A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c18.21

c18.21

The apparent geographical isolation of Kerala did not mean any cultural aloofness. Kerala appears in many ways in the literature of the rest of India. In Kerala itself the Nambūdiri Brahmins allowed only the eldest son to contract a permanent marriage and rear up a family; the younger sons freed from family cares devoted themselves generally to study and teaching, and helped in the promotion of literacy among the masses. Sanskrit learning was patronized by the chiefs as can be seen from a grant of the Āy king Karunandaḍakkan, middle of the ninth century, endowing a college and hostel for the maintenance of ninety-five vedic students who were admitted after an entrance test in Vyākaraṇa (grammar), Mīmāmsā (exegetics), Paurohitya (priest-craft) and Trairājya-vyavahāra (Law and usage of the three countries, perhaps Pāndya, Chola and Kerala). The college was to function in a Vishnu temple at Pārthivaśekharapuram in South Travancore, and indeed, the many temples of the land as well as the mathas and sattras tended each in its way to become a centre of learning of the gurukula type.