Is there any proof that the caste Ayyanavar is the partof thevar?

Answer 1

Ayyanavar caste

The tradition in our community is that they originally came from a place called ALKAUDU modern Arcot Districts' where they are Known as Aiyanar and where they lived in forts of their own. The name "Aiyanar" is a corrupt form of the wordAIYANAVAR which means in Tamil the followers or worshippers of AIYYAN or AOUANANAN meaning Siva', the five faced one.The old poems and works of the early centuries of the Christian era says Walter Francis Esq. M.A.I.C.S." contain many descriptions of a tribe called EYINAR who seems to have been quite distinct from the rest of the population and did not live in villages but in forts of their own.Ambur and Vellore are mentioned as the sites of two of them.(vide Madras Government Census Report 1901 Part 1 page 172).At a remote period of their history,after successive settlements in different localities in South India,they entered South Travancore through Aramboly and came and lived for some time near Pannivoickal.AIYANAR: A sub division of KALLAN named after their male deity Aiyanar.References;Memorandum dt 10.4.1919 submitted by the South Travancore Aiyanavar Sanghom to His Excellency, M.Krishnan NairEsq.B.A.B.L. Dewan bahadur,Dewan of Travancore Page No.2.THURSTON,E.,(1909) Castes and Tribes of Southern India Volume 1.

The Eyinar or Vedar were the most lawless of the Naga tribes.Cattle lifting and Pillage and murder appear to have been the sole business of their life.They worshipped the dread goddess Kali and slaughtered buffaloes at her shrine to secure her favor in their plundering raids.Before starting on their expeditions they usually consulted omens in the chirping and flight of birds.Their descendants are now known by the appropriate title of " Kallar " or thieves.Dhirataran Murti Eyinar the great chief of Viramangalam referred to in the plates of Jatilavarman,a Pandyan king of the twelfth century A.D.appears to have belonged to this tribe.Reference:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. by Sri. V. Kanakasabhai.Page no:43.