Isai Velalar is a community found in India in Tamil Nadu . They are traditionally involved as performers of classical dance and music in Hindu temples and courts of the patrons. The term "Isai Velalar" is a recent community identity, people of minstrel occupation from various castes such as, Melakkarar, Nayanakkarar and Nattuvanar come under this term.
33-489: Isai Vellalars are a micro community. Out of all the divisions, Melakkarars are the predominant Isai Vellalars. Edgar Thurston noted that the community had two linguistic sects within the state; being Tamil and Telugu . Tamil-speaking Melakkarars traditionally performed both ‘Chinna Melam’( nautch music ) and/or ‘Periya Melam’( nadaswaram ), while Telugu-speaking Melakkarars of Tamilnadu performed only ‘Periya Melam.’ Telugu Melakkarars had surname like ‘Reddi’ and ‘Naidu’, while
66-690: A colleague from the Madras museum who had also assisted him in a 1906 ethnographic study, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India . Rangachari had supplied most of the forty photographs used in this earlier study. The September 1910 edition of Nature described the 1909 publication as a monumental record of the varied phases of south Indian tribal life, the traditions, manners and customs of people. Though in some respects it may be corrected or supplemented by future research it will long retain its value as an example of out-door investigation, and will remain
99-511: A custom or usage, to use customarily ' , in turn from νόμος ( nomos ) ' usage, custom ' , ultimately from νέμειν ( nemein ) ' to dispense, divide, assign, keep, hold ' . Throughout its history, money itself has been made to be a scarce good. Many materials have been used to form money, from naturally scarce precious metals and cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money, called fiat money , such as banknotes . Many complementary currencies use time as
132-713: A respectable position in the society. The 11th-century inscription of Rajaraja I states that the Tevaratiyar were invited to serve the Brihadisvara Temple and were given land near the temple. Under the patronage of the Nayaks of Tanjavur and Thanjavur Maratha kings, Telugu musicians and Devadasis from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra migrated to the Thanjavur region . The Melakkarars of Thanjavur are therefore divided in two distinct linguistic groups –
165-464: A species of Indian snake, Gerrhopilus thurstoni ( Boettger , 1890), is named in his honor. The standard author abbreviation E.Thurst. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name . Aside from his role at the Madras Museum, Thurston was for some time Honorary Secretary to the now-defunct Fine Arts Society of Madras and was influential in promoting
198-482: A superintendent. Whereas early European ideas on phrenology were applied to identify mental traits of individuals, advocates of scientific racism used what they considered to be more refined anthropometric measurements to identify castes . Thurston was one such person. He believed that intelligence was inversely proportional to the breadth of the nose and claimed that he scrutinised this as well as handwriting when recruiting clerks in his office. He gave lectures to
231-632: A threat to the traditional performers of these art forms. This led communities traditionally associated with music and dance to start forming a politicized non-Brahmin caste association which they coined as "Isai Velalar Sangam" and thereby created a political unified identity. Edgar Thurston Edgar Thurston CIE (1855– 12 October 1935) was the British Superintendent at the Madras Government Museum from 1885 to 1908 who contributed to research studies in
264-588: A unit of measure, using mutual credit accounting that keeps the balance of money intact. Modern money (along with most ancient money) is essentially a token – an abstraction. Paper currency is perhaps the most common type of contemporary physical money. However, goods such as gold or silver retain many of the essential properties of money, such as price fluctuation and limited supply, although these goods are not controlled by one single authority. Coin collecting may have possibly existed in ancient times. Augustus gave "coins of every device, including old pieces of
297-592: A veritable mine of information, which will be of value. Thurston also authored The Madras Presidency, with Mysore Coorg, and the associated States , being the third volume of the four-volume series " Provincial Geographies of India " which was published between 1913–23 by the Cambridge University Press under the editorship of Thomas Henry Holland which included physical information and ethnographic notes. Thurston made numerous collections of plant and animals specimens, many of which were sent to
330-586: Is related to numismatics proper (concerned with coins which have been legal tender ), and many coin collectors are also exonumists. Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes. It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use. However, people only started collecting paper money systematically in Germany in the 1920s, particularly the Serienscheine (Series notes) Notgeld . The turning point occurred in
363-449: Is the study or collection of currency , including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists , are often characterized as students or collectors of coins , but the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other means of payment used to resolve debts and exchange goods . The earliest forms of money used by people are categorised by collectors as "odd and curious", but
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#1732791568932396-614: The British Museum . In the late 1880s he was involved in studies on pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar. On a visit to Europe he sought to find electric lights that would work at a depth of 20 fathoms so as to assist in pearl harvesting. Some species have been named after him, including the marine organisms Manaria thurstoni (E.A. Smith, 1906), Sepia thurstoni (W. Adam & W. J. Rees, 1966), Mobula thurstoni (Lloyd, 1908), and Ecteinascidia thurstoni (Herdman, 1890). Also,
429-487: The 1970s when notaphily was established as a separate area by collectors. At the same time, some developed countries such as the United States , Germany , and France began publishing their respective national catalogs of paper money, which represented major points of reference literature. Scripophily is the study and collection of companies' shares and bonds certificates. It is an area of collecting due to both
462-722: The 19th century. The Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836 and immediately began publishing the journal that became the Numismatic Chronicle . The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858 and began publishing the American Journal of Numismatics in 1866. In 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage . The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of
495-619: The British Isles was published in 1958. In the 20th century, coins gained recognition as archaeological objects, and scholars such as Guido Bruck of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna realized their value in providing a temporal context and the difficulty that curators faced when identifying worn coins using classical literature. After World War II in Germany, a project, Fundmünzen der Antike (Coin finds of
528-619: The Classical Period) was launched to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries. In the United States, the US Mint established a coin cabinet in 1838 when chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his personal collection. William E. Du Bois' Pledges of History... (1846) describes the cabinet. C. Wyllys Betts ' American colonial history illustrated by contemporary medals (1894) set
561-621: The Superintendent of Ethnography for the Madras Presidency . Edgar Thurston was the son of Charles Bosworth Thurston of Kew , London. Schooled at Eton College , he then studied medicine at King's College, London , qualifying as LRCP in 1877. He worked as a medical officer in Kent County Lunatic Asylum and became a curator of the museum at King's College before joining the Madras Museum in 1885 as
594-453: The Tamil and Telugu Melakkarar. With the entry of Colonial India , great loss of temple patronage resulted the Tevaratiyar to perceive other ways of income which degraded their social status. The Devadasi system was legally abolished in 1947 after the campaigns of the social reformers Moovalur Ramamirtham and Muthulakshmi Reddi . The entry of Tamil Brahmins in music and dance was seen as
627-453: The Tamil sect used ‘Pillai’ title.The former speak Tamil, and, in most of their custom.In customs and practices Telugu Chinna Melam is alike to that of Telugu Brahmins . There are also other sects like Nattuvanar, barber-musicians, etc. under Isai Vellalar label. Some from this community were made devadasis until its abolition. They come under MBC (Most Backward Classes) category in the state of Tamilnadu. The term Isai Vellalar derives from
660-463: The Tamil words Isai meaning "music" and vellar a generic term roughly meaning "cultivator", thus translates as "cultivators of music". This term was introduced after the legal abolition of the Devadasi system as a result of the reform and anti- nautch movement in 1947. The Isai Velalar communities were originally nomads . Bardic traditions are referred in early Sangam literature and well into
693-489: The artistic works of Raja Ravi Varma and his brother C. Raja Raja Varma . Thurston was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal , first class, on 26 June 1902. He was made C.I.E. in 1909. He retired to England and spent his winters at Penzance where he studied the local plants and regularly hosted a New Year party for the local botanists. He died on 12 October 1935 at Penzance. Numismatics Numismatics
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#1732791568932726-543: The coins they study. Varieties, mint-made errors , the results of progressive die wear, mintage figures, and even the sociopolitical context of coin mintings are also matters of interest. Exonumia (UK English: Paranumismatica) is the study of coin -like objects such as token coins and medals , and other items used in place of legal currency or for commemoration. This includes elongated coins , encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, badges, counter-stamped coins, wooden nickels , credit cards , and other similar items. It
759-580: The early Pallava and Pandya periods. These were primarily ritualistic and defensive in nature. The artistic side of music and dance came to be strengthened during the Chola and Vijayanagara period. Early Chola inscriptions mentions Tevaratiyar as recipients of food offering and ritual performers of the temples, and was a term carrying honorific and high connotations. Inscriptional evidences indicates devadasis to have been independent professionals who enjoyed property (made large land donations to temples) and
792-566: The early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility. Collectors of coins were Pope Boniface VIII , Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg who started the Berlin coin cabinet and Henry IV of France to name a few. Numismatics is called the "Hobby of Kings", due to its most esteemed founders. Professional societies organised in
825-506: The fields of zoology , ethnology and botany of India, and later also published his works at the museum. Thurston was educated in medicine and lectured in anatomy at the Madras Medical College while simultaneously holding a senior position at the museum. His early works were on numismatics and geology, and these were later followed by researches in anthropology and ethnography . He succeeded Frederick S. Mullaly as
858-513: The groundwork for the study of American historical medals. Helen Wang 's "A short history of Chinese numismatics in European languages" (2012–2013) gives an outline history of Western countries' understanding of Chinese numismatics. Lyce Jankowski 's Les amis des monnaies is an in-depth study of Chinese numismatics in China in the 19th century. Modern numismatics is the study of the coins of
891-413: The kings and foreign money" as Saturnalia gifts. Petrarch , who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vine diggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355. The first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus (1514) by Guillaume Budé . During
924-416: The mid-17th century onward, the period of machine-struck coins. Their study serves more the need of collectors than historians, and it is more often successfully pursued by amateur aficionados than by professional scholars. The focus of modern numismatics frequently lies in the research of production and use of money in historical contexts using mint or other records in order to determine the relative rarity of
957-485: The skull and derived indices or proportions such as the nasal index . He did this work alongside his role as superintendent of the Madras Museum, a position that he did not leave until 1908. Among other published works, Thurston wrote the seven volumes of Castes and Tribes of Southern India , published in 1909 as part of the Ethnographic Survey of India. In that work he was assisted by K. Rangachari ,
990-648: The students of the Madras University and sometimes to the Madras Police on practical anthropology during the 1890s, and he trained the Madras Police in the use of anthropometry for criminal identification. The Bertillon system had already been incorporated in the Bengal and Madras Police departments by the 1890s and Thurston's training was intended to help the police identify membership of what were then termed as " criminal castes ". In 1901, Thurston
1023-622: The use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g., cigarettes or instant noodles in prison). As an example, the Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit, and gave small change in lambskins ; the lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horses are not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as cowry shells , precious metals , cocoa beans , large stones , and gems . First attested in English in 1829,
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1056-513: The word numismatics comes from the adjective numismatic , meaning ' of coins ' . It was borrowed in 1792 from French numismatique , itself a derivation from Late Latin numismatis , genitive of numisma , a variant of nomisma meaning ' coin ' . Nomisma is a latinisation of the Greek νόμισμα ( nomisma ) which means ' current coin/custom ' , which derives from νομίζειν ( nomizein ) ' to hold or own as
1089-468: Was appointed to the Ethnographic Survey of India project, established at that time following the success of Herbert Hope Risley 's Ethnographic Survey of Bengal. Risley was an adherent to the theories of scientific racism and had been appointed as director of Ethnology in India. Thurston worked as a part of this project to collect accurate anthropometric measurements. These included a number of measurements of
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