mudaliyar

English

Alternative forms

• mudaliar, mudliyar

Etymology

From Tamil [Term?] (“mutaliyār”) (plural of mutali (“chief”)), in early forms probably via Portuguese modeliar.

Noun

mudaliyar (plural mudaliyars)

1. (now historical) A chief or headman in Sri Lanka. [from 17th c.]
   • 1969, Leonard Woolf, Journey Not Arrival Matters:

     He had been a Mudaliyar or Headman of East Giruwa Pattu […] when I was Assistant Government Agent there fifty years ago.

   • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 228:

     Other Mudliyars said they couldn't join in the first instance but would send on ‘Thieves and rogues (black guard fellows who certainly do abound).’

2. (chiefly in form mudaliar) A high-status Tamil caste in India. [from 19th c.]