Valangai or the right hand refers to a caste-based division of communities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that was in vogue from ancient times right up to the 19th and even the early decades of the 20th century AD. Since India's independence, the differences have practically vanished.
4-597: The Valangai or right-handed faction was made up of castes with an agricultural basis while the Idangai was made of metal workers, weavers, etc. i.e. castes involved in manufacturing. The Valangai faction was numerically superior to the Idangai or left-handed faction. There were 6 castes in the Idangai faction as opposed to sixty in the Valangai faction. The Valangai faction was better organized, politically, than
8-470: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Idangai Idangai or the left hand is a caste-based division of communities in Tamil Nadu that was in vogue from ancient times right up to the 19th and even the early decades of the 20th century AD. Since India's independence, the differences have practically vanished. The corresponding division is Valangai . From ancient times, there
12-564: The Idangai . Jean-Antoine Dubois on Valangai writes, The Paraiyars are its chief support, as a proof of which they glory in the title ‘Valangai-Mougattar’, or friends of the Right-hand. During the Chola period, the left and right-hand factions comprised ninety-eight castes each, but by the 19th century, the right-hand faction was made of 60 castes, and the left-hand, only six. This article about an Indian ethnicity or social group
16-400: Was intense rivalry between the left-handed and right-handed factions. The Idangai faction was numerically inferior to the Valangai and comprised six castes as opposed to the sixty of the Valangai . It was also unclear as to which castes constituted each faction. Some castes considered to be left-handed in some areas were regarded as right-handed in others and vice versa. Roughly speaking,
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