WRONG DERIVATION OF THE TERM HOLEYA AND PULYA. The Telugu Pariahs are called Malavandlu, its corresponding term in Tamil Malar is often used in the sense of Pulaiyar and equivalent to Paraiyar. The word Mala, in the sense of mountaineer or barbarian, occurs in Sanskrit. As the word holeya is derived from hole, ºÉƯÉ, Pollution, and the South-Indian Pulayan from pula, pollution, so also is Malaya occasionally derived from the Sanskrit mala, taint. All these derivations rest on no substantial philological grounds. They have been suggested by the accidental resemblance existing between the Sanskrit words mala, taint, and pala, flesh, and the Dravidian pula (hole), pollution, and their derivatives on the one side and the names of the Mallas or Pullas on the other side, and are used to revile and as an excuse for despising the low defenseless and ill-treated population.*
This tendency to revile strangers, enemies or slaves is, however, not confined to any particulars county. The Tatars, when they first invaded Europe, were called Tartars, because they were supposed to have come from Tartarus or hell.
I further believe that all such Sanskrit words as malla, Mala, Malaya, palli, &c., which are connected with the name of the Mallas and Pallas, to have been introduced into that language from Dravidian.
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*Mr.Lewis Rice in his Mysore and Coorg, Vol. I, p. 312, ventures another derivation: “the Holayar, whose name may be derived from hola, a field.”
