Nambudiri

Lord Parshuram with Brahmin settlers commanding Lord Varuna to make the seas recede to make the Konkan.

The Nambudiri Brahmins, also transliterated Namboothiri, are Hindu Brahmins from the Indian state of Kerala. They have been described as the religious elite.

History

Nambudiri tradition associates their immigration to Kerala from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand with the legendary creation of Kerala by Parasurama, an avatar of Vishnu.

Brahmin influences had existed in the area since at least the 1st-century AD, as Namboodiri Brahmin villages like Perinchelloor were mentioned in Sangam literature and Christian traditions attempting to appropriate Nambudri history by "associating" them with St. Thomas. The Brahmins treated almost all of those who acceded to their priestly status as Shudraor Untouchable permitting only a small number to be recognised as Kshatriya, these being some of the local rulers who co-operated with them. Nambudiri Brahmins were by far the largest land-owning group in the region and they remained so until very recent times. The origins of Malayalam as a language is also attributed to the Nambudiri Brahmin's mixing of Sanskrit and the local Tamil language. Their dominating influence was to be found in all matters: religion, politics, society, economics and culture.

Marriage with Nairs

The Nambudiri Brahmin tradition which limited the extent of marriage within their own caste led to the practice of hypergamy with the Nair community. Kathleen Gough notes that:

These hypergamous unions were regarded by Brahmans as socially acceptable concubinage, for the union was not initiated with Vedic rites, the children were not legitimized as Brahmans, and neither the woman nor her child was accorded the rights of kin. By the matrilineal castes, however, the same unions were regarded as marriage, for they fulfilled the conditions of ordinary Nayar marriage and served to legitimize the child as an acceptable member of his matrilineal lineage and caste."

The disparity in caste ranking in a relationship between a Brahmin man and a Nair woman meant that the woman was unable to live with her husband(s) in the Brahmin family and so remained in her own family. The children resulting from such marriages always became Nairs. K. M. Panikkar argues that it is this type of relationship that resulted in the matrilineal and matrilocal system. Furthermore, that:

(...) among the higher-ranking Nayars (Kshatriyas and Samantans) in contradistinction to the "commoner" Nayars, no two subdivisions admitted to equal status. Thus the relations set up by the tall-rite [ie: the thalikettu kalyanam] and the sambandham union were always hypergamous.

Although it is certain that in theory hypergamy can cause a shortage of marriageable women in the lowest ranks of a caste and promote upwards social movement from the lower Nair subdivisions, the numbers involved would have been very small. It was not a common practice outside the higher subcaste groups.

Attire

Traditionally, Nambudiri men wore a cloth around the waist called a mundu. When they had to travel, they wore a simple cloth around the waist called a thorthu. When they had to travel, they wore two sets of cloth in addition known as a vasthram.

See also

• Agnicayana, the Vedic ritual still observed by members of the Nambudiri priesthood
• List of Nambudiris
• Pushpaka Brahmin
• Smarthavicharam

External links

• Namboothiri Websites Trust
• Yogakshema Sabha