Villavar was a tribe of hunters lived in
Tamilakam, the southern part of ancient India. The word villavar derives from the
Tamil word for
bow (vil). The villavars lived in hill tracts and forests.[1] Chera kings used the title villavan[2][3]
Kulasekhara Alwar the founder of the later Chera dynasty called himself "Villavar Kon", king of Villavars, in a Tamil work written by him known as Perumal Thirumozhi.[4]
Modern Villavar Descendant Clan
Ezhavas - A community population with origins in the region of western coast and western ghats of old
Chera dynasty.The earliest use of the word Ezham was found in a
Tamil-Brahmi inscription as well as in the
Sangam literature.The term Chera " derived from Dravidian words Cerantivu", is a Classical Tamil name of
Sri Lanka that takes root from the term "Chera" or (island of the Cera kings[5]
Billava- A community population with origin from Aboriginals/ Natives of the Western Ghats and the Western Coast of Karnataka.They may migrated to Coast of Karnataka after the Chola conquered the pallava and Chera lands.The word Pallava means a creeper or branch in Sanskrit.[6][7][8] Pallava also means arrow or spruce in Tamil.[9][10][11]
Nadar (caste) - A community population with origins in the region of Tamil Nadu and Southern Kerala of old
Pandya dynasty.They may be the descendants of those who ruled the Pandyan kingdom .The traditions followed by the
Nelamaikkarars and the existence of the ruins beneath the Teri palmrya forests of Tiruchendur and the Pandyan capital city of Korkai, where the Nadar population is predominant, suggest they could very well be the heirs of the Early Pandyas.
^kolli kAvalan villavar kOn *
sEran kulasEkaran mudi vEndhar sigAmaNiyE பெருமாள் திருமொழி
^Ramachandran 1991, p. 34: "Sri Lanka was known as "Cerantivu" (island of the Cera kings) in those days. The seal has two lines. The line above contains three signs in Indus script and the line below contains three alphabets in the ancient Tamil script known as Tamil" sfn error: no target: CITEREFRamachandran1991 (
help)
^South Indian History Congress. (17 February 1980),
Proceedings of the First Annual Conference, vol. 1, The Congress and The Madurai Kamaraj University Co-op Printing Press
^N. Ramesan, Copper Plate Inscriptions of the State Museum, Volume 3, Issues 28-29 of Arch. series, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1960, p. 55
^Gautam Sengupta, Suchira Roychoudhury, Sujit Som, Past and present: ethnoarchaeology in India, Pragati Publications in collaboration with Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India, 2006, p. 133{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)