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Warrior Caste ‘Raja’ and Gentleman ‘Zamindar’: One Person's Experience in the Late Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Pamela G. Price
Pamela G. Price
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Oslo
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Extract

The aim of this paper is to interpret the life experience of a south Indian landholder at the end of the nineteenth century. The basis for interpretation comes from the author's analysis of the values of political economy among, chiefly, warrior castes as they adjusted to constraints of imperial rule from 1800 in Madras Presidency. The method of exposition is, for the most part, descriptive and narrative, with the intention of highlighting and contextualizing major concepts governing the man's thoughts and actions. Because the subject, a wealthy Tamil zamindar, kept English-language diaries, problems of cultural anachronism in the prose below are mitigated. Having the English vocabulary—or a small part of it—of our subject subverts the bugbear of ethnosociology, the cultural distortions inherent in using an alien language as one discusses the values of a social group. Contemporary newspaper commentary in English also lends cultural accuracy to the narrative. Memories of the subject linger still in Madurai Town, scene of many of his activities. I wrote the major part of the piece in Madurai and was honoured with a request to read it to the membership of the local Historical Society. That membership gave me paradoxical relief in saying of this cultural account, ‘She has told us nothing new about Baskara Setupati.’

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 563 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 Jeyapragasam, scholar of the Chola period and an active member of the society, relayed this comment to me shortly after the reading in the spring of 1979.

2 The title, Setupati, referred to the ancient privilege and responsibility of the ruling house of protecting the causeway between India and Sri Lanka over which Ram was believed to have returned from his great battle in Lanka.

3 In Tamil the samastanam was called, ramanatapuram, the city of he who is worshipped by Ram. The god, Siva, was worshipped by the divine epic hero, Ram, on his way back from Lanka. In English the name is shortened to Ramnad.

4 Rao, T. Raja Ram, Ramnad Manual (missing title page, 1889?), p. 347.Google Scholar

5 The following analysis appears with fuller explication in the author's ‘Resources and Rule in Zamindari South India, 1802–1903: Sivagangai and Ramnad as Kingdoms under the Raj’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1979Google Scholar). See also the author's ‘Raja-dharma in 19th Century South India: Land, Litigation and Largess in Ramnad Zamindari’, in Contributions to Indian Society (NS), Vol. 13, No. 2 (1979), pp. 204–39.Google Scholar

6 In Tamil, tarumam.

7 Dharmic refers to that right order of all forces and things which makes for prosperity among humans, among other good effects.

8 Tiruvenkatachari, S., Sethupatis of Ramnad (Karaikudi, 1959), pp. 76 and 78.Google Scholar

9 Setupati, Baskara, My Trip to India's Utmost Isle (Madras: G. W. Taylor, 1890), p. 82.Google Scholar This diary begins at January 5, 1888, and ends at February 24, 1888. It covers a trip to Ceylon which Baskara took with one of his tutors, a Mr Creighton, the latter's wife, and Dinakaraswami. Baskara was about twenty years of age at the time.

10 Rao, T. Raja Ram, Ramnad Manual, pp. 505–6.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 506.

12 Setupati, Baskara, My Trip, pp. 4 and 36.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., p. 94.

14 Ibid., p. 69.

15 Ibid., pp. 103 and 106. Baskara came from the Maravar warrior caste which controlled the dry Ramnad area.

16 Ibid., p. 112. A durbar, traditionally, involved the ordered, formal presentation of the lords of a realm to their ruler, with an exchange of honors.

17 Ibid., p. 41.

18 J. Rengasamy Iyer, interview in Sivagangai, May 8, 1975. Sivagangai was another zamindari controlled by the Maravar warrior caste.

19 Ibid.

20 Śrī Sētu Samastānam virōtikirutu Mahā Navarāttiri Mahōtsavattil vittuvāṉkal pāṭiyapāṭalkaḷ (Madurai: Vivēkapānu Accuyantiracālai, 1912), p. 4.Google Scholar This introduction to a collection of poems from the 1912 Navaratri celebration in Ramnad palace has many suggestions of the joyous importance of the King's presence. My thanks to M. Anjali Anna Bai for her assistance in translation and her comments on the text.

21 Inden, Ronald, ‘Ritual, Authority and Cyclic Time in Hindu Kingship’, in Richards, J. F. (ed.), Kingship and Authority in South Asia (Madison, Wisconsin, 1978), p. 54.Google Scholar

22 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’ (inscribed in Lett's Colonial Rough Diary and Almanac for 1893), entry for September 18, 1893Google Scholar. I am grateful to Nicholas Dirks for making his transcription available to me and to S. Kamal and Mangalanatha Dorai for their assistance in providing a Ramnad palace transcription of the ‘Diary’. The diary is also found in the Regional Committee for Survey of Historical Records, the Tamilnad State Archives.

23 Ibid., undated entry.

24 Ibid., entries for February 3, 1893, and January 27, 1893.

25 Ibid., entries for February 14 and April 10, 1893.

26 Ibid., entry for March 3, 1893.

27 Ibid., entry for February 21, 1893.

28 Ibid., entry for April 12, 1893.

29 Ibid., entry for March 31, 1893.

30 Ibid., entry for April 18, 1893.

31 Raghavaiyangar, S. Srinivasa, Memorandum on the Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years of British Administration (Madras, 1893), p. 248.Google Scholar

32 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for May 21, 1893.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., entry for May 17, 1893.

34 Price, Pamela G., ‘Patriotism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth Century Bengal: Charles Dall and the Brahmo Somaj, 1855–1866’ (unpublished Master's thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1971), provides a discussion of this issue.Google Scholar

35 K. Kailisapathy gave a talk on the roles of Arumugam Navalar, the Tamil Ceylonese scholar, and Nattukkottai Chettiar patronage in the development of this movement. University of California, Berkeley, Spring 1978. ‘Saiva’ refers to the god, Siva, who is worshipped widely in south India.

36 Vivekananda, Swami, Lectures from Colombo to Almora (Calcutta, 1963), shows that Ramnad was the Swami's first stop in India upon returning from the United States.Google Scholar

37 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for August 26, 1893.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., entry for August 25, 1893.

39 Ibid., entry for May 28, 1893.

40 Madurai Mail, May 19, 1894.Google Scholar

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., April 9, 1895.

45 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for September 2, 1893.Google Scholar

46 Madurai Mail, February 2, 1895.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., October 27, 1894.

48 Ibid., January 19, 1895.

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid., January 20, 1894.

51 Ibid.

52 For a subcontinental view, see Seal, Anil, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism (Cambridge, 1968CrossRefGoogle Scholar). On Madras Presidency: Suntharalingam, R., Politics and Nationalist. Awakening in South India, 1852–1891 (Tucson, 1974Google Scholar); and Washbrook, David, Emergence of Provincial Politics: Madras Presidency, 1870–1920 (Cambridge, 1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Washbrook, David, ‘Country Politics: Madras 1880 to 1930’, in Gallagher, John, Johnson, Gordon and Seal, Anil (eds), Locality, Province and Nation (Cambridge, 1973), pp. 182–8.Google Scholar

54 Raghavaiyangar, S. Srinivasa (see note 31) describes this group, p. 248, as we discuss below.Google Scholar

55 Vadivelu, A., The Aristocracy of Southern India (Madras, 1908), Vol. II, p. 168. The Kallars were another warrior caste in the Ramnad area.Google Scholar

56 Madurai Mail, June 29, 1895.Google Scholar

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid., November 3, 1894.

61 Ibid., August 17, 1895.

62 Ibid. This was National High School in Trichinopoly.

63 Ibid., March 9, 1895.

64 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for February 16, 1893.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., entries for March 11 and April 1, 1893.

66 Ibid., entry for March 24, 1893. Puja is worship.

67 Ibid., entry for March 26, 1893.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid., entry for February 28, 1893, is an example.

70 Ibid., entry for March 1, 1893.

71 Collins, Larry and Lapierre, Dominque, Freedom at Midnight (New York, 1975), p. 168.Google Scholar

72 Śrī Sétu Samastāṉam, (Madurai, 1910) (see note 20), p. 2Google Scholar, and Śrī Sétu Samastāṉam (1912), p. 4Google Scholar; and Śrī Sétu Samastāṉam (1913), p. 4.Google Scholar These are a collection of pamphlets containing songs and poems composed for the Navaratri celebrations at Ramnad during 1910, 1912, and 1913. The introductions to the poems describe the events of the festival.

73 Śrī Sētu Samastāṉam (1910), p. 2.Google Scholar

74 Ibid., p. 3.

75 Śrī Sētu Samastāṉam (1912), p. 4.Google Scholar

76 Ibid., pp. 3–4.

77 Seshadri, K., ‘The Sētupatis of Ramnad,’ unpublished doctoral dissertation, Madura College, Madurai, 1976, p. 173.Google Scholar

78 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for August 12, 1893.Google Scholar

79 Inden, Ronald, in Richards, J. F. (ed.), Kingship and Authority, p. 55.Google Scholar

80 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for August 16, 1893.Google Scholar

81 Ibid., entry for May 23, 1893. Ahambadiya is another spelling for Ahamadiya, a warrior caste of lower status than the Maravars.

82 Ibid., entry for August 14, 1893.

83 Ibid., entry for January 13, 1893. The name Rajarajeswari, means goddess of the king of kings.

84 Sakti is the generative energy and force in the universe. Devi is that great goddess who is sakti.

85 Ibid., entry for June 16, 1893.

86 Ibid., entry for July 6, 1893.

87 Ibid., June 27, 1893. Alangaram is decoration.

88 Ibid., November 1, 1893.

89 Madurai Mail, October 13, 1894.Google Scholar

90 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary,’ entry for October 29, 1893.Google Scholar

91 Madurai Mail, April 28, 1894.Google Scholar

92 Setupati, Baskara, My Trip, pp. 11 and 14.Google Scholar

93 Ibid., p. 14.

94 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for September 18, 1893.Google Scholar

95 The implications of Baskara's religious innovations are discussed against the background of common religious practice on the estate and the more traditional form of ideological integration in the kingdom in Price, Pamela G., ‘Resources and Rule in Zamindari South India, 1802–1903’, in ch. 7Google Scholar, ‘The Navaratri Festival and the Ideological Integration of Samastanam Domains,’ pp. 265–335.Google Scholar

96 Madurai Mail, February 24, 1894. Darshanam is devotional viewing.Google Scholar

97 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for June 5, 1893. Guru puja is worship of a saint.Google Scholar

98 Ibid.

99 Ibid., entry for June 19, 1893.

100 Madurai Mail, July 13, 1895. A math is a center of religious learning.Google Scholar

101 Ibid.

102 K. Kailasapathy brought this contact between Ponnusami Tevar and Arumugam Navalar to my attention. See Kanapatipillai, S., Navalar (Jaffna, 1968), pp. 8 and 11.Google Scholar

103 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for May 20, 1893Google Scholar (his italics). The religious changes advocated by Baskara Setupati can be seen as a part of the wider process of cultural change, ‘Sanskritization’, discussed by M. S. Srinivasa, among others. See Srinivas, M. N., ‘The Social System of a Mysore Village’, in Village India, Studies in the Little Community, ed. Marriott, McKim (Chicago, 1955), pp. 1–35Google Scholar. A discussion of ‘sanscrit’ religious values as belonging to a system of economic exchange at variance with that of warrior rural society is found in my ‘Resources and rule in Zamindari South India,’ ch. 6, ‘The Nattukkottai Chettiars of Chettinad: Merchant-Banker Culture and Political Aims among the Zamindaris’, pp. 176–210.Google Scholar

104 Madurai Mail, January 20, 1894.Google Scholar

105 Ibid.

106 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entries for August 5 and 6, 1893.Google Scholar

107 Ibid., entry for August 9, 1893.

108 Madurai Mail, August 4, 1894.Google Scholar

109 Ibid.

110 Ibid., May 12, 1894.

111 Ibid., June 1, 1895. See also ibid., June 8, 1895.

112 The Zamindar of Vadagarai, quoted from a letter of advice sent to a younger zamindar and later published, by Vadivelu, A., The Aristocracy of Southern India, Vol. II (Madras, 1908), p. 242.Google Scholar

113 Madurai Mail, January 6, 1894.Google Scholar

114 Setupati, Baskara, ‘Diary’, entry for June 27, 1893.Google Scholar

115 Ibid., entry for December 12, 1893.

116 Madurai Mail, September 7, 1895.Google Scholar

117 Ibid., September 22, 1894.

118 Ibid.

119 Raghavaiyangar, S. Srinivasa, Memorandum on the Progress of the Madras Presidency, p. 248.Google Scholar

120 Ibid.

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid.

123 J. Rengasamy Iyer, interview in Sivagangai, May 8, 1975.

124 This concept is developed in Marriott, McKim, ‘Hindu Transactions: Diversity Without Dualism’, in Kapferer, Bruce (ed.), Transaction and Meaning: Directions in the Anthropology of Exchange and Symbolic Behavior (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 109–42.Google Scholar

125 See Washbrook, David, Emergence of Provincial Politics, for an elaboration of these changes.Google Scholar

126 For a description of a major festival organized by Baskara, see Breckenridge, Carol A., ‘From Protector to Litigant: Changing Relations Between Temples and the Raja of Ramnad’, in Stein, Burton (ed.), South Indian Temples: An Analytic Reconsideration (New Delhi, 1978), pp. 78–88.Google Scholar