Pillai (Kerala title)

Pillai is a title among the Nair community. Pillai was one of the most common titles of dignity held by the Hindu caste of the Nairs of Travancore. The title of Pillai was bestowed through a formal ceremony known as Thirumukom Pidikkuka i.e. holding the face of the King and included the payment of a fee known as Adiyara to the King. A person thus bestowed with this title now secured the honorific title of Pillai suffixed and the distinctive title of Kanakku (meaning accountant in malayalam) prefixed to his name. However Kanakku and Pillai were never used together. E.g.: either a person, Krishnan, would be referred to as Krishnan Pillai or Kanakku, followed by his maternal uncle's name, and Krishnan. The latter style was used in royal writs and communications. So important were the privileges granted by this title that as late as in 1814 a Brahmin, Sanku Annavi, sometime Dewan of Travancore obtained the same from the Maharajah. Prominent among the Pillais of medieval Kerala were the Ettuveetil Pillamar of Travancore.

Ritual Status

As one noted expert claimed in an interview "there were Pillais and Pillais"Medieval ruling chiefs who did not raise themselves to the position of Rajas with Brahmanical customs associated with it were also known as Pillais. They held their titles in perpetuity along with their family names. The most well known were the Pillais of the Eight Noble Houses, the Ettuveettil Pillamar of Travancore. According to a noted expert, the title came to be granted more commonly to decorate soldiers upon payment of the "Adiyara" from the time of Maharaja Anizham Tirunal Marthanda Varma who had previously subdued the power of the Pillais of the Eight Houses Ettuveettil Pillamar and annexed their territories. This has resulted in the title being rather common among the higher echelons of Nair society in modern Kerala. The title of Pillai were granted to a individuals for life upon payment of a fee known as "Adiyara" whose successors including women would be by courtesy titled Pillais. To subdue the influence of these nobles, Marthanda Varma was to invent more new titles.

Chempakaraman Pillai

A title superior to the ordinary Pillai was that of Kanakku Chempakaraman , an innovation of Maharajah Marthanda Varma of Travancore. The individual whom it was the king's pleasure to honour was first taken in a procession by the nobles and ministers of the state, atop an elephant, around the main four streets of the city of Trivandrum and then received in the palace by the Prime Minister and seated next to him. The ceremony concluded by treating him to Paan Supari. A person thus honoured prefixed Kanakku, followed by Chempakaraman instead of the name of his maternal uncle, followed by his own name, e.g. Kanakku Chempakaraman Krishnan.