Tirunelveli Saiva Pillai or Saiva Pillai is a caste from Tirunelveli District

Tirunelveli District

Tirunelveli District is a district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Tirunelveli is the district headquarters. A unique feature of this district is that it encompasses all five geographical traditions of Tamil Literature; kurinji , mullai , marudham , neithal and palai...

 of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. They are a landowning upper caste, feudal community. They have been the original land lords of South Pandya Country and their major source of income used to come from agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. They have also held all major local positions of power, whether Ministers or Commanders of Pandyas and later Poligars / Zamindars as well as rural administration like Accountants (Kanakku Pillai), Village Judge (Munshief) and Village Headman (Pannaiyar OR Nattamai).

Religion and habit

They are staunch worshippers of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 and hence got the prefix Saiva. The Saiva Vellalars are strictly vegetarians. People of the community are considered very much conservative. A very few of them were converted during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to Christianity and retained the caste name 'Saiva Pillai'. These converts remained vegetarian and apart from not practising Hinduism, this sub-section observed every other 'Saiva Pillai' practise such as caste superiority.

Distribution

Tirunelveli Saiva Pillai's are spread all over Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of India; Within Tamil Nadu, their concentration is more in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

, Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...

, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is a town in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is also sometimes referred to as Cape Comorin. Located at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, it is the geographical end of the Indian mainland. The district in Tamil Nadu where the town is located is called Kanyakumari...

, Madurai

Madurai

Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...

, Theni

Theni

Theni is a town in the Western Tamil Nadu state of South India. It is the headquarters of Theni District. It is known for the large-scale trading of Cardamom, Cotton, Grapes, chilli and Textiles. It hosts the second largest weekly market in Tamil Nadu and the fourth largest in South India...

 and Dindigul

Dindigul

Dindigul is a town and municipality in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India. The name Dindigul comes from the Portmanteau of “Thindu” meaning pillow and “kal” meaning Rock and refers to the bare hill dominating the city’s both land and skyscape...

 districts. They have also migrated to a large level in Sri Lanka in previous centuries and to USA and UK in the last century.

Tirunelveli Saiva Pillai Settlements

1. Tirunelveli
   Tirunelveli
   Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...
   
   
2. Thoothukudi
   Thoothukudi
   Thoothukudi , also known as Tuticorin, is a port city and a Municipal Corporation in Thoothukudi district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thoothukudi is the headquarters of Thoothukudi District....
   
   
3. Tenkasi
   Tenkasi
   Tenkasi pronounced as is a town and a municipality in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located in the foothills of the Western Ghats near the Courtallam Waterfalls.Tenkasi is also famous for saaral...
   
   
4. Ilanji
   Ilanji
   Ilanji is a panchayat town in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.It is located between the towns Tenkasi and Shencottah.Ilanji is famous for its pots manufacturing.-Demographics:...
   
   
5. Thisayanvilai
   Thisayanvilai
   Thisayanvilai is a panchayat town in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Demographics: India census, Tisaiyanvilai had a population of 19,557. Males constitute 48% of the population and females 52%. Tisaiyanvilai has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national...
   
   
6. Udangudi
7. Valliyoor
8. Panagudi
   Panagudi
   Panagudi is a panchayat town in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Demographics: India census, Panagudi had a population of 25,444. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%. Panagudi has an average literacy rate of 71%, higher than the national average of 59.5%:...
   
   
9. Radhapuram
10. Aralvaimozhi
    Aralvaimozhi
    Aralvaimozhi ' is a panchayat town in Kanniyakumari District in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a small village situated in southern India....
    
    
11. Thovalai
    Thovalai
    Thovalai is a small village located in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. The area is well known in India for its production of flowers, especially Jasmine.-Flower Industry:...
    
    
12. Ambasamudram
    Ambasamudram
    Ambasamudram is a taluk in Tirunelveli district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The entire taluk had a population of 392,226 as of 2001, with 42.5% classified as rural. The taluk is named for the principal town with the same name...
    
    
13. Tiruchendur
    Tiruchendur
    Thiruchendur is a panchayat town in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This town has a different name called Thirucheer Alaiwai.-Demographics:...
    
    
14. Kulasekaran Pattinam
15. Sengottai
16. Karanthaneri

Notable people

• T. N. Sivagnanam Pillai
  T. N. Sivagnanam Pillai
  Diwan Bahadur Sir Tinnevely Nelliappa Sivagnanam Pillai was an Indian lawyer, civil servant and politician from the Madras Presidency. He belonged to the Justice Party...
  
   (1861–1936), Indian politician of the Justice Party
  Justice Party (India)
  The Justice Party , officially known as South Indian Liberal Federation, was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India. The party was established in 1917 by T. M. Nair and Theagaroya Chetty as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency...
  
  . Minister of Development (1923–26)

• Navaneethakrishnan, Folk dancer, Singer

• Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan
  Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan
  Dr Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan is a Tamil folk singer and composer and a renowned exponent of Tamil folk art. Together with her husband Dr M Navaneethakrishnan, she has conducted several years of research and study on Tamil folk music and dances and devoted a lifetime to research, collection,...
  
   Professor, folk song singer

• Nellai Kannan, Orator

• Suki Sivam

• Vijayalakshmi

• Ragavendran.S [Best manager]