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Pillai is a Tamil speaking community hailing from the elite caste of agricultural landlords called Vellalars. The Vellalars identified with ruling authority and were lords in the predominantly wet land villages which they controlled. ==Origin of Vellalar Pillai== There are different theories concerning the meaning of the word 'Vellalar': It derives from the word Vel meaning a spear or lance and alar meaning "people of Vel", an old and archaic Tamil weapon. Another theory is that the word Vellalar is from Velanmai meaning to cultivate. The word 'Velanmai' which we take to mean as agriculture is in fact means 'Benevolence', helping others. The Manimekhalai states "He is a Vellala who would not take his food, keeping the guest hungry outside". Another one postulates it is derived from Vellam or flood (in Tamil) and alar (ruler or controller), so Vellalar means "Lord of the floods". Sometimes they were also known as Karalar which means "Lord of the clouds" in Tamil.()() The Journal of Indian History, Vol VII, explains that Vellalars, the controllers of the flood, irrigated their fields when the rivers were in flood, and raised the rice-crop on damp rice-fields while the Karalar were controllers of the rain, who looked up to the sky for watering their fields and stored the rain water in tanks. Some of the sub-castes of the predominant Pillai community are *Chozhia Vellalar * Arunattu Vellalar * Cherakula Vellalar * Karkarthar * Kodikkal Kara Vellalar * Nangudi Vellalar * Nanjil Nadu Vellalar * Nattampadi Vellalar * Paiyur kottai Vellalar * Saiva Velallar * Veerakodi Vellalar * Karuneega vellalar Vellalars of Thondaimandalam who are actually a sub-caste of Saiva Vellalars adopted the title Mudaliar and became Thondaimandala Mudaliars, who were connected to Pillai community by origin 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pillai (community)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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