Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Sēdan
Sēdan. — A synonym of Dēvānga. At times of census, Sēda Dāsi has been returned by Dēvānga dancing-girls in the Madura district. The following legend of Savadamma, the goddess of the weaver caste in Coimbatore, is narrated by Bishop Whitehead.* [1]"Once upon a time, when there was fierce conflict between the men and the rākshasas, the men, who were getting defeated, applied for help to the god Siva, who sent his wife Parvati as an avatar or incarnation into the world to help them. The avatar enabled them to defeat the rākshasas, and, as the weaver caste were in the forefront of the battle, she became the goddess of the weavers, and was known in consequence as Savadamman, a corruption of Sēdar Amman, Sēdan being a title of the weavers. It is said that her original home was in the north of India, near the Himalayas."
- ↑ * Madras Museum Bulletin, V, 3, 1907.