Kadaiyan
The name, Kadaiyan, meaning last or lowest, occurs as a sub-division of the Pallans. The Kadaiyans are described of as being lime (shell) gatherers and burners of Ramesvaram and the neighborhood, from whose ranks the Paravas are in part recruited at the present day. On the coasts of Madura and Tinnevelly they are mainly Christians, and are said, like the Paravas, to have been converted through the work of St. Francis Xavier.
Keywords: Kadaiyan, Pallans, St. Francis Xavier, Paravas,
Reference: Thurston, Edgar; K. Rangachari (1909). Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume I – A and B. Madras: Government Press
