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Padmasaliyar in the age of kings

Cholas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara — what do inscriptions and historical studies say about weavers, and what in them can be said with certainty about the Padmasaliyar?

Chapters (15)
  1. Who are the Padmasaliyar?
  2. Bhavana Rishi and the Padmasaliyar tradition
  3. The puranic tradition of origin
  4. Lotus, Padma and the weaving tradition
  5. Ancient homeland and migration
  6. Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
  7. The weaving trade and contribution to society
  8. Padmasaliyar in the age of kings
  9. Temples, religion and culture
  10. Social structure, gotras and divisions
  11. The tradition of the curse — a separate section
  12. The colonial period and its records
  13. Padmasaliyar in modern times
  14. The community around the world
  15. Conclusion
Chapter 8

Padmasaliyar in the age of kings

Kings needed cloth; temples and trade needed cloth. So weavers were always in the rulers’ attention. But inscriptions mostly refer to weavers by the general name “Saliyar”. It cannot at once be said that all those “Saliyar” were Padmasaliyar. This chapter is written with that limit kept clearly in view.

  • Living community tradition
  • Written / inscriptional evidence
  • Yet to be verified

The Chola period

The Kakatiya period (Telangana)

The Vijayanagara period

Rights and privileges

The Right-hand – Left-hand division

This was an old social arrangement in the Tamil and Telugu regions. One account, citing Ramaswamy, says that the Sali weavers were always in the Right-hand (Valangai) division, while the Devanga and the Kaikkolar were in the Left-hand (Idangai) division. These are said to have mostly determined ritual rights. This must be confirmed by consulting a fuller source (Ramaswamy’s books).

At a glance

PeriodWhat is recordedStatus
10th c. (Uttama Chola)Saliyar weavers in Kanchipuram; a part in administrationThe name Padmasaliyar is not confirmed
13th c. (Kakatiyas)Weaving guilds and grants in TelanganaYet to be verified
14th–17th c. (Vijayanagara)Settlement of weavers, quarters, privilegesGeneral research; a separate inscription is needed for the Padmasaliyar
Nalli Kuppuswami — PadmasaliyarPresent-day community identityMentioned in the historian’s conversation

What to look for next

  • Places in the volumes of South Indian Inscriptions where the words “Saliyar” and “Padmasali” occur.
  • Grants to weavers in Epigraphia Telanganica and in the collections of Andhra inscriptions.
  • The passages on the Padmasaliyar in Vijaya Ramaswamy’s Textiles and Weavers in Medieval South India.
  • Copper plates, palm-leaf manuscripts and old documents held by families.

Next chapter

9. Temples, religion and culture — the deities worshipped, temple traditions, festivals, the Vaishnava and Shaiva traditions.