Ayar caste
Ayar was an clan of Ahir/Yadavas of India and were related to the historic Yadavas mentioned in the Puranas. The Ayars of Tamil are the Abhiras of Sanskrit and the Ahirs of Prakrit. Their name Ayar is derived from the Dravidian word Â meaning a cow. They were known as the Abhiras in Pur-anic history. In northern India they are still called Ahirs. Tradition says that the Ahirs in the Pandya country came to Tamilakam along with the ancestors of the Pandya. Potiya mountain region and its capital was known as Ay-kudi. Nacchinarkiniyar, in his commentary on the prefatory sutra to the Tolkappiyam, describes a tradition relating to the migration of the Yadava race with a sage Agastya, who repaired to Dwaraka and took with him the 18 kings of the line of Krsna and moved to the South. There, he had the forests cleared and built up kingdoms settling therein all the people he had brought with him.