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The usual four-tier Hindu caste system, involving the varnas of Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (warrior), Vaishya (business person, involved in trading, entrepreneurship and finance) and Shudra (service person), did not exist. Kshatriyas were rare and the Vaishyas were not present at all. The roles left empty by the absence of these two ritual ...
First, Namboothiri Brahmins had institutionalized primogeniture, permitting only the eldest son to marry within the caste. Younger sons (also called aphans) in Namboothiri families were expected to establish sambandham with higher caste Nair (equivalent to Kshatriyas), Ambalavasi (temple service caste), royal Samantan or Kshatriya women. This ...
The caste system in India is the ... of the caste system in ancient and medieval India, which focus on either ideological factors or on socio-economic factors ...
Until the early 20th century, almost all Nair families, irrespective of their social standings, followed a matrilineal system of inheritance. [65] [66] The children of a Nair couple would inherit the caste of their mother, while the property and lands that were owned by the family would be passed down through their daughters and sisters. [67]
Like the rest of India, the lower castes touching the upper castes was termed as "pollution," but only in Kerala did the lower castes pollute not just by touch but also by merely approaching an upper caste. For example, a Nair could stand next to a Namboodiri, whereas an Ezhava was forbidden to either approach or touch either the Namboodiri or ...
Ambedkar views that definitions of castes given by Émile Senart [5] John Nesfield, H. H. Risley and Dr Ketkar as incomplete or incorrect by itself and all have missed the central point in the mechanism of the caste system. Senart's "idea of pollution" is a characteristic of caste in so far as caste has a religious flavour.
Pillai or Pillay, (IPA:) meaning "Child of King" (Prince) or "Child", [1] is a surname found among the Malayalam and Tamil-speaking people of India and Sri Lanka.. In Kerala, Pillai is the most common title among upper-caste Nairs, [2] [3] often bestowed by the ruling royal families of Kerala [3] and less commonly found among some Brahmins, [4] Nazrani Mappila and Marars of travancore.
' The ruler of the land ') were feudatory Nair princes who ruled over microstates that are now administrative parts of Kerala, India. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] They constituted the aristocratic class of Nairs within the Hindu caste system and were either kings themselves or nobility in the service of the kings of Kerala.