Part 12

All castes in South Canara have great faith in Bhutas, and, when any calamity or misfortune overtakes a family, the Bhutas must be propitiated. The worship of Bhutas is a mixture of ancestor and devil propitiation. In the Bhuta cult, the most important personage is Brahmeru, to whom the other Bhutas are subordinate. Owing to the influence of Brahman Tantris, Brahmeru is regarded as another name for Brahma, and the various Bhutas are regarded as ganas or attendants on Siva. Brahmanical influence is clearly to be traced in the various Bhuta songs, and all Bhutas are in some manner connected with Siva and Parvati.

Whenever people want to propitiate the Bhutas, a Nalke or Parava is engaged. In some places, the Nalke disguises himself as any Bhuta, but, where Paravas are also to be found, the Nalke may not dress up as the Baiderkulu, Kodamanitaya, or Rakteswari. The propitiation of the Bhuta takes the form of a ceremony called Kola, Nema, or Agelu Tambila. Of these, Kola is a periodical ceremony, in which various castes take part, and is always performed near a Bhutasthana. Nema is usually undertaken by a single family, and is performed at the house. Agelu Tambila is celebrated by Billavas at their homes. The Kola ceremony is usually performed for the propitiation of Bhutas other than the Baiderkulu. The Muktesar or chief man, with the assistance of a Brahman, fixes an auspicious day for its celebration. The jewels, and votive offerings made to the Bhutas, are kept in the custody of the Muktesar. On the Kola day, the people go in procession from the sthana to the Muktesar's house, and return to the sthana with the jewels and other articles. These are arranged on cots, and a Billava pujari places seven plantain leaves in a row on a cot, and heaps rice thereon. On each heap, a cocoanut is placed for the propitiation of the most important Bhuta. To the minor Bhutas, these things are offered on three or five leaves placed on cots, or on the floor of the sthana, according to the importance of the Bhuta. A seven-branched torch must be kept burning near the cot of the principal Bhuta. The pujari goes to the courtyard of the sthana, and piles up a conical mass of cooked rice on a stool. Over this pieces of plantain fruits are scattered. Round the mass several sheaths of plantain leaves are arranged, and on them tender cocoanut leaves, cut in various ways, are stuck. The pujari, who wears a metal belt and other jewelry, does puja to the Bhutas, and retires. The Nalkes or Paravas then advance dressed up as Bhutas, and request permission to put on their canopy (ani) and brass anklet (guggire). They then dance, and sing songs connected with the Bhutas which are being propitiated. When they are exhausted and retire, the pujari steps forwards, and addresses the assembly in the following terms:-- "Oh! great men who are assembled, with your permission I salute you all. Oh! Brahmans who are assembled, I salute you. Oh! priest, I salute you." In this manner, he is expected to run through the names of all important personages who are present. When he has finished, the devil-dancers do the same, and the ceremony is at an end.

Of the Bhutas, the best known are Brahmeru, Kodamanitaya, Kukkintaya, Jumadi, Sarlu Jumadi, Pancha Jumadi, Rakteswari, Panjurli, Kuppe Panjurli, Rakta Panjurli, Urundarayya, Hosadevata (or Hosa Bhuta), Devanajiri, Kalkutta, Ukkatiri, Gulige, Bobbariya, Nicha, Duggalaya, Mahisandaya, Varte, Chamundi, Baiderukulu, Okkuballala, and Oditaya. According to some, Jumadi is the small-pox goddess Mari. There are only two female Bhutas--Ukkatiri and Kallurti. The Bhutas are supposed to belong to different castes. For example, Okkuballala and Devanajiri are Jains, Kodamanitaya and Kukkinataya are Bants, Kalkutta is a smith, Bobbariya is a Mappilla, and Nicha a Koraga.

In some temples dedicated to Siva, the Tantris offer food, etc., to the various Bhutas on special occasions, such as Dipavali and Sankaranthi. At Udipi, the Sanyasis of the various mutts (religious institutions) seem to believe in some of the Bhutas, as they give money for the performance of Kola to Panjurli, Sarla Jumadi, and Chamundi.

At Hiriadkap in South Canara, where the Nalkes performed before me, the dancers wore spathes of the areca palm, forming spats to prevent the skin from being injured by the metal bells round their ankles as they danced.

The songs sung by the devil dancers are very numerous, and vary in different localities. Of the stories relating to Bhutas, a very full account has been given by Mr. A. C. Burnell. [86]

A collection of stories (padanollu) belonging to the demon-worshippers of the Tulu country, and recited at their annual festivals, was published at the Mangalore Basel Mission Press in 1886.

Nalla (black).--An exogamous sept of Koppala Velama.

Nallur.--Nallur and Naluvitan are recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, as sub-divisions of Nayar.

Namadari.--A name, indicating one who wears the Vaishnava sectarian mark (namam). The equivalent Namala occurs as an exogamous sept of Boya.

Nambidi.--A class, included among the Ambalavasis. It is recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, that "Nampitis are of two classes, the thread-wearing and the threadless. The former have their own priests, while the Ilayatus perform the required sacerdotal functions for the latter. Their ceremonies are very much like those of the Kshatriyas. Tradition connects them with royalty acquired under rather unenviable circumstances. They are, therefore, called Tampurans (lords) by the Sudras, and also Muppinnu (elder) or Karanavappat (uncle) head of a matriarchal family. They observe twelve days' pollution, and inherit in the female line. Their women are called Mantalu. The chief man among the Nampitis is the Karanavappat of Kakkat in British Malabar." In the Cochin Census Report, 1901, it is noted that of the Nampidis "the Aiynikoor Nampidis, or the five families of Nampidis, are historically and socially the most important; the eldest male member possesses the honorific title of Karanavarpad, enjoying special privileges at the hands of the rulers of Cochin, as the members of the family once held responsible posts in the militia of the State. According to tradition, they were Nambudris. One of the Perumals or Viceroys of Kerala having proved troublesome, the Brahmans resolved upon his removal. In the struggle that followed, the Perumal was killed by the Brahmans. When those who had slain him returned to the place where the Brahmans had met in solemn conclave, they were gladly welcomed, and asked to sit in their midst; but, feeling that they had committed a heinous crime and thus disqualified themselves from sitting along with the Brahmans, they volunteered to sit apart on the threshold of the council room by saying nam padimel (we on the threshold), which fact is supposed to account for the origin of their name Nampadi. They and their companions have since been regarded as having almost lost their social status as Brahmans, and they are now classed along with the intermediate castes, having but a few privileges other than those enjoyed by the group. They wear the sacred thread, and have Gayatri. Nambudri Brahmans officiate as priests at marriage ceremonies, sradhas, and purification at the end of birth or death pollution, which lasts only for ten days. They follow the marumakkatayam law of inheritance (in the female line). The tali (marriage badge) is tied by their own caste men. Nambudris, or their own caste men, unite themselves in sambandham with Nampidi females. Nampidis are allowed to consort with Nayar women. At public feasts they are not privileged to sit and eat with Nambudris. Their women are called Manolpads."

Nambiyassan.--A division of the Ambalavasis. It is noted, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, that "the Nampiassans, otherwise called Nampiyars or Nampis, have at present no temple service of any kind. They keep gymnasia or schools of training suited to the Indian system of warfare. They were the gurus (preceptors) of the fighting Nayars. They seem, however, at one time to have followed the profession of garland-making in temples. It is still the occupation of many Nampiassans in Cochin and British Malabar." In the Cochin Census Report, 1901, it is stated that Nambiyar is rather a misleading title, as it is applied to more than one class of people. Some Nayars are known by that title. In some places, Muthads and Elayads are also called Nambiyars. Chakkiyar Nambiyars beat a drum of a peculiar shape at intervals during the discourses or acting of the Chakkiyars, while their females, called Nangiyars, keep time. The Nangiyars also assume the figure of mythical characters, and perform a sort of pantomime on the Chakkiyar's stage. (See Unni.)

Nambiyatiri (a person worthy of worship).--A synonym of Elayad.

Nambutiri Brahman. [87]--The name Nambutiri has been variously derived. The least objectionable origin seems to be nambu (sacred or trustworthy) and tiri (a light). The latter occurs as an honorific suffix among Malabar Brahmans, and other castes above the Nayars. The Nambutiris form the socio-spiritual aristocracy of Malabar, and, as the traditional landlords of Parasu Rama's land, they are everywhere held in great reverence.

A Nambutiri, when questioned about the past, refers to the Keralolpatti. The Nambutiris and their organization according to gramams owe their origin in legend, so far as Malabar is concerned, to Parasu Rama. Parasu Rama (Rama of the axe), an incarnation of Vishnu, had, according to the puranic story, slain his mother in a fit of wrath, and was advised by the sages to expiate his sin by extirpating the Kshatriyas twenty-one times. He did so, and handed over the land to the sages. But this annoyed the Brahmans exceedingly, for they got no share in the arrangement; so they banished Parasu Rama from the land. By the performance of austerities he gained from the gods the boon to reclaim some land from Varuna, the sea god. Malabar was then non-existent. He was allowed to throw his axe from Cape Comorin, and possess all the land within the distance of his throw. So he threw his axe as far as Gokarnam in the South Canara district, and immediately there was land between these two places, within the direct line and the western ghats, now consisting of Travancore and Cochin, Malabar, and part of South Canara. To this land he gave the name Karma Bhumi, or the country in which salvation or the reverse depends altogether on man's individual actions, and blessed it that there be plenty of rain and no famine in it. But he was alone. To relieve his loneliness, he brought some Brahmans from the banks of the Krishna river, but they did not remain long, for they were frightened by the snakes. Then he brought some Brahmans from the north, and, lest they too should flee, gave them peculiar customs, and located them in sixty-four gramams. He told them also to follow the marumakkattayam law of succession (in the female line), but only a few, the Nambutiris of Payyanur, obeyed him. The Brahmans ruled the land with severity, so that the people (who had somehow come into existence) resolved to have a king under whom they could live in peace. And, as it was impossible to choose one among themselves, they chose Keya Perumal, who was the first king of Malabar, and Malabar was called Keralam after him. The truths underlying this legend are that the littoral strip between the western ghats and the sea is certainly of recent formation geologically. It is not very long, geologically, since it was under the sea, and it is certain that the Nambutiris came from the north. The capital of the Chera kingdom was very probably on the west coast not far from Cranganore in the Travancore State, the site of it being now called Tiruvanjikkulam. There is still a Siva temple there, and about a quarter of a mile to the south-west of it are the foundations of the old palace. The rainfall of Malabar is very high, ranging from 300 inches in the hills to about 120 inches on the coast.

"It is said that Parasu Rama ruled that all Nambudri women should carry with them an umbrella whenever they go out, to prevent their being seen by those of the male sex, that a Nayar woman called a Vrishali should invariably precede them, that they should be covered with a cloth from neck to foot, and that they should not wear jewels. These women are therefore always attended by a Nayar woman in their outdoor movements, and they go sheltering their faces from public gaze with a cadjan (palm leaf) umbrella." [88]

The Keralolpatti relates the story of the exclusion of the Panniyur Brahmans from the Vedas. There were in the beginning two religious factions among the Nambutiris, the Vaishnavas or worshippers of Vishnu in his incarnation as a boar, and the Saivas; the former residing in Panniyur (boar village), and the latter in Chovur (Siva's village). The Saivas gained the upper hand, and, completely dominating the others, excluded them altogether from the Vedas. So now the Nambutiris of Panniyur are said to be prohibited from studying the Vedas. It is said, however, that this prohibition is not observed, and that, as a matter of fact, the Panniyur Nambutiris perform all the Vedic ceremonies.

"Tradition," Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes, "as recorded in the Keralamahatmiya, traces the Nambutiris to Ahikshetra, whence Parasu Rama invited Brahmans to settle in his newly reclaimed territory. In view to preventing the invited settlers from relinquishing it, he is said to have introduced, on the advice of the sage Narada, certain deep and distinctive changes in their personal, domestic, and communal institutions. The banks of the Nerbudda, the Krishna, and the Kaveri are believed to have given Brahmans to Malabar. I have come across Nambutiris who have referred to traditions in their families regarding villages on the east coast whence their ancestors originally came, and the sub-divisions of the Smarta caste, Vadama, Brihatcharanam, Ashtasahasram, Sanketi, etc., to which they belonged. Even to this day, an east coast Brahman of the Vadadesattu Vadama caste has to pour water into the hands of a Nambutiri Sanyasi as part of the latter's breakfast ritual. Broach in Kathiwar, one of the greatest emporiums of trade in the middle ages, is also mentioned as one of the ancient recruiting districts of the Nambutiri Brahmans. Broach was the ancient Bhrigucachchha, where Parasu Rama made his avabhritasnana (final bathing) after his great triumph over the Kshatriyas, and where to this day a set of people called Bhargava Brahmans live. Their comparatively low social status is ascribed to the original sin of their Brahman progenitor or founder having taken to the profession of arms. The date of the first settlement of the Nambutiris is not known. Orthodox tradition would place it in the Tretayuga, or the second great Hindu cycle. The reference to the gramams of Chovvur and Panniyur contained in the Manigramam Syrian Christian grant of the eighth century, and its absence in the Jewish, have suggested to antiquarians some time between the seventh and eighth centuries as the probable period. The writings of Ptolemy and the Periplus furnish evidence of Brahman settlements on the Malabar coast as early as the first century, and it is probable that immigrant Brahman families began to pour in with the ascendancy of the Western Chalukya kings in the fourth and fifth centuries, and became gradually welded with the pre-existing Nambutiris. All these Nambutiris were grouped under two great sections:--(a) the Vaishnavites or Panniyur Gramakkar, who came with the patronage of the Vaishnavites of the Chalukya dynasty with the boar as their royal emblem; (b) the Saivites or Chovvur Gramakkar, who readily accepted the Saivite teachings from the Chera, Chola, and Pandya kings who followed the Chalukyans. They included in all sixty-four gramams, which, in many cases, were only families. Of these, not more than ten belong to modern Travancore. These gramams constituted a regular autocracy, with four talis or administrative bodies having their head-quarters at Cranganore. It appears that a Raja or Perumal, as he was called, from the adjoining Chera kingdom, including the present districts of Salem and Coimbatore, was, as an improved arrangement, invited to rule for a duodecennial period, and was afterwards confirmed, whether by the lapse of time or by a formal act of the Brahman owners it is not known. The Chera Viceroys, by virtue of their isolation from their own fatherland, had then to arrange for marital alliances being made, as best they could, with the highest indigenous caste, the Nambutiris, the males consorting with Sudra women. The matriarchal form of inheritance was thus a necessary consequence. Certain tracts of Kerala, however, continued under direct Brahman sovereignty, of which the Ettappalli chief is almost the only surviving representative."

Writing in the eighteenth century, Hamilton observes [89] that "the Nambouries are the first in both capacities of Church and State, and some of them are Popes, being Sovereign Princes in both." Unlike the Brahmans of the remainder of the Madras Presidency, who so largely absorb all appointments worth having under Government, who engage in trade, in, one may say, every profitable profession and business, the Nambutiris hold almost entirely aloof from what the poet Gray calls "the busy world's ignoble strife," and, more than any class of Brahmans, retain their sacerdotal position, which is of course the highest. They are for the most part landholders. A very large portion of Malabar is owned by Nambutiris, especially in Walluvanad, most of which taluk is the property of Nambutiris. They are the aristocracy of the land, marked most impressively by two characteristics, exclusiveness and simplicity. Now and then a Nambutiri journeys to Benares, but, as a rule, he stays at home. Their simplicity is really proverbial, [90] and they have not been influenced by contact with the English. This contact, which has influenced every other caste or race, has left the Nambutiri just where he was before the English knew India. He is perhaps, as his measurements seem to prove, the truest Aryan in Southern India, and not only physically, but in his customs, habits, and ceremonies, which are so welded into him that forsake them he cannot if he would. It is noted, in the Gazetteer of Malabar, that "as a class, the Nambudiris may be described as less affected than any other caste, except the very lowest, by western influences of whatever nature. One Nambudiri is known to have accepted a clerical post in Government service; a good many are Adhigaris (village headmen), and one member of the caste possesses a Tile-works and is partner in a Cotton-mill. The bicycle now claims several votaries among the caste, and photography at least one other. But these are exceptions, and exceptions which, unimportant as they may seem to any one unacquainted with the remarkable conservatism of the caste, would certainly have caused considerable surprise to the author of the first Malabar Manual."

Concerning the occupations of the Nambutiris, Mr. Subramani Aiyar writes that "service in temples, unless very remunerative, does not attract them. Teaching as a means of living is rank heterodoxy. And, if anywhere Manu's dictum to the Brahman 'Never serve' is strictly observed, it is in Malabar. Judging from the records left by travellers, the Nambutiris used to be selected by kings as messengers during times of war. Writing concerning them, Barbosa states that "these are the messengers who go on the road from one kingdom to another with letters and money and merchandise, because they pass in safety without any one molesting them, even though the king may be at war. These Brahmans are well read ... and possess many books, and are learned and masters of many arts; and so the kings honour them as such." As the pre-historic heirs to the entire land of Kerala, the Nambutiris live on agriculture. But inefficiency in adaptation to changing environments operates as a severe handicap in the race for progressive affluence, for which the initial equipment was exceptionally favourable. The difficulties incidental to an effete landlordism have contributed to making the Nambutiris a litigious population, and the ruinous scale of expenditure necessary for the disposal of a girl, be it of the most plebeian kind, has brought their general prosperity to a very low level. The feeling of responsible co-operation on the part of the unmarried males of a Nambutiri household in the interests of the family is fast decreasing; old maids are increasing; and the lot of the average Nambutiri man, and more especially woman, is very hard indeed. As matters now stand, the traditional hospitality of the Hindu kings of Malabar, which, fortunately for them, has not yet relaxed, is the only sustenance and support of the ordinary Nambutiri. The characteristic features of the Nambutiri are his faith in God and resignation to his will, hospitality to strangers, scrupulous veracity, punctiliousness as regards the ordinances prescribed, and extreme gentility in manners. The sustaining power of his belief in divine providence is so great, that calamities of whatsoever kind do not exasperate him unduly. The story is told with great admiration of a Nambutiri who, with his large ancestral house on fire, his only son just tumbled into a deep disused well, while his wife was expiring undelivered, quietly called out to his servant for his betel-box. Evening baths, and daily prayers at sunrise, noon and sunset, are strictly observed. A tradition, illustrative of the miracles which spiritual power can work, is often told of the islet in the Vempanat lake known as Patiramanal (midnight sand) having been conjured into existence by the Tarananallur Nambutiripad, when, during a journey to Trivandrum, it was past evening, and the prayers to Sandhya had to be made after the usual ablutions. To the lower animals, the attitude of the Nambutiri is one of child-like innocence. In his relation to man, his guilelessness is a remarkable feature. Harshness of language is unknown to the Nambutiris, and it is commonly said that the severest expression of his resentment at an insult offered is generally that he (the Nambutiri) expects the adversary to take back the insult a hundred times over. Of course, the modern Nambutiri is not the unadulterated specimen of goodness, purity, and piety that he once was. But, on the whole, the Nambutiris form an interesting community, whose existence is indeed a treasure untold to all lovers of antiquity. Their present economic condition is, however, far from re-assuring. They are no doubt the traditional owners of Kerala, and hold in their hands the janmom or proprietary interest in a large portion of Malabar. But their woeful want of accommodativeness to the altered conditions of present day life threatens to be their ruin. Their simplicity and absence of business-like habits have made them a prey to intrigue, fraudulence, and grievous neglect, and an unencumbered and well ordered estate is a rarity among Malabar Brahmans, at least in Travancore."