Malabar and Its Folk

JO -Tfc-!*. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES flfcalabav anfc its folk T. K. GOPAL PANIKKAR, B.A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. R W. KELLETT, M. A. the (of Madras Christian College.) G. A. NATBSAN & CO., PRINTERS. ESPLANADE BOW. DEDICATED B Y KIND PEHMT88JON TO . (B. m 2>ance, 3-d. (Collector of Malabar.) 545117 CONTENTS. PACK. i Introduction. Preface. 1. Thoughts on Malabar. 1 11. A Malabar Nair Tarawad. 17 III. Marumakkathayam. .. '34 I V. Local Traditions and Superstitions. 54 V. The Malabar Drama. 74 VI. The Oriam Festival. 90 Vll. The Vishu Festival. .. 98. VIII. The Thiruvathira Festival. .. 103 IX. Feudalism in Malabar. .. 108 X. Cock-Festival at Cranganore. 128 XI. The Kettu Kallianam. .. 135 XII. Serpent-AVorship. 145 XIII. Some Depressed Classes. .. 152 T XI.A . Village Life. ... 177 r XA . Some Phases of Religious Life. 191 Olossarv. INTRODUCTION. Mr. Gopal Panikkar pressed me as his old teacher to write a few sentences by way of introduction to this book, 1 felt that, though one who could lend a better known name would have been a more influential sponsor to it, I could not refuse his repeated request. And indeed it gives me no little pleasure to trace in these pages the germination of the interest implanted in him by our study in the Madras Christian College of the rudiments of Ethnography and the history of Early Institutions. And here lies one of the elements of general interest which the book possesses. What is the effect of Western studies on Hindu minds ? To this common question the book affords an answer. The reader will see plainly here the manner in which, and the extent to which, Indian gentlemen of education are assimilating the science of the West and in its light modifying their views of Indian life and tradition. This leads on to another element of value possessed by the book. Graduates of Indian Universities may legitimately be expected to transmit to those of their fellow countrymen who have not had their advantages the illumination from the West which they have themselves received. It is through them above all that what is good in Western civilisation and thought must reach the Indian mind. More of them are discharging this duty than is sometimes supposed. Mr. Gopal Panikkar's book is well adapted to open up lines along which new modes of thought may pass to the minds of thinking men in Malabar and from them to the people in general. Never perhaps have the national customs and beliefs of an Indian district been set forth in fresh light so freely by a native of that district as in this book. Mr. Gopal Panikkar has not lost his affection for the customs of Malabar, any more than the ethnographer of the West has lost his love for May-day customs because he sees in them survivals of obsolete modes of life ; but he sees them from a higher point of view and with a truer and more compre- hensive vision than the mass of his neighbours. And so his book should have for them the value of interpreting to them some of the practices whose meaning they have wholly or partially lost. But the book appeals to a wider circle. In these days when ethnography and primitive habits and folklore have awakened so general an interest, chapters like these have a value which will be at once recognized. Even if Malabar were a region that possessed no special claims on the atten- tion of students of sociology an account of it by a native would be welcome. Most ethnographic descriptions even of Indian districts have been written by European observers and bear the traces of the European mind. In this book we have a native of the country, familiar with its customs from his earliest days, setting forth its social, legal and religious life. I believe that this is the first book of the kind of which this can be said, a distinction which gives it a special claim to notice. Defects no doubt are conspicuous enough, but in a pioneer such are readily forgiven. in But Malabar is no ordinary Indian district. Both district and people are clearly marked off from the rest of India and have features all their own. As even a glance at the contents of this book will show, they have a social organi* sation, marriage customs, a law of inheritance, festivals and religious rites that distinguish them from their neighbours. Mr. Gopal Panikkar frequently mentions what he regards as parallels in nations of other times and places, and though the parallels may not be always as complete as he supposes, there is deep interest in such comparative study. Apart from those comparisons which he draws, a hundred others will suggest themselves to the student of society, ritual and folk-lore. Similarity and dissimilarity alike will stimulate thought. India, as Sir Henry Maine said, is an of of ancient but no assemblage fragments society ; perhaps part of India contains fragments of such variety and import- ance as Malabar. To many the name will suggest the one strange custom of Is air Polyandry, a custom now rapidly disappearing. This book will show them many others no less interesting. Maine called for immediate study of these archaic fragments, because the spread of Western civilisation was sweeping them away. To the rapidity wilh which this process is going on this book bears witness. Mr. (ropal Panikkar has deserved well of sociologists in setting down in black and white a description of Malabar customs before that process has gone any further. F. W. KELLETT. PREFACE. T^r Y object in placing this book before the public is to pre- i^-i sent in a brief compass some of the salient phases of social and religious life in Malabar. The major portion of the book, it will be observed, deals with the life and institutions of the Nairs, by far the most conspicuous amongst the peoples of Malabar. The book is a first attempt of the kind at a systematic treatment of the subject. It is far from being an exhaustive treatise. I do not claim any universality of application so far as the entire district is concerned for the customs and institutions described in the at all I wish to out that the de- book ; but, events, point scriptions given will be found to apply to some part, more particularly the South, if not the whole of Malabar. The social customs and institutions of Malabar are so varied and con- flicting that it would be fruitless to attempt to give an accurate and exhaustive account of them. Those that obtain in one village may be, and in fact sometimes are, essentially distinct in detail from those that obtain in the village or villages adjoining it. In some places certain pecu- liar customs prevail which are entirely absent in others. In North Malabar the state of things is essentially different, and the Northerners do not cherish, certain customs and VI institutions which find favor with their brethren of the South. In ways such as these our social and domestic life presents diversities in detail. The social frame like the human body is constantly slow undergoing changes by and imperceptible gradations ; the nature of these changes being more or less dependent upon the kind of food with which that body is nourished. We are being fed on the strong food of Western science and civilisation it is that our life and ; and no wonder society are passing through changes resulting from living contact with the West. In the interests of the science of sociology it is extremely necessary to preserve a permanent record of those Indian customs and institutions which are rapidly decaying. The various chapters of the book except XI and XIV have already appeared in some one or other of the leading Indian Magazines and Journals such as Tlie Calcutta Jtei'iew, The Christian College Magazine, Tlie Indian Reinew, TJie I'iomer, The Madras Times, The Madras Standard, The Hindu, Tlie Malahar Times ami the West Coast Spectator. I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to the editors of these papers for kindly permitting me to reprint them. I have added a small glossary of vernacular or native terms with which the majority of my readers may be unfamiliar. 1 sincerely thank my revered Professor the Rev. F. W. Kellett, M.A. of the Madras Christian College, to whom I am deeply indebted for the kind introduction. My heart- Vll felt thanks are also due to Gr. W. Dance, Esq., I.C.S., the head of our district for readily allowing me to dedicate this little volume to him. I hope to bring out in the not distant future, time and circumstances permitting, a companion volume in which I propose to deal more with the antiquities of Malabar than I have been able to do here. CHOWGHAUT, } 8th October 1900. T. K. GOPAL PANIKKAB. | CHAPTEK I. THOUGHTS ON MALABAR. MALABAR is an exceedingly interesting district which combines the charms of a hoary antiquity, the beauties of a pleasing scenery and the delightful simplicity of domestic life. It extends from Gokarnam to Cape Comorin from to south its is north ; and western border beaten by the waves of the Arabian Sea, while its east is bounded by the districts of Coimbatore, Coorg and part of Mysore. Tradition ascribes its creation to Parasu Bama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu. As recorded in the <>W Puranas, Parasu Eama, having destroyed the Kshatriya race twenty-one times thought of expiating his sin by making a grant of land to the twice-born Brahmins.

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