Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.9

c48.s2.9

Crossing the Peninsula, a distinctly dominant class is found in the Nāyar of the Malabar coast, a community of northern race, with uncertain traditions as to its original home or the route by which it reached its present secluded domicile. It has its own peculiar customs and institutions, which, as in the case of the Rājputs, have been assimilated by indigenous castes of lower rank, who thereby justify the arrogation to themselves of the title of their superiors. The community, therefore, no longer consists of military landowners, as formerly, but includes, under subdivisional names, not only artisans and traders, but even menial castes such as the barber and washerman, who have found it worth while to devote their services exclusively to the Nāyar. It is probable, then, that not more than three fourths of those returned under the latter title are true Nāyar, and that these belong to at most three subdivisions of the tribe. The customs of the Nāyar are, as observed above, peculiar, and of high ethnological interest, but it is not within the scope of this review to enter into them. It may be remarked in passing, however, that in many of them may be found traces of polyandry. Inheritance is through the female. The exogamous unit is based on descent from a common female ancestor in that line. The endogamous limit is hypergamous for the female, and either within or below the subcaste for the male. The Nāyar of the north and those of the south form separate communities, the division being evidently based upon the notion that pollution lies in the south, perhaps because that region is further from the caste-cradle. The distinction between the two is so strictly enforced that though Nāyar males may circulate freely over the whole country, no female of the northern section may cross the river which divides Kanara from Malabar, nor, again, that which intersects the latter district. This group is completed by the addition of the Koḍagu, or dominant tribe of the little district of Coorg, not by reason of its numbers, but, like the Kāṭhi, because it has had a history, and has managed to maintain its position and language in its native uplands against all comers. Since the tract has been opened up by European enterprise, for the growth of special products, there has been a considerable influx of labour from Mysore and the coast, and the Koḍagu now constitutes but a fourth of the population; but that fraction is at the top.