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Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 11, 2019

Vellalah society. For example, they were not allowed to wear any kind of
respectable clothes or jewellery. Particularly, both men and women from the

“Untouchable” caste were traditionally forbidden to wear the upper garment

(Pfaffenberger, 1982, p. 52). Jane Russell related her experiences thus, “When I first
lived and studied in Jaffna in late 1973, there were elderly women who went around

the villages, streets and markets with no upper garment over their breasts” (Russell,
2015). Jane Russell further observed, “---where their nudity was demanded by upper

caste men and (presumably) by their wives, sisters and daughters, possibly these

upper caste women felt relief that they were excused this humiliating custom by the
Victorian prudery adopted by the English educated class of which they were part”

(Russell, 2015). Panchamar castes could not dress in white for any kind of rituals.
They were not allowed to wear shoes or use an umbrella when they had to go out.

Also, Panchamar castes were not allowed to worship in certain temples. They were
prevented from even going near the temples. They also could not marry without the

permission of the Vellalah. Further, as pointed out by Banks (1960, p. 65), people of

the washermen caste were not allowed to move around during daylight hours and
had to travel only at night. Depressed castes were not allowed to play music at either

auspicious or inauspicious functions. They were prohibited from riding bicycles and
driving cars, not allowed to sit while travelling in buses, and not allowed to sit on

chairs; they were also expected to bury their dead instead of cremating them like

other Hindus and were not permitted to draw water from public wells. They were
not expected to study or even allowed to enter the tea shops. As observed by

Rasanen (2015), “the depressed castes were not permitted to enter the verandah of a
high caste home. They were given tea in a discarded tin can, bottle, glass or a cup

not used by others. This practice was prevalent even in the year 2018 in some rural

Vellalah homes in Jaffna” (p. 86). By this practice, purity of domestic space was
preserved, which would otherwise be polluted by inviting the depressed castes

inside. The so-called lower caste Tamil people were socially deprived as a result of
such prohibitions that had prevailed from a historical era.

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