Thondaimandala Vellala


Thondaimandala Vellala, also known as Tondaimandalam Vellalar and Tondaimandalam Mudliar, is a high-ranking subcaste of the Vellalar caste in the state of Tamil Nadu, India who tend, like several lower-ranking castes such as the Kaikkilars, to adopt the title of Mudaliar.
Susan Neild notes the Kandaikatti and Tuluva Vellalars as being the "predominant" subcastes of the Thondamandala Vellala.They practice endogamy and have a least two subgroups themselves, being the higher-status Melnadu and the lower-ranked Kilnadu.
In her study concentrated on two villages in 1951-53, Kathleen Gough noted the Thondamandala Vellala subjects there to have been traditionally "landlords, warriors, and officials of the state class". She thought it likely that they had moved to their present area in Thanjavur around the 15th century when the Vijayanagaras were making incursions on their former heartland of Kanchipuram in the Pallava country. She noted those households studied as being the highest-ranked members of the village community after the Brahmins, and possibly to have in some cases increased their wealth and land by being appointed as revenue collectors for the Kingdom of Mysore when it took over the area in the period after 1780.