Pillai[1], Pillay, Pulle , Pilli or Pillaimar (Tamil:பிள்ளை,பிள்ளைமார்) is a popular title used by land owning caste of Tamil- and Malayalam-speaking people of India and others living in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and Fiji, mostly from Vellalar and Nair communities.
Though it started as a Hindu title, today Pillai is also found amongst Christians both as a surname and a given name.
South African Tamils use the spelling Pillay, whereas some Sri Lankan castes may also use Pulle or Pilli.
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In Tamil Nadu, this title or surname is mostly used by people of the Vellalar caste among the population of Tamil descent (particularly in southern districts), and the Nair caste population of the Malayalam-speaking immigrant population. The usage of the title is prevalent, though to a lesser extent, among Paraiyar, and Tamil Yadavas. The Elur Chetty community in South Tamil Nadu and Kerala also use this surname.
Saiva Pillai or Pillai are the forward caste peoples from Tamil Nadu. Many live in Tirunelveli, Tanjore, Salem, Tiruchirapalli and Kanyakumari. Their main occupation is agriculture as they are called as merasthars (landlords) in areas around Trichy. Some are elected as Panchayath union heads in villages. Other Saiva Pillais work in professional roles and government jobs in Tamil Nadu.
Pillai is a subdivision or clan of the Nair community of Kerala. Pillai was one of the most common titles of dignity held by the Hindu caste of the Nairs and Pattaryas of North Travancore. The title of Pillai was bestowed through a formal ceremony known as Thirumukom Pidikkuka, i.e. holding the face of the King, and included the payment of a fee known as Adiyara to the King. A person thus bestowed with this title now secured the honorific title of Pillai suffixed and the distinctive title of Kanakku (meaning accountant in Tamil language) prefixed to his name. However, Kanakku and Pillai were never used together; a person named Krishnan would be referred to as Krishnan Pillai or Kanakku, followed by his maternal uncle's name, and Krishnan. The latter style was used in royal writs and communications. So important were the privileges granted by this title that as late as in 1814 a Brahmin, Sanku Annavi, sometime Dewan of Travancore, obtained the same from the Maharajah. Prominent among the Pillais of medieval Kerala were the Ettuveetil Pillamar of Travancore.
A title superior to the ordinary Pillai was that of Chempakaraman Pillai, an innovation of Maharajah Marthanda Varma of Travancore. The individual whom it was the king's pleasure to honour was first taken in a procession by the nobles and ministers of the state, atop an elephant, around the main four streets of the city of Trivandrum and then received in the palace by the Prime Minister and seated next to him. The ceremony concluded by treating him to Paan Supari. A person thus honoured prefixed Kanakku, followed by Chempakaraman instead of the name of his maternal uncle, followed by his own name, e.g. Kanakku Chempakaraman Krishnan. [2]
The Gavara community uses Pilla as a title, whereas the Aaraama Dravidulu community uses Chellapilla. The same surname is used by many other castes like mala, kapu etc.
"Pillai" was historically used throughout the medieval period as an honorific title bestowed on high functionaries serving in various royal courts in south India. Although traditionally bestowed on members of high status and aristocratic castes, the name became adopted as a surname by a broad layer of the Tamil peasantry during the 19th and 20th century. With the extension of tenancy rights, the growth of the market economy and with new opportunities for middle class employment, members of cultivator communities, starting with the peasantry, began adopting the name as both a form of upward social mobility and as a means of differentiating themselves from the broader peasantry. Those adopting it for this reason included communities considered historically oppressed (see Paraiyar).
Amongst some Tamil communities the name is also now used as a caste name or signifier, though without any real historical basis.
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