Paliyar Tribes : Demand
A recent research carried out on ‘Paliyar Tribals in Kodaikanal and Theni areas’ urged the State government to take necessary and immediate steps to uplift the Paliyar tribes as well as the other such Adivasi communities.
- Paliyar Tribe has been derived from the word ‘Palaniyan’ , which in Tamil language means a man from Palani.
- They are and have been known by multiple names such as the Paliyans, Pazhaiyarares and Panaiyars.
- They are distributed in the districts of Madurai, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai Tirunelveli and Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.
- They speak Tamil and use the Tamil script for both inter-group and intra-group communication.
- Traditionally, the Paliyars were hunters and gatherers, residing in the forests of the Western Ghats.
- The tribal people offer prayers to the Vanadevadai in the interior forest.
- They also worship god Karuppan by visiting a remote area of the forest along with the families.
- The Paliyar tribes never burned the dead bodies.
- They had the customary practices of burying the dead bodies in an area near to their residential area on the western side.
