Nambudiri

, a Malayalam poet of the 15th-century who composed several landmark literary works Origin Nambudiri mythology associates their immigration to Kerala from the banks of Narmada, Krishna, Kaveri rivers with the legendary creation of Kerala by Parashurama, the sixth avatar of Vishnu. According to this legend, the region was created when Parashurama threw his axe into the sea Although it is known that the present-day region of Kerala was once governed by the Chera dynasty, little information exists regarding its early ethnography. Brahmin presence in the Tamil country is attested from the Sangam period onward. Based on the fact that Nambudiris are Pūrvaśikhā Brahmins wearing the traditional hair tuft on the front, T.P Mahadevan proposes that they are the descendants of these Sangam age Brahmins who moved west into the region of Malabar during the Kalabhra interregnum, with those remaining behind in what is today Tamil Nadu composing the Śōḻiya Brahmins. This sets them apart from the later Aparaśikhā Brahmin (wearing their hair tufts on the back) migrants to South India such as the Tamil Iyers. According to T.P Mahadevan, the Nambudiris brought with them a very early recension of the Mahabharata which became the basis of the Malayalam language version of the epic. There are lots of theories as to how Nambudiri Brahmins came to settle in Kerala, the commonly accepted point of view is that they moved in from North India via Tulu Nadu or Karnataka. The region around Coimbatore near Karnataka- western Tamil Nadu border was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between 1st and the 4th centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the Malabar Coast and Tamil Nadu. The Azhvanchery Thamprakkal, who were the titular head of all Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala, originally had right over parts of present-day Palakkad Taluk. Later they moved westwards along the River Bharathappuzha and settled around the river. Finally the Azhvanchery Thamprakkal bought Athavanad-Tirunavaya region in present-day Tirur Taluk and gave Palakkad to Palakkad Rajas (Tarur Swaroopam) who were originally from Athavanad region. They also gained land and improved their influence over the socio-economic life of the region by helping rulers during the wars between the Chola and Chera dynasties when Vedic schools were turned into military academies. Adi Shankara, one of the most revered Vedic scholars of Hinduism, was a Nambudiri ascetic who initiated the protocol of permitting only Nambudiris to lead as the Chief Priest at the Badrinath Temple, one of the holiest temples for Hindus. Furthermore, the spiritual leader of the Nambudiri Brahmins is given the title Azhvanchery Thamprakkal Samrāṭ, with the word "Samrāṭ" meaning "Emperor" in the Sanskrit language. Aside from holding rights over the sacred Guruvayur Temple, the presence and blessings of the Azhvanchery Thamprakkal was a ritual necessity during the coronation of the Zamorin, the Nair king of Kozhikode. They have historically been distinguished by rare practices such as the adherence to Śrauta ritualism, the Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā school of Hindu philosophy and orthodox traditions, as well as many idiosyncratic customs that are unique among Brahmins, including primogeniture. Cyriac Pullapilly mentions that the dominating influence of the Nambudiris could be found in all matters related to Kerala, including religion, politics, society, economics and culture. Early history Operating from their illam houses, Nambudiris' ownership of agricultural land under the janmi system increased over many centuries and, according to Moser and Younger, they "established landholding temples and taught the people the rules of caste". The Nambudiris have been described to be responsible for the Sanskrit influence on Malayalam, a Dravidian language. Although disputed, the widely held view considers Malayalam to be originated from a west coast dialect of early middle tamil due to the Nambudiri Brahmin's mixing of Sanskrit and Western ghats separating the two lands. Medieval Kerala has been characterised as an oligarchy which was dominated by the Nambudiris, who owned all the temples and their subsidiary villages. The Nambudiris had influence with the ruling class through the practice of sambandam, where younger Nambudiris used to have relationships with Kshatriya women or women from the upper sections of the Nair caste. The children of such unions were not considered Nambudiris, but a part of their matrilocal lineages. The descendants of the Parur Raja, a Nambudiri family still receive a pension from the government. There is an ongoing case as to the specifics of the amount being received. The Nambudiri's grip on land was maintained through the practice of strict primogeniture and patrilineal inheritance. Although the historian E. K. Pillai has claimed that the Nambudiris from the 1100s enforced matrilineal polyandry on the previously patrilineal communities of the area, sociologist Randall Collins thinks it is unlikely that such a change could be imposed and says that "more probably it was the result of a process of marriage politics spread by emulation in the decentralised situation of status competition." Some other scholars believe that the matrilineal customs predate the period entirely and cite the queens of the Pandyan dynasty as evidence for this. ==Demographics==

The Nambudhiri Brahmins are a super-minority community in Kerala. According to the 1901 Census reports, they represent 0.47% of the total population of Nambudiris within Kerala. They are dominant and highly influential in British Malabar, where they account for more than 66% of the total population of Nambudiris in Kerala. Most of them reside in the Palakkad and Kozhikode districts of South Malabar and the Kannur district of North Malabar. A small Population is also found in Cochin and Travancore Kingdom. ==Religious customs==

Vedic learning The following Vedic recensions are attested among them. • Rigveda, the Śākala recension which is the only extant recension of the Rigveda across India. The Nambudiris follow both the Āśvalāyana and Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtras. The latter, called the Kauṣītaki tradition among Nambudiris is restricted to them. The Kauṣītakis are believed to have belonged to the Bāṣkala recension of the Rigveda, but that recension has become extinct among the Nambudiris. • Yajurveda, the Taittirīya śākhā with the Baudhāyana Śrauta and Gṛhya Sutras, Vādhūla Śrauta and Gṛhya Sutras, and Āgniveśya Gṛhya Sutra • Samaveda in the Jaiminīya recension, which is elsewhere found only among the Śōḻiya Brahmans, from whom the ancestral Nambudiri population split. Agnicayana The ancient Vedic ritual of Agnicayana (the altar of fire), which spans a 12-day period and which Frits Staal and Robert Gardner claim to be one of the oldest known rituals, was maintained by Nambudiri Brahmins until at least 1975. Although it may have largely died out elsewhere in India and thus be symptomatic of the community's resistance to change, David Knipe notes that it is still performed regularly in Andhra Pradesh and has been for centuries. ==Domestic culture==

Attire Traditionally, they wore a simple cloth around the waist called a thorthu (or thortumundu), in domestic settings. When they had to travel, they wore two sets of cloth in addition known as a vasthram. Nambudiris wore their traditional hair tufts (kuṭumi or śikhā) on the front like the Dikshitars of Tamil Nadu. Marriage customs Nambudiri Brahmin families practised a more strict version of primogeniture than Brahmin communities elsewhere in India. Under this custom, only the eldest son could marry a Nambudiri woman and thus produce an heir to the family property. Younger sons were restricted to sambandam relationships with non-Brahmin women, whom the Nambudiris considered to be concubines and whose offspring could not inherit. This tradition limited the extent of marriage within their own caste and led to the practice of hypergamy with the Nair community. Kathleen Gough notes that: 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. It has also been argued that the practice, along with judicious selection of the man who tied the thali, formed a part of the Nair aspirational culture whereby they would seek to improve their status within the caste. Furthermore, that: 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 and the Nambudiris had mostly stopped the practice by the 1920s. Koodiyattam (artform) The form of Sanskrit theatre known as Koodiyattam, which is native to Kerala, was traditionally patronised by Nambudiris. ==Notable people==

• Adi Shankara, Indian philosopher. • Madhava of Sangamagrama, Medieval Indian Mathematician who founded the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics • Nilakantha Somayaji, Mathematician and Astronomer • Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri, Logician, Poet and Mathematician who composed the devotional treatise Narayaneeyam • Chennas Narayanan Namboodiripad, Vedic ritualist who authored the Tantra Samucchaya • Rahul Easwar, Indian public policy commentator. • Namboothiri, Indian painter and sculptor. • Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, Indian writer. • Babu Namboothiri, Indian actor • M. K. Sankaran Namboothiri, Musical artist • Unnikrishnan Namboothiri, Indian actor. • Akkitham Narayanan, Indian painter. ==See also==