Sunday, December 19, 2021

Tamil Migration

 

Neighbour-joining tree of 21 Tamil Nadu ethnic groups. Nomenclature of the NJ tree, A and B, ancestral and derived node; C and D, branch; C1, C2 and D1, subbranch; C1a, C1b, C2a and D1a, clade; C1a1, C1b1, C1b2, C2a1 and D1a1, subclade; C1a1.1, C1b1.1, C1b2.1 and D1b1.1, cluster; C1a1.11, subcluster.

Neighbour-joining tree of 21 Tamil Nadu ethnic groups. Nomenclature of the NJ tree, A and B, ancestral and derived node; C and D, branch; C1, C2 and D1, subbranch; C1a, C1b, C2a and D1a, clade; C1a1, C1b1, C1b2, C2a1 and D1a1, subclade; C1a1.1, C1b1.1, C1b2.1 and D1b1.1, cluster; C1a1.11, subcluster.


There are many Vellala branches from http://tamilelibrary.org/articoli-352.html

Mudaliars, Pillais and Gounders have a common ancestry which many people are not aware of. All the three so called caste names were originally titles held by chieftains. These three groups actually belong to the Vellalar community, who were agricultural landlords and inhabitants of the "marutha nilam" (one of the five lands advocated by the Sangam literature). It is said that pure Tamilians should be able to trace their origin to any one of the five lands. The "marutham" (cropland) was inhabited mainly by two groups, the Vellalas (agricultural landlords) and the Pallars (agricultural peasants). This land was very fertile with lots of fields. In an ancient Tamil poem, “mukkudal pallu” (முக்கூடற் பள்ளு), murthapalli (elder Pallar women), illayapalli (younger Pallar women) and "pallan" (their Pallar husbands) make fun of the Vellalar landlord.



Later, during cultural diversification, the Vellalars started diverging into small groups, depending upon the regions of Tamil Nadu that they inhabited. Thus, those of the Thondaimandalam became the Thondaimandala vellals (Mudaliars and few Pillais). This area includes the present day areas of Chennai, Chengalpet, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Cadalore, Arcot, Vadalore, and Thrivannamalai. In these areas, the Vella Mudaliars (also called Arcot Mudaliars) are the dominant community.



Those who inhabited the areas of Chola (Thichy, Thanjavur, and Pudukottai) and Pandiya mandalams (Madurai, Thirunelvelli, Thuthukudi, Kanyakumari, and Nagerkovil) became the Shoziya Vellar (or "Chola Velar") and Pandiya Vellar respectively. Both these communities have Pillai as their surnames.



The Vellalas of the Kongu mandalam were called as Kongu Vellalas (Gounders or Kounders). This area includes Coimbatore, Salem, Pollaichi, Udagamandalam and Darmapuri, where the Kongu Vella Gounders are the dominant community. Its also said that the Pillai, Menon and Nair communities of Kerala also belong to the Vellalar community (the so called Chera Cellals).



Even though 90% of the Tamilian Vellalas have Pillai, Mudaliar or Gounder surnames, it should be remembered that not all Mudaliars, Pillais and Gounders are Vellalas. The vice versa is also true — thus sometimes some Vellalas have other surnames like Chettiar, Nayakar, and so on. Similarly the Adamudaiya Mudaliars and Senguntha Mudaliars (who form a significant number among the thondaimandala mudaliars) are, strictly speaking, non-vellals. The Adamudayars actually belong to the Mukkulathor community, which also includes the Kallars and Maravars. These three communities (as the name "Mukkulathor" — meaning three communities — have Devar has their surname. But latter the Agamudaiyars (the most upward community among the three) slowly migrated towards the northern part of Tamil Nadu, settled there, changed their surname to Mudaliar and mingled with the local Vellala Mudaliars. Similarly, the Senkunthars, who belong to the weaver community and form a significant population in Kancheepuram and Tirupur-Salem, started using Mudaliar surname for social upliftment, and started marrying with the Vella Mudaliars.



Today the caste “Thuluva Vella” includes the Vella Mudaliars, Agamudaiya Mudaliars and Senkuntha Mudaliars. Even today inter-marriage between the Vella Mudaliars and non-Vellala Mudaliars is not accepted in very orthodox families. A small but significant population of Mudaliars also exist in areas other than the Thondaimandalam, such as Madurai, Tirunelvelli, Coimbatore, etc. However, most of them are actually migrants from Thodaimandalam area.



Among the Coimbathore Gounders (even though the word generally refers to the Kongu Vallala Gounders), other non-Vella Gounder also exist including the “Vettuva Gounders” or “Vanniya Gounders”. Even though both the Vellala Gounders and Vanniya Gounders share the same surnames, they belong to a totally different communities, and marriage between these two communities is forbidden by both of them. In general, among all the vellalas, the Kongu Vellalas are unique and follow totally different customs and traditions. Endogamy is very strong among their community, and they strongly believe in the purity of their genes. They have a unique social organization called “kootam” which the equivalent of the bhraminical “gothram”. Thus persons belonging to the same “kootam” are considered as brothers and sisters, and marriage between them is forbidden. Some of the Vella Gounders were also rulers and thus are considered as Kshatriyas. Their marriages are held by senior members of their family and not by Brahmins. Their temples also have Vella Gounder priests, unlike other temples which have Brahmin priests. Thus most occupations in their society is managed by members of their own community, except for jobs with low social status.



Of the three Vellala communities, the Pillais are the most exogamous. Thus in many parts of Tamil Nadu, there are many people belonging to diverse communities wh ocall themselves as Pillais — again for obvious social upliftment. Thus, the sub-caste system among Pillais is very diverse. Even among the Vella Pillais, eight major groups can be identified: 1. the Karuneega Pillai (Kanaku Pillai mainly in Thondai mandalam area), 2. Karkattha Pillai (Thanjavur kumbakonam area — many people belonging to this community are wrongly mistaken as Brahmins due to the strong association between these two communities in the Cauvery belt area), 3. Thuluva Vella Pillai, 4. Shoziya Vella Pillai, 5. Pandiya Vella Pillai, 7. Thirunelvelli Siva Pillai, 7. Nanjil Pillai (Sengottai Pillaimar) and 8. kKerala Pillai (Chera Vellalar).



Since there are so many sub-castes, hierarchy among them is inevitable. Even though the Thirunelvelli Siva Pillais are Vella Pillais who belong to the Pandiya mandalam, they tend to differentiate themselves from the non-vegetarian Pandiya Pillais and claim supremacy. Similarly, even though the Shoziya Vellals and Karkathars both inhabit Chola mandalam and share their Pillai surnames, the vegetarian Karkathars claim supremacy over the non–vegetarian Shoziya Vellas.



Interestingly, the Thodaimandala Saiva Mudailars, Thanjavur (kumbakonam) Karkathars and Tirunelvelli Siva Pillai — though belonging to three different mandalam — tend to flock together due to common food habits (strict vegetarians) and traditions (most of them are Shaivites), and inter-marriage among them is sometimes acceptable. Each group claims supremacy over the others in terms of genetic purity, which is analogous to the fight between the “Vadakalai” and “Thenkalai” Iyengars.



Even though strictly speaking, these communities are minorities, they claim supremacy over other Pillais, Mudaliars and Gounders. Among the Pillais, the most isolated group is the Nanjil Pillais. They inhabit the Kumari mavattam (Nagerkovil and Kanyakumari). The other Tamil Pillais don’t marry with them, since these people are strongly influenced by the Kerala culture. The Nagerkovil Kanyakumari area is located on the tip of Kerala and Tamil Nadu; it was once part of Kerala and is now in Tamil Nadu). The strong Kerala influence is seen in there food habits, language (slang) and other customs which sort of differentiate them from the other Tamil Pillai communities. But since this community is of Tamilian origin, marriage with the Kerala Nairs, Menons and Pillais is prohibited. Thus the Vellala community of Tamil Nadu (and perhaps Kerala) even though has a long heritage which can be traced back to Sangam literature is largely diverse and much unknown to the modern world.


The Tuluva and Kongu vellalar are probably the new groups that came in during the Kalabhra invasion. During this Kalabhra invasion some of the newer groups won over the Sangam kings and settled down. Then there was resurgence of existing Vellalas to make the lands of these new comers into public which led to further fights. These events are documented in Sangam literature.  The Neighbourhood joining tree shows that the Kongu and Tuluva vellalars have affinity towards Telugu groups. The Veerkodi vellala seem to cluster with Maravar and the Agamudiya Vellala with Vanniars and Yadavars. Some older Vellala groups have high J2a and some L1 haplogroups. 



As seen in the diagram below, main migrations would be


  •        Ancient C migration 70-60k ybp most of who perished in Toba eruption. very few Kallars seem to carry it
  •        H1 hunter gatherer groups in Karnataka and Kerala who are Kurumba 
  •        J2a Neolithic farmers present in Toda and Vellala
  •        R2a migration during late IA from Utkal/Vanga present among Maravar, Kallar, Sinhalese etc..
  •        Gujjar H1, G etc.. found among Nadars
  •        H1, R1a found among Yadavar
  •        H1, R1a found among Iyers
  •        L1 found among Vellala and some other groups
  •        F, H, O present among Kongu Vellalas migration with Kalabhras
  •       J2b found among some Vellalas from Andhra and some Yadavar. J2b groups are found among Andhra & Kannad castes like Balija, Lingayat and some tribals like Asur and nadikuruvar etc...

      

 







Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Uttarkhand

 we have grouped populations according to their classical social status—Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya (Goswami and Shah) and Shudra (Arya and Tamta). Interestingly, the maternal structure of this region was in congruent with the classical social system, where distance from Brahmins to other groups was following a social ladder type structure . However, the male line of descent did not reveal any kind of such local structure. Notably, the distance from Brahmins to Vaishya was significantly higher than Brahmins to Shudra (t-test P<0.001). Moreover, Arya (Shudra) was closest to Brahmins and Kshatriya than to any other non-Brahmin and Kshatriya populations. The affinity of Arya towards Brahmins and Kshatriya is due to the analogous high frequency of haplogroups R1a1a-M17 and R2a-M124



A similar observation was reported elsewhere, however, the most parsimonious reason given for such discrepancy is highly unlikely in our case giving out the closer paternal ancestry of Shudra (Arya) with the Brahmin and Kshatriya 

from https://www.nature.com/articles/jhg2015121

 our data showed significant (unpaired t-test P<0.0001) higher proportion of West Eurasian-specific lineages among traditionally higher caste (Brahmin and Kshatriya) populations for maternal lineages, although it was non-significant for the paternal ancestry (unpaired t-test P=0.5468).


Four Y chromosome haplogroups were the major predictors of the principal component analysis structure. East Eurasian-specific haplogroups (for example, O2a1-M95 and O3a2c1-M134) were responsible for their affinity with East/Southeast Asia, whereas haplogroups R1a1a-M17 and R2a-M124 were playing antagonistic roles. The substantial presence of Y chromosomal haplogroup Q-P36.2 also links them with the Central Asian populations. In turn, the West Eurasian-specific lineages show substantial elevation than observed in the state of Uttar Pradesh.


Figure 2

Principal component analysis (PCA) plots constructed on the basis of mtDNA (upper panel) and Y chromosome (lower panel) haplogroup frequencies. Data from neighboring regions are compiled from published sources (given in Materials and methods section). 












Figure 3

The genetic distance of each population and population groups based on mtDNA (a) and Y chromosome (b) data. As Brahmins were attaining outlier position, all the distances were shown with respect to the Brahmins.



                        figure

Figure 2. The NJ Tree Illustrating Genomic Affinities Among Five Tribal Populations of Uttarakhand Based on Eight Human-specific Alu Insertion Polymorphisms

In the present study, from the NJ tree, the genetic affinity of five tribal populations of Uttarakhand were found in two clusters of populations—in one cluster, Buxa, Jaunsari, Tharu and Bhotia were found and in another, alone Raji was found. Further, from the MDS plot between Buxa, Jaunsari, Tharu and Bhotia, Buxa–Jaunsari and Tharu–Bhotia were found to have a close genetic affinity and again Raji was found distinct from other populations. The present genetic study results were correlated with the earlier study of cultural diversity and it was emphasised that except Raji’s, the rest of four scheduled tribe bear a long history of cultural contact. Certain sections of Bhotia and Buxa have imbibed many cultural traits of upper caste Hindus. Instances of similar influence are reported from upper social categories of Jaunsaries (Mann & Mann, 1999). Another study has mentioned that physical appearance of Rajis exhibit mixed physical traits of Aryans, Dravidians and Mongoloids. They are of whitish complexion, of average height, have straight and scanty hair of slight brownish colour, intermediate headed type with medium nose, round to long face and small eyes with grey pigments (Rastogi, 2015). This explains the present study’s findings from the NJ tree and also from the MDS plot that Raji’s genetic profile was distinct from other studied populations in Uttarakhand. Except Raji, the genomic affinities by the MDS plot correlate well with their geographic affiliation, Tharu and Bhotia confined to the Kumaun region and Buxa and Jaunsari confined to the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand.

The result of the present study showed that Raji and Buxa scheduled tribal (ST) communities were the ancestral populations among five studied populations. However, our findings were correlating with Ministry of Tribal Affairs Statistical Report 2013, which stated, across India out of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG’s), Raji and Buxa ST communities were one among them due to their socioeconomic backwardness and living still in primitive conditions. A few decades back, a researcher opined, ‘Ragi’s are one of the very few tribal communities still inhabiting the caves and rock shelters’ (Bora, 1988). Regarding origin, the Rajis were descendants of prehistoric Kiratas, who were comparatively early settlers of this region than the Nagas and Khasas (Rastogi, 2015). Kiratas were the first to arrive India, in course of time, they were uprooted and their few descendants remained in Kumaun and Nepal (Atkinson, 1973). Presently, Raji’s are found both in India and Nepal, the frequency of Raji population was found more in Nepal than in India (Bisht & Bankoti, 2004). Raji population was included in Tibeto-Burman linguistic family but originally Raji language was a paleo-linguistic relic of Munda dialect, which can be classified under the Austro-Asiatic linguistic family.