The Caste System of the Dravidians

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The Caste System of the Dravidians

As in Dravidian South India, the four fold caste system or the varnas of the Aryan North did not apply in the Jaffna Peninsula or the rest of Sri Lanka. However with the Aryanisation of South India from the 5^th century AD onwards, the ritualistic dominance of the Brahmins began to be accepted in these areas as well.

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Sam - Canada

Great article, but i think this is incomplete, hopefully the balance casts will be addressed!

I believe though that the caste system of Jaffna while having its roots in the 4 fold system of North India was not the same there were several differences and many other castes which are not found in the North Indian caste system.

For example Chetty's the Vellala's amd the Madapalli's which are the most talked about castes in Jaffna in the 1930's and the 1940's.

Having also read about the Sinhala caste system one feels there are similarities and commonalities between the two systems and it would be nice to examine the two systems for a common origin?

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