Who is Gounders known as, known as Kongu Vellalars.

Gounders also known as Kongu
Vaellalars are Kshatriyas originally
of Chola country who migrated in
ancient times and formedKongu
Nadu. The Gounders are noble,
feudal and land owning caste of
Tamilnadu right from the Sangam
age.
Gounder was a hereditary title of
the Village Headman in the system of
decentralised panchayat
administration in the South India. The
Gounder title is not a caste title but
only a feudal title. The root word is
Kavunda which becameKavundan .
This system gained greater
prominence and wider political
ascendancy during the King Durvinita
of the Ganga dynasty. The posts of
the Village Headmen is hereditary
and were usually accorded on the
Kshatriya warrior clans of the Kongu
Nadu and hence accustomed to the
rulingGangakulam (ref: Kongudesa
Rajakkal).
The name Gounder is not a caste
name but an honorary title derived
from the Sangam Tamil word
Kamindan (root word being
"Kavunda") which means "noble
protector of his people" in Sangam
Tamil and was originally accorded to
the "Feudal Chieftains" of the Kongu
Nadu who have distinguished
themselves bravely and fiercely in
protecting the honour of the Kongu
and its people
The ancient recorded history of
Kongu Nadu and Tamilakam tell us
that the great Chola warriors
expanded into then heavily forested
Kongu territory and took up
agriculture and made the lands
cultivable. They are traditionally
considered to be Tamil speakers of
the Kongu Nadu, an ancient division
of Tamilakam that includes parts of
northwest Tamil Nadu, portions of
neighbouring Kerala and the
southern Mysore region of
Karnataka. They are one of the
Prominent castes of Tamil
Community who have their roots to
the Sangam Tamil Culture and their
elaborate marriage festivities are
mentioned about in beautiful chaste
Tamil byKavirayar Kambar in his
famous Kongu Mangala Vazhthu
songs. The famous epic of Ponnar
Shankar which was also written by
Kalaignar Karunanidhi illustrates
them very clearly.
One can even now see the sanctity
attached to cattle breeding by the
Kongu Vellalar even to-day when
they call their chief festival Pongal as
Patti Nombi. The Vokkaliga Gowdas
of Karnataka and the Kongu
Vaellala of Tamil Nadu are one of
the most well organised social group
in the Southern India but with Kongu
Vellalars showing even more
intricately arranged socio-cultural
hierarchy than their long separated
ethnic cousins Vokkaliga Gowdas
owing to their long recorded history
of martial Kshatriya status before
turning Vellalars.