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| KERALA
Journal
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The Kerala Story:
by Dr. Zacharias Thundy, Northern Michigan University
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The Coming of the Aryans and the Brahmin Story The Harappan Civilisation, "the vastest political experiment before the advent of the Roman Empire" (Mortimer Wheeler), suddenly came to an abrupt end around 1700 B.C. All the reasons for its demise are not yet known, but it was probably directly related to the Aryans, invading tribes-men from the Russian and Central Asian steppes. The newcomers called them-sleves Aryas, a term meaning "superior" and surviving in Iran and Eire/ Ireland. There are references to the battles of the Aryans with the Dasas in the Vedic hymns, to the occupation of the Dasas1 land, to the capture of their possessions, and to the destruction of their cities. The Indo-Aryan war-god Indra is known as puramdara, "the destroyer of cities." Agni, the fire-god, is also prominently mentioned in this capacity, understandably, since many of the Indus cities were destroyed by fire. The conclusion seems to be inescapable: the destruction of the Indus cities of the Dravidians and/or Mundas was the work of the Aryans. While the superiority of the Dravidians lay in their urban civilization, the superiority of the Aryans lay in their military strength. The invaders relied more on wood for their homes than on stone and preferred villages to cities at least till the end of the Vedic period. The invading Aryans were divided into a large number of independent tribes often fighting each other when they were not fighting the Dasas (Dravidians and Mundas), their common enemy. The Aryans were highly conscious of their ethnic unity, based on a common language (Sanskrit is the literary expression of it), a common religion (Brahminism is its classical form), and a common culture (love of war and adventure is an integral part of it). the white Aryans were well aware of the contrast between themselves and the colored natives who either became Sudras or servants and dependents of the conquerors or withdrew to the forests and mountains and to regions beyond the Aryavarta (land of the Aryans) across the Vindhya Mountains to the South. That the Aryans were able to maintain their identity implies that they came in large numbers, in waves of migration, lasting a long period. The Aryans expanded from the Indus Valley and Punjab eastwards to modern Uttar Pradesh down the Ganga Valley. The main group of migrants followed the foothills of the Himalayas, driving the Mundas to the hills and the Dravidians south to Deccan. All this time they were still living among the conquered Mundas called Nishadas or forest tribes. The next stage in the Aryan occupation of India falls within 800-550 B.C. At this time Aryavarta had for its boundaries the seas in the east and the west and the Himalayas in the north and the Vindhya in the south. The advance to Bengal and Orissa and Gujarat and Maharashtra and the Dravidian lands of the south took place not behind battle standards but under the banner of civilizing missions. The Brahmins, the Aryan missionaries, spread the Brahminic religion, Vedic culture, and the Sanskrit language; the Brahmins also increased their status or strengthened their organization. Alone or in small numbers and away from home, the wandering Aryans mixed with the Dravidians and Mundas, and their hybrid descendants moved farther to Dravidian South. It was at this time that the Pre-Aryans considerably influenced the Aryans and that the transition from Vedic religion to later Hinduism had its beginnings. Throughout, the Tamils .of the extreme South remained independent and standoffish. The penetration of the South and Kerala by the Aryans began only during the Buddhist and Jainist times. It was a slow, gradual process which was accomplished in a gentle, subtle manner by the missionaries. It was a conquest, all right; but it was accomplished by the arts of peace and not by the force of arms. Though the Buddhists came at the wake of Emperor Ashoka's evangelizing missions, most of the Vedic Brahmins came only in the seventh and eighth centuries by way of the West Coast from Tulu Nadu. It is'true that the Tamil Sangam works of Shilappadikaram and Patittupattu of the third century A.D. talk about Brahmins' literary activities in the land of the Cheras in the South; these Cheras, however, had their kingdom not on the west Coast but in the eastern plains; the Cheras started moving toward present-day Kerala only in the fifth century A.D. Of course, small groups of Brahmin mission-aries were very active in Tamil Nadu during the reign of the Vaishnavite Chalukyas and the Saivite Rashtrakutas in Tamil Nadu. It was, however, only in the eighth century that the Aryanization of Kerala and the Hinduization of the Munda-Dravidian Cheras- many of whom probably were Buddhists, Jainists, and Christians-- reached a high degree of intensity and fervor. It was dur-ing this time that Mayura Sarman, the Kadamba king, invited large colonies of Brahmins from North India and settled them in the Tulu and Kerala countries. According to one tradition, six outstanding Brahmin scholars came with the immigrants as their spokesmen, defeated the Buddhists in public debates, and established the intellectual supremacy of Hinduism. The Aryan influ-ence increased considerably during the times of the great Mimamsaka, Guru Prabhakara (8th century), of the great Sankaracharya (788-820) and of the Kulasekharas of the Second Chera Empire (800-1100). The Aryans who reached Kerala in the eighth century changed signifi-cantly the racial, social, political, and cultural landscape of Kerala. This will be discussed briefly in the next chapter. It is important to remember that though the Aryans conquered the Mundas and the Dravidians of Kerala, it was ultimately the Aryans who were conquered and absorbed by Kerala, creating a new brand of Hindu religion, a strong hybrid race, and a new culture--a blend of Munda, Dravidian, and Aryan cultures. There was much surrender and much gain on the part of every party concerned. As a result of the mixing of, association with, and alienation from different races, today there are four major ethnic groups in Kerala: Brahmins, Nairs, Ezhavas, and Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Because of space considera-tions, I exclude from discussion all the other five hundred castes and sub-castes like the Kshatriyas (the rulers), Ambalavasis (temple attendants and musicians), Samantans (local chieftains), Kammalans (artisans), Mukkuvans (fishermen), and outcastes like the Nayadis. BRAHMINS The Brahmins, who constitute only 4% of the Kerala population, are the most recent immigrants to Kerala; they are not all pure-bred Aryans or a homogeneous community. They are divided into several groups. The highest are the Nambutiris who regard themselves as pure Aryan Brahmins, faithful to the Vedic traditions. They claim to have descended from the sixty-four families of the original inhabitants (swadeshi) brought over by Parasuraina. Most likely they came from North India, but it does not mean that they were then and are now a pure race. Today many of them have the dark complexion and look like other Keralites. All other Brahmins are considered aliens (paradeshi) and inferior in status to the Numbutiris. They came after the eighth century from Tulu Nadu in the north and Tamil Nadu in the east in search of better employment opportunities at the invitation of royal patrons and local temples who preferred Brahmin teachers, administrators, and priests. They are the Embrantini and the Pattar or Potti Brahmins. By profession, all these Brahmins were mostly priests and teachers; they controlled the temples and lived mainly on temple revenues. Gradually, due to a shrinking employment market, many o-F the alien Brahmins abandoned their priestly occupa-tions and took to trade and government employment and became very successful. One of the most memorable of these.Brahmins is the former Communist Chief Minister of Kerala, E. M. S. Namboodiripad. Many Brahmins until recently continued their traditionaly mendicant profession, like the mendicant religious orders of the Catholic Church with the difference that the Brahmins are not by virtue of their priestly profession celibate. They used to wander from temples to princely palaces to noblemen's dwellings where they were fed gener-ously by the Hindu faithful. At Padmanabhapuram Palace, built and maintained by the Travancore Maharajas, food was given daily to a thousand mendicant Brahmins in a great dining hall reserved for this purpose. The patrons earned merit by such acts of charity. The Brahmins' patrilineal joint family is called Illom.
Like the Nairs, the Brahmins too wanted to prevent the division of family
property and conse-quent fragmentation of wealth. For this they relied
on a system of primogeniture: only the eldest member of the Illom
was allowed to marry women of his own caste; he was allowed polygamy to
the extent of four wives. Still there remained numerous Nambutiri
women who were condemned to perpetual spinsterhood because the younger
brothers were not allowed to marry from within the caste. To satisfy the
sexual needs of these junior males, the custom of Sambandham was evolved.
The Brahmin interpreters of the law modified pollution laws to allow sexual
contact between Brahmins and Sudras : it was the duty of Sudra women
to yield to Brahmin men. In this way Sambandham or concubinages came
into being: the Nambutiris became visiting paramours of Nair
and Ambalavasi women; often polyandry took the form of a Nair woman who
was shared by a Nair husband and a Brahmin lover.
Nairs of Kerala: Next Page> |
