Janappan

This is another caste found in Tamil Nadu. The Janappan were originally a branch of the Balijas. The word Janappan comes from Janapa, meaning jute fiber (the plant from which gunny bags are made). Their occupation was weaving gunny bags and sacks from jute. They speak Tamil and Telugu. The Perki caste shares many similarities with them, as both Janappan and Perki are branches of the Balijas.The belief is that the same ancestral forefathers gave these seeds (origins) to both groups.The linguistic similarities further prove that, as mentioned earlier, Perki and Janappan were once the same community.