OF BHAEATAVAESA OR INDIA. 
103 
Mallan, Kulantdn, and Munikan are common names 
among Palla men, while Valli, Tevdnai (for Devayana cor- 
ruption of Devasena) and Kulantai (Kulumai) are applied to 
their wom6n.^' 
The Pallar are an industrious, hardworking, and hard- 
worked class of land labourers, found mostly in the Madras 
Presidency, and especially in the southern districts. They 
toil unintermittingly to enrich their masters, the actual 
owners of the soil, and they were, until very lately, not much 
better treated than bondslaves. The time is not remote 
when the owners of the ground even regarded them as 
their property, as Helots belonging to the land. Continual 
bad treatment and exposure to all kinds of hardship have 
been their sad lot, and it is only natural that this condition 
should have eventually told on their mental and physical 
development, but it speaks, on the other hand, much for 
the superiority of their original nature that, in spite of all 
the miseries endured, they have been able to retrieve their 
position under a kinder government and are now starting 
again with fair prospects of improvement. 
The Pulayar of Travancore, Cochin, and Malabar corre- 
spond to the Pallar in the Tamil country, the Pallar set- 
tlers in these countries being often called Pulayar. Their 
fate resembles that of the Pallar. Constant exposure to the 
heat of a scorching sun, to the unceasing downpours of rain 
during the monsoon, and to the violent gales and thunder- 
storms so prevalent on the West Coast of India, combined 
with insufficient and unsubstantial nourishment, has under- 
mined and stunted their physique, and their skin has in the 
course of generations assumed a colour approaching black as 
nearly as possible. Unfavorable local circumstances have 
made the position of the Pulayar even worse than that of 
^' Murukan and Murukssan are also names of Subrahmanya. See note 16 
on p. 44. 
