The Vellalar community adopts various titles, including Pillai, Mudaliar, and Gounder. These titles are used by different subcastes of the Vellalar, influenced by regional, social, and cultural factors.[3]
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Chempakaraman Pillai- Chempakaraman Pillai was an Indian-born political activist and revolutionary. Born in Thiruvananthapuram, to Tamil Pillai parents, he left for Europe as a youth, where he spent the rest of his active life as an Indian nationalist and revolutionary.
Marudhanayagam Pillai (also known as Muhammad Yusuf Khan or Khan Sahib) – He was the first freedom fighter and was called as the hero of Madurai, he was a brave man who defeated Puli Thevar and ruled his territory. He became a rebel and revolted against The British So, they hanged him. The British army cut his dead body into pieces due to the fear of him. The dead body that was cut down was buried elsewhere in Tamil Nadu.[5]
Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar- Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar (6 September 1852 – 2 March 1892) was an Indian lawyer, politician and Indian independence activist who campaigned for India's independence.
Vallinayagam Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai- also known as Kappalottiya Tamizhan and Sekkizutha Semmal, was an Indian freedom fighter and former leader of the Indian National Congress. He founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 to compete against the monopoly of the British India Steam Navigation Company.
Philanthropists
Vallal Pachaiyappa Mudaliar
Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar - Founded the R.B.A.N.M.'s Educational Charities and R.B.A.N.M.'s Chattram and other charities.
Annamalai Kuppusamy- Annamalai Kuppusamy is an Indian politician and former police officer. He was appointed as the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party of Tamil Nadu by National president Jagat Prakash Natta on 8 July 2021.
A. C. Shanmugam- is the founder and president of the Puthiya Needhi Katchi, a caste-based political party for the thuluva Vellalar caste in Tamil Nadu, India. He is also the founder and chancellor of Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute, Rajarajeswari Group of Institutions, and ACS group of institutions in Arani.[9]
A. Ranganatha Mudaliar- Arcot Ranganatha Mudaliar (29 June 1879 – 8 July 1950) was an Indian politician and theosophist from Bellary. He served as the Minister of Public Health and Excise for the Madras Presidency from 1926 to 1928.
C. S. Ratnasabhapathy Mudaliar- Chinna Seevaram Ratnasabhapathy Mudaliar OBE was an Indian industrialist and politician who served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1926 to 1936. His family hails from Seevaram village near Cheyyar of North Arcot district.
C. Subramaniam Gounder- Father of the Indian Green Revolution, Vetaran Congress Leader, Former Union Finance Minister, Deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, Governor of Maharashtra. Bharat Ratna (the nation's highest civilian honour) in 1998.[16]
Edappadi K Palaniswami- Edappadi Karuppa Palaniswami (born 12 May 1954), often referred to by his initials E.P.S., is an Indian politician who is the current leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He served as the seventh chief minister of Tamil Nadu, from 2017 to 2021. He has been the General Secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) since 28 March 2023. Previously, Palaniswami has served as the interim general secretary (2022–23), joint co-ordinator (2017–22) and headquarters secretary (2016–22) of AIADMK.
P.T.R Palanivel Rajan- Ponnambala Thyaga Rajan Palanivel Rajan (27 February 1932 – 20 May 2006) was an Indian politician.
P. T. RajanP.T Rajan- Sir Ponnambala Thiaga Rajan (22 April 1892 – 25 September 1974) was the First Minister of Madras Presidency from 4 April 1936, to 24 August 1936 (143 Days). He was also the last President of the Justice Party. P. T. Rajan was born in a Thondaimandala mudaliar family in Uthamapalayam.
P. U. Shanmugam- P U Shanmugam, affectionately called as Paa Vuu Saa (15 August 1924 – 11 April 2007) was an Indian politician and former minister of Tamil Nadu for Internal affairs, former minister of Public works, former minister of public health and various other portfolios on various tenures. The Dravidian veteran also worked as the Organisation Secretary of DMK and the 3rd General Secretary of AIADMK.
Palanivel Thiagarajan- Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan (PTR) is an Indian politician and the current Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election in 2016 and 2021 from Madurai Central.
Pulavar K. Govindan- Pulavar K. Govindan (1916–1991) was a writer, historian, rationalist and politician. He was an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of Madras State and later, the state of Tamil Nadu. He served as the Deputy Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly from 1967 to 1968 and Speaker for two terms from 1969 to 1971 and 1973 to 1977.[17][18] He has written extensively on Tamil literature and his works were nationalized by the Tamil Nadu State Government in 2007.[19]
R. N. Arogyasamy Mudaliar- Diwan Bahadur Royapuram Nallaveeran Arogyaswamy Mudaliar (18 April 1870 – 30 January 1933) was an Indian politician and civil engineer who served as the Minister of Excise, Medical Administration and six other departments in the Madras Presidency from 1926 to 1928
T. M. Kaliannan Gounder- was an Indian politician who served as a member of the Provisional Parliament of India and as a member of the Legislative Assembly MLA, Member of the Legislative Council MLC of Tamil Nadu. He was the last surviving member of the first parliament of India (Provisional Parliament 1950–1952) and was one of the few surviving members of the first assembly of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras) State (MLA 1952 Rasipuram, MLA 1957 Tiruchengode, MLA 1962 Tiruchengode).
Appar - also referred to as Tirunāvukkarasar or Navukkarasar, was a seventh-century Tamil Śaiva poet-saint. Born in a peasant Vellalar family, raised as an orphan by his sister, he lived about 80 years and is generally placed sometime between 570 and 650 CE.
Nammalvar – He was one of the twelve Alvar saints of Tamil Nadu, India, who are known for their affiliation to the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. The verses of the Alvars are compiled as the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, where praises are sung of 108 temples that are classified as divine realms, called the Divya Desams.
Sekkizhar – Sēkkilān Mādēvadigal Rāmadēva (12th century CE), known popularly by his family name as Sekkizhar, was a saint and a contemporary of Kulottunga Chola II. He compiled and wrote the Periya Puranam (Great Story or Narrative) in 4253 verses, recounting the life stories of the sixty-three ShaivaNayanars, the devotees of Shiva. Sekkilhar himself was later canonised and his work, the Periyapuranam became the twelfth and final book of the sacred Sai
Ramalinga AdigalThayumanavar or Tayumanavar – (Tamil: தாயுமானவர் Tāyumānavar) (1705–1744) was a Tamil spiritual philosopher from Tamil Nadu, India. Thayumanavar articulated the Saiva Siddhanta philosophy. He wrote several Tamil hymns of which 1454 are available. His first four songs were sung 250 years ago at the Congress of Religions in Tiruchirappalli. His poems follow his own mystical experience, but they also outline the philosophy of Hinduism, and the Tirumandiram by Saint Tirumular in its highest form, one that is at once devotional and nondual, one that sees God as both immanent and transcendent.
Thycaud Ayyavu Swamikal (1814 – 20 July 1909) was a spiritualist and a social reformer in kerala
Vallalar (Born – Ramalingam) – A Hindu Saint who said God is none other than Light and espoused the veneration of the radiant flame emanating from a lit lamp.
Kavimani Desigavinayagam Pillai – was a Tamil poet. Asiya Jothi, Nanjil Nattu Marumakkal Vazhi Manmiyam, and the translation of the work of Omar Khayyam are his masterpieces. He is known for his poetry. In 1940 the Tamil Sangam at its 7th annual conference held at Madras (now Chennai) honoured Desigavinayagam Pillai with the title "Kavimani". On 21 October 2005, he was commemorated on an Indian postage stamp.
Mahavidvaan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai – He was a Tamil scholar and teacher of U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, a Tamil scholar and researcher who was instrumental in bringing many long-forgotten works of classical Tamil literature to light. Pillai's important contribution is in the form of temple history called Thala Varalaru for ninety temples in Tamil Nadu.
Venkatarama Ramalingam Pillai – sometimes called Namakkal Kavignar, was a Tamil poet from Tamil Nadu, India and independence fighter who wrote poems about independence. He wrote hundreds of poems. He also participated in the Salt Satyagraha against the British government in 1930 and went to jail for one year. He received the "Padmabhushan" award in 1971 from the Indian government.
Educationists, Doctors, Scientists, and Academicians
^Robb, Peter (1996). *Meanings of Agriculture: Essays in South Asian History and Economics*. Oxford University Press, p. 348.
^The memorial was a long pending demand of the dominant Kongu Vellalar community of the region, to which the valiant fighter against colonial oppression belonged. [1]
^"The inter-governmental organizations related to the United Nations". Yearbook of the United Nations 1961. New York: Office of Public Information, United Nations. December 1962. p. 621.
^Andrew wyatt, John Zavos. Decentring the Indian Nation. p. 115.
^Born on January 30, 1910, in Senguttaipalayam, a hamlet of Varadanur village in Pollachi taluk of Coimbatore district, in an agriculturists family from the dominant Kongu Vellalar community, Mr. Subramaniam, blended the strains of tradition and modernity in his own way, to eventually rise to gubernatorial positions. http://hindu.com/thehindu/2000/11/08/stories/01080009.htm
