Polyandry in Malabar

K. Raman Unni

The former district of Malabar and the Native States of

Travancore and Cochin constitute the linguistic State of Kerala
today. This paper discusses non-fraternal polyandry in the southern
half of the district of Malabar. This type of polyandry among the
matrilineal Nairs in several parts of this linguistic area has been dealt
with by a good number of writers. Drs. K. M. Kapadia and M. S. A.
Rao appear to be the most recent of the writers who have attempted
a discussion of the subject in the light of available records. 1 Inspite
of this our knowledge of polyandry in this region, particularly of
the non-fraternal type is considerably sketchy. Dr. Kapadia in the
illuminating discussion refers to the absence of any allusion to
polyandry in the vast Malayalam literature of the ]8th century. 2
My search through a collection of proverbs has equally failed to
single out any proverb referring to polyandry. 3 In spite of this,
there is no reason today to question its very existence in the past.
There is. on the other hand, obvious need to learn more about it
from the elderly persons of rural Malabar. Little is known about the
conditions which governed polyandrous mate-selection among the
Nairs and nothing worthy of note seems to have been recorded about
the nature of customary relations between the spouses.

This paper discusses the data which I have gathered first hand
from an area of comparatively little social change in Malabar. (The
names of talukas and reference to boundaries are those as existed
before the State of Kerala was formed. ) My enquiries were directed
to collecting all available data from elderly informants and observing
what influence of a polyandrous past, if any, could be seen in the
institution of marriage today. Among my informants were one elderly
woman whose mother was polyandrous and another whose mother's
mother was polyandrous. Among the rest of my informants were a
few who had a fair degree of clear memory of polyandrous
practice seen and heard about during their young age. In
reconstructing the picture of sub-caste distinctions and intra-sub-caste
differentiation into groups I have depended on the information which
could be collected from well-informed men and on observation of
what exists today. 4 A part of the data was collected in April 1950
and the rest during April and May in the years 1955 and 1956.
 63

My study was mainly restricted to two villages, Munnurkode

and Karatukurssi which are three miles apart and are nine
miles
interior from the town and railway station of Ottapalam in
Walluvanad taluk. These and the few other villages mentioned at
length
are within a radius of about six miles and are in the southern part
of the same taluk. In a wide sense this study may be regarded as
covering south Malabar, i. e., south of Calicut taluk or south of
the
Kora river.
The discussion which follows does not throughout bear reference
to the two villages for the reason that any one village or a group of
contiguous villages did not present the conditions and features
relevant for present consideration. In spite of persistent efforts the
yield of data from informants has not been adequate for discussing
the various aspects of polyandry with reference to one or a few
specific cases.
The existence of polyandry in the past among the Nairs and the
continuance of its off-hand appearance in the twenties of this century
are evident from the cases cited by my informants. These cases will be
described in the relevant contexts in the following discussion. To
understand the limitations within which polyandry worked in the
past it is necessary to consider at the outset the factors which
narrowed the field of choice of mates among the Nairs.
The Nairs in the two villages mentioned belong to several
subcastes which, on the basis of their social status and ritual rank
can be roughly classed into three groups as high, middle and low.
5
In the high group are the sub-castes of Vellayma Sudra Nairs,
NairPanikkars, and Kiriyatil Nambiars, the first being numerically
large in the group. 6 With rare hypergamous alliances each of these
sub-castes tended to be endogamous. The middle group is formed of
the sub-castes of Ayikara, Ulladan, Vatekat and Pallichan each of
which was generally endogamous. The low group is constituted of
the endogamous sub-castes of Atikurssi, Veluthedan and
Vilakathiravan. Each of these groups rendered services of ritual,
occupational and ceremonial nature to the higher group or groups,
the Sudra Nairs of the highest group rendering a few services to the
family of the Nambutiri Brahmin of the village. The Nambutiri who
ritually and religiously ranked the highest was also the only
ultimate owner of the lands with his 'Janmam right' which was a
form of overlordship. Till quite recently nearly all the lands in each
of these villages was the Janmam property of the family of a
Nambutiri. All the Nair sub-castes were in general tenants and the
Sudra Nairs formed a
 64

bulk of the tenant class who did not cultivate but rented out the
land to other sub-castes of lower rank or the polluting labourers of the
caste of Cherumas. The position of these sub-castes in the pattern
of land tenure will be pointed out later.

Nearly all the Sudra Nair tharavads (matrilineal joint families)

in one or a few villages were a dependent group rendering services
of ritual and ceremonial nature to their Nambutiri overlords. These
services were to be rendered only by a small number of Sudra Nairs
on a few occasions in a year. The sense of dependancy, however,
was firm and deeprooted, and Sudra tharavads owing allegiance of
this kind were known as Adiyar of the Nambutiri families. The
Adiyar tharavads professed to have a reflected prestige primarily
arising from the sub-caste rank of their overlord Nambutiris. For
this reason the Adiyar groups of different Nambutiris in different
villages would often be of a differential level of reflected prestige. This
sense of prestige tended to close each Adiyar group of Nambutiris of
different sub-caste ranks as an endogamous one. In the village of
Munnurkode, for instance, 10 Sudra Nair tharavads in the
beginning of this century formed a major section of the Adiyar
group of the Nambutiri family located in the same village, the rest of
the same Adiyar group remaining in other villages where the
Nambutiri had extensive rice fields. It is also not unlikely, as a few
informants conveyed that each Adiyar group in some villages for
generations remained endogammous except for accepting the
patrilineal Nambutiris as visiting husbands.

Sometimes coinciding with this group and often as a part of

it was the enangar group of tharavads which also had a tendency to
be endogamous. Except for occasionally accepting Nambutiri
husbands or more rarely husbands from title-holding and wealthy Nair
tharavads (Sthani-tharavads), the enangar group in some villages
remained endogamous for generations. The tharavads of an enangar
group were bound by reciprocal obligations of ritual, ceremonial
and social importance. If marriage mates were not available within
the enangar groups, a tharavad could, with the consent of the
Nambutiri overlord find out a tharavad outside the group and
maintain enangar alliance with it. Thus for the tharavad which
initiated such an alliance its enangar group became larger, a process
which could continue. Sometimes in its distant estate of garden
crops and rice fields a few members of a tharavad would go and
settle down, and this truncated tharavad would find itself in need of
creating enangar tharavads in the neighbourhood. In selecting an
additional tharavad
 65

as an enangar the important criterion was the rank of the Nambutiri

whom that tharavad served as an Adiyar family. An enangar group
could not comprise tharavads which served Nambutiris of different
ranks, a fact which became often explicit in such remarks of my
informants as "we are Adiyars of Nambutiripad and they are
Adiyars of the Nambutiri in their village. Some fifty years ago our
women would not take water from their houses. Nambutiripad
definitely ranks higher. "

In Walluvanad taluk in general and in the villages of focal

interest in this study in particular, two other important sub-castes who
ranked above Sudra Nairs were the Kiriyatil and the Charna Nairs
who were chiefly concentrated in areas where lands belonged to the
wealthy pre-British Nair chiefs who held hereditary titles. These Nair
chiefs are today known by the generic term Sthani7 but their social
status vary according to the titles, powers, rights and privileges
ascribed to them by a few powerful pre-British rulers (Rajas). Nairs
under them were also their tenants, chiefly non-cultivating, as the
Sudra Nairs under the Nambutiris. The Kiriyatil in their relation
to the Sthanis were known as their Adukalakar (kitchenmen) for the
Kiriyatil men were to serve as cooks at feasts in the tharavads of
Sthani Nairs. 8 The women of Kiriyatil also had ritual and
ceremonial services to be rendered to the Sthani women. The Charna
(attached Nairs) were the armed retainers under the Sthanis.
Corresponding to the Adiya-prestige scale among the Sudra Nairs
under the Nambutiris the Kiriyatil Nairs also tended to form Sthani
wise groups. The Sthani families in South Malabar were much less
in number than the Nambutiri families and the relative rank of the
former was often disputed either among them or their spokesmen.
It was also not unusual to find some Sthani families on unfriendly
terms for decades and the respective Nairs under their power formed
or were coerced to form cleavage in the groups. Thus marriage
between Kiriyatil Nairs who were under the overlordship of different
Sthanis would take place to a very limited extent. Among the lower
Nair sub-castes in general under Nambutiris and Sthanis, similar
tendencies sought more feebly and much less effectively to restrict
the field of selection of a marriage partner.

The divisions of sub-castes of Nairs are not so simple as

pictured here. However, in any group of a few villages
traditionally one would not find more than two or three high
subcastes of Nairs except that the Charna Nairs had a wider
distribution. To mention a few more sub-castes of Nairs there
were the Eruma Sudra Nairs
 66

who were retainers of families of Nambutiris of low rank. Among

the Kiriyatil Nairs were Kiriyam Nambiar, Kaka-kiriyam,
Pattikiriyam and Munnutil-kiriyam. Similarly among the Charnas
were a few of which Agathu-charna-nairs had a relatively wide
scatter. In addition were the Menon which included the sub-castes
of Paricha-menon, Agathu-charna menon, Purathu-charna menon,
Menon Panikkar, Patola-menon, the relative rank of each often varying
from taluk to taluk. The process of differentiation of Nairs into a
wide variety of sub-castes is a field as yet unexplored. In Walluvanad
taluk Kiriyatils ranked higher than Sudras and Charna Nairs were
below Kiriyatils, while in Calicut taluk Purathu-Charnas ranked higher
than Kiriyatils. In the generic term Sthani mentioned in this study
there were some families of pre-British chieftains and their
commanders. Each of these families developed into a sub-caste
named after its original place name or tharavad name. Thus arose the
sub-castes of Eradi, Vellodi, Thirumalpad, Nedungadi and Kartavu,
each of which was numerically very small and was above the Sudras
and Kiriyatil Nairs. In this study all these sub-castes who branched off
from Nairs are regarded as Nairs except when specifically named.

How the overlordship and ritual superiority of the Nambutiris

and the power of the Sthani families restricted in a variety of ways
the range of marriage within the Nair sub-caste is a fact which seems
to have escaped the notice of all writers. It is possible that this
feature of strictly rigid restrictions in the range of choice for mate
among the Nairs existed when the Nairs rendered military service in
pre-British days. Speculatively it can even be said that the
restrictions of this kind were more rigid in those times. The Nair men
for military service were drawn chiefly from the Charna Nairs under
the Nair chiefs, and some sections of Menons under the bigger chiefs
or Rajas. It is doubtful if the Sudra Nairs under the Nambutiris
were ever recruited as soldiers.

In areas where neither the Nambutiris nor the Sthani Nairs

owned lands, the janmam right of the land belonged to either wealthy
temples or to pre-British rulers (Rajas). The temples were
generally managed by Nambutiris or Sthani Nairs and they were
thus powerful over the Nair tenants of the temple lands as well.
The high caste Nairs of the Menon group were originally those who
served the powerful royal families and became differentiated into sub-
castes on the basis of importance of the roles they discharged. They
also tended to form prestige groups which sought husbands from a
higher sub-caste, caste or group within the same sub-caste. Often
the same
 67
sub-castes under two Rajas did not rank equally. The Menons under
the Walluvanad Raja were regarded as lower than the Menons under
the Zamorin Raja. In some places Sudra Nairs and Charna Menons
often disputed their relative ranks. In places where there was no
dispute about the relative rank of sub-castes or the order of
prestige groups the higher would rarely take wives from the lower.
And the highest always tended to accept husbands as increasingly as
possible from Sthanis, Rajas or Nambutiris. Owing to the working
of the ideas of rank and prestige, in each high sub-caste of Nairs,
there were a few families which accepted husbands in this manner
and tended to make it an exclusive practice.

My data regarding the shades of difference between the

subcastes and the formation of prestige groups within each subcaste
under the Rajas are rather sketchy but it seems that marriage among
them was regulated by principles analogous, if not similar, to those
under the Nambutiris and the Sthanis. It is certain however, that
the enangar group was a feature in all areas and each tharavad could,
if found essential, expand its enangar group. However, every where
the distinction was drawn between the new enangar and the old
enangar; the former was always held in higher esteem and relations
therein were more informal. It is also certain that in the landed
property of the Nairs the overlordship of the Nambutiris, the Sthanis
or the Rajas, in some form or other existed all over South Malabar.

Roughly coinciding with the hierarchy of the groups of Nair sub-castes

(the high, middle and low) were the classes based on the nature of
land ownership and land tenure, —and these classes were a
feature in general all over South Malabar. These were to state in a
simplified form, the Janmis, (the owner overlords), the Kanakaran
(an intermediary), and the Verum-pattakaran (a second
intermediary) who would often himself be the tiller. As noted
already the Janmis were the Sthanis. In areas where Nambutiris
were Janmis the Sudra Nairs were generally the holders of kanam
tenure. The sub-castes roughly corresponding to the rank of Sudra
Nairs were the holders of kanam tenure under the other category of
Janmis. In some the Janmis including Nambutiris had chiefly
Verumpatakaran them without the first intermediary. The actual
cultivation was done by tied labourers chiefly of the highly polluting
caste of Cherumas. The Verumpatakar who held their tenure under the
Kanakaran usually belonged, in small numbers, to the poor class of
the high group sub-caste of Nairs, and in majority, to the middle
and low groups of sub-castes of Nairs. Verumpattam tenants generally
had
 68

small holdings, a fact which kept them without fair chances of

becoming increasingly wealthier. This feature of land tenure classes
which existed in the villages of focal interest in this study also existed
in a major part or nearly the whole of South Malabar. In the
economy of South Malabar therefore, till late in the last century
the Nairs were in general non-producers and this is true of many
villages till quite recent decades. In this tenancy system of produce
sharing the traditional practice was that one-third of the net produce
was taken by the Verumpattakaran and two-thirds went to the
Janmi. In the case of kanam land two-thirds reached the kanam
holder and he paid a nominal rent to the Janmi. Till 1793 janmam
was regarded as the highest form of ownership but tenants were not
evicted. And at the same time there was no clear evidence to say that
janmam was an absolute ownership. In 1793 the Britishers
recognised janmam as absolute ownership and consequently the
power and prestige of the Janmis were enhanced and they began to
exercise their legal right to evict tenants frequently in order to rent
out land at a higher rent and become wealthier. 10 Among the Sudra
Nairs there was a tradition that they should not hold janmam property
except under kanam rights, or less desirably as Verumpattakar. If
through an unusual channel a Sudra Nair became the janmam owner
of some land he would surrender the janmam right to the
Nambutiri of the village and remain as a kanam tenant under him.
Instances of this kind were cited to me by some well informed Nairs
in illustration of the superiority of the Nambutiris and esteem
accorded to them. 11 The existence of the three classes based on the
pattern of ownership and tenure influenced and even shaped the
limited hypergamous preferences of the Nairs. The high group of
Nair sub-castes remained ambitious of getting husbands from the
Janmi class. Among the Nair sub-caste of the three groups
hypergamy was rare, but within the sub-caste of the high group
who were chiefly kanam tenants (the first intermediaries) the
Verumpattam tenants under them, even when they belonged to the
same sub-caste, were regarded as low. The Kanakaran's master-like
attitude and Pattakaran's sense of depend-ancy created a social
distance between them. Nair tharavad with kanam lands would not
accept husband from a tharavad which had exclusively verumpattam
lands held under kanam tenants. Usually tharavads with such
verumpattam lands were also poor but under enangar obligations this
attitude of the kanam-prestige tharavads would, if unavoidable, be
made lenient. The Nairs were highly sensitive to the social distance
created by this kanakaran-pattakaran distinction and wanted to
maintain it without creating situations in which the two classes
would have to treat one another as equal. As
 69

marriage would create certain mutual affinal obligations in discharge

of which the two classes would have to be treated as socially equal,
it is avoided. Spatially marriage between distant tharavads
was r a r e . A n i m p o r t a n t r e a s o n f o r t h i s w a s t h a t a m o n g
the Nairs, with rare exceptions, the husband visited the wife, a custom
which still prevails to an impressive extent in many parts of rural
South Malabar. 12 A distance of less than two miles seems to have
been popularly conceived as normal for a visiting husband to walk
up. However, marriage between tharavads three to four miles apart
was not infrequent. Further the question of expanding the enangar
groups within the sub-caste and on the same prestige level and within
a reasonable distance accounted for this feature, namely, that affinal
tharavads would not be very far from each other. In the twenties
of this century, in the village of Munnurkode, happened two cases
which illustrate what awkward situations and group conflicts the
acceptance of a visiting husband from a lower prestige group even
as an exceptional case creates. In one case at the Talikettukalyanam
(the pre-puberty symbolic marriage of a Nair girl) ceremony in a
tharavad the girl's father was not permitted by her enangars to
discharge the formality of offering a cloth to her ceremonially. The
enangars' protest was strong because the father belonged to a
tharavad of a lower prestige group. The enangars threatened to
stage a walk out and mar the celebrations; the father yielded and
allowed an enangar to represent him in giving the cloth. In
another case, on the occasion of a big feast there was a similar
threat from the enangar and many invitees to keep a woman's
husband of a lower prestige group off from sitting at the dinner in
the same corridor with the enangar group of his wife.

Thus for each tharavad, marriage was generally restricted to a

locality, to a sub-caste, to an enangar group, to a prestige group, and
to a land-tenure class. The level of wealth of tharavads also influenced
the selection of mates, but it is likely that within an enangar group
wealth was not a very important factor of consideration until about
the close of the last century.

The above discussion reveals that polyandry had to work within

a set of limiting factors. But were there factors which favoured the
existence of polyandry? If hypergamy reduced the number of
marriageable women for the Nairs to marry a condition favouring
polyandry would exist. The castes above Nairs were numerically
very small and the very nature of their means of living in relation to
other castes kept them widely scattered. Consequently in the
majority of
 70

villages the strength of each caste above the Nairs was, as far back
as my informants could remember, of negligible proportion in
relation to the number of Nairs. However, their probable strength
in the past particularly the population of Nambutiris deserves a
detailed consideration. In the villages of which I have some
knowledge the castes above Nairs were, till three decades ago, the
Ambalawasis, the Nambutiris, the Tamil immigrant Brahmins (Pattar)
and the Canarese immigrant Brahmin priests (Embranthiris). In
considering hypergamy the Sthani Nairs could also be regarded as
forming a higher sub-caste. Of these castes the Pattars generally
married among themselves and had rarely an additional Nair wife
who would be visited. The Embranthiris would be visiting husbands
of Sudra Nair women but the Embranthiri families were very few
not amounting to an average of one small family in three or four
villages. Ambalawasis is a common term for a group of castes
devoted to temple services. The matrilineal castes of this group were
the Pisharodys, Poduval, and Warrier who would be visiting husbands
of Nair women. 13 These castes did not intermarry; each had marriage
within itself, could take Nair wives, and accepted Nambutiri
husbands. Except a division of the Poduvals all others could marry
Sudra Nair women or other Nair women of the rank of Sudras. The
Pisharodys could also marry from the sub-caste of Kiriyatil Nairs
(higher than Sudras) at least in some parts of south Malabar. The
patrilineal Ambalawasi castes of Nambissan and Chakiyar were each
very small in number and had no marriage with Nair women at least
in the villages of which I have some knowledge. The Ambalawasis on
the whole married Nair women only of the high group. Owing to the
location of Ambalawasis near temples they were on an average very
small in number in each village and their marital advent into the Nair
population must have been limited as a consequence of accepting
Nambutiri husbands for their women. This necessity was highly
limited for the reason that the Nambutiris had a much wider field
of women to choose from. The necessity for Sthani Nairs to find
wives from among the rest of the Nairs (the high group sub-castes of
Nair) was much less limited for the Sthanis could marry in Sthani
tharavads, accept Nambutiri husbands and also marry non-Sthani
Nair women.

The case of the Nambutiri males making hypergamous inroads

into the population of Nair women deserves a more detailed
consideration. The location of Nambutiri in the pattern of
agricultural economy of Malabar has been already pointed out14;
ritually and religiously also they ranked the highest. They were also
regarded as dominant for their power to interfere and settle
disputes brought
 71
them by their tenants. The social and political power of the Nambutiris
started from about the 10th century but their necessity for
matrimonial alliance with Nair women perhaps started much later. 15
According to E. Kunjan Pillai, 14th century can be estimated as the
period when the Nambutiris developed the custom that only the
eldest brother in a family could marry Nambutiri women and the
younger brothers took to Nair women. 16
This custom which led many Nambutiri women to remain
unmarried, the affiliation of the children born of Nambutiri-Nair
union to the Nair tharavad, high sickness rate due to the custom of
purdah and outcasting of unmarried women for charges of
immorality are some of the important factors which reduced the
numbers of Nambutiris by half in every two hundred years. The
custom that younger brothers of Nambutiris had to marry outside
their caste continued upto the thirties of this century. Polygyny
among Nambutiris was rare and confined to cases of barrenness and
absence of male issues. Pillai proceeding with the estimate of figures
with reasoning based on diverse sources arrived, although not
conclusively, at the figure of one and a half lacs of Nambutiris in
Kerala in 18th century and over five lakhs in 14th century when the
total population would not be more than 10 to 15 lakhs. 17 If this
is near the truth the figures he provides to demonstrate the
dominance of Nambutiris in ancient and mediaeval Kerala are
relevant to the consideration of the hypergamous marriage pressure
of the Nambutiris on Nairs. The proportion of Nambutiris to Nairs
was therefore definitely high and the hypergamous advent of
Nambutiris into the Nair population must have created high
incidence of polyandry among the Nairs. In the light of this
possibility it can be said that the remoter the period the larger the
Nambutiri population and the higher incidence of polyandry.
Theoretically therefore, polyandry also tended to disappear in the
recent past with the process of reduction of Nambutiri population.
It has also to be noted that the Mysorian invasion at the close of
the 18th century and the death of many Nairs and Nambutiris in it as
well as their forcible conversion to Islam must have tended to
reduce the incidence of polyandry. European travellers and others
have recorded polyandry in medieval Kerala but it seems that it is
only with reference to south Malabar, Cochin and parts of north
Travancore and these were the places where Nambutiris were
largely distributed. Malabar Marriage Commission of 1894 pointed
out that polyandry though widespread at one time lingered in Ponnani
and Walluvanad taluks. These were and still are taluks with
comparatively very high number of Nambutiri families.
 72

The census reports of Malabar do not facilitate a break-up of caste

wise figures into categories relevant here and useful for a more
detailed and possibly fruitful discussion. With our present
knowledge it is also not certain if Nambutiris initiated polyandry, but
under the conditions outlined here they seem to have played an
important part in initiating it. It is also not unlikely that the much
discussed Tali-kettukalyanam among the Nairs was originally a
marriage and under the pressure of Nambutiris it was relegated to a
form of symbolic marriage at a younger age to leave the Nair girls
open for engagement with them. 18

The military life of high caste Nairs and hypergamy among Nairs
also deserve consideration. My informants believe that polyandry
was more among Sudra Nairs than among Charna Nairs. Extensive
enquiries among the sub-castes which were armed retainers are likely
to yield some useful data today. Sudra Nairs were always under
Nambutiris and the cases of polyandry in my record are of Sudra
Nairs and a section of Kiriyam Nairs. The military career of the Nairs
must have reduced their male population since they always formed
the militia. The sub-castes which chiefly devoted themselves to the
profession of arms should therefore have had only a low incidence
of polyandry. More investigation in other parts of Malabar today
can throw more light on this possibility. But there again remains
the problem of having sexual partners for the mobile soldiers and
until archival research can tell us more about the degree of mobility
of such soldiers and the nature of their residence and duration of
battles it is not possible to proceed further with the analysis.

If Nairs practised polygyny there would have arisen a disbalance

in the ratio of unmarried men to women, a condition favouring
polyandry. But what has been mentioned by some writers as
polygyny among Nairs was either an exaggeration of rare cases in
some parts of Malabar or a misleading name given to a form of
concubinage. The question of polygyny and concubinage will be
dealt with at a later stage.

II.

The cases of Polyandry cited by my informants with as much

details as could be provided by them are briefly enumerated below:

1. Village—Munnurkode. In a Sudra Nair tharavad a woman had

four husbands. She died in about 1870 A. D.
 73

2. In the same village in another Sudra Nair tharavad a woman

had two husbands of whom one was a poor Nambutiri tutor in
the Nambutiri overlord's family in the village. The second
husband, a Sudra Nair belonged to the village Kallusi three
miles away. He was the first husband and for a couple of
years both the husbands visited her but after that she disliked
the Nair husband and divorced him. This woman died about
23 years back.
3. In the same village in another Sudra Nair tharavad a woman
had two husbands, the first from the village Panamanna, three
miles away, and the second from a village about five miles
away. The second husband started as a resident tutor of
the children in that tharavad at frequent intervals in a year. He
became a lover of the woman and was later recognised as
her husband. This woman died about 55 years back. She
had in addition a poor Nambutiri visiting her privately but
without the knowledge of the headman of the tharavad or her
two husbands. One of her husbands was poor and the Nam
butiri who was less poor gave her frequent gifts.
4. In the same village in a tharavad of Ulladan caste of Nairs
a woman had two husbands, one from the same village and one
from the neighbouring village. She died about 25 years back.
5. Village—Vengasseri. This is about six miles from Munnur
kode. A woman of Sudra Nair tharavad had two husbands
until about twenty years back.
6. In the same village in a Sudra Nair tharavad a woman had
two husbands. She died about 30 years back.
7. Village—Karakurssi, about 13 miles from Munnurkode. A
woman of a Sudra Nair tharavad had two husbands. The second
husband started as a lover and was later recognised as her
husband. She had an additional Nambutiri visiting her with
out the knowledge of her two husbands. She died before
the twenties of this century.
8. In the village of Kizhoor, a mile from Munnurkode, in a tha
ravad of Charan menon two women had two husbands each.
One of these women died about 40 years back and the other
about 30 years back.
9. In the village Karakurissi in a Sudra Nair tharavad, one
woman had two husbands. The woman died about 50 years
back.
10. Village—Kolappilli. In a Kiriyatil Nair tharavad one woman
had two husbands. She died about 50 years back.

More tharavads in different villages where polyandry existed

were pointed out by my informants but they could not name the
women or state the number of husbands or the time when polyandry
disappeared in those tharavads. The sub-caste of these tharavads
Were Sudra-Nair, Kiriyatil Nair, Veluthedan and Ulladan, the last two
having two cases each. Some informants were vague in giving
details but asserted that polyandry existed among the Nairs including
Menons except in the Sthani tharavads. Among the matrilineal
castes the Ambalawasis do not seem to have practised polyandry.
 74

It is possible that polyandry had a higher incidence in wealthy

tharavads. If tharavads on the basis of wealth are classed as high,
middle and low (as judged almost concurrently by my informants),
it is found that four out of ten tharavads listed above belong to the
high class and four to the middle class. Ten is too small a
number to divide classwise to form any reasonable judgment.
But a few of my informants with a wide acquaintance with
tharavads in several villages implicitly meant that the high and middle
class tharavads had a higher number of polyandrous women. The
tharavad (case No. 8) was the wealthiest of the ten and was owning
an elephant, a symbol of opulence and prestige. A number of this
tharavad told me that polyandry was likely to be less common among
the low group sub-castes of Nairs as well as the tharavads of the
low class.

Traditionally among sub-castes below Sudra-Nairs, the lower the

sub-caste of a tharavad the less wealthy it was. The high, middle
and low group of sub-castes therefore roughly coincided with the
corresponding classification of Nair tharavad based on wealth. An
old man who originally belonged to the village of Peruvamba in
Palghat taluk told me, "I have heard that polyandry existed in
Palghat taluk long ago but it was very limited and far between and in
tharavads of affluence. " All my informants emphasised that
polyandry was never practised by more than one or two women in a
tharavad. One cannot say if this was a regular feature of Nair
polyandry through centuries, but it is possible that a small disparity
in sex ratio led only to a limited incidence of polyandry in the
past.

All polyandrous unions started with one husband; the second

husband used to be originally an occasional visitor to the wife's
tharavad and later became her lover. As a lover or even as a
visitor, he could convey his desire to be the second husband of the
woman of his choice. The woman's consent was necessary, for she
was to initiate the question of acceptance of the proposal. In the
matter of acceptance the tharavatilamma (senior most woman of the
tharavad) had an important voice. If she agreed she would take up
the matter with the Karanavan (the male head of the tharavad)
who would usually give the sanction, but would sometimes do so
in a rather half-hearted way: Is it necessary that she should have a
second man? If she is so particular about it, let it be. " Beyond this
finalising there was no ceremony or elaboration in recognition of the
acceptance of an additional husband. It was not common that sexual
liaison preceded acceptance of a man as husband. A woman would
 75
not have adequate opportunity for illicit sexual intimacy with a man.
In Nair tharavads the freedom of women to move out unwatched was
extremely limited and their behaviour was disciplined by the senior
male members. Indoors, the tharavatilamma played an effective role
in maintaining discipline. The possibility of knowing a man, respond-
ing to his approaches and desiring him as an additional husband
worked within these controls. Sometimes the senior women
members would render connivance to a woman of their tharavad if
she was approached with conjugal intentions by a man highly
desirable for his wealth, tharavad prestige and reputation for
individual qualities. Some of my informants pointed out the limited
possibility that an additional husband could be as an extra-martial
sexual partner who gained recognition as a husband. It is not fully
unlikely that this possibility was greater at a very remote period in the
history of polyandry among the Nairs.

It appears that the consent of the first husband was more of a

post facto nature if he had not known of the progressive steps by
which the second one started gaining access. It is more proper
to say that the first husband accepted the situation rather than giving
a formal consent. The second husband might well be a friend of the
first but irrespective of this possibility co-husbands have to be
accommodating to each other.

On an understanding between them the husbands visited the wife

in turn. No set rules guided the husbands in spacing the turn of each
but on important festival days such as Onam, the first husband was
preferred to the rest, to spend the night with the wife. If all the
husbands happened to be present on such an important day the
situation was tackled in this manner. The visiting husband would
usually be in the portico at about the time of retiring after chatting in
the company of the male members of the tharavad. The wife would
convey through a very elderly woman or a child that the bed had been
spread for the first husband in the room. The first married one
would thus be received into the room while the others would be
provided with beds either in the portico or in the common hall
inside the house, hut on the same night the woman would not sleep
with more than one husband. There could rarely be husbands whose
tharavads were four to six miles away. Such husbands would visit
much less frequently but they were expected to maintain some
regularity.

The husbands were jointly to provide the wife with such items
as cloth, oil, etc. which were not usually supplied to her from
 76

her tharavad. Each husband would undertake to supply one of these

items but in addition each would give the wife gifts of ornaments,
brass and bell metal vessels which were to be her personal properties. 20
Not uncommon but less preferred were gifts of cot and materials
for making beds of considerable bulk. Handy curios from distant
markets such as an ivory image of god or a fancy article of some
value made an occasional and much appreciated gift if a husband
could afford and avail of it. In the annual cycle the three important
festivals of Vishnu, Onam and Thiruvatira were occasions when the
husband had to send fruits of the season in good quantity, chiefly
bananas of different strains, and papadams (wafers of rice and
blackgram) and cooking oil to the wife. These were not only meant for
luxurious feasting on the occasion but were also symbols of the
continuing marriage relationships. The non-supply of these goods on
such occasions meant a serious rupture in conjugal relations and an
imminent divorce, or it would be regarded as a confirmation of
divorce if the husband was not visiting the wife for months. Supply
of goods like oil on other occasions such as the wife's delivery, her
birthday, the birth day of children was customary but was not
basically necessary for the continuance of marriage relationship. A
poor husband would be excused and sympathised with if he failed to
comply with this customary dues.

Was the wife bound by obligations of annual visit to the

husbands' tharavads? This custom today in monogamous unions seems
to be a time-honoured one from a remote period. The details available
regarding two of the cases cited, each with two husbands show that
the wife went and enjoyed a brief stay for a few days in the tharavad
of each husband once in a year. "Ammai parkuka" which means the
stay of an elderly Nair wife in her husband's tharavad as Ammai
(mother's brother's wife) of a large number of members there, is
even today a coveted one for it brings to the Nair wife a restful
change as an honoured kin.

The question of assigning paternity of the children to one

husband or the other was not regarded as one essentially to be solved.
Efforts were made at it on the basis of the child's resemblance to one
of the husbands but such efforts were not direct, formal or strictly
deliberate. The elderly women played the role by taking the infant
in arms, dandling and remarking "Oh, he is definitely taking after so
and so; his colour, nose and face reveal that resemblance. " Often this
remark might be overheard by the husbands and in due course the
growing child would get confirmed as the issue of one or the other of
 77

the husbands. There would be children whose resemblance to any of

the husbands was questionable, and whose paternity could not there-
fore be established. But physiological fatherhood did not bind the
polyandrous husband by rigid obligation to his children, a fact that
could be inferred from the diverse nature of opinions of my
informants on the matter. In monogamous unions the father had to
discharge some obligations more definitely expected of him. At the
occasion of the Talikettukalyanam of his daughter the father had to
make a ceremonial supply of Pudava and Karimbadam (a long loin
cloth and a coarse shawl) to her. He had also to supply a large
number of items, except rice required to conduct the pompous feast
held on the occasion of her puberty ceremony. If the father failed to
supply these, the needs would be met by the daughter's tharavad;
but if the father was absent on the occasion, a member of an enangar
tharavad was nominated to make the formal offerings of the cloth and
shawl. In addition, for feasts on the occasion of birthday and
marriage of the children the father had to supply a major part of the
requirements except rice. Of the polyandrous unions recorded
details are available for two, each having two husbands. In one
case the fatherly obligations were discharged by the husbands
jointly and in the other each husband separately did it for his
children.
It is also to be inferred that sons were not bound by clear rules
of obligation of participation in the funeral rites of their mother's
husbands. In instances of established paternity the eldest son was to
take part in the funeral rite and all children of the dead father were
to observe death pollution. It is doubtful if in all cases of polyandry
on record this practice was followed. In monogamous unions, all
children had to observe death pollution and at least one son, prefer
ably the eldest, was to participate in the father's funeral rites. If
the father was a Nambutiri or a Pishorody or Warrier the Nair sons
had no pollution and were not to take part in such rites. If the father
belonged to a higher prestige group among the high group of
subcaste of Nairs his maternal kin would question the right of his
sons to take part in the death rites. An instance in point which
happened twenty-five years back revealed that the sons facing
objection in such a context were helpless to press any claim and had to
resort to the alternative of conducting the rites in their own house.
However in the twenties of this century there were cases of sons
taking part in the death rites of their fathers who belonged to
higher prestige-groups without facing any objections. In polyandry
hypergamous husbands were very rare and yet informants could not
provide a definite answer regarding the question of participation of
sons in the
 78

death rites of their mother's husbands. Two of the informants

believed that if the husbands of a woman belonged to enangar
tharavads her sons had to take part in the death rites of her husbands
and this was not necessarily father-wise. From these facts it also
emerges that values of rank and prestige and the significance of
Enangar group were emphasised and preserved and the question of
fatherhood as such was of secondary importance.

(To Be Continued)
REFERENCES
1. K. M. Kapadia, Marriage and Family in India, Oxford University Press,
Bombay (1955), pp. 76-84; M. S. A. Rao, Social Change in Malabar,
Popular Book Depot, Bombay, (1957), pp. 90-92.
2. Ibid.
3. Twelve Hundred Malayalam Proverbs, Mangalore (3rd edition, 1904);
Thousand and one Proverbs, R. V. R. Press, Trivandrum.
4. The names of sub-castes as presented here do not tally with what is re
corded in the Malabar Gazetteer. This is presumably because in briefly
dealing with the caste system in the whole of Malabar the Gazetteer makes
only a broad distinction between North and South Malabar.
5. This division into three groups is based on the concurrent opinion of my
Sudra Nair informants. The sub-castes of Nairs in other villages who
may roughly be regarded as belonging to these groups are also, at times,
in this study referred to in terms of the respective group to which they
belong.
6. The Nair Panikkar and Kariyam Nambiar were originally Nairs but were
re-labelled by pre-British chiefs on the basis of offices assigned to them.
They were not to render any service to Nambutiris as was the case with
Sudra Nairs.
7. For convenience the term Sthani is here regarded as including Saman-
thans (the pre-British chieftains) who are in Walluvanad Taluk today the
sub-castes of Tirumulpad, Eradi and Vellodi. The term Sthani in this
study also refers to the pre-British Rajas except when the term Raja is
specifically stated. Literally Sthani means a position holder and the term
is in current use in a Major part of S. Malabar to refer to high ranking
Nair families who held titles from pre-British chieftains and big chiefs.
8. Sudra Nairs in a mood of gossip or sportive ridicule would refer to the
Kiriyattils as 'Kolli Untikal' which means 'firewood feeders' (with refer
ence to their role of cooking. )
9. A search through all published records can reveal much more sub
castes
but it is doubtful if the origin of all the relative rank and prestige of any
sub-caste all over Malabar could be known from such sources.
10. Dr. A. Aiyappan, in Iravas and Culture Change, Madras (1945), discusses
with considerable clarity the effect of this British intervention on the
peasantry of Malabar. Report of the Malabar Tenancy Committee (Mad
ras 1940) shows that tenants were evicted in very large numbers with the
increasing realisation on the part of the Janmis that they could exercise
their ownership rights as they liked.
11. This fact does not appear in any published accounts of the Malabar ten
ancy system. My informants are aware of several cases of surrender of
Janmam rights to the Janmi in the past.
 79
E. M. Sankaran Nambudiripad in his dissenting minute, to the report of
the Malabar Tenancy Committee (Vol. I, Madras 1940, p. 73) has well
summarised the feature of dominance of the Nambudiris as Janmis and
has also referred to the role played by this dominance. In recent years
there have been other studies which among other things also contribute
to our knowledge of some aspect or other regarding the position of the
Nambutiris and the Sthanis in Malabar society. P. K. S. Raja in his
Mediaeval Kerala (pp 232-263) shows how Nambutiris slowly increased
their hold on the mediaeval Kerala politics.
Dr. K. N. S. Nambutiripad in his unpublished thesis, "A Survey of
Occupational and Employment Structure in some Malabar Villages, "
(1949) has reviewed the position of Janmis in South Malabar in the
19th century. He also gives figures (p. 63) of the very large proportion
of acreage under cultivation by tenants.
12. K. Raman Unni, Visiting Husbands in Malabar, Journal of M S. Univer
sity of Baroda, Vol. No. 1. March 1956, pp. 37-56.
13. There is another matrilineal Ambalawasi caste, Nambissan, which was a
very small one and scattered into a few places. The Poduvals were divi
ded into Akapoduval and Pura Poduval and the latter were further divi
ded into Mala Poduval and Chenda Poduval, all named after the nature of
their temple services. Another Ambalawasi caste, Marar, was of a low
rank but they could not have Nair wives except in a few places in Mala
bar. The patrilineal castes of Ilayad and Muthad (or Mussad) were also
sometimes mentioned as Ambalawasis but they were also small in number
and scattered and it is doubtful if they could have Nair wives except in
a few places.
14. There are also at the same time many folk sayings and stories about the
innocent nature of Nambutiris and their lack of shrewdness in dealings.
It is often said that this is one of the reasons why they nearly always
wanted Nairs or Pattars as managers of their affairs connected with pro
perty and income. In each village one could find a couple or more thara-
vads or Nairs which swelled up its wealth at the expense of the Nambu
tiri family.
15. Ilamkulam Kunjan Pillai, Some Problems of Kerala History (in Mala-
yalam) part III, National Book Stall, Kottyam, (1956), p. 96.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid, pp. 86-100.
18. Several interpretations have been placed on Kettukalyanam but it is still
not possible to state anything conclusively about it. Dr. Aiyappan's study
'The Meaning of the Tali rite', (Bulletin of the Ramavarma Research Ins-
titute, Trichur, July 1941) is a check against those interpretations which
regard it as a marriage.
19. Regarding the military life of the Nairs and the various hypergamous
possibilities of the past in various parts of Malabar more studies will be
possible when researches into the problems of Kerala History yield more
results.
20. Oil for smearing over the body and applying on the scalp before bathing is
used in large quantities by women in Malabar. A husband who can
afford to supply such items in large quantities would never economise on
that since it affects his prestige to do so.
21. Robert Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, Illinois. 2nd Edition,
(1951), p. 63.