Paramu Pilla was a fifty year old man, who traded his
goods on the main land, Ernakulam. He used to vend ‘Kaily Mundu’ (a varied checked coarse dhoti), ‘Thorth’ (ordinary hand woven coarse towel) and white dhotis. Jacob and I used to meet Pillechan in the
mornings, when we used to wait at our gate. He would carry this load and
occasionally he used to ask us if we required any of the articles he sold. Once
in a while, ‘Appachan’ gave him some
business and he used to look very pleased. In the evenings on his return he would
be happy and relaxed, if he could sell the entire load. Otherwise he would be
tired and gloomy with half the load still on his head or shoulder.
I gathered that he belonged to the Padmashali or Chaliyan
or Puttarya hereditary weaving Caste of South India. The original names simply
meant weaver (spider.) While saliga
is tadbhava of
jalikha, spider or weaver in Sanskrit,
jeda is a Kannada word for spider. Their
ancestors were brought from Kannada and Telugu speaking regions by the Raja of
Cochin during the early British colonial period; my ancestor Desavazhi brought and had settled a few
families in Kumbalam.
As part of the Virasaiva movement these traditional weavers
championed caste negation movement or anti-casteism initially. The weavers
tried to obtain higher caste credentials and privileges like
right to use ‘Punool’, the sacred
thread worn by Brahmins. They have no temple. One among them
selected by their association would
be the priest or ‘Pujari’. The slogan of this particular community is “to clothe
the Islanders.” This they felt was one of the primary requirements. They used
to eke out their living by weaving and vending cloth.
Cotton thread was
supplied by Pattarya Samajam Co-operative Society. They used ‘Kuzhi Thari’ to make an ordinary coarse towel
locally known as a ‘Thorth’, and
weaver’s loom or ‘Shuttle Thari’ to
make the double dhoti and chequed dhoti.
Now there are about eighty Pattarya Pillai families
now living in Kumbalam. With the advent of the large mechanized weaving mills coupled
with the unhealthy competition in this trade, the
Pattarya community in Kumbalam was forced to leave this traditional trade and
business completely. It is an alarming situation. I sincerely hope that the
government would look into the matter and give the community required subsidy
to maintain at least a few weavers’ loom (‘Shuttle
Thari’ and ‘Kuzhi Thari’) and the
skilled to make cloth.
Their people are settled in Aroor
and Chendamangalam and other places. Chendamangalam is well known for handloom
weaving industry.
Excerpts from
MEMOIRS
An autobiography
by
Joseph J. Thayamkeril
Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.
josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com
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