Arunthathiyar is a scheduled caste community mostly found in the Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

. The term has two distinct usages: for the purposes of the state government's positive discrimination program, in 2009 it was designated an

umbrella term In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other ...

for the Arunthatiyar, Chakkiliyar (Sakkiliyar), Madari,

Madiga Madiga, also known as Maadiga, Maatangi, Makkalu and Mahadiga, are an artisan community from southern India. They mainly live in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, with a small minority in Tamil Nadu. Madigas are historical ...

, Pagadai, Thoti and

Adi Dravida Adi Dravida (or Adi Dravidar) is a term that has been used since 1914 by the state of Tamil Nadu in India to denote Paraiyars. At the time of the 2011 Census of India, they made up about half of Tamil Nadu's Scheduled Caste population. Origin ...

communities; while the Office of the Registrar-General, which administrates the

census of India The decennial Census of India has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881. Post 1949, it has been conducted by ...

, does not recognise all of those communities as one. The

2001 Census of India The 2001 Census of India was the 14th in a series of censuses held in India every decade since 1871. The population of India was counted as 1,028,737,436 consisting of 532,223,090 males and 496,514,346 females. Total population increased by 182 ...

reported that there were 771,659 Arunthathiyar in Tamil Nadu, being 6.5 per cent of the Scheduled Caste population of the state.

Origin

Due to their speaking Telugu and lack of mention in early Tamil texts, most scholarly authorities believe the community originated in Andhra Pradesh and migrated to Tamil Nadu in the 17th century. However, the community's own history is that they are originally Tamil kings who ruled the area around Tagadur (

Dharmapuri Dharmapuri is a special grade town in the north western part of Tamil Nadu, India. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Dharmapuri district which is the first district created in Tamil Nadu after the independence of India by splitti ...

), who were taken as captives in war to Andhra and Karnataka in ancient days and only returned in the 16th century as the Kannada-speaking Madiyars and Tamil-speaking Chakkiliyars. Therefore, they called themselves Adi Tamizhar.

Occupation

The Arunthathiyars, although they never touched dead cattle, still worked with leather and leatherworkers and

cobbler Cobbler(s) may refer to: *A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes Places * The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland * Mount Cobbler, Australia Art, entertainment and media * ''The Cobbler'' (1923 fil ...

s, and were thus given a low social status in

Brahminical Hinduism The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...

Caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

. Many are also landless agricultural labourers and are engaged in bonded labour.

Current status

The vast majority of the community, almost 18.27 lakhs, live in Tamil Nadu, with small minorities in neighbouring states. Small populations live in the Palakkad district of Kerala (40,507), and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh (30,190) and Karnataka (2,959). 62% of the community lived in rural areas, and the literacy rate is 60%. Many Arunthathiyars in northern Tamil Nadu work as landless agricultural labourers for Naidu landlords, and their women work as domestic help in their houses. Some girls from the community are dedicated to the Mathamma cult, a local village deity tradition.

Notable people

Madurai Veeran Madurai Veeran, also known as Veeran, is a Tamil folk deity popular in southern Tamil Nadu, India. His name literally means, "warrior of Madurai". Legend According to the ''Maduraiveeraswamikathai'', Veeran was born to royal parents and wa ...

- King and commander-in-chief (Thirumalai Nayakkar Period) *

Ondiveeran Ondiveeran Pagadai (or Ondi Veeran) (died 20 August 1771) was an Indian commander-in-chief who fought against the British East India Company in Tamil Nadu. Ondiveeran came from the Arunthathiyar community and is viewed by them as a hero. Pres ...

- King and commander of an army who fought against the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

* Rao Sahib L.C. Gurusamy - Member of the round table conference team led by

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...

; founder of Arunthathiyar Mahajana Saba. Member of the Justice Party, social activist and politician * H. M. Jagannathan - Member of the Justice Party, social activist and politician, graduated in law. *

V. P. Duraisamy V. P. Duraisamy is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a former member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. Political career He served as the Deputy Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from 1989 to 1991 and 20 ...

- Politician and former DMK general secretary, current vice president of Tamil Nadu BJP *

P. Dhanapal P. Dhanapal (born 16 May 1951) is an Indian politician and incumbent Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He is a former Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. P. Dhanapal was born on 16 May 1951 in Karupur. He obtained a mas ...

- Former speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (2016-2021) * L. Murugan - Current union minister of state of ministries of animal husbandry

References

{{reflist Dalit communities Scheduled Castes of Tamil Nadu