Mannān
This article is an excerpt from Government Press, Madras |
Mannān
The Mannāns are a hill tribe of Travancore, and are said to have been originally dependents of the kings of Madura, whom they, like the Ūrālis and Muduvans, accompanied to Nēriyamangalam. “Later on, they settled in a portion of the Cardamom Hills called Makara-alum. One of the chiefs of Poonyat nominated three of these Mannāns as his agents at three different centres in his dominions, one to live at Tollāiramalai with a silver sword as badge and with the title of Varayilkīzh Mannān, a second to live at Mannānkantam with a bracelet and the title of Gōpura Mannān, and a third at Utumpanchōla with a silver cane and the title of Talamala Mannān. For these headmen, the other Mannāns are expected to do a lot of miscellaneous services. It is only with the consent of the headmen that marriages may be contracted. Persons of both sexes dress themselves like Maravans. Silver and brass ear-rings are worn by the men. Necklets of white and red beads are worn on the neck, and brass bracelets on the wrist.
Mannāns put up the best huts among the hill-men. Menstrual and puerperal impurity is not so repelling as in the case of the Ūrālis. About a year after a child is born, the eldest member of the family ties a necklet of beads round its neck, and gives it a name. The Mannāns bury their dead. The coffin is made of bamboo and reeds, and the corpse is taken to the grave with music and the beating of drums. The personal ornaments, if any, are not removed. Before filling in the grave, a quantity of rice is put into the mouth of the deceased. A shed is erected over the site of burial. After a year has passed, an offering of food and drink is made to the dead. The language of the Mannāns is Tamil. They have neither washermen barbers, but wash clothes and shave for one another. The Mannāns stand ahead of the other hill-men from their knowledge of medicine, though they resort more to Chāttu than to herbs. Drinking is a very common vice. Marumakkathāyam is the prevailing form of inheritance (in the female line); but it is customary to give a portion to the sons also. Marriage takes the form of tāli-tying. The tāli (marriage badge) is removed on the death of the husband. Women generally wait for two years to marry a second husband, after the death of the first. A Mannān claims the hand of his maternal uncle’s daughter. The Sāsta of Sabarimala and Periyār is devoutly worshipped. The Mannāns are experts in collecting honey. They eat the flesh of the monkey, but not that of the crocodile, snake, buffalo or cow. They are fast decreasing in numbers, like the other denizens of the hills.”
Concerning the Mannāns, Mr. O. H. Bensley writes as follows. “I enjoy many pleasant reminiscences of my intercourse with these people. Their cheery and sociable disposition, and enjoyment of camp life, make it quite a pleasure to be thrown into contact with them. Short, sturdy, and hairless, the Mannāns have all the appearances of an ‘aboriginal‘ race. The Mannān country extends southward from the limit occupied by the Muduvans on the Cardamom Hills to a point south of the territory now submerged by the Periyār works. They have, moreover, to keep to the east of the Periyār river. Smallpox ravages their villages, and fever lives in the air they breathe. Within the present generation, three of their settlements were at the point of extinction, but were recruited from other more fortunate bands. Very few attain to old age, but there were until lately three old patriarchs among them, who were the headmen of three of the most important sections of the tribe. The Muduvans and Mannāns pursue the same destructive method of cultivation, but, as the latter are much fewer in numbers, their depredations are not so serious.
None of the tribes east of the Periyār pay any tax to the Government, but are expected, in return for their holdings, to perform certain services in the way of building huts and clearing paths, for which they receive fixed payment. They have also to collect forest produce, and for this, too, they obtain fixed rates, so that their treatment by the Government is in reality of the most liberal kind. Mannāns do not always look at things in quite the light one would expect. For example, the heir to an English Earldom, after a pleasant shooting trip in Travancore, bestowed upon a Mannān who had been with him a handsome knife as a memento. Next day, the knife was seen in the possession of a cooly on a coffee estate, and it transpired that the Mannān had sold it to him for three rupees, instead of keeping it as an heirloom.
A remarkable trait in the character of the Mannāns is the readiness with which they fraternise with Europeans. Most of the other tribes approach with reluctance, which requires considerable diplomacy to overcome. Not so the Mannān. He willingly initiates a tyro and a stranger into the mysteries of the chase. Though their language is Tamil, and the only communication they hold with the low country is on the Madura side, they have this custom in common with the Malayālis, that the chieftainship of their villages goes to the nephew, and not to the son. One does not expect to find heroic actions among these simple people. But how else could one describe the following incident? A Mannān, walking with his son, a lad about twelve years old, came suddenly upon a rogue elephant. His first act was to place his son in a position of safety by lifting him up till he could reach the branch of a tree, and only then he began to think of himself. But it was too late. The elephant charged down upon him, and in a few seconds he was a shapeless mass.”
