Udayar (caste)

This article is about the Indian caste. For other uses, see Udayar.

The Udayar is a title used by multiple caste in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.^[1]

Udayar
Religions	Hinduism, Christianity
Languages	Tamil
Country	India
Populated states	Tamil Nadu Karnataka
Related groups	Tamil people

Present status

According to Selva Raj, the Udayar are not "socially humbler" than the Vellalar community^[2] but, together with the Pallar and Kallar, form the Marava castes, who are quite dominant in the region variously known as Ramnad and the Maravar country.^[3]

Religion

In Ramnad and the nearby areas of Pudukottai, Madurai, Salem, Namakkal, Tanjore and Trichy, they and their two fellow Maravar caste groups are prominent in their cult worship of the shrine at Oriyur that commemorates John de Britto, a 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr. Raj says, "A notable feature of the Britto cult is that it is centered around caste identities rather than religious affiliation", and thus members of the caste-group, irrespective of their religious affiliation regard Britto as their clan-deity.^[4]

Some Udayars are Roman Catholic Christians.^[5][4]

Notable people

• Channaiah Odeyar (died 2007), Indian politician
• N. Karupanna Odayar, Indian politician
• N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar (1936–1998), Indian industrialist
• T. S. Swaminatha Odayar, Indian politician
• Paarisaalan, Tamil nationalist

References

1. "List of Backward Classes Approved".
2. Raj, Selva J. (2010). "Serious Levity at the Shrine of St. Anne in South India". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Sacred Play: Ritual Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions. SUNY Press. p. 87. ISBN 9781438429793. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
3. Raj, Selva J. (2002). "Transgressing Boundaries, Transcending Turner: The Pilgrimage Tradition at the Shrine of St. John de Britto". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines. SUNY Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780791455197. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
4. Raj, Selva J. (2002). "Transgressing Boundaries, Transcending Turner: The Pilgrimage Tradition at the Shrine of St. John de Britto". In Raj, Selva J.; Dempsey, Corinne G. (eds.). Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines. SUNY Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-79145-519-7.
5. Palanithurai, Ganapathy; Ragupathy, Varadarajan (2008). Communities Panchayats and Governance at Grassroots. Concept Publishing Company. p. 138. ISBN 9788180695636. Retrieved 1 May 2012.

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Further reading

• Burkhart, Geoffrey (June 1972). "Ranges of Endogamy in a Tamil Group". Indian Anthropologist. 2 (1): 1–6. JSTOR 41919203.
• Burkhart, Geoffrey (January 1976). "On the absence of descent groups among some Udayars of South India". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 10 (1): 31–61. doi:10.1177/006996677601000102. S2CID 143260084.