DOCUMENT
The Hindu nazis, the founders of the Aryan myth that gave birth to the horrendous nazism, fascism, Zionism and racism, are today working overtime to deny they are Aryans and foreign Invaders. Textbooks written by Aryan historians themselves are being desperately re-written to brainwash the youth that Aryans are not allenes and foreigners who once destroyed the great glorious Indus Valley Civilisation, the creation of the original Inhabitants of India namely the Adi-Dravida’s and Dravida’s who today are called Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Castes. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are mostly converts from these three indigenous communities. (SC/ST/BCs). All the six sections are today groaning under Aryan oppression. The Aryan oppressors are worried that the growing unity of the SC/ST/BCs and Muslim/Christians/Sikhs, together comprising over 85% of India’s population, may upset the Aryan game of exploitation, In the name of “Hindu Unity”. The latest Ram Janmabhoomi stunt of the Aryans Is part of this Aryan bid to mislead the masses. When the Aryans are frantically trying to deny they are Aryans, claiming that they too are Dravida’s and original inhabitants of India, a Kerala Brahmin historian gives a slap on the face of his Aryan counterparts by asserting that Nambudiri’s are pure Aryans. Dr. P.P Narayanan Nambudiri, Professor of history at St. Peter’s college, Kullucherry (Ernakulam) asserts that Aryans are foreigners and that Nambudiri are Aryans. His books, “Aryans in South India” (1992) is published by Inter- India Publications, D-17 Raja Garden, New Delhi-15, pp300 – Rs.315.
Dr. P.P. NARAYANAN NAMBUDIRI
It is proposed to deal with the various aspects regarding the Aryans in Kerala in this and in the subsequent chapters.
The main aim of this chapter is to make a special study of the Nambudiris of Kerala who belong to one of the original stocks of the Aryan people in the south. Such a special study has not been made in chapter III which is more a general exposition of the Aryan problem in South India, Secondly, the Aryans in Kerala have a distinct entity when contrasted with the Aryans in the rest of South India. The traditional history of the Aryans in Kerala is also somewhat different from their brethren in the East Coast. Lastly it has been held that the Aryans came to Kerala at a very late date in contrast to other parts in South India.
PARASURAMA STORY FALSE
The genesis of the western coastal regions in Peninsular India and peopling them with Arya brahmins are ascribed to the great warrior sage, Parasurama in Puranas of later times, in local legends and chronicles, Stalamahatmyoms and in literature. The traditional story of Parasurama reclaiming the land from the sea between Gokaranam and Cape Comorin and giving the land as gift to brahmins is so well-known that there is no need to re-state or describe it at great length in this context. Throughout the Western Coast up to Gujarat the brahmins trace their emigration from the north under Parasurama, The Parasurama tradition has travelled to Baluchistan, Afghanistan and even to Per-sla and Turkey, and it has been said that Parasurama was the leader of the colonists from Phylicia to the West Coast
DESTROYER OF KSATRIYAS
However, the Parasurama tradition in Kerala is unique in one respect that it has become the central fact in the traditional history of Kerala. The land of Kerala is popularly called Bargemaster. Slightly varied versions of the Parasurama tradition or story may be found in some of the folklores, accounts in the Puranas, and indigenous traditional chronicles, but all versions of the main story in its general tenor and development are in agreement which may be stated as follows:
(1) That Parasurama, the six to incubation of Visnu was the destroyer of the Kshatriyas;
(2) That he was banished from the north to the south;
(3) That he was the originator of most of the lands on the we stem coastal strip of Peninsular India; and
(4) That he brought in brahmins from the north and settled them in the south. (p. 113)
MYTH – MAKING
The legend speaks of the geological ages through which Kerala passed in the pre-historic times to which reference has been made in the previous chapter and of Parasurama recovering the submerged land of Kerala from the sea throwing his axe from Gokarnam to Cape Comorin or from Cape Comorin to Gokarnam and the sea receding back to give birth to the land of Kerala. Take away Parasurama from the scene, the legend becomes a natural event that took place In a very remote period. In this context it is also relevant to note that in the pre-historic times and even in historic times there is a tendency for people to attribute divinity or the working of super-natural forces to explain natural phenomena which they cannot explain scientifically. The attempt of the human mind, more poetic than scientific, to account for the various forces and phenomena of nature with which man is confronted leads to the rise of myths. When imagination interprets a natural event as the action of the personified being resembling a human agent, a myth is bom. (p.114- 115)
NAMBOODIRI SANKARA
In the Pallava records not even a single reference to these exploits is seen. Sankara, the renowned Advaita philosopher, who belonged to the Nambudiris of Kerala nowhere in his several works, refers to Parasurama. Ganga Dhruv Anita has been eulogised in Inscriptions as “an incarnation of Parasurama in the art of using astras, upastras and other weapons”. But in these inscriptions, there are no references to reclamation of land by Parasurama and like exploits. There is a reference to Parasurama in the Chalayan records wherein also nothing is recorded with regard to his exploits in Kerala. In the Kulasekhara records no reference to Parasurama or the reclamation of land and peopling it by Nambudiri brahmins have been found. (p.116)
In the legends and traditions exclusively of the Aboriginal people of Kerala, no instance of a remembrance of or reference to Parasurama is seen. Nowhere In the Northern Ballads, Parasurama is seen being mentioned. This tradition may be found only in the memory, belief and literary works of the high caste people of Kerala, roughly from the 11th or 12 century A.D.
In the above fitness of things, it is difficult to hold that the Nambudiris were brought to Kerala by Parasurama.
Even Keratopathic describes an instance of outright disobedience of the Nambudiris to the orders of Parasurama to accept matriliny. It is seen narrated in Keratopathic that Parasurama required the Nambudiris to accept Marumakkathayam. All of them refused to accept this order except the Nambudiris of Payyannur grammar. It is beyond doubt that Parasurama had not been accepted as their guardian deity by the Nambudiris.
NO PARASURAMA TEMPLE IN KERALA
Kerala has practically no Parasurama temple except a few solitary exceptions. There is a temple dedicated to Parasurama in Tiruvallur near Trivandrum. A relevant doubt has been raised by the leamed Editor of the T.A.S namely Mr. K.V. Subramanya lyre whether it is a temple of Parasurama. (p.117)
KONKANI BRAHMINS
It can be seen that Parasurama tradition is cherished the more outside Kerala. The Konkanasta brahmins consider Parasurama as their guardedly and worship the idol of Parasurama in their houses. It is informed that worship of Renuka Is conducted in certain parts of Maharashtra on certain days every year. Several non-brahmin castes outside Kerala in Madras and Telangana have traditions carried over generations having some relation with Parasurama. From the fore-going exposition three inferences follow logically:
(1) The Parasurama legend as described in Keratopathic and Keralamahatmyom is unhistorical though the political social, religious and economic conditions that can be culled out from the work seem to be relevant to an extent;
(2) The legend of Parasurama was not cherished of prevailing in Kerala before the 11th or 12the century A.D.
(3) The legend, in one way or other was current outside Kerala abo, in Tuluva, Maharashtra etc.
ARYAN FORGERY
It was for giving authority, sanction and universal adherence to that system in the context of changing conditions that both works were written by interested parties. No doubt the interested parties were the high castes who were the privileged in the existing society. the brahmin Nambudiris, the Kshatriyas and the Nayar’s who were interested in preserving the existing system from the onslaught of the Western system that began to take root gradually under the Western imperialist regime.
SAVARNA CONSPIRACY
The Nambudiri brahmins wanted to legalise their high sacerdotal and social status, their demon lands, their joint family system and their social customs. The rulers or the Kshatriyas wanted to have their rights and privileges accepted by the British Government. The Nayar’s wanted their higher status in politics and society and their peculiar social customs legalised. It was the result of a conspiracy, it appears so, of a few influential individuals of the Savarna castes that the plan of the work was made and that some had been entrusted with the duty of drafting, some scholars and historians have expressed the view that it was the work of a Nambudiri. Most probably the brain behind the work was that of a brahmin or brahmins; but to attribute exclusive and absolute responsibility to him or to them is going too far and is unjust; others also have agreed to it and also benefited if any benefit has resulted from it.
The main conclusion that can be arrived at from the exposition so far is that the Parasurama tradition as described in Keratopathic and Keralamahatmyom will not provide a satisfactory solution to the Aryan problem In Kerala. (p.119)
Probably it was William Logan who tried for the first time to fix a date of the coming of the Aryans or Nambudiris to Kerala. He fixed the date as somewhere in the early years of the 8th century A.D. According to him it was Mayura Arman who brought brahmins to Tuluva and Kerala whose rule might be assigned to the last years of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century A.D. Historical researches subsequent to Mr. Logan have proved that the whole argument of Mr. Logan is unrealistic and out of date. (p.120)
ARYAN ENTRY IN 4TH CENTURY
K.P.P. Menon had come to the conclusion that the advent of the Aryans into Kerala might have taken place “before the fourth century of the Christian era”. Further he states also that it is not possible to hold the view that it could not have taken place earlier that the first century A.D. His view is unquestionably sound, but he has not fixed the date. By doing so he had left the problem for further research, the lines on which further inquiry be made by others being suggested indirectly, by setting up almost all facts and references in his exposition. In fact, to the learned author all Kerala historians are obliged very much. For many dissertations in Kerala history published in the past 25 or 30 years are in fact based on what Mr. K.P.P. Menon had recorded. That does not mean that no original works have come out during this period.
Prof.K.V. Krishna lyre, a prominent historian of Kerala, has held that though the brahmins are believed to have been brought to Kerala by Parasurama, no evidence has yet been discovered of their presence here before the fourth century B.C. The late Prof.Elamkulam Kunjan Pillay who had rendered yeoman service to the recon- striction of several dark pages in Kerala History had expressed the view that though the brahmins came to Kerala before or after the first century A.D., the bulk of them came only at a late period and that the Nambudiris belonged to the later immigrants. It is difficult to accept his view that the Nambudiris belonged to the later immigrants, because of the Vedic character of the customs and rituals of the Nambudiris in contrast to their brethren in the East Coast and on certain other grounds which will be dealt with in the section that follow. Prof.A. Sridhara Menon also holds a like view as Prof.Elamkulam Kujang Pillay. In another context in his work, it is seen that a different view is also given by him. His view that the brahmins came to Kerala after Buddhists and Jains also cannot stand as Brahmanism in South India as a whole including Kerala is pre- Buddhistic in character. Sardar K.M. Panikkar has ex- pressed his view that “a small trickle of brahmins seems to have reached the country” some time before the third century B.C. (p.121).
32 NAMBUDIRI SETTLEMENTS
In the reconstruction of the ancient history of Kerala epigraphical evidences are available only from the time of the Kulasekhara’s of Mahadevapura. The Vasapoli Copper Plate. (830 A.D.) and the subsequent inscriptional evidences of the 9th century to 1 1th century A.D. indirectly and in certain cases directly establish the fact of Aryanization of Kerala and of before. Vasapoli in Changemakers seems to be an upagrama of Tiruvallur, the latter being mentioned as one of the thirty-two settlements of the Nambudiri brahmins in Keratopathic. (p. 122).
AGE OF SANKARA
No historian can dispute the existence of an influential brahmin or Nambudiri community in Kerala in the 9th and Both centuries A.D. The famous astronomer and astrologer Sankaranarayana, the Tamil Scholar Neelakandan of Musiri, the Yamasaki Vasudeva Bhattarai, the author of the earliest work on dramatics in Kerala Tolan, who was also Vishaka of the Kula Sekhar court and the dramatist Sakti Bhadran flourished in these centuries and all of them belonged to the Nambudiri community. It was also the age of the great Advaita philosopher Sankara (789-820 A.D.). who was also a Nambudiri. (p.124).
TAMILS AND SANGAM AGE
By the fore-going reconstruction, the presence of the Nambudiris in Kerala has been traced back as far as the Tamil Sangam age. The chronology of the Sangam works is controversial. However, most of the scholars agree to a chronology extending from the first century A.D. to the third century. Even though the political events that can be culled from the Sangam literature have to be tested carefully before their acceptance, the social and cultural aspects can be accepted safely, almost in their entirety. There are many references to brahmins, Vaidika and Lukina brahmins in the Sangam works, One may argue that those references pertain to Tamil brahmins and not to Kerala brahmins. But Kerala was part of Tamil land till the 8th or 9th century A.D. There is a view that the geographical background that can be gleaned from the Sangam works pertains to Kerala more and that the Sangam works may best be utilised for the reconstruction of Kerala history. Many of the poets of the Sangam were Keralites. It is also surmised that many of the works were composed in Kerala. Tolkappiyum was composed by its author somewhere In the Southern District of the erstwhile Travancore State. Besides there is one Sangam work, which exclusively deals with Kerala, namely ‘Patittupattu’ (p.125)
WHEN BRAHMINISM FLOURISHED
Even though the Tamil Sangam works belonged to a later period, they unfold some aspects of the Tamil society and politics of a few centuries before the Christian era. They refer to the Nanda’s and Maurya’s which takes the history of the South to the 4th century B.C. when brahmin and brahmanism flourished in that ancient society. If the Aryans had stepped into the South by about 600 or 400 B.C. there is very likelihood of their advancing to the farthest limit of Kerala by about 300 B.C. or earlier. (p.127).
NAMBUDIRIS ORIGINAL ARYANS
Two inferences can be drawn from this that (1) the Nambudiris belong to that ancient or original stock of Vedic Aryans descending directly from the Vedic Rises and (2) that they belong to a group that separated from their brethren in the North, say somewhere around or after 700 B.C. (p.131). Here is yet another indirect evidence of Aryan penetration into Kerala some centuries before the Christian era. These lead to an inference that the first or the earliest batch of the Aryan Nambudiris had arrived in Kerala as early as circa 400 B.C. or 300 B.C. before Ashoka and Katyayani. (p.133)
TULU BRAHMINS
The suffix ‘Embrian and ‘Embroider’ attached to Tulu brahmins who were Pujaris in most of the temples in Kerala originated from the word Emberuman or Ember Makkal. It is quite reasonable to infer that when the word ‘Embroidery’ originated, the word Nambudiri also originated to distinguish both the sects from another. This should have taken place somewhere in the 11th or 12the century A.D. when there took place an influx of Tulu brahmins to Kerala.
The world ‘Nambudiri seems to be a word belonging to Monaragala or Bhasma’s. The word ‘Nambucca’ is Dravidian, meaning to confide, to advise etc. ‘Tiri’ is a common Sanskrit affix, office, or dignity meaning ‘blessed’, fortunate’, Sri, etc, Hence the word ‘Nambudiri’ originated only late in the later stage of the development of Manipravalam or Bhasamisrom which may be attributed to the 11th or 12th centuries A.D. Even in the late Government records of Kerala the name of a Nambudiri Jemma or Pattamars is found recorded without the suffix Nambudiri. (p.136)
