Excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol. 5: M to PMai-an or Méréyan. - The Maiayans are summed up, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as being temple servants and drummers in Malabar. Like many of the Malabar castes, they must have come from the east coast, as their name frequently occurs in the Tanjore inscriptions of 1013 a.d. They followed then the same occupation as that by which they live to-day, and appear to have held a tolerably high social position. In parts of North Malabar they are called Oc'chan.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.