Pillai (surname)

Pillai, Pillay, Pulle or Pilli is a popular title of Tamil- and Malayalam-speaking people of India and others living in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and Fiji, mostly from Vellalar and Nair communities.

Though it started as a Hindu title, today Pillai is also found amongst Christians both as a surname and a given name.

South African Tamils use the spelling Pillay, whereas some Sri Lankan castes may also use Pulle or Pilli.

Tamil Nadu usage

In Tamil Nadu this title or surname is mostly used by people of the Vellalar caste among the population of Tamil descent (particularly in southern districts), and the Nair caste population of the Malayalam-speaking immigrant population. The usage of the title is prevalent, though to a lesser extent, among Mukkulathors and Tamil Yadavas The Elur Chetty community in South Tamilnadu and Kerala also uses this surname.

Saiva pillai

Saiva pillai are the forward caste peoples hailing from Tamil Nadu. They are living in large numbers in areas like tiruchirapalli, tanjore, tirunelveli and throughout Tamil Nadu. Their main occupation is agriculture as they are called as merasthars (landlords) in areas around trichy. They also got elected as panchayath union head in villages. Most of the saiva pillais peoples work as teachers, lawyers and mainly government jobs in Tamil Nadu. Most of them don't do business.

In Kerala Saiva Pillai is being counted along with Nair and its sub-castes like Menon, Nambiar etc.

Kerala usage

File:Ettuveedan.jpg

Nair feudal chief from the Ettuveetil Pillamar

Pillai is a subdivision of Nair, a Kshatriya caste of Kerala belonging to the Nagavanshi order. Pillai was one of the highest titles of dignity held by the Hindu caste of the Nairs of Travancore. The title of Pillai was bestowed through a formal ceremony known as Thirumukom Pidikkuka i.e. holding the face of the King and included the payment of a fee known as Adiyara to the King. A person thus bestowed with this title now secured the honorific title of Pillai suffixed and the distinctive title of Kanakku (meaning accountant) prefixed to his name. However Kanakku and Pillai were never used together. Eg: either a person, Krishnan, would be referred to as Krishnan Pillai or Kanakku, followed by his maternal uncle's name, and Krishnan. The latter style was used in royal writs and communications. So important were the privileges granted by this title that as late as in 1814 a Brahmin, Sanku Annavi, sometime Dewan of Travancore obtained the same from the Maharajah. Prominent among the Pillais of medieval Kerala were the Ettuveetil Pillamar of Travancore.

Chempakaraman Pillai

A title superior to the ordinary Pillai was that of Chempakaraman Pillai, an innovation of Maharajah Marthanda Varma of Travancore. The individual whom it was the king's pleasure to honour was first taken in a procession by the nobles and ministers of the state, atop an elephant, around the main four streets of the city of Trivandrum and then received in the palace by the Prime Minister and seated next to him. The ceremony concluded by treating him to Paan Supari. A person thus honoured prefixed Kanakku, followed by Chempakaraman instead of the name of his maternal uncle, followed by his own name, e.g. Kanakku Chempakaraman Krishnan.

Andhra Pradesh usage

The Gavara community uses Pilla as a title, whereas the Aaraama Dravidulu community uses Chellapilla. The same surname is used by many other castes like mala, kapu etc.

List of castes using the title

• Elur Chetty
• Kaaralavellala Pillai
• Karai Kattu Pillai
• Karkarthar Saiva, Karkarthar Vellalar
• Nair
• Nangudi Vellalar
• Nanjil Nattu Vellalar
• Pattarya Pillai
• Saiva Pillai
• Saiva Vellalar
• Seer Karuneegar
• Tirunelveli Saiva
• Vellalar
• Yadava
• Illathu Pillai

History of the title

"Pillai" was historically used throughout the medieval period as an honorific title bestowed on high functionaries serving in various royal courts in south India. Although traditionally bestowed on members of high status and aristocratic castes, the name became adopted as a surname by a broad layer of the Tamil peasantry during the 19th and 20th century. With the extension of tenancy rights, the growth of the market economy and with new opportunities for middle class employment, members of cultivator communities, starting with the Vellalar peasantry, began adopting the name as both a form of upward social mobility and as a means of differentiating themselves from the broader peasantry. Those adopting it for this reason included communities considered historically oppressed (see Maravar and Adi Dravida). The phenomenon was particularly notable amongst members of the Tamil diaspora in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Fiji, a diaspora created in part by the export of indentured agricultural labour at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Amongst some Tamil communities the name is also now used as a caste name or signifier, though without any real historical basis. The use of a similar surname in Kerala is of different historical origins.

Politicians and Revolutionaries

[[Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam {Thanthai Selva}]

• V. O. Chidambaram Pillai (1872-1936), Indian freedom fighter
• Mannathu Padmanabhan Pillai (1878-1970), founder of Nair Service Society
• Pattom A. Thanu Pillai (1885-1970), Second Chief Minister of unified Kerala
• Paravur TK Narayana Pillai (1890-1971), Indian freedom fighter
• Champakaraman Pillai (1891–1934), Indian freedom fighter
• Sardar Vedaratnam Pillai (1897-1961), Indian freedom fighter
• K. A. P. Viswanatham Pillai (1899-1994), a leader of the Self-Respect Movement
• Sir N. R. Pillai, first Cabinet Secretary of Independent India
• Rao Bahadur P. I. Chinnaswamy Pillai, first Municipal Chairman of Palakkad, Kerala, India
• R. Balakrishna Pillai (born 1935), former State minister in Kerala
• L. D. Swamikannu Pillai, Indian astronomer, Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly
• Gopal Krishna Pillai, IAS, Secretary, Commerce, Government of India
• Navanethem Pillay, South African Judge, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• A. R. Pillai, a freedom fighter

Others

• Ananda Ranga Pillai, a dubash in the service of French East India Company
• Ramalinga Swamigal, known as Vallalar, Saint and author of Thiruvarutpa; born to Ramayyah Pillai
• Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, a writer of Malayalam poetry
• Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, eminent writer in Tamil literature; his poem "Niraarum Kadal Udutha" is the official Tamil Anthem
• Nagai Vedachalam Pillai, also known as Maraimalai Adigal
• Devasahayam Pillai (1712-1752), Indian court official, controversial convert to Christianity
• Maruthanayagam Pillai (1725-1764) Commandant for the British East India Company, later became Administrator for Madurai. Also known as "Muhammed Yusuf Khan"
• Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai (1901-1950), Indian mathematician
• K.C. Sreedharan Pillai (1920-1985), Indian mathematician
• Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, Head of Defence Research and Development Organisation
• Rajmohan Pillai (born 1964), Chairman of the Beta Group
• Dhanraj Pillay (born 1968), Indian hockey player
• Nisha Pillai, Indian-born journalist and BBC news anchor
• Rhea Pillai, Indian Model
• S. Kanapathipillai, Hindu revivalist
• V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, current Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU.
• Naraina Pillai, a social entrepreneur and businessman
• Nadakkal Parameswaran Pillai, a writer and politician
• Pradani Muthirulappa Pillai, a famous minister of Ramnad during the reign of Muthuramalinga Sethupathy
• G Parameswaran Pillai, a Chief Secretary and Officiating Dewan of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom in pre-Independent India
• P. Govinda Pillai, a veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and ideologue from Kerala

Matrimony Site

Matrimony Site and info for Pillai community is www.pillaimarriage.com[[1]] .

See also

• Tamil diaspora
• Sri Lankan Tamils
• Colombo Chetty
• Vellalar
• Mudaliar
• Gounder
• Nairs