Paraiyar,[1] Parayar[2] or Maraiyar (formerly anglicised as Pariah /pəˈraɪ.ə/ pə-RY-ə and Paree)[3] is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka.

Robert Caldwell, a nineteenth-century missionary and grammarian who worked in South India, was in agreement with some Indian writers of the same period who considered the name to derive from the Tamil word parai (drum).

[4] More recently, George L. Hart's textual analysis of the Sangam literature (c. 300 BCE – 300 CE) has led him to favour Caldwell's earlier hypothesis.

[citation needed] The 335th poem of the Purananuru mentions the Paraiyar: Other than the Tutiyan drummers and the Panan singers and the Paraiyans and the Katampans, there are no castes.

[7] Hart says that the pulaiyar performed a ritual function by composing and singing songs in the king's favour and beating drums, as well as travelling around villages to announce royal decrees.

[13] According to 1961 Madras Census Report, castes that are categorised under Paraiyar include Koliyar, Panchamar, Thoti, Vettiyan, Vetti, Vellam, Vel, Natuvile, Pani, Pambaikaran, Ammaparaiyan, Urumikaran, Morasu, Tangalam, Samban, Paryan, Nesavukaraparayan, Thotiparayan, Kongaparayan, Mannaparayan, and Semban.

The Nayanar saint Nandanar was born, according to Periya Puranam, in a "threshold of the huts covered with strips of leather", with mango trees from whose branches were hung drums.

[19] Francis Buchanan's report on socio-economic condition of South Indians described them ("Pariar") as inferior caste slaves, who cultivated the lands held by Brahmins.

[21][22] The first reference to the idea may be that written by Francis Whyte Ellis in 1818, where he writes that the Paraiyars "affect to consider themselves as the real proprietors of the soil".

[22] English officials such as Ellis believed that the Paraiyars were serfs toiling under a system of bonded labour that resembled the European villeinage.

[23] However, scholars such as Burton Stein argue that the agricultural bondage in Tamil society was different from the contemporary British ideas of slavery.

[28] The colonial officials, scholars, and missionaries attempted to rewrite the history of the Paraiyars, characterising them as a community that enjoyed a high status in the past.

According to him, the Brahmanical invaders from Persia defeated them and destroyed Buddhism in southern India; as a result, the Paraiyars lost their culture, religion, wealth and status in the society and become destitute.

He described them as people who lived outside the system of morals prescribed by Hinduism, accepted that outcaste position and were characterised by "drunkenness, shamelessness, brutality, truthlessness, uncleanliness, disgusting food practices, and an absolute lack of personal honour".

[35] Another Paraiyar leader, M. C. Rajah — a Madras councillor — made successful efforts for adoption of the term Adi-Dravidar in the government records.

[34] In 1914, the Madras Legislative Council passed a resolution that officially censured the usage of the term Paraiyar to refer to a specific community, and recommended Adi Dravidar as an alternative.