1. Pathinettu Gramaththu (eighteen villages). 2. Udayalur. 3. Nannilam. 4. Rathamangalam. According to some, this is not a separate section, but comes under the eighteen village section.
(e) Ashtasahasram (eight thousand).--This class is considered to be inferior to the Brahacharnams and Vadamas. The members thereof are, like the Brahacharnams, more Saivite than the Vadamas. The females are said to wear their cloth very elegantly, and with the lower border reaching so low as to cover the ankles. The sub-divisions of the Ashtasahasrams are:--
1. Aththiyur. 2. Arivarpade. 3. Nandivadi. 4. Shatkulam (six families).
As their numbers are few, though the sub-divisions are endogamous, intermarriage is not entirely prohibited.
(f) Dikshitar.--Another name for this section is Thillai Muvayiravar, i.e., the three thousand of Thillai (now Chidambaram). There is a tradition that three thousand people started from Benares, and, when they reached Chidambaram, they were one short. This confused them, but they were pacified when Siva explained that he was the missing individual. The Dikshitars form a limited community of only several hundred families. The men, like Nayars and Nambutiri Brahmans of the west coast, wear the hair tuft on the front of the head. They do not give their girls in marriage to other sections of Brahmans, and they do not allow their women to leave Chidambaram. Hence arises the proverb "A Thillai girl never crosses the boundary line." The Dikshitars are priests of the temple of Nataraja at Chidambaram, whereat they serve by turns. Males marry very early in life, and it is very difficult to secure a girl for marriage above the age of five. The tendency to marry when very young is due to the fact that only married persons have a voice in the management of the affairs of the temple, and an individual must be married before he can get a share of the temple income. The chief sources of income are the pavadam and kattalai (heaps of cooked rice piled up or spread on a board), which are offered to the god. Every Dikshitar will do his best to secure clients, of whom the best are Nattukottai Chettis. The clients are housed and looked after by the Dikshitars. Concerning the Dikshitars, Mr. W. Francis writes as follows [170]:--"An interesting feature about the Chidambaram temple is its system of management. It has no landed or other endowments, nor any tasdik allowance, and is the property of a class of Brahmans peculiar to the town, who are held in far more respect than the generality of the temple-priest Brahmans, are called Dikshitars (those who make oblations), marry only among themselves, and in appearance somewhat resemble the Nayars or Tiyans of Malabar, bringing their topknot round to the front of their foreheads. Their ritual in the temple more resembles that of a domestic worship than the forms commonly followed in other large shrines. Theoretically, all the married males of the Dikshitars have a voice in the management of the temple, and a share in its perquisites; and at present there are some 250 of such shares. They go round the southern districts soliciting alms and offerings for themselves. Each one has his own particular clientèle, and, in return for the alms received, he makes, on his return, offerings at the shrine in the name of his benefactors, and sends them now and again some holy ashes, or an invitation to a festival. Twenty of the Dikshitars are always on duty in the temple, all the males of the community (except boys and widowers) doing the work by turns lasting twenty days each, until each one has been the round of all the different shrines. The twenty divide themselves into five parties of four each, each of which is on duty for four days at one of the five shrines at which daily puja is made, sleeps there at night, and becomes the owner of the routine offerings of food made at it. Large presents of food made to the temple as a whole are divided among all the Dikshitars. The right to the other oblations is sold by auction every twenty days to one of the Dikshitars at a meeting of the community. These periodical meetings take place in the Deva Sabha. A lamp from Nataraja's shrine is brought, and placed there by a Pandaram, and (to avoid even the appearance of any deviation from the principle of the absolute equality of all Dikshitars in the management of the temple) this man acts as president of the meeting, and proposals are made impersonally through him." As a class the Dikshitars are haughty, and refuse to acknowledge any of the Sankarachariars as their priests, because they are almost equal to the god Siva, who is one of them.