From ethnohistory to history: the Family History of the Tondaimans

The family history of the Tondaimans begins with Indra, king of heaven. When Indra was touring the earth he met a maiden whom he married and who bore him many children. They grew up to be skilled warriors, and one became a king who was the ancestor of the Tondaiman's line. This is a variant of the origin story of the Tondaiman's caste group, the Kallars, which traces the origin of the Kallars as a whole to Indra's seduction of Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama (Thurston 1909, 3:62–63). According to traditions recorded in the state Manual, the Tondaimans were one of many groups of Kallars who lived in the Tirupati hills as skillful hunters and catchers of elephants, skills which they subsequently put to good political use (Ayyar 1940, 755). Though the choice of Indra as chief ancestor was in large part just a reflex of the larger Kallar tradition, a royal line could have no better ancestor than the king of the gods himself.

Sixteen generations later Raya Tondaiman was born. As a palaiyakkarar his domain was one of the seventy-two palaiyapattus of the Madurai Nayaka. He was ranked below Madurai, Tiruccirappalli, and Karunatakam and on a level with other kingdoms such as the Malaiyalam. The family history continues with another list of twelve names, adding the comment that these twelve Tondaimans were the protectors (kavalkarars) of Ampu(l) Natu.