ABSTRACT
I first heard of the Kottai Pillaimar (Tort Pillais’) through an article in a Tamil magazine. It said that because of personal rivalries and political cleavages within the fort of Srivaikuntam, some of the Pillai families had decided to leave and settle down in adjoining Tirunelveli town. This was a historic event, said the article, since the Kottai Pillaimar lived, as was well known throughout Tamilnadu, in a mud-walled fortress into which no outside male could enter, not even government functionaries nor even the police. The women of this sub-caste could not come out of the fort; they had not done so for centuries. The Kottai Pillaimar were strictly endogamous; so far, they had married only within families living inside the fort, who numbered fewer than 100 individuals. The article sounded as though the sub-caste had been written about quite often, and that everyone should have heard about them.
