Nair - WikiHQ

The Nair (, ) also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom historically bore the name 'Nair'. These people lived, and many continue to live, in the area which is now the Indian state of Kerala. Their internal caste behaviours and systems are markedly different between the people in the northern and southern sections of the area, although there is not very much reliable information on those inhabiting the north.

Historically, Nairs lived in large family units called tharavads that housed descendants of one common female ancestor. These family units along with their unusual marriage customs, which are no longer practiced, have been much studied. Although the detail varied from one region to the next, the main points of interest to researchers of Nair marriage customs were the existence of two particular rituals—the pre-pubertal thalikettu kalyanam and the later sambandam—and the practice of polygamy in some areas. Some Nair women also practiced hypergamy with Nambudiri Brahmins from the Malabar region.

The Nair were historically involved in military conflicts in the region. Following hostilities between the Nair and the British in 1809, the British limited Nair participation in the Indian Army. After India's independence, the Nair Brigade of the Travancore State Force was merged into the Indian Army and became a part of the 9th Battalion, Madras Regiment, the oldest battalion in the Indian Army.

The serpent is worshipped by Nair families as a guardian of the clan. The worship of snakes, a Dravidian custom, is so prevalent in the area that one anthropologist notes: "In no part of the world is snake worship more general than in Kerala." Serpent groves were found in the southwestern corner of nearly every Nair compound.

Etymology

The origin of the Nair is disputed. Some people think the name itself is derived from nayaka, an honorific meaning "leader of the people", while others believe it stems from the community's association with the Naga cult of serpent worship.

History

Early period

Christopher Fuller, an anthropologist, has said that it is likely that the first reference to the Nair community was made by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, dating from 77 AD. That work describes what is probably the Malabar coast area wherein could be found the "Nareae, who are shut in by the Capitalis range, the highest of all the mountains in India". Fuller believes it probable that the Nareae referred to the Nairs and the Capitalis range is the Western Ghats.

thumb|upright=1.3|right|Nair soldiers attending the King of [[Cochin: A 16th century European portrait. The majority of Nair men were trained in arms, and the traditional role of the Nairs was to fight in the continuous wars which characterized Kerala history.]]

There are large gaps in the known early history of the Kerala region, which in the 1st-century AD is thought to have been governed by the Chera dynasty and which by the late 3rd-century AD had broken up, possibly as a consequence of a decline in trade with the Romans. There is no evidence of Nairs in the area during this period. Inscriptions on copper-plate regarding grants of land and rights to settlements of Jewish and Christian traders, dated approximately between the 7th- and 9th-centuries AD, refer to Nair chiefs and soldiers from the Eranad, Valluvanad, Venad (later known as Travancore) and Palghat areas. As these inscriptions show the Nairs as witnesses to the agreements between those traders and the successors to the Cheras, the Perumals, it is probable that by this time the Nairs were vassal chieftains.

Certainly by the 13th century, some Nairs were the rulers of small kingdoms and the Perumals had disappeared. Trade with China, which had declined for some time, began to increase once more in the 13th century and it was during this period that two small Nair kingdoms were established. Both of these—at Kolattunad and at Venad—contained major seaports, and they expanded by taking over the inland territory of neighbouring chieftains. Although trade with China once more went into decline in the 14th-century, it was replaced by trade with Muslim Arabs. These traders had been visiting the area for several hundred years but their activities increased to the point that a third Nair kingdom, based on the port of Calicut, became established. There were also small kingdoms at Walluvanad and Palghat, away from the coastline. This period was characterized by continuous war between these various kingdoms, and most able bodied Nair men were assigned to fight in these wars.

The large influx of travelers and traders to Kerala had left many early accounts of the Nairs. These descriptions were initially idealized by Europeans for its martial society, productivity, spirituality, and for its marriage practices. Some early examples of these works being John Mandeville’s ‘’Travels’’ (1356), William Caxton’s ‘The mirrour of the wourld’ (1481), and Jean Boudin’s ‘Les sex livres de la republique’ (1576). The Nair men are described as being polite and well-mannered in old sources, and nearly all historical descriptions describe them as arrogant. Sources on Nair women are scant and were written by men, and these primarily comment on their beauty.

The Portuguese arrived in the area from 1498, by which time the Zamorin (King) of Calicut had come to the fore. Arab traders had firmly established themselves at his port and although trade still went to the ports of the other two small kingdoms, it was in relatively small amounts. Indeed, the kingdom based at Kolathunad had split into three even smaller kingdoms; and the ruler of Venad had conceded considerable powers to local chiefs within his kingdom. By the time of European arrival, the title Nair was used to refer to all military castes. The Portuguese used the term Nair for all soldiers, and prior to 1498 the military or retainer Nairs are believed to have been called 'Lokar'. Gough states that the title Nair existed prior to that time referring to only those families that were involved in the military.

The Portuguese had many involvements in South India, including their support of the Paravars in a trade battle over control of the pearl fisheries of Malabar, but in the Nair kingdoms, their principal interest was to obtain control of the trade in pepper. In this they followed the Muslim Arabs, whom they eventually marginalised; and they were in turn followed by the Dutch in 1683. The British and French were also active in the region now known as Kerala, the former from 1615 and the latter from 1725. These various European powers combined with one or another of the Nair rulers, fighting for control. One notable alliance was that of the Portuguese with the Kingdom of Cochin, with whom they sided in order to work against the power of the Zamorins of Calicut. Although Calicut remained the most significant of the kingdoms until the 1730s, its power was eroded and the rulers of Cochin were freed from being vassals of the Zamorins.

Decline of dominance

In 1729, Marthanda Varma became the Raja of Venad and inherited a state facing war and refractory Nair chiefs. Varma curtailed the power of the Nair chiefs and introduced Tamil Brahmins to form a core component of his administration. Under Marthanda Varma's reign, the Travancore Nair Infantry (also known as the Nair Pattalam) distinguished themselves in battle against the Dutch at the Battle of Colachel (1741). The Nair army was re-organized in the European style and had transformed from a feudal-based force into a standing army. Though this army was still made up of Nairs, this had checked the power of local chiefs and was the first limit on Nair dominance.

There had been Hindu–Muslim clashes during the medieval period, notably when Muslim armies from Mysore invaded and gained control of northern Kerala in 1766. The Nairs of Kottayam and Kadathanad led the resistance, and the Nairs managed to defeat all Mysorean garrisons except for those in Palakkad. Shortly afterwards, Haider Ali died and his son Tipu had become Sultan. The Nairs of Calicut and South Malabar had recaptured Calicut and defeated an army sent by Tipu to break the siege. This had caused the Sultan himself to intervene in 1789 during which many Hindus, especially Nairs, were kept captive or killed by Muslims under Tipu Sultan. Many Nairs had fled to the protection of Travancore, while others engaged in guerilla warfare. However the Nairs of Travancore were able to defeat the Muslim forces in 1792 at the Third Anglo-Mysore War. After this, the East India Company established its pre-eminence throughout the entire Kerala region.

thumb|upright=1.5|left|Members of the Travancore Nair Brigade, drawn in 1855. The Nair brigade was the remnant of the Travancore Nair army after the takeover of the British. By this time there were nine small Nair kingdoms and several chiefdoms which were loosely affiliated to them; the British amalgamated seven of those kingdoms (Calicut, Kadattunad, Kolattunad, Kottayam, Kurumbranad, Palghat and Walluvanad) to form [[Malabar District, while Cochin and Travancore were left as native states under the control of their own rulers but with advice from the British. Velu Thampi's rebellion had made the British wary of Nair leaders, and the Travancore sarkar was mainly under control of British residents although the rest of the administration had been handled for the most part by non-Malayali Brahmins and Nairs.

The Travancore army became the Travancore Nair Brigade in 1818–1819. The Nair unit, 1st Battalion of HH Rani's Troops, was likewise incorporated into this brigade, but the Brigade served only in a police capacity until the withdrawal of the East India Company troops in 1836. In 1901, the unit was relieved of its police duties and placed under a British officer. In 1935, the Travancore Nair Regiment and the Maharaja's bodyguard were fused and renamed the Travancore State Force, as part of the Indian State Forces system.

Culture

Arts

Historically most Nairs were literate in Malayalam, and many in Sanskrit. The explanation for this literacy was attributed to the general needs of administration, as many Nairs served as scribes and bailiffs for the royal courts. Many Nairs had become prominent philosophers and poets, and from the 16th century and onwards, the Nairs contributed increasingly to literature and drama. Nairs from the lowest subsections of the community had also partaken in these artistic traditions. By the 19th century, novels written by Nairs had dealt with themes of social change. These themes would primarily relate to the rise of the nuclear family in replacement of the old matrilineal system. Novels such as, for example, Indulekha by O.C Menon had themes which dealt with societal constraints on romantic love, while C.V Raman Pillai's Marthanda Varma had dealt with themes relating to the Nair military past.

Kathakali is a dance-drama which portrays scenes from Sanskrit epics or stories. The dance drama was historically performed exclusively by Nairs and had always traditionally been associated with them; Nair rulers and chiefs had patronized the art, the first Ramanattam plays were written by a Nair from a ruling family, and Kathakali had foundations in Nair military training and religious customs. The first Kathakali actors were most likely Nair soldiers who performed the dance-drama part-time, influenced by the techniques of Kalaripayattu. As Kathakali developed as an art form, the need for specialization and detail grew. Those who had become masters of the art would pass their traditions on to their families. These families were the source of the next generations of Kathakali students, and it was often the nephew of the master that would be chosen as the disciple.

thumb|upright=1.1|[[There Comes Papa (1893) by Raja Ravi Varma depicts a Nair woman in the traditional mundum neryathum. The painting has also been noted by several critics due its symbolism of the decline of Nair matrilinity.]]

Attire

The historical attire of the Nair men was the mundu, a cloth wrapped around the waist and then left to hang down nearly to the ground, rather than tucked in as in other parts of India. The low-hanging fabric was considered as specific to the Nair caste, and at the start of the 20th century it was noted that in more conservative rural areas a non-Nair could be beaten for daring to wear a cloth hanging low to the ground. Wealthy Nairs might use silk for this purpose, and they also would cover their upper body with a piece of laced muslin; the remainder of the community used once to wear a material manufactured in Eraniyal but by the time of Panikkar's writing were generally using cotton cloth imported from Lancashire, England, and wore nothing above the waist. Nair men eschewed turbans or other head coverings, but would carry an umbrella against the sun's rays. They also eschewed footwear, although some of the wealthy would wear elaborate sandals.

The historical dress of the Nair woman was the mundu, as well as a cloth that covered the upper body. The mundum neryathum, a garment that roughly resembles the sari, had later become the traditional dress of the Nair women. The dress consisted of a cloth tied around the waist as well as a cloth covering the breast, and worn without a blouse. The mundum neryathum had become the essence for the set sari, which is considered to be Kerala's specific regional wear. Sonja Thomas describes how this is an example of how “primacy was given to upper caste cultural norms”. The Nair women would also wear onera (onnara), a loincloth worn as an undergarment by more conservative women. The undergarment was noted as beautifying and slimming the waist.

Religion and ritual

The primary deity of the Nairs is Bhagavati, who is the patron goddess of war and fertility. Central to all aspects of Nair life and revered as a kind and ferocious virgin mother, Bhagavati identifies with both Sanskritic and regional based aspects of worship. The goddess was worshipped in the temples of the royal Nair matrilineages and also the village Nair matrilineages. The idol would either be placed in the western side of the house or be placed in a room with other deities. The kalaris would also have an area for the worship of Kali, the warlike manifestation of Bhagavati.

Serpent deities known as Nāga were revered by the Nairs, and these deities would be placed in a grove in the family property. The groves would portray a miniature forest made to resemble Patala, and could feature various types of idols. Naga worship was significant to the entire tharavad since, as Gough says, they "... could inflict or avert sickness in general but were especially believed to be responsible for the fertility or barrenness of tharavad women". Gough speculates that the Nagas were seen as phallic symbols representing the procreative powers of the ancestors. Kali is the warlike manifestation of Bhagavati, the patron deity of the Nairs.|alt=]]

Nairs believed in spirits, which on some occasions they attempted to tame by performing various rituals. According to Panikkar, they believed in spirits such as Pretam, Bhutam and Pisachu. Pretam is the spirit of prematurely dead people; Bhutam, Panikkar says, "is seen generally in marshy districts and does not always hurt people unless they go very near him"; and Pisachu is a spirit of bad air causing illnesses. Believing Pretam to be wandering around the place of death, they warned people to stay away from those areas between 9 am and 3 pm. They also believed in a comic elf called Kuttichattan who would be prone to mischief. They believed in evil eye—that compliments from others had a negative effect; they also believed that utterances of a person with kari nakku (black-tongue) had a similarly bad effect. They also believed kothi from a poor man watching someone eating a delicious food will cause stomach-aches and dysentery.

Birth and death rituals

The Nair traditionally practised certain rituals relating to births, although often only for those of the first-born. Of these, pulicudi was the most significant to them. This involved rubbing coconut oil onto the pregnant woman, followed by bathing, formal dressing, consultation with an astrologer regarding the expected date of birth and a ceremonial drinking of tamarind juice, dripped along the blade of a sword. The woman would also select a grain, from which it was believed possible to determine the gender of the child. This ritual was performed in front of the community and contained many symbolic references; for example, the use of the sword was believed to make the child a warrior.

In the months subsequent to the birth there followed other rituals, including those of purification and the adornment of the child with a symbolic belt to ward off illness, as well as a name-giving ceremony at which an astrologer again played a significant role. There were also various dietary restrictions, both for the woman during pregnancy and for the child in the first few months of its life.

An elaborate fourteen-day period of mourning followed the cremation, during which the family performed various symbolic acts around the pyre and were regarded to be highly polluted in ritual terms, thus necessitating not only that they took regular baths, but also that any other Nair who might touch them must also take a bath. The period was followed by a feast and by participation in sports events, which also involved Nairs from nearby villages. Subsequently, the family stayed in mourning while one male member undertook a diksha, during which time he had to maintain a pure life. This involved him living with a Brahmin, bathing twice daily and desisting from cutting either his hair or his fingernails, as well as being prevented from speaking with or indeed even seeing women. In some cases, the diksha might last for a year rather than the more usual forty-one days, in which case there would be considerable celebration at its end. and even high-status Nairs were noted as eating buffalo meat.

The Nair avoided beef, and many did not eat lamb. In the modern day, alcohol is a component of Nair-dominated festivals in Kerala.

According to Gough, the villages were generally between one and four square miles in area and their lands were usually owned by one landlord family, who claimed a higher ritual rank than its other inhabitants. The landlord was also usually the desavazhi (headman) and in all cases, their families were known as jenmis. These landlords were from the lineages of the royal families or feudatory chiefs; or were patrilineal Nambudiri families or the estates of temples operated by groups of those families. They were also from the lineages of the matrilineal vassal Samantan chiefs and, finally, the lowest jenmis in terms of ritual ranking were Nairs who had inherited from matrilineal ancestors to whom land and the concomitant headmanship had been granted by a king. In all cases, the landholdings could not be sold without royal permission.

The villages were historically mostly self-sufficient, with craft trades such as pottery and metalwork present in each of them. This meant that there was little need for close central control by the higher levels in the organisational hierarchy, and it also meant that trade between villages was minimal. Such traders as did exist were mostly concentrated in the port towns and consisted of immigrant Syrians, Muslims, Christians and Jews, with Hindu traders later arriving from other parts of India, as well as the Europeans. The Nairs were the sole members of the village organisations, which existed for such purposes as managing the affairs of the temples and, at one time, organising military training and deployment. A Nair family was considered to be part of the village organisation even if they had moved away from it. There were other castes in these villages, and other religious groups also, but they were excluded from the organisations. This arrangement was different from that found elsewhere in India, and another difference was that each house, whether for Nairs or otherwise, was usually in its own compound. There was no communal land, as existed elsewhere, and no communal plan for the village layout.

The Nambudiri Brahmins were at the top of the ritual caste hierarchy and in that system outranked even the kings. They regarded all Nairs as Shudra. Below the Nambudiris came the Tamil Brahmins and other later immigrants of the Brahmin varna. Beyond this, the precise ranking is subject to some difference in opinion. Kodoth has placed the Samantan caste below the Kshatriya rank but above the Nairs, but Gough considers that the Pushpakans and Chakyars, both of which were the highest ranked in the group of temple servants known as Ambalavasis, were ranked between the Brahmins and the Nairs, as were several other members of the Ambalavasi group. She also believes that some Nairs adopted the title of Samantan in order to emphasise their superiority over others in their caste. The unwillingness of the higher varnas to engage in what they considered to be the polluting activities of industrial and commercial activity has been cited as a reason for the region's relatively limited economic development.

Keralite traditions included that certain communities were not allowed within a given distance of other castes on the grounds that they would "pollute" the relatively higher-ranked group. For example, Dalits were prohibited within 64 feet. Likewise, a Nair could approach but not touch a Nambudiri.

Subgroups

The Nairs identify themselves as being in many subgroups and there has been debate regarding whether these groups should be considered as subcastes or a mixture both of those and of subdivisions. There have been several attempts to identify these various groups; most of these were prior to the end of British governance in India but Kathleen Gough also studied the issue in 1961. These analyses bear similarities to the Jatinirnayam, a Malayalam work that enumerated 18 main subgroups according to occupation, including drummers, traders, coppersmiths, palanquin bearers, servants, potters and barbers, as well as ranks such as the Kiriyam and Illam. Although the Jatinirnayam did not itself distinguish any particular subgroups as ranking higher, subsequent attempts at classification did do so, claiming the various occupations to be traditional ones and stating that only the higher ranked groups were soldiers. Anthropologists, ethnologists and other authors believe that the last name of a Nair was a title which denoted the subgroup (vibhagam) to which that person belonged and indicated the occupation the person pursued or was bestowed on them by a chief or king. These names included Nair itself, Kurup, Menon, and Pillai.

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;"

!colspan="5"| Nair subdivisions in descending order of rank according to standard descriptions, compiled by C J Fuller in 1975

! Ranking !! Jatinirnayam !! Aiya (1906) !! Iyer (1912) !! Innes (1908) !! Gough (1961)

|1|| Kiriyam || Kiriyam || Kiriyam || Kiriyam || Kiriyam

|2|| Illam || Illam || Illam || Purattu Charna || Purattu Charna

|3|| Svarupam || Svarupam || Svarupam || Akattu Charna || Akattu Charna

|4|| Padamangalam || Padamangalam || Purattu & Akattu Charna || Illam || Pallicchan

|5|| Tamil Padam || Tamil Padam || Menokki || Mutta || Illam

|6|| Itasseri || Itasseri || Maran || Taraka || Vattakkatan

|7|| Maran (or Maarar) || Maran || Padamangalam || Ravari || Otattu

|8|| Chempukotli || Chempukotli || Pallicchan || Anduran || Anduran

|9|| Otattu || Otattu || Vattakkatan || Otattu || Asthikkuracchi

|10|| Pallicchan || Kalamkotti || Chempukotti || Pallicchan || Veluttetan

|11|| Matavan/Puliyath || Vattakkatan || Otattu || Urali || Vilakkittalavan

|12|| Kalamkotti/Anduran || Pallicchan || Itasseri || Chempukotti ||

|13|| Vattakkatan/Chakkala || Asthikkuracchi || Anduran || Vattakkatan ||

|14|| Asthikkuracchi/Chitikan || Chetti || Asthikkuracchi || Asthikkuracchi/Chitikan ||

|15|| Chetti || Chaliyan || Tarakan || Kulangara ||

|16|| Chaliyan || Veluttetan || Vilakkittalavan || Itasseri ||

|17|| Veluttetan || Vilakkittalavan || Veluttetan || Veluttetan ||

|18|| Vilakkittalavan || || Chaliyan || Vilakkittalavan ||

|19|| || || || Kaduppattam ||

|20|| || || || Chaliyan ||

A re-evaluation of the broad system of classification took place from the late 1950s. Fuller, writing in 1975, claims that the approach to classification by use of titular names was a misconception. People could and did award themselves the titles; and on those occasions when a title was in fact bestowed, it nonetheless did not signify their subgroup. He argues that the broad outline of the subdivisions