant
legend’ that 8000 Jains were put to death by impalement after the
Shaivite saint Nanasambandar had vanquished them in a debate
and converted the king (ibid.: 383). However legendary this may
be, it provides support to Taranatha’s accounts of robberies and
burnings, cited in the last chapter.
However, there is no record of this conflict in the available
information about the only Shaiva santwho was an untouchable.
This is Nandanar, identified as a Pulaiya/Paraiya from the
Thanjavur district. By the 12th century, when his story was
recorded, this region was at the centre of the Chola kingdom, and
along with practising an intensely irrigation-based agriculture was
developing an elaborate caste and class hierarchy. Much of the
land was under control of Brahmans, who were settled in their
own independent villages. The Paraiyas were a caste which
provided servile labour and ritual services in this region, while
the term ‘Pulaiya’ is now the name of a similar untouchable caste
of near-slave agricultural labourers in Kerala. The very confusion
about names shows the slow process of differentiation of untouch-
able castes.
The legends relating to Paraiyas/Pulaiyas, mixed with a popular
myth (itself within the framework of Brahmanism) that they were
originally Brahman priests, suggest a history of conflict with
Brahmans. A Tamil proverb calls them the ‘older brother of the
Brahman’, and in a medieval poem on caste it is said that
A Pulaiya of the south goes north
learns the Vedas, becomes a Brahman (parppan);
a Brahman from the north goes south
loses his virtuous character, turns a Pulaiya.Nandanar is said to belong, rather uncertainly, to the 660–842 CE
period. What is known of his life comes from the Periyapuranam,
a traditional 12th century work on all 63 Shaivite devotees that was
written by a Vellala (upper non-Brahman caste) Shaivite scholar.
This depicts Nandanar as a humble, law-abiding devotee, performing
his traditional caste duties in the temple. It gives a romanticised
description of his village: