Pariahs, Global

The word pariah is now used globally for any excluded, outcaste, shunned, or despised individual, group, nation, or animal in any part of the world. The origin of the word, however, is specific—from the name of a Tamil caste, the Parayan or Paraiyan, a large Untouchable caste found in South India. For this reason, this entry will focus on the group of Untouchables in India known as “pariah,” not only to focus on the original meaning of the word but also to show how any group around the world may be similarly shunned.

The original Pariah were traditionally small landowners and landless labor in South India, assigned to any sort of menial work that was regarded as ritually polluting by upper-caste Hindus, which included the care of horses and animal husbandry. The strictures against them prevented any direct contact with high castes, and their condition until the late 19th century was one of modified slavery. Modern changes have brought many into urban life and education, but the caste is still listed as Scheduled Caste, castes of former Untouchable status eligible for government benefits.

The derivation of the name pariah is a matter of some dispute. Edgar Thurston reports that in the 19th century, Bishop Caldwell derived the name Paraiyan “from the Tamil word parai, a drum, as certain Paraiyan act as drummers at marriages, funerals, village festivals and on occasion when government or commercial announcements are proclaimed” (1909, p. 77). Most writers assume that the name of the caste is derived from a word for drum, but there is debate about this and about the importance of drumming in the caste. Thurston's Castes and Tribes of Southern India barely mentions it, noting only that Paraiyas beat the “tom tom” at ritual times, although the photograph of five Pariah includes three different drums. Satianathan Clarke is convinced the drum is of great importance to the caste and finds it essential in his book on Dalit religion. “The drummers are an intrinsic part of the religious life and practice of the Paraiya community. They are religious functionaries without whom rituals would be incomplete and inadequate” (1998, p. 87). However, there is a contemporary idea that the drumming is a sign of inferiority and submission, probably since it was used only for inauspicious occasions when brought into the caste Hindu world.

Pariah creativity in the distant past seems incongruent with their semi-slavery status but nevertheless is a recurring theme in discussions of their history. In the eighth or ninth century, the bhakti Vaisnava saint Nandanar and the Saiva saint Tirupan Alvar exemplified the spiritual heights to which Untouchables could rise. Both are referred to as “pariahs” by some today, but the medieval texts of saints’ lives refer to Nandanar as a “pulai” and to Tiriupan Alvar as a “pan” or “panar,” literally “bard” or “minstrel.” Thurston reports that the word Paraiyan is not found in the 11th-century Tamil dictionary, which may mean the caste was formally distinguished from other Untouchable groups. Eugene F. Irschick quotes the 19th-century editor of the Madras Times to suggest the semi-enslaved Pariahs had previously held high positions: “Tiruvalluvar, the Tamil author of the Tirukural, the great Tamil poetess Auvaiyar, and the architect of the classical city of Hastinapur had all been paraiyars” (1994, p. 177).

...