Differences between Nāgavanshi Nairs and Ezhavas

Many people have a confusion on whether a southern Indian caste, with martial origin, is related to Nair. On Wikipedia, in an article about Ezhava, I read a sentence as follows, "It has been suggested that the Ezhavas may share a common heritage with the Nair caste." It is also written that numerous customs have been adopted by both the castes but they have not mentioned which customs. There is a common belief about Ezhavas that their ancestors were migrants from northern part of Sri Lanka which is also called Ezham. The prominent language in the northern part of Sri Lanka is Tamil and the dialect spoken there is called Ezham Tamil. The birth name of Sreenarayana Guru was Nanu. Nanu is also a Tamil name which means shy or modest. 
The caste system of the Sri Lankan Tamils resembles the system of Sinhalese, but individual Tamil castes differ from Sinhalese castes. The dominant Tamil castes, constituting well over 50 percent of the population, are the Vellala. Then are Karaiya, who traditional occupation was fishing, Chetti, a group of merchant castes and the rest are artisan castes and laboring castes including the Palla. Sri Lankan Tamils are also called "Ezhathu Tamizhar (ஈழத் தமிழர்)". 

Sub-divisions of Ezhava community

According to Census Report of 1901, the four Illams of Ezhava community are Muttillam, Madampi or Pallichal, Mayanatti and Chozhi.
The sub-divisions of Ezhava community are as follows, Kollakar or Channar Ezhava, Malayalam Ezhava, Pandi Ezhava, Nadi Ezhava, Pachili Ezhava, Puzhuckar Ezhava. The Channar Ezhava are mainly engaged coconut cultivation and agriculture. Malayalam Ezhava cliam they belong to Kerala from the very beginning. The Pandi Ezhava are said to have migrated from Tamil Nadu. The Nadi Ezhava are those who mainly engaged in palm toddy tapping. The Puzhuckar Ezhava were the menial servants of Malayalam Ezhava. Pachili Ezhava are those who were married to the fishermen. Of all these divisions, the Channar or Kollakar Ezhava claim a higher status while Pachili and Puzhuckar Ezhava are at the bottom of the hierarchy. 
There are no such sub-divisions and Illams in Nair community. In Nair community, The Naduvazhi chiefs, by whatever designation they were styled, whether Raja or Achan or Kaimal or merely Nair, belonged to one of the three classes, viz., Swaroopi, Prabhu and Madambi. That is, among Naduvāzhis, Madampi was the name of  classes and not titles. 

Religious art forms

Aivarkali, Mayilppili Tukkam, Makachuttu, Poorakkali, Theyyam and Villadichaampattu are the religious art forms of Ezhava community. None of them are practiced and performed by Nairs. Pallichans and Maniyanis, are Theyyam worshippers, and they have their own shrines for their Theyyams. 

Marriage and dowry

I don't know how were wedding rituals of the Ezhava community before the reformation. When I referred some books I got a few details about it. Among the Ezhavas of Palakkad, the bridegroom in olden times never accompanied the marriage party. In Ezhava marriages the bridegroom's sister would take the "Pudava" (dress), accompanied by the marriage party, to the bride. After the reformation, the practice and bride and bridegroom sitting face to face and getting married after exchanging garlands replaced the old custom of marriage by proxy among Ezhavas. 
None of the customs were and are followed in Nair community. On the wedding day, the Pudava is given directly by the groom to the bride. Even today, in the weddings of Nair community the ritual of giving Pudava is followed as it is. 
Dowry seems to be very important in Ezhava community. In Children's Lifeworlds: Gender, Welfare, and Labour in the Developing World by Olga Nieuwenhuys it is stated that, "An Ezhava girl, for instance, have the option of either saving for a dowry from her (nominal) wages or meeting educational expenses if she is sufficiently bright in studies. The ideal of self-reliance has its impact on the amount of dowry an Ezhava girl is expected to bring, that tends to be comparatively low. Most of it is raised by the bride herself and with the help of the credit revolving among neighbours and relatives." Usually the dowry is paid at the engagement ceremony, but some pay it on the wedding day. 
In Nair community, dowry is not important and most of the families do not ask dowry from the bride's family. Women are not forced to get a job and earn money for the dowry. 

Divorce 

An account of the customary practice of divorce among the Ezhavas in ancient times revealed that if either party wanted a divorce, relatives and village elders were informed. If a compromise was not effected, the husband had to pay the wife 'Azhivu' (a "compensation for damage to the youthfulness and health of the woman"), 'Chelavu' (cost of marriage) and 'Ozhivu Pudava' (the 'release' cloth which the husband presented to his wife to mark the end of the relationship). Another form of divorce was that effected through mutual consent, through the "wish of the husband supported by the decisions of the caste assembly" and wife receiving a share of her husband's property or 101 fanams or a deed for 101 fanams by the husband.
After the reformation, divorce was permitted to both the genders in Ezhava/Thiyya community. It can be by mutual consent or on any reasonable grounds at the will of any of the partners. If it is the interest of a single partner, then the elderly members of the community in the locality after hearing the appellant and respond, give their verdict. Accordingly, the compensation and other matters are fixed. Among the patrilineal group the responsibility of children lies on father and among the matrilineal group lies on the mother after the divorce. However, nowadays, it is mainly dealt by the SNDP Yogam leaders and sometimes by the court of law. Widow/widower and divorcee(male/female) are permitted to remarry. Sororate and levirate are not a custom a, but also are not objected. 
In Nair community, from ancient times, both men and women were allowed to terminate their marriage if they had problems with it. The women were not able to terminate the union except with their Karanavan's and kinsmen's consent. After the Nair act of 1925 was passed, the divorces began to be settled in court. Paying of the Azhivu, Chelavu and Ozhivu Pudava was not there in Nair community. Sororate and levirate are considered shameful in Nair community. 

Gender determination

In Poinson Damsels by Penzer it is stated about Ezhava community that, "Among the ceremonies is that which determines the gender of the unborn child. The priestess pours a quantity of oil on the navel of the woman from a betel leaf, and, from the manner in which it flows down, the gender is determined." There is no such ritual in Nair community. 

From the above details it is clear that Nair community and Ezhava community are not related to each other. I don't know about the martial connection of Ezhava community. But there are many martial communities in India and all of them have different ancestries. The Bunt community of Tulu Nadu was once said to be related to the Nair community. But most of its rituals are different from the rituals of Nair community. For example, the serpent worshipping of Nair community is entirely different from the serpent worshipping of the Bunt commnuity. Chekavar or Chovvan is another martial community of Kerala but that too is not related to Nair community. 



Reference: Sri Lanka: Current Issues and Historical Background by Walter Nubin, The Sacred in Popular Hinduism: An Empirical Study in Chirakkal, North Malabar by A. M. Abraham Ayrookuzhiel,  Kerala: yesterday, today and tomorrow. National Book Agency by E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Global Encyclopaedia of the South Indian Dalit's Ethnography, Volume 1 edited by Nagendra Kr Singh, Applied anthropology and challenges of development in India by P. R. G. Mathur, Slow Flows the Pampa: Socio-economic Changes in a Kuttanad Village in Kerala by K. E. Verghese, Politics, Women and Well-Being: How Kerala became 'a Model' by Robin Jeffrey. 

Nair Pillai and Shaiva Vellala Pillai: same surname, different castes

A few days ago, I saw an answer on a question-and-answer website, in which it was written that "In Kerala, Shaiva Vellala belong to Nair community." The Shaiva Vellala Pillai is a caste mostly found in Travancore. Though a caste of Vellalar community, they are mistaken as the Nair due to some misconceptions. According to the census report of 1901, the castes that use the surname Pillai are Nair, Agamudaiyan, Ambalakaran, Golla, Idaiyan, Nokkan, Panisavan, Panikkan(Kaniyar), Paraya, Saiyakkaranan, Sembadavan and Senaikkudaiyans. Pillai was also the title of male offsprings of Devadāsis. According to Edgar Thurston, many Paraya butlers serving Europeans assumed the title Pillai as a suffix to their names. If more than caste use same surname that doesn't mean that they have common ancestry. Surnames or titles were given according to profession, not according to castes. 

The Thondai Mandalam Shaiva Vellala are also known as Shaiva Vellala, Nayanar, Pillaimar, Vellala or Shaiva Vellalar. They use the titles Pillaimar, Nayanar, Mudaliyar, Udayar. They speak Tamil and are distributed in all districts of Tamil Nadu and Travancore region of Kerala. The Nāgas are mentioned in Tamil scriptures as Nāka and because of that there is a misconception that Nāgas were Tamils. In Manimekkalai, it is stated that the "speech of Nāgas was not Tamil but it was possible for a Tamil man to master it." The Vellalar were also called Gangakula or Gangavamsa, because they derived their descent from the great and powerful tribe named Gangavida, which inhabited in the valley of Ganges. 

Shaiva Vellalas are strictly vegetarians whereas Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs are non-vegetarians. There is another misconception that all forward castes are vegetarians and vegetarians are seen as superior than non-vegetarians. This is purely a stupid belief. In forward castes, there are non-vegetarians too. For example, the Rajputs are non-vegetarians. In the Navaratri Pujas, they offer mutton to Goddess Durga. Similarly Bengali Brahmins, Assamese Brahmins and Kashmiri Pandits non-vegetarians. But at the same time, in Gujarat, 90% of Hindus irrespective of caste are vegetarians. 

Thondai Mandala Mudaliyar

In 'People of India - Tamil Nadu' I found a caste that is very similar to Shaiva Vellala. They are Thondaimandala Mudaliyar. They are also known as Thondaimandala Vellalar. They are a sub-caste of Vellalar community. They are originally from Thondaimandalam or the Pallava country, the present Chengai-MGR and North Arcot Ambedkar Districts. 
Territorially, Thondaimandalam is subdivided into Thuluva, who are believed to have come from Tulu country, the Poonamalee (or Pundamalli) Vellalar, so called from the town of that name near Madras, and the Kondakattis (those who do not cut their hair and tie it in a knot). All sections of Thondaimandalam Vellalar are subdivided into 24 Kottams and 79 Nadus. 
According to a legend a king once came to hunt in these wilds and in a place in the vicinity of the town of Kanchipuram in the kingdom of Arcot, he met a Nāgakanya. He fell in love with her. He promised her if she bore him a son, that son would succeed him as king. Years went by. The king returned to the kingdom and abdicated his throne in favour of his eldest son. When the son of the Nāgakanya was 14, he set out to meet his father, wearing a fruit of the Adhonda tree around his neck. Although his father recognised him at first, when the son recalled his promise to his mother and cited the Adhonda tree fruit as the witness, the king identified him and accepted him as son, the younger requested the king to give him an army with which he would conquer the kingdom for himself. This the king did, and the young prince subdued the Kurubavar who lived in Krishna and Kaveri. As the shepherds knew nothing of cultivation, the young king, now called Adhonda Chakra, returned to his father's kingdom and brought back from there as many Vellalar as who chose to migrate with him. The young Raja held out great encouragement, and a number of adventurers of that caste accompained him back. He gave them large grants of waste land and they established 1024 forts, 81 districts, and 1900 villages. This country was formerly called Dandaka Aranya. Adhonda chakra renamed it to Dhanda Mandalam or country of tree Dhonda, which bore testimony of his descent. The emigrants of the Vellalavaru are now called the Thondaimandalam Vellalar. 
The Thondaimandalam Mudaliars are pure vegetarians. Their staple food is rice. They use groundnut oil and gingelly oil for cooking. Whereas Nairs mostly use coconut oil for cooking. In the previously mentioned book, People of India -Tamil Nadu, it is stated that "both men and women of the Thondaimandal Mudaliar caste chew tobacco, betel and use snuff." Women of Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair castes don't use snuff. 
Gothrams like Tamilang and Kanimar are found among them. The function of the Gothrams is to regulate marriage alliances. Consanguineous marriages are permitted among the Thondai Mandala Mudaliar. They marry their father's sister's daughter, mother's brother's daughter or eldest sister's daughter. Sororate is permitted, but levirate is prohibited. Very few people know that in Nair community, sororate, levirate and avunculate marriages are prohibited. In cousin marriages, only cross-cousin marriages are allowed and the Tharavadu names husband and wife's maternal grandmothers, maternal grandfathers, paternal grandmothers and paternal grandfathers should not be same. 
At the time of first pregnancy, the Thondaimandala Mudaliyar observe pre-delivery rituals such as Valaikappu. Valaikappu is not one of the rituals of Nair community. Like all other Hindus, the Thondai Mandala Mudaliar cremate their dead. After the cremation, the sons of the deceased shave their head at the cremation ground. This ritual, that is, shaving the head after funeral rituals, is also not there in Nair community. 

Thondai Mandala Mudaliyar Christian

Those Thondai Mandala Mudaliyar who converted to Christianity are referred to as Thondai Mandala Mudaliyar Christian. Most of them are Roman Catholics and are said to have embraced Christianity during the period of St.Francis Xavier's evangelism in the southern part of Tamil Nadu. In those days, they were employed as custodians of Churches and some of them continue in the same employment at present. Their caste title is Mudaliyar.   

I hope it is clear that Shaiva Vellalas actually belong Vellalar community and are not at all related to Nairs. The Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs are strictly religious. In the Report of Malabar Marriage commission, written in 1891, it is clearly given how strict these communities were especially in the case of marriage. There is nothing wrong in marrying from one's own caste, it is actually done to protect one's traditions. 

Reference: Historical Dictionary of the Tamils by Shri.Vijaya Ramaswamy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, History of Kerala: Written in the form of notes on Visscher's letters from Malabar by Shri.K. P. Padmanabha Menon, People of India - Tamil Nadu by Shri.K. S. Singh, Shri.R. Thirumalai and Shri.S. Manoharan.

Sambandham

The Chola-Chera war is said to have occurred in the 11th century. It is also known as 'Hundred years' War'. The battle was won by the Chola King Shri.Rajaraja Chola I. The Chera kingdom eventually became a tribute-paying vassal of Tanjore in c. 1018 AD. A prominent outcome of the Chola-Chera war during the eleventh century was the disintegration of the patrilineal or the Makkathayam system of inheritance and its eventual replacement by the Marumakkathayam or the matrilineal system. After the war, because the number of Nair men decreased to a large extent, the Nairs decided to have hypergamous relations in their community and follow matrilineality to save their community from extinction. 

The Nāgavanshi Nairs lived in Joint families. Because they followed the matrilineal system, the sons and daughters used to stay in their mother's house or Tharavādu, even after the marriage, and the children were accepted as the members of their mother's family. So a Nagavanshi Nair Tharavadu consisted of an old mother, her sisters, her brothers, her children, her nieces, her nephews, her grandchildren and her sisters' grandchildren. Men of the family were experts in martial arts and did various respected professions whereas women did household duties in their Tharavādu. Each Nāgavanshi Nair family owned a business because of which they became rich and wealthy. The married men were allowed to meet their spouses and children once in a month. The owner of the entire property was the eldest female member, but it was managed by the men of the Tharavādu. The property was never divided among the members. The positive side of this lifestyle was women always remained secured. Even if a woman became a widow, she lived a sociable or a non-isolated life in her Tharavādu. 

What was Sambandham?  

The word Sambandham(संबन्धम्) means both relationship and relative. In ancient Kerala, it was also the name of a ritual similar to marriage. Men were allowed to marry the women of their own caste and have Sambandhams with the women of castes inferior to their's according to the caste hierarchy of those days. The difference between Sambandham and marriage is that the Thaali(तालि) or Mangalsutra was not tied in Sambandham, children born of such relations never had any right on their father's property and the children were never accepted as the members of their father's community. Not only in Sambandhams, children born of hypergamous marriages were also not considered as the members of their father's community. For example, men of Hindu Royal families used to marry Nāgavanshi Nair women, but their children were not accepted as the members of Royal families because the Nāgavanshi Nair is a non-Royal community. 

Men of Malayali Brahmin(Nambudiri), Tamil Brahmin and Tulu Brahmin communities were allowed to have Sambandhams with Nāgavanshi Nair women. Similarly, men of Royal families and Nāgavanshi Nair men had Sambandhams with women of those castes which were considered inferior than theirs. 

The ritual and how the relation was kept  

Though Nāgavanshi Nair families were matrilineal, they were and are still patriarchial. When a Brahmin man decides to have Sambandham with a Nāgavanshi Nair woman, he used to express about it to the elder men of her family. Then the elder men used to discuss about the request of Sambandham with the eldest female member of the family and after that they ordered the younger female members to inform the woman with whom the Brahmin man wanted to have Sambandham. The woman was an unmarried, a widowed or a divorced, but not the life partner of another man. 
A date and time were decided for Sambandham. On that day, when the Brahmin man arrived, he was welcomed by the members of the Nair family. The ritual was conducted in the sitting room. A Vilakku or a traditional Kerala lamp was lit in the sitting room and then a Pudava (पुड़वा, an off-white coloured garment with a wide golden border) was given to the Nair woman by the Brahmin man. After that, she was called the Sambandham of that Brahmin man. The Nair woman and her children lived with her family members. Though the children never inherited their father's property and were not accepted as Brahmins, their father used to visit them at least once in a month to know about their welfare. 
The Brahmins never used to have food in non-Brahmin houses because they have a typical religious way of cooking and eating the food and also they have to keep themselves pure for the religious rituals. Even when a Hindu Temple gets slight impurity, the priests repeat all the Temple rituals they did right from the early morning, as a respect towards the deity. 
Gradually, when the number of Nāgavanshi Nair men began increasing so began the rising of cross-cousin marriages and same-caste marriages in the Nāgavanshi Nair community. 

Polyandry in Kerala 

Polyandry means having more than one husband at a time. When I was searching on the internet about polyandry in India, I read about two non-Nair communities in books, that they practiced fraternal polyandry. I don't know if it is true or not. In 'Marriage and Customs of Tribes of India by Shri.J. P. Singh Rana' it is written that "In case of Kaniyans and Panikkans, when the eldest brother has bought a wife, she and her husband's brothers are seated together and a sweet preparation is given to them, which signifies that she has become the common wife of all" and In 'Social Mobility In Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict by Filippo Osella, Caroline Osella' it is written that "Polyandry is another arrangement once relatively popular among Izhavas, that has now almost disappeared. Valiyagramam Izhavas account for polyandry by reason for economic factors.  It is usually a temporary arrangement involving two brothers unable to bear the cost of two marriages and two households." Recently, I read an article on Wikipedia about polyandry in which there was a mention about the names of some castes of Kerala including Nair. 
Some people claim that Nairs practiced non-fraternal polyandry. I don't know about other castes which use the same surnames of Nāgavanshi Nairs but polyandry never existed in the Nāgavanshi Nair community or Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair castes. Undoubtedly, Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair castes were monoandrous. Men and women had the right to terminate their marriage if they had problems in their married lives. Likewise, widowed men and women had the right to get remarried. But that doesn't mean that men and women ended their marriage for small reasons to remarry again and again. Women with loose morals were ousted from the community. 
Princess Panchali is one of the most respected women in Hinduism. She never wished to have polyandrous relations. Such a life was given as punishment to her because in her previous life she had done Tapasya and asked God to give her a 100% perfect husband. Both her's and her husbands' families were patrilineal. Though the Pandavas had a common wife, they had separate wives too. After the Kurukshetra war, when Prince Yudhisthira was declared as the King of Hastinapura, Princess Panchali was declared as the Queen. Because Princess Panchali was the eldest among all the wives. 

Fallacy about matrilineal communities  

While searching about polyandry on the internet, I read about 'Nikah Ijtimah' on Wikipedia. Nikah Ijtimah means combined marriage. It was a form of polyandry that existed in the Pre-Islamic period in the Arabian peninsula.

Most people believe that all the matrilneal communities around the world were polyandrous. Alexander Hamilton in his book 'Account of the East-Indies 1688-1723' has written that Nair women used to live in huts, practiced polyandry and had twelve husbands. In my opinion, it was actually copied from Julius Caeser's travel accounts. I don't know if what Julius Caesar wrote is true or false. There is a mention about it in the book 'The History Of Scotland – Volume 1: From The Romans to Mary of Guise by Andrew Lang'. It is as follows, "In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar landed in southern Britain, and penetrated north of Thames. He found people dwelling (when security was needed) in the huts circled with a ditch and rampart, and surrounded by bush. Near the coast, they were agricultural; farther inland they were pastoral. They painted themselves blue (perhaps only to strike terror in war); we do not hear that they tattooed themselves. Their most important custom (if correctly reported) was Polyandry; ten or twelve men, generally brother or fathers with sons, had wives, it is said, in common." 
Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair women never lived in huts. They lived luxuriously in their Tharavadus, and as I said before they never practiced polyandry. Some of them were also married to Kings and Princes of Royal families. Though those Nair women were not allowed to dine with the Royal family members, they lived a very happy life with their husbands. Nair women were taught right from their childhood about Goddess Parvathi who is one the ideal wives mentioned in the Hindu Puranas. According to Hindu Puranas, Goddess Parvathi had taken a strict fast to get Lord Shiva as her husband and after their marriage, she began to observe same the fast, once in a year, for the good health and long life of Lord Shiva. According to Malayali Hindu beliefs, the fast taken by Goddess Paravthi is called Thiruvathira Vratham. Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair women were advised to take Thiruvathira Vratham right from their childhood. Unmarried women used to observe this fast to get a good husband and married women used to observe this fast for the good health and long life of their husbands. 
Ancient Japan was a matrilineal, if not a matriarchal, society. Until the eleventh century or so, upon marriage the husband and wife lived apart, the husband visited the wife in her home, and the children stayed with the mother. Polyandry never existed in Japan. 

Reformation in Nair community  

In 1912, the first Nair Act was passed, giving males the right to give half of their self-aquired property to their sons and the other half to their nephews. In Cochin, a law was passed in 1920 making Sambandham illegal.The Nair Regulation of 1925 and Cochin Nair Act of 1937-38 broke old joint-family system and allowed partition of Joint-family property and legalised inheritance from father to son, instead of uncle to nephew. Within five years of the 1925 Act, many Tharavādus are said to have been partitioned. Similar Acts were put into the statute books of Malabar and Cochin in 1933 and 1938 respectively; the former allowed the legal partitioning of Tharavadu into matrilineal segments and the latter allowed partitioning on an individual basis. 
The Nair Act of 1925 deprived nephews of claims to the property of their uncles. These acts legally recognized the conjugal family and set out the relations of protection and dependence between husband and wife and between father and children. Guardianship of the wife was legally ceded to the husband. Divorce, which had been settled informally under Sambandham, was made a subject to the courts. The Nair Act of 1925 got similar support from Nair women. 
In 1950 India became a democratic country and Sambandham soon got eliminated from Kerala. Every individual irrespective of religion, caste and gender got the right to get educated and employed. Child marriage too began to diminish in the state. The Hindu Succession Act was passed in the year 1956. This Act is applicable to Hindu (including all castes), Buddhist, Jain and Sikh communities. According to this Act, a person, whether from a matrilineal or patrilineal family, has the right to get a share of the ancestral properties of his both parents and when a married person dies, the spouse will become the first heir, children will become the second heirs and grandchildren will become the third heirs of his/her property. 




Reference: Man in India, Volume 76, Narayanan, M. G. S. Perumāḷs of Kerala: Brahmin Oligarchy and Ritual Monarchy: Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cēra Perumāḷs of Makōtai (c. AD 800 - AD 1124). Thrissur (Kerala): Cosmo Books, 2013. 115-117, Pacific Affairs, Volume 63, A Field of One's Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia by Bina Agarwal, Agarwal Bina, Female Ascetics: Hierarchy and Purity in Indian Religious Movements by Wendy Sinclair-Brull, Public Library Movement: Kerala by A. Paslithil, Women, Gender and Everyday Social Transformation in India edited by Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Anne Waldrop, Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief Among North American Indians and Inuit by Canadian Anthropology Society. Meeting, Modern Japan: A Historical Survey by Mikiso Hane, ‎Louis Perez, Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London, Volumes 21-22 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Company, 1924.