User:Nair's proud/sandbox


 * Nair

Kerala did not have the usual four caste caste system. There was influx of lot of Brahmins to Kerala from North around 8th century. They introduced caste system. Those who acted as their protection was given higher status.

Nairs were technically assigned to Shudras in the chaturvarna system. But functionally, they were Kshatriyas since they acted as warriors and feudal lords. The position of nairs in the Kerala society was sort of similar to that of samurai in japan. Both served as warriors & feudal lords. The land was usually owned by the nairs but was tilled by the agricultural castes such as. The nairs in turn took the role of defence and administration.

Now, brace for the wall of text. I feel an answer to the question "Who are nairs?" will be incomplete without much of this. As you might have guessed by now, I'm a nair with a fascination for my people's history, unique rituals and customs.

The story of their origin

The following is an interesting myth about the origin of Nairs and accounting for their tradition of snake worship.

[from Nair society...about me and mine! :-)]

The origin of Nairs is a subject of great dispute. Some say they are direct descendants of the Aryans who married into Dravidian families, accounting for their fairer skin colour. Some say that they are descendants of a warrior clan in Nepal. Others say that they are natives of south India who were awarded the title of Nair by the king. Let us start the story at the very beginning…from the birth of the beautiful land of Kerala.

Kerala wrenched from under the sea

Legend has it that settlers moved into the fertile Indian lands from the north. In the process, they pushed the native people southwards. The southern part of India became excessively crowded and reached a state when there was practically no place to stay. A few families rushed to Lord Parashurama and narrated to him their woes. He agreed to help and went with them to south India.

He saw that the land was indeed very crowded and prayed to Lord Varuna (the God of the sea) to give up some land from under the sea. The arrogant Varuna flatly denied and raged even more ferociously. Lord Parashurama, known for his quick temper, is said to have thrown his axe into the sea and pulled up a huge chunk of land. Thus Kerala was born. The people were very happy and moved in to the new land that Parashurama blessed them with and Parashurama went back to his abode.

Sometime later, the people came back wailing to Parashurama yet again. They complained that the land given to them was infested with snakes and had poisoned yellow soil and no crops would grow on it. Even the rivers were heavily poisoned and their cattle died in hundreds everyday. Parashurama decided to pay a visit to Vasuki, the king of snakes.

Vasuki welcomed him to his underworld kingdom with all due honour. Once seated, Parashurama asked him the reason why his subjects taunted the poor people who lived on the new land. Vasuki replied quite calmly that the piece of land that Parashurama had ploughed out was a piece of his kingdom and that it was the home of his subjects. How could he, being a righteous ruler, ask them to move out of their homes?

After a long discussion, they reached a mutual decision. Parashurama told Vasuki that if he ordered his subjects to remove the poison from the land, he would see to it that he and his subjects were always revered and provided for by the people of the land. Should they fail to do so, Vasuki was free to order his subjects to punish them. However, they should leave the land alone. This proposition was acceptable to Vasuki and orders were immediately given to remove all poison from the land.

When Parashurama went back, he called forth the heads of sixty-five aristocratic families, imparted to them the ritualistic methods of doing Naga puja, and ordered them to have a shrine for the Nagas in each of their homes. This was duly done and all poison was withdrawn from the land. Kerala became one of the most fertile areas in the world. Crops thrived and people became very wealthy.

The sixty-five families that Parashurama chose are the sixty-five aristocratic Nair families of today…the so-called Kiriyath Nairs. Such snake shrines can be seen in the family homes of these Nairs even today. And the rituals are still performed with all respect. Every temple in Kerala will have a shrine dedicated to the snakes. This is tradition. But the reason for this tradition is what is narrated above.

These shrines are kept as natural as possible. They are usually circular bunds made of stone beneath an oak tree. None of the wilderness is ever cleared, save for the treading path. This is to ensure that the snakes feel at home in their natural surroundings. These shrines are usually located a little away from the house so that there is very little disturbance to its slithering inhabitants. A lamp is religiously lit at twilight every evening. Some families even have the custom of offering a saucer of milk everyday, though it has been proved by reptile specialists that snakes cannot drink milk.

Kalaripayattu and the Nair Brigade

A 16th century European painting. Note that kalaripayattu emphasizes agility & speed over full body armour, which impediments marching especially in the hot Indian climate.

Nairs were a martial race. They practiced Kalaripayattu, the traditional martial art of Kerala. They vowed allegiance to naduvazhis (kings) and were expected to give their life for them. Every Nair boy joined kalari (military training school). Women were also given training in kalaripayattu up to a certain level (usually until onset of menses).

Travancore's Nair Pattalam (Nair Brigade) was famed for its strength.

Travancore decimated the Dutch East India Company's forces in The Battle of Kulachal, effectively ending the Dutch influence in India. The Nair Pattalam proved to be more than a match for the technologically superior Dutch forces with artillery. The defeated Dutch governor Eustachius De Lannoy was so impressed that he took up service with Travancore and modernized the Travancore Army (which, till then, had been armed mainly with melee weapons) into an effective fighting force. De Lennoy modernized the existing firearms and introduced better artillery and, more importantly, trained the Travancore army in the European style of military drill and military tactics. He carried out his orders with such sincerity and devotion that he rapidly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the "Valia Kapitaan" (Commander in Chief) of the

Travancore military and served in this position until his death.

The Travancore military that De Lannoy was instrumental in modernizing, went on to conquer more than half of the modern state of Kerala, and the Nedumkotta forts De Lannoy had designed, held up the advance of Tipu Sultan's French trained army during the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1791 AD till the British East India Company joined the war in support of Travancore.

After Thampi_Dalawa 's revolt against the British, the Nair Brigade was also disbanded and they were prohibited from keeping arms, with the British East India Company undertaking to serve the Raja in cases of external and internal aggression. Most of the nairs turned to agriculture for livelihood.

The Nair brigade later became a part of British Indian Army. After independence, it merged into the Madras regiment of Indian army (9th and 16th Battalions) in 1954.

Tharavad

The social unit of Nairs was tharavad. It was a joint family where the females of the house lived together with sons. It did not include husbands and fathers. A person's tharavad will be the same as his mother's. The head of the tharavad was called karnavar, the senior most male member of the family. The members of the Tharavad consisted of mother, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers. The fathers and husbands had only a minimal role to play in the affairs of the Tharavad. It was a true matrilineal affair. The Karanavar took all major decisions, however, the consent of the eldest female member of the family was obtained before implementing the decisions. This eldest female member would be his maternal grandmother, own mother, mother's sister, his own sister or a sister through his maternal lineage. Since the lineage was through the female members, the birth of a daughter was always welcomed.

Marumakkathayam

The system of inheritance among Nairs was called marumakkathayam. This means the property passed from a male to his sister's son (the eldest among his sisters' sons). The father's role was played by maternal uncle.

Nalukettu

The special architecture of a nair home. Nalukettu literally means having four blocks. The house is build around a central courtyard on the four sides. The inner courtyard (nadumuttam) is a distinctive feature of this architecture style.

A nalukettu

A nadumuttam

Even now, some houses built in Kerala incorporate some aspects of nalukettu architecture.

Thalikettu Kalyanam

Once in few years, a nair tharavad conducted thalikettu kalyanam where the young girls (~11 years) were married. The "husbands" were only ceremonial. The real marriage was sambandham. Either individual was free to engage with others through sambandhams.

Sambandham

This is the actual marriage. The man gives a pudava to the woman at the woman's house.

This was a ceremony after which a man & woman may cohabit in the woman's house. The man known as sambandhakkaran had no right on property. The sons borne out of the relationship belonged to the mother's tharavad. The father had no responsibility towards the family. The father's role to the children was fulfilled by the mother's brother. Sambandham marriages were more contractual and dissoluble at will by both parties. Also, it was not unusual for both men and women to engage with other sexual partners since men. The paternity of a child was of little importance because of matrilinear system of inheritance.

(The custom of groom giving a pudava to the bride in present-day Nair weddings originated from this)

Murakalyanam

The system of a guy marrying his maternal uncle's daughter is called murakalyanam (marriage by right). It was considered a proper marriage since both of them belonged to different tharavad. Even now, there are people (though very rare) who marry their murappennu (bride by right) / muracherukkan (groom by right) according to this custom.

Persecution of Nairs by Tipu

The Captivity of Nairs at Seringapatam was imposed on the Nair Hindus of Malabar by Muslims under Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore from 1786 to 1789. They were subjected to forcible conversions to Islam, death, and torture. The Nairs were treated with extreme brutality by the Muslims due to their strong adherence to the Hindu faith, their rituals and martial tradition. Tipu saw them as snake-worshippers and saw their practices to be immoral. In 1788, Tipu Sultan gave strict orders to his army under to "surround and extricate the whole race of Nairs from Kottayam to Palghat". This incident is known asThe Order of Extermination of the Nayars by Tipu Sultan. After entrusting Calicut to a powerful army contingent, he instructed it "to surround the woods and seize the heads of all Nair factions".

In 1788, Tipu issued a proclamation to the Nairs of Malabar, wherein he outlined his new scheme of social reform:

"From the period of the conquest until this day, during twenty-four years, you have been a turbulent and refractory people, and in the wars waged during your rainy season, you have caused number of our warriors to taste the draught of martyrdom. Be it so. What is past is past. Hereafter you must proceed in an opposite manner, dwell quietly and pay your dues like good subjects and since it is the practice with you for one woman to associate with ten men, and you leave your mothers and sisters unconstrained in their obscene practices, and are thence all born in adultery, and are more shameless in your connections than the beasts of the fields : I hereby require you to forsake these sinful practices and be like the rest of mankind; and if you are disobedient to these commands, I have made repeated vows to honour the whole of you with Islam and to march all the chief persons to the seat of Government."

The captivity ended when Nair troops from Travancore, with the help of the East India Company defeated Tipu in the Third Anglo-Mysore War. It is estimated that out of the 30,000 Nairs put to captivity (including women and children), only a few hundred returned to Malabar alive

Mannathu Padmanabhan & Nair Service Society

The present day prosperity of Nairs, if any, can be attributed to Mannath Padmanabhan, a social reformer, freedom fighter. He was a progressive Hindu who recognized that untouchability was the curse of the Hindus. He dropped his title Pillai (a subcaste of Nair) saying that simply belonging to a caste is nothing to be proud of. (This later became a trend in Kerala. Many Keralites names are of the form [given name + father's name] without last name.

He founded the Nair Service Society in 1914. NSS persuaded Travancore govt to do away with Marumakkathayam in 1920s and introduce direct inheritance from parent to children.

Vaikom Satyagraha was a movement to allow the avarnas to use the roads near the Vaikom temple. The roads, which were open to Christians & Muslims were not open to avarna Hindus. The satyagraha was led by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi knew that support of savarnas was crucial for the movement to succeed. This was ensured by Mannathu who led Nairs. As a result of his efforts, majority of

savarnas themselves supported the satyagraha and at last the movement succeeded. The success of Vaikom Satyagraha later paved way for Temple entry proclamation, opening up temples to all Hindus, irrespective of caste.

Nairs in present day Kerala

Nairs constitute around 14.5% of Malayalis concentrated in central and southern Kerala. They are the second largest community in Kerala and the major part of Hindu general (i.e.non SC/ST/OBC) population. NSS works as a pressure group for Nairs.

Prominent Nairs include V.K.Krishnamenon,, M T Vasudevan Nair

Courtesy to an unknown (TLDR) Nair