I respect all the communities in the world. But it seems like some people are trying to bring my community under their control and it's very distressing. When I was writing on a new topic, I noticed that I had received some comments on one of my previous blogs titled 'Kaniyars were not the preceptors of Kalaripayattu'. Those people claimed that they belong to a caste called "Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker" and their ancestors were the preceptors of Nairs, etc. They were trying hard to convince me that what they were saying is true. But there is no genuine evidence for what they said. Until recent years, this caste was known as the sub-caste of Kaniyar community but now some members of this caste are saying that they are a different caste and are not related to Kaniyar community. I deleted all their comments and disabled comments for the blog. I never wanted to write a post like this. Because the disturbance from some members of some non-Brahmin communities has become unbearable, I decided to write it. Few months ago, I noticed that an article called 'Kalaripayattu (stick fighting)' is posted on Wikipedia and details about weapons were exactly the way I have written on the post with title Kalaripayattu. It seemed like someone had copied them from my blog. I felt very sad but I ignored it. I always write posts by referring books. Some posts I have written based on the rituals and traditions of my family. I never write on blog anything created in my imagination.
Few days ago I saw that someone has written on the internet, "Nesamani is a famous freedom fighter but why the caste name Nair got so famous and became known to all." I don't know what problem this person has with the fame of Nair community. The Nair community is famous from centuries. The European travelers of ancient India have noted about all the castes of Malabar in their books. The most famous among the Malabari castes were, Brahmin, because of their Satvik and pious lifestyle, Kshatriya, because they were royalty and Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs, because of their martial art skills. The men of Hindu royal familes too were experts in martial arts. From one of the videos about Kung-fu on YouTube I came to know that Kung-fu was actually brought to China by a Prince from southern India whose name was Shri. Jayavarman. In my opinion, the Cochin Royal Family are the descendants of Prince Janamejaya, the great grandson of Prince Arjuna of Kuru kingdom and Princess Subhadra of Dwāraka kingdom. Once I read on the internet that they are Chandravashi Kshatriyas and the other name Cochin Royal Family is Kuru Swaroopam. King Kuru was a Chandravanshi Kshatriya and the ruler of Kuru Kingdom. Pandavas and Kauravas were his descendants. The martial art teacher of Pandavas and Kauravas was Guru Dronacharya, who belonged to the Brahmin community and was the descendant of Maharshi Angirasa. Guru Dronacharya had learned martial arts from Lord Parashurama. The Guruvayur Shree Krishna Temple actually belonged to the Cochin Royal Family. At that time the name of the Temple was Kuruvayur. There is a belief that Prince Janamejaya had visited this Temple and prayed to Lord Krishna to forgive the sins of Sarpasatra. Later, a war happened between the King of Cochin Royal Family and the King of Samoothiri Royal Family (Zamorin Royal Family). The King of Samoothiri Royal Family captured a large area of Cochin kingdom which included Guruvayur and hence the King of Samoothiri Royal Family got authority over the Shree Krishna Temple of Guruvayur.
Duarte Barbosa in his book, A Description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, has mentioned in the section about Nairs as follows, "In these fencing there is much agility and science. And there are very skillful men who teach this art, and they are called Panicars. These are captains in war. These Nairs when enlist to live with the King bind themselves and promise to die for him." Panicars mentioned in the section about Nairs are Nair-Panickers and not other Panickers. Kurup means teacher and it was a title given to the teachers of Kalaris or martial art schools. When a Nair man became an expert on Kalarippayattu, he was given the title Panicker which means master and was appointed as the head of the soldiers in the kings' armies. But if he was appointed as the teacher in Kalaris, he was given the title Kurup. Kurup, Panicker, Menon, Nambiar, Pillai, Thampi, Kaimal, Kartha were the titles given to men of Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair community. Today these titles are used by the members of all castes of Hindu and Christian communities.
The caste called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker is found in Kerala and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. Some members of this community who are born and raised in Kerala speak Tamil very well like native speakers. They claim that it was their ancestors who taught Kalaripayattu to the ancestors of all other castes in Kerala. They say that Kurup and Panicker are their castes and not titles given by the kings. The people of this caste used to call the martial art of Kerala 'Kalari', which is incorrect. Kalari means institution and the name of the martial art is Kalaripayattu.
In Keralolpaththi it is mentioned that Nairs are Nāgavanshis who came from a kingdom called Ahichchathra. But there is no information about the history of Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker caste. I think the members of this caste too don't know about their ancestry. In the scriptures of Sangam era Nāka (Nāga) are mentioned as a martial tribe who were serpent worshippers and whose mother tongue was not Tamil. Whereas there is no mention about a martial tribe called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker in these scriptures.
There is a Malayalam movie song based on the communist way of thinking. The song is called "Parashuraman mazhu erinju nediyathalla (meaning: Lord Parashurama didn't obtain by throwing axe)." According to Hindu beliefs, Kerala was formed when Lord Parashurama threw axe in the sea and the sea went backwards till the point just after where the axe fell.
I think the members of Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker caste have a false belief that once their ancestors had a good position in society and it is because of the ancestors of Nairs their ancestors lost their position. They may argue that the kings and the Brahmins suppressed their ancestors because they never allowed their women to have Sambandhams with them. My answer for this argument is as follows,
1) Sambandham was like a normal marriage. The only difference was Thaali or Mangalsutra was not tied in Sambandham. Upper caste Nair women were not polyandrous. In Mahabharata there is a mention about a sage called Shree Āstika whose father was Brahmin and mother belonged to Nāgavansha. In one of my previous posts, Nāgavanshis of Kanchipuram, I have shared some information given in the scriptures of Sangam era which says that the kings and princes of those era used to marry Nāgavanshi women. So the hypergamous marriage existed in Nair community from ancient times but it was not polyandrous. The caste of the children born from hypergamous marriages were decided according to the caste hierarchy. I personally believe that the kings and the Brahmins never married women of other non-Royal and non-Brahmin castes because their ancestries had no relation with the ancestries of those castes.
2) There are proofs for Ramayana and Mahabharata. Also, in these scriptures there is a mention about a warrior tribe called Nāga. At the same time, there is no mention about a community called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker.
3) If their ancestor were great warriors, why there is no mention about them and a caste called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker in the ballads of Kerala? They also claim that their ancestors had good knowledge of astrology and medicine. If that is true, which are the books based on astrology and medicine written by their ancestors? In which language their ancestors wrote the astrological calendars if their ancestors knew to read and write?
The oldest civilization in this world is Harappan civilization or Sindhu-Saraswati civilization. The Mantras of Rigveda are written in the walls of the houses of Harappan civilization. Vedas were written by the ancestors of Brahmins. Rigveda is the oldest religious text in the world. In ancient times Astrology was the profession of Brahmins only. Brahmins are the descendants of Maharishis. Some of the oldest books based on astrology were written by Maharishi Bhrigu and Maharishi Parashara. Similarly, some of the oldest books based on medicine are Sushrutasamhita and Charakasamhita. Dhanurveda, the Veda about martial arts, was written by Maharishi Vashishṭha. The Maharishis were very religious, they had very pious lifestyle and because they chanted Mantras daily and worshiped God with strong devotion through rituals like Pooja,Yagna and Homa, they developed sixth sense using which they learned about astronomy, astrology, medicine, martial arts and various other types of sciences. There is no information about from where the ancestors of Kalari kurups and Kalari panickers learned astrology, medicine and martial arts. Shri. L. Anantha Krishna Iyer has mentioned in his book, in the section about this caste that "Some curious old weapons of war covered with rust were seen by me in their schools, but they would not part with them (തുരുമ്പുകൊണ്ട് പൊതിഞ്ഞ ചില പഴയ യുദ്ധായുധങ്ങൾ അവരുടെ കളരികളിൽ ഞാൻ കണ്ടു, പക്ഷെ അവർ പങ്കെടുക്കുമ്പോൾ അത് ഉപയോഗിക്കാറില്ല)." The rusted weapons might be the ones abandoned by Kshatriyas and Nairs. It is very impolite or disrespectful to keep rusted weapons in Kalaris because in Kalaris the Goddess and other Deities are installed and only after bowing to them with folded hands the practice is begun. Kalari is not a place only for practicing martial arts. The worship of Goddess and other Deities are also performed in Kalaris.
Some words are common in more than one language but they have different meanings. For example, in Tulu language the word Nāyar means plough. Similarly, In Tamil the word Kaḷari (களரி) means gallery and Panikkar (பணிக்கர்) means worker. So, in Tamil the name Kalari Panicker could mean gallery worker. The name Kalari kurup might be later adopted by some members of this caste to raise their social status, the way Kadupattans did. Kadupattan was a caste of salt-workers. Later they changed their caste name to Ezhuthachan to raise their social status. But no one had any objection in Kadupattans changing the name of their caste. They were treated like normal people and they never had to face any problem from the society.
Nairs have only one caste organisation, and that is Nair Seva Samajam or Nair Service society (NSS). Today many organisations have been made using the name of Nair caste. For example, Samastha Nair Samajam. As far as I have seen, many members of this organisation are non-Nairs of Tamil and Telugu origin. There are many non-Nairs in NSS too. One user on YouTube once told me that some members of NSS are secretly following Christianity.
Some Non-Brahmin castes have a misconception that their caste is related to Nair. At the same time, some other non-Brahmin castes are creating fabricated stories and are trying to establish that those fabricated stories are true. These story-inventors have mainly targeted three communities in Kerala, the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas (castes of Royal families) and the Nāgavanshi Nairs (Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs). The most painful and unforgivable thing is that some of these story-inventors are trying to have marital relations with members of these three communities by deception.
Shri. Chirakkal T. Sreedharan Nair had written a book on Kalaripayattu in which he had mentioned the name of Shri. C. V. Narayanan Nair as "C V Narayanan Nair Gurukkal". This could be the reason why some members of Tamil-Gurukkal community migrated to Kannur (the hometown of Shri. C. V. Narayanan Nair) and began to pretend that they belong to Nair community. Maybe, they had a misconception that Nair community has a sub-caste called Gurukkal. In Kerala the word Gurukkal means teacher. It was used by the students to call their teachers and it is not the name of a caste. The members of Tamil-Gurukkal caste, settled in Kerala, changed their caste name to Nair-Gurukkal. I have seen some of their profiles on the matrimonial websites. But after their misconceptions were cleared no issues with this caste have been reported yet.
Last year, I think, a person commented on one of my posts and I chatted with him by giving replies. He tried to pretend that he belongs to my community. When I asked him about the details of his family, I felt like he is becoming nervous. Finally, I found that he doesn't belong community and when I asked him why did he lie, he said "I am also a Nair. I don't care what you think about me." How rude! isn't it? Because he knows very well that my community has strict rules. I thought, doesn't he feel shame to look down on his own community and think lowly of his ancestors.
Subdivisions are not there only in Hindu community. For example in the Muslim community, there are subdivisions like Sunni, Shia, Salafi, etc. Similarly, in the Christian community there are subdivisions like Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, etc. I think most of the castes of the Hindu community were migrants who were not Hindus before and this could be the reason why in ancient times the members of migrant communities were not allowed to enter Hindu Temples. The indigenous castes of India have a great respect for their their ancestry, rituals and traditions and because of that most of the members of indigenous castes marry according to their caste rules only.
I have seen some people writing nonsense about Nair community on the internet. When I see such cooked up contents, I think what the writers of these items are trying to prove. If you don't know about a community, you should not write about it. For example, if someone asks me about the rituals of Brahmin community, I would frankly say that I don't know. Because only those who are born and raised in Brahmin community can tell correctly about its rituals. Have you ever seen in my blogs the matters of other castes written with a lot of interest? Also, I have never invented stories about other castes in my life. I have a lot of books based on the history of Kerala and I refer those books to write posts. The Internet is like a blessing from God. Today it is one of the most needed thing in a person's life. Writing genuine contents will help a lot of people around the world to gain more knowledge.
Few days ago I saw that someone has written on the internet, "Nesamani is a famous freedom fighter but why the caste name Nair got so famous and became known to all." I don't know what problem this person has with the fame of Nair community. The Nair community is famous from centuries. The European travelers of ancient India have noted about all the castes of Malabar in their books. The most famous among the Malabari castes were, Brahmin, because of their Satvik and pious lifestyle, Kshatriya, because they were royalty and Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs, because of their martial art skills. The men of Hindu royal familes too were experts in martial arts. From one of the videos about Kung-fu on YouTube I came to know that Kung-fu was actually brought to China by a Prince from southern India whose name was Shri. Jayavarman. In my opinion, the Cochin Royal Family are the descendants of Prince Janamejaya, the great grandson of Prince Arjuna of Kuru kingdom and Princess Subhadra of Dwāraka kingdom. Once I read on the internet that they are Chandravashi Kshatriyas and the other name Cochin Royal Family is Kuru Swaroopam. King Kuru was a Chandravanshi Kshatriya and the ruler of Kuru Kingdom. Pandavas and Kauravas were his descendants. The martial art teacher of Pandavas and Kauravas was Guru Dronacharya, who belonged to the Brahmin community and was the descendant of Maharshi Angirasa. Guru Dronacharya had learned martial arts from Lord Parashurama. The Guruvayur Shree Krishna Temple actually belonged to the Cochin Royal Family. At that time the name of the Temple was Kuruvayur. There is a belief that Prince Janamejaya had visited this Temple and prayed to Lord Krishna to forgive the sins of Sarpasatra. Later, a war happened between the King of Cochin Royal Family and the King of Samoothiri Royal Family (Zamorin Royal Family). The King of Samoothiri Royal Family captured a large area of Cochin kingdom which included Guruvayur and hence the King of Samoothiri Royal Family got authority over the Shree Krishna Temple of Guruvayur.
Duarte Barbosa in his book, A Description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, has mentioned in the section about Nairs as follows, "In these fencing there is much agility and science. And there are very skillful men who teach this art, and they are called Panicars. These are captains in war. These Nairs when enlist to live with the King bind themselves and promise to die for him." Panicars mentioned in the section about Nairs are Nair-Panickers and not other Panickers. Kurup means teacher and it was a title given to the teachers of Kalaris or martial art schools. When a Nair man became an expert on Kalarippayattu, he was given the title Panicker which means master and was appointed as the head of the soldiers in the kings' armies. But if he was appointed as the teacher in Kalaris, he was given the title Kurup. Kurup, Panicker, Menon, Nambiar, Pillai, Thampi, Kaimal, Kartha were the titles given to men of Kiriyathil and Illathu Nair community. Today these titles are used by the members of all castes of Hindu and Christian communities.
The caste called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker is found in Kerala and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu. Some members of this community who are born and raised in Kerala speak Tamil very well like native speakers. They claim that it was their ancestors who taught Kalaripayattu to the ancestors of all other castes in Kerala. They say that Kurup and Panicker are their castes and not titles given by the kings. The people of this caste used to call the martial art of Kerala 'Kalari', which is incorrect. Kalari means institution and the name of the martial art is Kalaripayattu.
In Keralolpaththi it is mentioned that Nairs are Nāgavanshis who came from a kingdom called Ahichchathra. But there is no information about the history of Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker caste. I think the members of this caste too don't know about their ancestry. In the scriptures of Sangam era Nāka (Nāga) are mentioned as a martial tribe who were serpent worshippers and whose mother tongue was not Tamil. Whereas there is no mention about a martial tribe called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker in these scriptures.
There is a Malayalam movie song based on the communist way of thinking. The song is called "Parashuraman mazhu erinju nediyathalla (meaning: Lord Parashurama didn't obtain by throwing axe)." According to Hindu beliefs, Kerala was formed when Lord Parashurama threw axe in the sea and the sea went backwards till the point just after where the axe fell.
I think the members of Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker caste have a false belief that once their ancestors had a good position in society and it is because of the ancestors of Nairs their ancestors lost their position. They may argue that the kings and the Brahmins suppressed their ancestors because they never allowed their women to have Sambandhams with them. My answer for this argument is as follows,
1) Sambandham was like a normal marriage. The only difference was Thaali or Mangalsutra was not tied in Sambandham. Upper caste Nair women were not polyandrous. In Mahabharata there is a mention about a sage called Shree Āstika whose father was Brahmin and mother belonged to Nāgavansha. In one of my previous posts, Nāgavanshis of Kanchipuram, I have shared some information given in the scriptures of Sangam era which says that the kings and princes of those era used to marry Nāgavanshi women. So the hypergamous marriage existed in Nair community from ancient times but it was not polyandrous. The caste of the children born from hypergamous marriages were decided according to the caste hierarchy. I personally believe that the kings and the Brahmins never married women of other non-Royal and non-Brahmin castes because their ancestries had no relation with the ancestries of those castes.
2) There are proofs for Ramayana and Mahabharata. Also, in these scriptures there is a mention about a warrior tribe called Nāga. At the same time, there is no mention about a community called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker.
3) If their ancestor were great warriors, why there is no mention about them and a caste called Kalari kurup/Kalari panicker in the ballads of Kerala? They also claim that their ancestors had good knowledge of astrology and medicine. If that is true, which are the books based on astrology and medicine written by their ancestors? In which language their ancestors wrote the astrological calendars if their ancestors knew to read and write?
The oldest civilization in this world is Harappan civilization or Sindhu-Saraswati civilization. The Mantras of Rigveda are written in the walls of the houses of Harappan civilization. Vedas were written by the ancestors of Brahmins. Rigveda is the oldest religious text in the world. In ancient times Astrology was the profession of Brahmins only. Brahmins are the descendants of Maharishis. Some of the oldest books based on astrology were written by Maharishi Bhrigu and Maharishi Parashara. Similarly, some of the oldest books based on medicine are Sushrutasamhita and Charakasamhita. Dhanurveda, the Veda about martial arts, was written by Maharishi Vashishṭha. The Maharishis were very religious, they had very pious lifestyle and because they chanted Mantras daily and worshiped God with strong devotion through rituals like Pooja,Yagna and Homa, they developed sixth sense using which they learned about astronomy, astrology, medicine, martial arts and various other types of sciences. There is no information about from where the ancestors of Kalari kurups and Kalari panickers learned astrology, medicine and martial arts. Shri. L. Anantha Krishna Iyer has mentioned in his book, in the section about this caste that "Some curious old weapons of war covered with rust were seen by me in their schools, but they would not part with them (തുരുമ്പുകൊണ്ട് പൊതിഞ്ഞ ചില പഴയ യുദ്ധായുധങ്ങൾ അവരുടെ കളരികളിൽ ഞാൻ കണ്ടു, പക്ഷെ അവർ പങ്കെടുക്കുമ്പോൾ അത് ഉപയോഗിക്കാറില്ല)." The rusted weapons might be the ones abandoned by Kshatriyas and Nairs. It is very impolite or disrespectful to keep rusted weapons in Kalaris because in Kalaris the Goddess and other Deities are installed and only after bowing to them with folded hands the practice is begun. Kalari is not a place only for practicing martial arts. The worship of Goddess and other Deities are also performed in Kalaris.
Some words are common in more than one language but they have different meanings. For example, in Tulu language the word Nāyar means plough. Similarly, In Tamil the word Kaḷari (களரி) means gallery and Panikkar (பணிக்கர்) means worker. So, in Tamil the name Kalari Panicker could mean gallery worker. The name Kalari kurup might be later adopted by some members of this caste to raise their social status, the way Kadupattans did. Kadupattan was a caste of salt-workers. Later they changed their caste name to Ezhuthachan to raise their social status. But no one had any objection in Kadupattans changing the name of their caste. They were treated like normal people and they never had to face any problem from the society.
Nairs have only one caste organisation, and that is Nair Seva Samajam or Nair Service society (NSS). Today many organisations have been made using the name of Nair caste. For example, Samastha Nair Samajam. As far as I have seen, many members of this organisation are non-Nairs of Tamil and Telugu origin. There are many non-Nairs in NSS too. One user on YouTube once told me that some members of NSS are secretly following Christianity.
Some Non-Brahmin castes have a misconception that their caste is related to Nair. At the same time, some other non-Brahmin castes are creating fabricated stories and are trying to establish that those fabricated stories are true. These story-inventors have mainly targeted three communities in Kerala, the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas (castes of Royal families) and the Nāgavanshi Nairs (Kiriyathil and Illathu Nairs). The most painful and unforgivable thing is that some of these story-inventors are trying to have marital relations with members of these three communities by deception.
Shri. Chirakkal T. Sreedharan Nair had written a book on Kalaripayattu in which he had mentioned the name of Shri. C. V. Narayanan Nair as "C V Narayanan Nair Gurukkal". This could be the reason why some members of Tamil-Gurukkal community migrated to Kannur (the hometown of Shri. C. V. Narayanan Nair) and began to pretend that they belong to Nair community. Maybe, they had a misconception that Nair community has a sub-caste called Gurukkal. In Kerala the word Gurukkal means teacher. It was used by the students to call their teachers and it is not the name of a caste. The members of Tamil-Gurukkal caste, settled in Kerala, changed their caste name to Nair-Gurukkal. I have seen some of their profiles on the matrimonial websites. But after their misconceptions were cleared no issues with this caste have been reported yet.
Last year, I think, a person commented on one of my posts and I chatted with him by giving replies. He tried to pretend that he belongs to my community. When I asked him about the details of his family, I felt like he is becoming nervous. Finally, I found that he doesn't belong community and when I asked him why did he lie, he said "I am also a Nair. I don't care what you think about me." How rude! isn't it? Because he knows very well that my community has strict rules. I thought, doesn't he feel shame to look down on his own community and think lowly of his ancestors.
Subdivisions are not there only in Hindu community. For example in the Muslim community, there are subdivisions like Sunni, Shia, Salafi, etc. Similarly, in the Christian community there are subdivisions like Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, etc. I think most of the castes of the Hindu community were migrants who were not Hindus before and this could be the reason why in ancient times the members of migrant communities were not allowed to enter Hindu Temples. The indigenous castes of India have a great respect for their their ancestry, rituals and traditions and because of that most of the members of indigenous castes marry according to their caste rules only.
I have seen some people writing nonsense about Nair community on the internet. When I see such cooked up contents, I think what the writers of these items are trying to prove. If you don't know about a community, you should not write about it. For example, if someone asks me about the rituals of Brahmin community, I would frankly say that I don't know. Because only those who are born and raised in Brahmin community can tell correctly about its rituals. Have you ever seen in my blogs the matters of other castes written with a lot of interest? Also, I have never invented stories about other castes in my life. I have a lot of books based on the history of Kerala and I refer those books to write posts. The Internet is like a blessing from God. Today it is one of the most needed thing in a person's life. Writing genuine contents will help a lot of people around the world to gain more knowledge.
