The Kaikkoolars are a large, widely dispersed caste in Tamilnadu State, south India. They are weavers by occupation and warriors by ancient heritage. They are proud of this heritage and relate with relish tales of fierce caste heroes; annually, they celebrate their mythical defeat of the evil giant Suurabatman. Their most important caste hero, OTTakkuutar, a famous medieval Tamil poet, typifies this warlike and sometimes cruel character of the caste. Kaikkoolar tradition says that he once demanded that 1,008 sons of the caste be sacrificed as a condition for writing a set of poems laudatory to the Kaikkoolars. He is often depicted as writing his poems while sitting on a throne made from the heads of the sacrificed.

OTTakkuutar is a literary figure, one of Tamil's greatest poets, but he exhibits none of the attributes of Brahmans, the caste traditionally associated with letters and learning. He is a bard. Nor is OTTakkuutar's caste Brahmanical. The power of the Kaikkoolars' bellicose past permeates the caste's self-image, but their tradition is not that of kings or chiefs, the category traditionally associated with war. Their tradition depicts the loyal army men who fought in the armies of kingly gods and in those of the ancient Chola Kingdom. In later times it stresses their fierce independence. The Kaikkoolars do not command other castes to serve them, as kings and local chiefs once did and as dominant landowning castes may still try to do, nor are they commanded.