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Kiryathil Nair

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Kiryathil Nair
Regions with significant populations
Mostly in Malabar and Cochin, also in Travancore.
Languages
Malayalam
Related ethnic groups
Nairs

Kiryathil Nair or Kiriyathil Nair (Malayalam: കിരിയത്തിൽ നായർ, Hindi: किरियत्तिल नायर) is a subcaste of the Nair community, who have traditionally lived in the regions of Malabar and Cochin in present-day Kerala, India. Historians, and foreign travellers referred to the Nairs as dignified martial nobility. The earliest reference to Nairs comes from the Greek ambassador Megasthenes. In his accounts of ancient India, he refers to the "Nairs of Malabar" and the "Kingdom of Chera."[1] In ancient times, the country of Malabar began about 50 leagues to the south of Goa and extended to the Cape of Comorin (Kanyakumari).[2] The Sanskrit Keralamahathmyam, an Upapurana of Bhoogola Purana, calls Nairs the progeny of Nambudiri men with Deva, Rakshasa and Gandharva women. As per Chattampi Swamikal, who interpreted old Tamil texts, the Nairs were Naka (Naga or snake) Lords who governed as feudal lords in Chera Empire.[3]

In the Sanskrit work called Kerala Kshiti Ratna Mala (A garland of gems of the land of Kerala) the author says:- "Some of them (the Nairs) are superior warriors. All the Gods take to them (verse 115). They should be honoured even by the Brahmins. Even the mightiest Lord should get up by seeing them, i. e., should not sit in their presence out of respect for them. The life of those who rule over land rests on the weapons (of warriors), and those who posses such weapons are the preceptors (verse 117)." In Prachina Malayalam or Ancient Malabar, a native scholar of great learning and ability strongly combats the view that the Nairs are Shudras. He is of opinion that they are descendants of original Nagas and are really Kshatriyas.[4]

Social status

The Kiryathil Nairs are one of the highest classes of Nairs. In the caste hierarchy, they were considered superior to Illathu Nairs, but inferior to Samanthan Nairs. The caste boundary between Kiryathil Nair and Samanthan Nair is very vague and therefore some families among the Kiryathils in the course of time may be recognised as Samanthan and vice versa.[5]

Kiryathil Nairs were feudal lords, known as Naduvazhi,and controlled a limited number of militiamen known as Charnavars under their command. These soldiers usually belonged to the Purattu Charna Nair subcaste.[6]

In Suma oriental of Tome Pires it is given that, "There must be hunndred and fifthy thousand Nairs in Malabar(Kerala). They are fighters with sword and buckler, and archers. They are men who adore their king, and if by chance the king dies in battle, they are obliged to die, and if they do not go against the custom of their country and they are made a reproach for ever. The Nairs are loyal and are not traitors. Before a king of Malabar fights with another, he has first to let him know, so that to prepare himself. That is their custom. No Nair, when he is fit to take up his arms, can go outside his house unarmed even if he be hundred years old, and when he is dying he always has his sword and buckler with him, so close that if necessary he can take hold of them. They always make deep reverence to the masters who teach them. If a Nair meets another older than himself on the road, he does him reverence and gives place to him." [7] The Physiognomy of Nairs bears a strong resemblance to that of Rajput caste of other kingdoms.[8] Duarte Barbosa in his book 'Description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar' has written about each community separately. In the section about Nairs he has written about Nair men as follows, "In these kingdoms of Malabar there is another sect of people called Nairs, who are the gentry, and have no other duty than to carry on war, and they continually carry their arms with them, which are swords, bows, arrows, bucklers, and lances. They all live with the kings, and some of them with other lords, relations of the king, and lords of the country, and with the salaried governors; and with one another. And no one can be a Nair if he is not of good lineage. They are very smart men, and much taken up with their nobility."[9] They were tall, light and vigorous men.[10] In complexion they were tawny, in height slim and tall; the best soldiers in the world; hardy and courageous, exceedingly adroit in the use of arms, with such dexterous suppleness of limb that they can bend in all possible postures, and can parry and avoid with subtlety all blows aimed at them, and at the same time make lunges at their antagonists. Yet they never go to sea, and are of competency only on land. The greatest Lords amongst them, and the most honoured, are those who keep schools for teaching the use of arms. These masters were called Panikkar.[11] Nair women had no role in the collection of fuel. They had to fetch water for their family. They were solely responsible for the entire domestic chores, including cooking and serving food, rearing children etc.[12]

Polyandry never existed in Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair castes. Many women of these two castes were married to the Kings and Princes of Royal families. In the book 'Ancient Society; Or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, Through Barbarism to Civilization', which was written in the year 1877 by Lewis Henry Morgan, It is given that, "There is no evidence of the general prevalence of the Nair and Tibetan polyandry."[13] In Castes and Tribes of Southern India one of the authors have written, "I have not known an admitted instance of polyandry amongst the Nairs of Malabar at the present day, but there is no doubt that, if it does not exists now (and I think it does here and there), it certainly did not long ago." [14] In the Polyandry section of Malabar Marriage Commission Report, it is written that the languages of Nairs merely discloses a close affinity to Tamil, and raises the presumption that Nairs entered Malabar through Palakkad gap.[15] Those Nairs are actually Tamil Padam Nair. Padamangalam and Tamil Padam were not originally Nairs, but immigrants from the Tamil country.[16] A Nair woman will never have two husbands at a same time. The wife can't terminate the union except with her Karanavan's and kinsmen's consent. The union of a man and a woman, as a rule, lasts for life.[17] For a woman to have more than one husband at a time seems to have been against moral ideas of the community even two hundred years ago. Nair ballads and poetry of that age contain many passages where polyandry is spoken as a barbarous and unknown customs. The complicated custom of association of Nambudiri Brahmins with Nair women led the foreign travellers to mistake it as a non-fraternal type of polyandry.[18]

The word Kiriyam is the corruption of the Sanskrit word Griham which means a house and the word Illam means lineage.[19] These two words are more related to Malayalam language than castes. In Kerala, these words are used by other castes too, like Illam is used by Brahmins and some Ambalavasis and Thiyyas also use the words Kiriyam and Illam. But though they use common words, they are not related to each other, they have separate ancestries. The title Kartha was given to some influential Nair families of Kiriyam sub-division by Rajas of Malabar.[20] The Kiryathil Nair Karthas are not related to Vellalar Karthas. Like Francois Pyrard, Duarte Barbosa has also written in his book A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century about Panikkars in the section about Nairs as follows, "In this fencing there is much agility and science. And they are very skillful men who teach this art, and they are called Panicars; these are captains in war. These Nairs when they enlist to live with the king, bind themselves and promise to die for him."[21] Today the surname Panikkar or Panicker is used by other castes too but they are not related to Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs.

Tālikettu and Sambandham

In early youth, the girl had to through the ceremony of marriage by having the Tāli (Mangalsutra of Kerala) or marriage cord, tied round her neck, but this was not followed by co-habitation.” Again “There was indeed a ceremony called ‘marriage,’ which was performed in the infancy or childhood of every (Nair) girl; but it was the merest pretence, never consummated as a marriage, and conferring no connubial claims or obligations on the nominal bridegroom, who had thenceforth no further connection.” Again, “But the mere ceremony of marriage didn't make her a wife unless the same man should also ‘gave cloth’ and cohabited with her. The trifling ceremony of “giving cloth’’ was rarely omitted in any case of co-habitation.” “Every Nair girl” says Mr. Logan “is married in one sense at a very early age”.... . “the strange thing about it all is that the girl was not really married to the man who performs the "Tāli tying ceremony.” Herr Starke speaks of it as “a wedding ceremony which has been degraded into a mere formality. Nagam Aiya refers to Kettu Kallyanam as the “formal ceremony of tying a Tāli round the neck of a girl, ” while he mentions “ Sambandham or Pudavakoda (literally ‘cloth giving’) as the ceremony of actual alliance as husband and wife.”

Sambandham or, to give its full form Gunadosha Sambandham, was the institution that denotes real marriage. It means the contracting of relationship for participating in good and evil. Throughout Malabar, including Cochin and Travancore, the word is fully understood to mean marriage. A full account of the Sambandham ceremony is given by the late Sub-Judge Mr.O.Chandu Menon in a Memorandum attached to the Marriage Commission Report. He says:- “ The variations of the Sambandham are the Pudamuri, Vastradanam, Uzhamporukkuka, etc., which are local expressions hardly understood beyond the localities in which they are used, but there would be hardly a Malayali who would not readily understand what is meant by Sambandham tudanguka (to begin Sambandham). The meaning of this phrase, which means ‘to marry’, is understood throughout Keralam in the same way, and there can be no ambiguity or mistake about it."

It is thus found that Sambandham was the principal word denoting marriage among Marumakkathayam Nairs. It will also be found on a close and careful examination of the facts that the principal features of this Sambandham ceremony, all over Keralam, are in the main the same. As there are different local names denoting marriage, so'there may be found local variations on the performance of the ceremony. But the general features are more or less the same.[22] Should it happened that a Nair woman kept company with any but a Nair man, she was killed.[23] The Nairs followed the matrilineal system. Children of a Nair female by a lower caste man were not accepted as the members of the Tharavadu.[24]

Nair is a group of castes. In The voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil it is given that, "The Nairs may have but one wife at the time; but it is not so with the women: for every woman may have as many as three husbands at once if she likes but a Nair woman of the Brahmin race may have one only."[25] The group of Nairs called the Tamil Padam or Padamangalam, who formed the Devadasis in the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Trivandrum. Those attached to the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple at Trivandrum are drawn from the Padamangalam caste of the Shudras and this subdivision also supplies the temple servants in the Agastisvaram Taluk.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ Martial races of undivided India by Vidya Prakash Tyagi. Gyan Publishing House, 2009. p. 284. ISBN 9788178357751.
  2. ^ A True and Exact description of the Most Celebrated East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel and Also of the Isle of the Ceylon by Philippus Baldaeus. Asian Educational Services, 1996. p. 621. ISBN 9788120611719.
  3. ^ Martial races of undivided India by Vidya Prakash Tyagi. Gyan Publishing House, 2009. p. 282. ISBN 9788178357751.
  4. ^ From History of Kerala: Written in the form of notes on Visscher's Letters from Malabar, Vol 3,. p. 185.
  5. ^ Fuller, C. J. (Winter 1975). "The Internal Structure of the Nayar Caste". Journal of Anthropological Research 31 (4): 283–312. JSTOR 3629883.(Subscription required)
  6. ^ Gough, E. Kathleen (1961). "Nayars: Central Kerala". In Schneider, David Murray; Gough, E. Kathleen. Matrilineal Kinship. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02529-5. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
  7. ^ The Suma oriental of Tome Pires, books 1-5, By Tomé Pires, Francisco Rodrigues. Google books. Asian Educational Services, 1990 https://books.google.co.in/books?id=h82D-Y0E3TwC&pg=PA67&dq=Naire+malabar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGtNjJ9b_hAhVu63MBHYd5Ay0Q6AEIQTAE#v=onepage&q=Naire%20malabar&f=false. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Asiatic Journal, Volume 25, Parbury, Allen, and Company, 1828 - Asia. Google Books https://books.google.co.in/books?id=6yYYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA196&dq=Nair+arms+Malabar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiquNWcgMDhAhXY73MBHVPxCEMQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Nair%20arms%20Malabar&f=false. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, Duarte Barbosa. p. 124.
  10. ^ The Madras Law Times: Law Notes and Notes of Cases of the Madras High Court and of the English Law Courts, Volume 18 (French). Madras law times office., 1915. p. 102.
  11. ^ The Voyage of Francois Pyrard by Albert Gray, Vol 1,. p. 380, 381.
  12. ^ Book: Maharashtra, Part 3. by B. V. Bhanu.
  13. ^ Ancient Society; Or, Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, Through Barbarism to Civilization by Lewis Henry Morgan. H. Holt, 1877. p. 516. ISBN 9781636002699.
  14. ^ Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol 5, by Edgar Thurston and K. Rangachari. Madras : Government Press. p. 312.
  15. ^ Report of the Malabar Marriage Commision, 1891. p. 11.
  16. ^ Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol 5, by Edgar Thurston and K.Rangachari, 1901. Madras : Government Press. p. 297, 298.
  17. ^ Report of the Malabar Marriage Commission, 1891 - Witness No. 27. p. 18.
  18. ^ The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Volumes 48-49, 1918,. p. 266.
  19. ^ Report of the Malabar Marriage commision, 1891. p. 6, 7(Marumakkthayam Marriage Commision).
  20. ^ Kerala, Volume 1, Kumar Suresh Singh, T. Madhava Menon, D. Tyagi, Anthropological Survey of India. Google Books https://books.google.co.in/books?id=qBQwAQAAIAAJ&q=Kiriyam+Nambiar&dq=Kiriyam+Nambiar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSxOaGlsDhAhXX63MBHamEABsQ6AEINzAC. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Duarte Barbosa. A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, 1866. Hakluyt Society, 1866. p. 128.
  22. ^ History of Kerala: Written in the form of note on Visscher's letters from Malabar, Vol 3. p. 268, 269.
  23. ^ Albert Grey, Harry Charles Purvis Bell. The Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval, Volume 1, 1887. p. 383.
  24. ^ A Manual of Malabar Law: As Administered by the Courts. A Manual of Malabar Law: As Administered by the Courts, 1883. p. 85.
  25. ^ The voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil, Vol 1. London : Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1887. p. 384.
  26. ^ The Śucīndram Temple: A Monograph. The Śucīndram Temple: A Monograph. Kalakshetra Publications, 1953. p. 279.
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