Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Rāvāri

by Edgar Thurston

Rāvāri.— Recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a trading section of the Nāyars. The word is said to be a corruption of Vyāpāri, meaning trader. The equivalent Rāvēri occurs as a class inhabiting the Laccadive islands.