Balija Explained

Caste Name:Balija
Religions:Hinduism
Languages:Telugu, Kannada, Tamil
Country:India
Populated States:Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala

The Balija are a Telugu-speaking mercantile community primarily living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and in smaller numbers in Telangana and Kerala.[1] In Tamil Nadu, they are known as Kavarais.

Etymology

Variations of the name in use in the medieval era were Balanja, Bananja, Bananju, Banajiga and Banijiga, with probable cognates Balijiga, Valanjiyar, Balanji, Bananji and derivatives such as Baliga, all of which are said to be derived from the Sanskrit term Vanik or Vanij, for trader.[2] [3]

Another version for etymology states that Balija is derived from the Sanskrit word Bali, a sacrifice made during 'Yagna' ritual and Ja meaning born. Therefore, Balija means 'born from sacrifice'.[4]

Origins

Beginning in the 9th century, references are found in inscriptions throughout the Kannada and Tamil areas to a trading network, which is sometimes referred to as a guild, called the Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu that provided trade links between trading communities in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.[5] From the 13th century, inscriptions referring to "Vira Balanjyas" (warrior merchants) started appearing in the Andhra country.[6] The Vira Balanjyas, whose origins are often claimed to lie in the Ayyavolu, represented long-distance trading networks that employed fighters to protect their warehouses and goods in transit. The traders were identified as nanadesi (of 'many countries') and as swadesi ('own country').[7] The terms balanjya-setti and balija were also used for these traders, and in later times naidu and chetti.[8] These traders formed collectives called pekkandru and differentiated themselves from other collectives called nagaram, which probably represented Komati merchants. The pekkandru collectives also included members of other communities with status titles reddi, boya and nayaka.[9] They spread all over South India, Sri Lanka, and also some countries in the Southeast Asia.[10]

Medieval history

Kakatiya period

Balija as a community is seen for the first time in an inscription of the Kakatiya period.[11] According to Prataparudra charitra and Siddheswara charitra mentioned that the balijas lived at Orugallu, the capital of the Kakatiya kingdom.[12]

Post-Kakatiya period

In the caste-based hierarchy, Balijas hold a high position along with Kammas, Reddis and Velamas. they also served as military generals (Nayakas) and warriors under the Musunuri Nayakas and Kondavidu kingdom.[13]

Vijayanagara period

Balijas served as ministers, military generals, and provincial governors in the Vijayanagara Empire.[14] A number of the Nayaka dynasties of the Vijayanagara and post-Vijayanagara periods were of Balija origin, including the Nayaka rulers of Madurai, Thanjavur, Gingee, Belur, Channapatna, Rayadurgam and Kandy.[15]

Velcheru Narayana Rao et al. note that the Balijas were first mobilised politically by the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya.[16] Later, in the 15th and 16th centuries, they colonised the Tamil country and established Nayaka chieftaincies. At this time, Balijas were leaders of the left-hand section of castes. These Balija warriors were noted as fearless and some stories speak of them assassinating kings who interfered with their affairs. Cynthia Talbot believes that in Andhra the transformation of occupational descriptors into caste-based descriptors did not occur until at least the 17th century.[17]

British period

The classification of people as Balija was one of many challenges for the census enumerators of the British Raj era, whose desire was to reduce a complex social system to one of administrative simplicity using theories of evolutionary anthropology. Early Raj census attempts in Madras Presidency recorded a wide variety of people claiming to be members of Balija subcastes but who appeared to share little in common and thus defied the administrative desire for what it considered to be a rational and convenient taxonomy. Those who claimed to be Chetty had an obvious connection through their engagement in trade and those who called themselves Kavarai were simply using the Tamil word for Balija but, for example, the Linga Balija based their claim to Balija status on a sectarian identification, the Gazula were bangle-makers by occupation, the Telaga had Telugu origins and the Rajamahendram also appeared to be a geographic claim based on their origins in the town of Rajahmundry. Subsequent attempts to rationalise the enumeration merely created other anomalies and caused upset.[18]

Balija branches

Relation to Kapu

Kapus are closely related to Balijas and both are often enumerated together in government, sociological and psephological contexts.[29] Sri Andhra Vignanamu mentions four sections in Telaga community Telagas (or Naidus), Ontaris (or Doras), Balijas, and Kapus.[30] Anthropological Survey of India notes that Kapus of Coastal Andhra are ethnically similar to Balijas of Rayalaseema.

Various sources note the similarities between the communities of Kapu, Telaga, Balija, and Ontari. These terms are often used as synonyms and are mentioned as sections of each other.[31] Kapu, Telaga, and Balija are considered as variant names of the same community in different regions.[32] Andhra Pradesh government's Kapu Welfare and Development Corporation refers to Kapu, Telaga, Balija, and Ontari communities collectively as Kapu.[33]

Caste titles

Some Balijas use surnames such as Naidu or Nayudu, and Naicker, which share a common root. Nayaka as a term was first used during the Vishnukundina dynasty that ruled from the Krishna and Godavari deltas during the 3rd century AD. During the Kakatiya dynasty, the Nayaka title was bestowed to warriors who had received land and the title as a part of the Nayankarapuvaram system for services rendered to the court. The Nayaka was noted to be an officer in the Kakatiya court; there being a correlation between holding the Nayankara, the possession of the administrative title Angaraksha and the status title Nayaka.[34] [35]

A more widespread usage of the Nayaka title amongst the Balijas appears to have happened during the Vijayanagara empire where the Balija merchant-warriors rose to political and cultural power and claimed Nayaka positions.[36]

Dynasties

The Vijayanagara empire was based on an expanding, cash-oriented economy enhanced by Balija tax-farming.[37] Some Balija families were appointed to supervise provinces as Nayaks (governors, commanders) by the Vijayanagara kings,[38] some of which are:

Varna status

Velcheru Narayana Rao and Sanjay Subrahmanyam say that the emergence of left-hand caste Balijas as trader-warrior-kings in the Nayaka period is a consequence of conditions of new wealth produced by collapsing two varnas, Kshatriya and Vaishya, into one.[47] Based on the Brahmanical conceptualisation of caste during the British Raj period, Balijas were accorded the Sat Shudra position.[48] The fourfold Brahmanical varna concept has not been acceptable to non-Brahmin social groups and some of them challenged the authority of Brahmins who described them as Shudras.[49]

Notable people

Warriors

Zamindars

Social Activists

Further reading

Notes and References

    • Book: Jakka Parthasarathy . Rural Population in Indian Urban Setting. B.R. Publishing Corporation . 1984. 52. 9788170181392. Balija are the chief Telugu trading caste, scattered ! throughout Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
    • Book: Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya . Indian Puberty Rites. Munshiram Manoharlal . 1980. 23. 9780836407761. Balija, a class of Telugu merchants .
    • Book: Gilbert Slater . Economic studies-Some South Indian Villages. 1 . H. Milford, Oxford University Press . 1918. 246. Balijas, the chief Telugu trading caste, found all over Madras Presidency. Many are landowners and cultivators .
    • Book: K. S. Singh, B. G. Halbar . People of India:Karnataka, Part 1 . 26. Anthropological Survey of India . 2003. 287. 9788185938981. The Balija are a community of Telugu origin and are scattered all over Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
  2. Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar . Archaeological Survey of India . 1983 . Epigraphia Indica . Epigraphica . 18 . 335 . 0013-9572 . sa66006469 . As regards the derivation of this word, the late Mr Venkayya says:- In Kanarese banajiga is still used to denote a class of merchants. In Telugu the word balija or balijiga has the same meaning. It is therefore probable that the words valañjiyam, valanjiyar, balañji, banañji, banajiga and balija are cognate, and derived from the Sanskrit vanij.
  8. Book: Talbot, Cynthia . Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19803-123-9 . 2001 . 75.
  9. Book: Talbot, Cynthia . Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19803-123-9 . 2001 . 81.
  15. Book: . Kingship in Indian History. Manohar Publishers & Distributors . 1999. 192. 9788173043260. To understand the historical process of the reducing of the Nayakas as an open status group into a mere shell of what they had formerly been and the growth of respective caste identities, the Telugu Balija caste and its history may give an important clue. Many Nayakas, including the three major Nayakas in the Tamil area and the Nayakas of Cannapattana, Beluru, and Rayadurga in the Kannada area, are said to have been Telugu Balijas..
  16. Book: Rao . Velcheru Narayana . Symbols of substance: court and state in Nāyaka Period Tamilnadu . Shulman . David Dean . Subrahmanyam . Sanjay . . 1992 . 10, 74 . 978-0-19-563021-3 . Velcheru Narayana Rao . David Dean Shulman . Sanjay Subrahmanyam.
  17. Book: Cynthia Talbot . Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19803-123-9 . 2001 . 86.
  18. Book: Baker, Christopher John . South India . Christopher John . Baker . D. A. . Washbrook . Figures and Facts: Madras Government Statistics 1880-1940 . Springer . 1975 . 978-1-34902-746-0 . 222–223 . https://books.google.com/books?id=fHCwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA222.
  20. Book: Brimnes, Niels . Constructing the Colonial Encounter: Right and Left Hand Castes in Early Colonial South India . Routledge . 1999 . 9780700711062 . 20.
  22. David West Rudner. Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India. Journal of Asian Studies. 46 . 2. . 1987. 361–379. 10.2307/2056019. 2056019. Thus Balija Chettis, for example, are actually a caste that fissioned off from the Balija Nayak (‘warrior’) caste as recently as the nineteenth century. Accordingly, they have closer kinship ties to these Nayak “warriors” than to Chetti merchants. . Rudner. David West.
  24. Book: G. Karunanithi . Caste and Class in Industrial Organisation. Commonwealth Publishers. 9788171691425 . 1991. 45. A section of the Naidu migrants in Tamilnadu call themselves Kavarais. They are included in the list of backward classes. They have marital relationship with the Balijas..
  30. Book: Prasada Bhoopaludu . Andhra Vignanamu. 3 . The Razan Electric Press . 1939. 1381–1383.
    • Book: కావు మహా సభ . 16 April 1913 . . 44 . te.
    • Book: Janaki Ram . Cops and Criminas. laxmi publications . 2004. 155. 9781411622784 . Balija known as Kapu or Telaga in coastal Andhra area and Munnuru Kapu in Telangana region; a large single community, with various sub-castes and surnames. .
    • News: 2017-08-20 . Nandyal bypoll: In Caste Matrix, Muslims, Vysyas Hold The Key . 2023-05-26 . The Times of India . 0971-8257 . .... as there are good number of Balija voters in the constituency. The community is the equivalent of the Kapu community in the Rayalaseema region..
  34. Political intermediaries in Kakatiya Andhra, 1175-1325 . Cynthia . Talbot . September 1994 . The Indian Economic and Social History Review . 31 . 3 . 281 . 10.1177/001946469403100301 . 145225213 .
    • Book: Peter N. Stearns, William Leonard Langer . The Encyclopedia of World History Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged . Houghton Mifflin . 2001. 368. 9780395652374. The Vijayanagara Empire developed, in its second half, into what is known as the nayaka state-system, in which administrative and political relations differed significantly from what had gone before. While the Vijayanagara rulers continued to hold ultimate power over a broad belt of territory, they shared authority locally with a number of military chiefs, or nayakas. Originally part of the great Telugu migrations southward into the Tamil country in the 15th and 16th centuries, Balija merchant-warriors who claimed these nayaka positions rose to political and cultural power and supported an ethos that emphasized nonascriptive, heroic criteria in legitimizing political power..
    • Book: Daniel D'Attilio . The Last Vijayanagara Kings. University of Wisconsin--Madison . 1995. 81. ......many of the Telugu migrant groups who settled in Tamil Nadu from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries were led by Balija warriors . These Balijas and their descendants became local rulers under the auspices of Vijayanagara. .
    • Book: Christopher Chekuri . All in the Family: Nayaka Strategies in the Making of the Vijayanagara Empire, South India . University of Wisconsin--Madison . 1997. 29. Balija trading families in South India had significant influence in the outcome of seventeenth century Vijayanagara politics.
    • Book: . Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. . 2003. 413. 9780520228214. .... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur..
    • Book: . Classical Telugu Poetry. . 2020. 57. 9780520344525. ..... in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century. .
    • Book: . Politics and Social Conflict in South India. . 1969. 8. The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus.
    • Dr. B.Ramachndra Reddy R. Nata Rajan . Identity and Crisis of Telugu Migrants of Tamil Region . Itihas . 33 . Andhra Pradesh State Archives and Research Institute . 2007. 145 . ....It is told that the Nayak Kings of Madurai and Tanjore were Balijas, who had marital relations among themselves and with the Vijaya Nagara rulers, and so were appointed as the rulers of these regions..
    • Book: . Caste and Race in India. . 1969. 106. 9788171542055. The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were Balijas, traders by caste .
    • Book: A. Satyanarayana, Mukkamala Radhakrishna Sarma . Castes, Communities, and Culture in Andhra Desa, 17th & 18th Centuries, A.D. Osmania University . 1996. 145. After the fall of the dynasty several Balija Nayudu chieftains rose into prominence. Tanjore and Madura kingdoms were the most important of such new kingdoms .
    • Book: . Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order. . 1989. 30. 9780195620986. The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were balijas (traders).
    • Book: . The Mughal State, 1526-1750. Oxford University Press . 1998. 35. 978-0-19-563905-6. As an arrangement, the Golconda practice in the first half of the seventeenth century was quite similar in crucial respects to what obtained further south, in the territories of the Chandragiri ruler, and the Nayaks of Senji, Tanjavur and Madurai. Here too revenue-farming was common, and the ruling families were closely allied to an important semi-commercial, semi-warrior caste group, the Balija Naidus. .
    • Book: South Asia Politics. 5. Rashtriya Jagriti Sansthan . 2006. 14.
  41. Book: N. Venkataramanayya . Raghunatha Nayakabhyudayamu . T.M.S.S.M Library, Thanjavur . 1951. 21. The history of thé family, as described in the Raghunathabhyudayam and Raghunathanayakabhyudayam, begins practically with Pina-Chevva one of the four sons of Timma, who is otherwise unknown. It is sometimes said that the ancestors of Pina Chevva were related to the royal family of Vijayanagara and that they held high offices in the imperial army ; but this is mere speculation unsupported by evidence. Pina Chevva came of an obscure Balija family..
    • Book: . Kingship in Indian History. Manohar Publishers & Distributors . 1999. 192. 9788173043260. To understand the historical process of the reducing of the Nayakas as an open status group into a mere shell of what they had formerly been and the growth of respective caste identities, the Telugu Balija caste and its history may give an important clue. Many Nayakas, including the three major Nayakas in the Tamil area and the Nayakas of Cannapattana, Beluru, and Rayadurga in the Kannada area, are said to have been Telugu Balijas..
    • Book: M.M.Kalburgi. Karnatakada Kaifiyattugalu. Kannada University, Hampi . 1994. 118. Kn.
    • Book: B. Lewis Rice. Epigraphia Carnatica. 11 . Mysore: Kannada Adhyayana Samsthe, Mysore University . 1998. XVI. Belur chiefs who are sometimes called Balam chiefs.
    • Book: V.R. Acarya . Sri Prasanna Venkatesvara Vilasamu . Bulletin of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras . 1954. 49. The above said Peda Kōnēti Nṛpati (Nayak) First, king of Penukonda . (1635 A.D.) then of Kundurti (1652 A.D.) and of Rayadurga (1661 A.D.) was a Balija by caste, having the surname Vānarāsi . His father Kastūri Nāyak and grand father bencama Nayak had enjoyed high favour with the fallen kings of Vijayanagar who were ruling at Chandragiri. Kōnēti Nayak himself had married the daughter of (apparently the fruit of left handed marriage) Āraviti Vīra Venkatapati Rāyalu of Vijayanagar family. .
    • Book: K. A. Nilakanta Sastri . Further Sources of Vijayanagara History. University of Madras . 1946. 302. A description of the way in which Venkatapatiraya of Raya-Veluru granted the government of Penugonda to the Raya-dalavayi Pedakoneti Nayadu. On Sravana ba. 10 of Yuva of 146 years ago corresponding to S. S. 1558, (the Raya) granted the government of Penugonda to Koneti Nayadu, the son. of Kastuiri Nayadu, the son of Akkapa Nayadu, who was the son of Canca(ma) Nayadu of Candragiri, a member of the Vasarasi family of the Balija caste. The ayakat of the territories of Rajaraja Sri Raya-dalavayi who ruled the forts of Penugonda, Kundurpi, Rayadurgam..... great prosperity. .
    • Book: Peram Sivaiah . Vijayanagara Forts in Rayalaseema: A Study. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing . 2021. 254. 9786203410815 .
    • Book: Benjamin Lewis Rice . Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions. A. Constable & Company, Limited . 1909. 164. 978-0-598-51081-5. The Channapatna chiefs generally bore the name Rana . Jagadēva - Rāya, after the founder of the family in Mysore. He was of the Telugu Banajiga caste and had possessions in Bāramahāl . His daughter was married to the Vijayanagar king.
    • Book: Noboru Karashima . Kingship in Indian History. Manohar Publishers & Distributors . 1999. 192. 9788173043260. To understand the historical process of the reducing of the Nayakas as an open status group into a mere shell of what they had formerly been and the growth of respective caste identities, the Telugu Balija caste and its history may give an important clue. Many Nayakas, including the three major Nayakas in the Tamil area and the Nayakas of Cannapattana, Beluru, and Rayadurga in the Kannada area, are said to have been Telugu Balijas..
    • Book: Jan Brouwer . The Makers of the World: Caste, Craft, and Mind of South Indian Artisans. . 1995. 293. 9780195630916.
    • Book: Ranjit Kumar Bhattacharya, S. B. Chakrabarti . Indian Artisans: Social Institutions and Cultural Values. Ministry of Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports, Department of Culture, Government of India . 2002. 36. 978-81-85579-56-6.
  47. Rao . Velchuru Narayana . Velcheru Narayana Rao . Subrahmanyam . Sanjay . Sanjay Subrahmanyam . January 2009 . Notes on Political Thought in Medieval and Early Modern South India . Modern Asian Studies . 43 . 1 . 204 . 10.1017/s0026749x07003368 . 20488076 . 145396092.
    • Book: T. Chandrasekharan . A Descriptive Catalogue of the Telugu Manuscripts . 13. The Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras . 1951. 2863. No.2607 KOTIKAMVARI KAIFIYATU - A Kaifiyat relating to Garikipati Viswanathanayaka of Balijakula who was given Pandya kingdom by Atchutadevaraya..
    • Book: K. A. Nilakanta Sastri . Further Sources of Vijayanagara History. University of Madras . 1946. 176. Moreover, Acyutadeva Maharaya formally crowned Viswanatha Nayadu of the Garikepati family of the Balija caste as the king of Pandya country yielding a revenue of 2 and 1/2 crores of varahas; and he presented him the golden idols of Durga, Laksmi and Lakshmi-Narayana and sent him with ministers, councillors and troops to the south. Visvanatha Nayudu reached the city of Madhura, from which he began to govern the country entrusted to his care. - taken from the Kaifiyat of Karnata-Kotikam Kings, LR8, pp.319-22.
    • Book: The Heirs of Vijayanagara: Court Politics in Early Modern South India . Leiden University Press. 79. 2022. Lennart Bes. 9789087283711 . The dynasty’s first ruler was Vishvanatha Nayaka, son of the imperial courtier and military officer Nagama Nayaka. He belonged to one of the Balija castes, which originated in the Telugu region and whose members undertook both military and mercantile activities. Vishvanatha was possibly installed at Madurai around 1530 and reigned until c. 1563 .
    • Book: Konduri Sarojini Devi . Religion in Vijayanagara Empire. Sterling Publishers . 1990. 100. 978-81-207-1167-9. According to the Kaifiyat of the Karnata Kotikam Kings, "Acyutadeva Maharaya formally crowned Visvanatha Nayadu of the Garikepati family of the Balija caste as the King of Pandya country yielding a revenue of 2 and 1/2 crores of varahas; and he presented him with golden idols of Durga, Lakshmi and Lakshminarayana and sent him with ministers, councillors and troops to the South.".
  52. Book: Richman, Paula . Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition . 2001 . . 978-0-520-22074-4 . 166 . en . Raghunathanayaka, a Balija who ruled Tanjavur during the early seventeenth century, also wrote a Ramayana. . Paula Richman.
  54. Book: Vuppuluri Lakshminarayana Sastri . Encyclopaedia of the Madras Presidency and the Adjacent States. University of Minnesota . 1920. 453. The illustrious House of the great Komarappa Naidu of the South Arcot District traces its ancestry to Tupakula Krishnappa Naidu, the ruler of the Ginji Fort under the aegis of the now Forgotten Empire of Vijayanagar. This ruler of Ginji constructed many new temples and renovated the old and time-honoured temple of Tirukoilur. We find inscriptions bearing the name of Tupakula Krishnappa in several temples of the South Arcot District. Komarappa Naidu belonged to the Kshatriya Balija caste; and his caste- men, who had been warriors till the advent of the Muhammadans, took up trade as their profession thereafter. It can be seen from the existing records that as early as 1752 Komarappa Naidu was carrying on his trade, which mainly consisted in the export of Indian goods to foreign countries in his ships and the import of precious stones, horses, elephants and the products of other countries. He owned sixteen ships and in a few years he made enormous profits. He constructed the Komarappa Naickenpettai, a suburb of Tiruvendipuram in 1780 to attract weavers from other parts of the country. He rendered substantial pecuniary help to the weavers and thus enabled them to purchase the looms and other necessary appliances. The East India Company, which had just settled in India for carrying on trade between India and England, sought the help of the famous overseas merchant, Komarappa Naidu and established commercial relations with him which remained cordial throughout. Komarappa Naidu, who had been religiously disposed from his boyhood, left his entire business in the hands of his son Sankariah Naidu, shortly after the latter came of age and spent the remaining years of his life in religious study. It was during this, his age of retirement, that he built many new temples and gave a fresh lease of life to the old ones in the district. The pious Komarappa used to feed large numbers of Brahmins and pandits daily and more so on festive occasions. He breathed his last in peace in 1819 at the age of eighty-five. We find the image of Komarappa carved on the stone pillars in the Mantapams of the Tiruvendipuram and Tirupapuliyur temples. A monumental Shaivite temple has been erected over his remains in one of his gardens on the bank of the Gadilam river, in which Archana is daily performed. His wife, Mangammal, has renovated the shrine of Sri Dagaleswar Perumal at Tirukoilur, in a prominent part of which we find an inscription bearing her name. Sankariah Naidu, who was sixty-five years of age at the time of his father's demise, had already risen to prominence. He considerably improved the trade of the family, particularly that with the East India Company and constructed more ships. He acquired considerable landed property in the South Arcot, Chinglepet and Tanjore districts. In 1809 he purchased the small Zamindari of Chennappa Naiken Poliem, a few miles to the west of Cuddalore, which also includes the village of Naduvirapattu. To facilitate his export and import trade, he established ports at Cuddalore, Pondicherry, Porto-Novo and Karaikal. He had a big firm at Madras, on the grounds of which now stand the Madras Christian College, the Anderson Hall and the buildings of Messrs. Parry and Company. He constructed a number of choultries among which those at Chidambaram and Tirupapuliyur deserve special mention. Sankariah Naidu married two wives. He had one son, Devanayagam Naidu by his first wife and four sons by his second wife, Ramaswami, Chandrasekhara, Balakrishna and Chinna Devanayagam. Sankariah Naidu died in 1826..
    • Book: E. Sa. Viswanathan . The political career of E.V. Ramasami Naicker: a study in the politics of Tamil Nadu, 1920-1949 . Ravi & Vasanth Publishers . 1983. 18. Ramasami Naicker was born to non - Brahman parents of Balija Naidu community on 28th September 1879 at Erode in Coimbatore district. en.
    • Book: David Shulman . Tamil: A Biography. Harvard University Press . 2016. 310. 9780674059924. This was the Self Respect Movement, cuyamariyatai iyakkam, of a maverick genius, E. V. Ramasami Naicker, popularly known as the Great One, Periyar. It is of some significance that this fearless iconoclast came from Erode, in the west of the Tamil country or, better, in the southern reaches of the early modern Deccani culture, and from a Kannada Balija Naidu community..
    • Book: Gurucharan Gollerkeri, Renuka Raja Rao . The Making of India, 1947-2022: Pivotal People, Events, and Institutions. Cambridge Scholars Publishing . 2024. 105. EVR was born on September 17, 1879, in Erode, Madras Presidency, into a Kannada Balija Naidu family. . 9781527561410.
    • Book: John J. Paul, Keith Yandell . Religion and Public Culture: Encounters and Identities in Modern South India. Routledge . 2013. 180. 9781136818080. E.V. Ramaswami Naicker, a non-Brahman, a Kannada Balija Naidu from Erode, had been one of the first members in 1917 of the Madras Presidency Congress Committee which was against British rule and in support of the policies of the national Congress Party .
    • Book: Ajantha Subramanian . The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India. Harvard University Press . 2019. 100. en. 9780674987883.
  58. Book: Arvind P. Jamkhedkar . Dictionary of Martyrs: India's Freedom Struggle (1857-1947) . 5 . . 2018. 90. Kanneganti Hanumayya: Popularly known as Kanneganti Hanumanthu, he was a resident of v. Minchalapadu, t. Palnad, distt. Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. An agriculturist belonging to Balija community, he became the leader of his village and took part in the Non Cooperation movement (1921-22) and the Forest Satyagraha in 1922. Over sending cattle into the forest without paying the grazing fees, in response to the No Tax campaign, he was shot dead by a police Sub Inspector on 26 February 1922. .

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