MOPLA, an energetic and prosperous race in considerable numbers in the south of India ; in a large portion of Malabar they form half the populations, and in the Malabar district their total number by census is not short of half a million ; they are also numerous in Travancore and Canara. They are a good-looking race, sturdy,-intelligent, and educated. They are perhaps, in industrious habits, not second to antpopulation to be found anywhere in India. They have comfortable, neat two-storeyed houses and homesteads ; they have most of the trade of the western coast in their hands, and are rapidly acquiring a larger and larger share in the land. They do not often seek public service. The name is supposed to be derived from the Maleala word Mapilla, liter ally mother's son. The intercourse with the Muhammadan merchants and seamen and Arab women of Western India seems to have been from the most ancient times. Abuzaid, writing A.D. 916, mentions that the more devout merchants of Siraf, when young men were on board, avoided sending their ships to Ceylon, as the women were very licentious ; and merchants would, when newly arrived, make advances to the daughter of a king, and she, with the know ledge of her father, would go to meet him in some woody plaee.
Tho Mopla. of North Malabar follow the rule, as to property, of tho 3Iarumakkatayam, having in this respect conformed to Hindu usage in the times of the ascendency of the Hindus. The Mopla also take the wife of a deceased brother. The Mopla are sometimes called Jonakan Ma ills (from Yavana, GREEK), to distinguish them from the Nasrani (Nazarene) Mapilla, the Nestorian Christians of Malabar. On the south-east parts of the Peninsula they receive and accept the honorary designation of Labbai, from their habit of using in conversation the Arabic word Labek, May it please you,' I beg your pardon,' when not apprehending a remark.
Other titular names of the 3Iopla of Travancore are Gurukal, Marakar, and Kowtan. The Chulia Mopla or Labbai of the south-east of the Peninsula are called by th6 Teling, Jonangi, Jonagar, Jona kari. The Mopla wear a beard and moustache, cut tolerably close, and little or no hair on the head. A linen skull-eap, covered by a varied coloured topi, protects the crown ; and with the richer members of the sect, 'a white and gold pagri is wound around the head also. A loose flowing chemise, with gold or coloured threads worked round the borders, and a jacket of pink, blue, or elaborately-embroidered cloth of gold, with an under garment of scarlet or blue cloth, loose and short white cotton trousers, and wooden sandals, more or less handsomely decorated, com plete the Mopla's costume. He invariably carries
a China folding umbrella, and wears a bunch of keys suspended by a string from his neck. In his hand, flung over his shoulder, or tied round his waist, a smart Madras cotton handkerchief is always to be seen. The Mopla are generally cleanly and well attired when they appear out of their houses and bazars. Their women dress in blue and white cotton cloths, and on feast days are sometimes gorgeous to behold, with rings of brass, silver, and copper, bracelets of blue, red, and black glass, tinselled wood and white metal, ear-rings of lead, silver, and pinchbeck, and necklaces of a variety of materials.
The 3fopla. in N. Malabar write Malealam with the Arabic character, but with additional vowel marks for c, o, di, and some of the conso nants have additional dots. In S. Malabar they use the old Tamil character called vattezhuttu.
On several occasions since the west part of India came into the possession of Great Britain, the Mopla have required to bo coerced. They are known to possess much religious zeal ; but agrarian disputes have been a prominent cause of their outbursts. Hindu landlords kept the land in their own hands, or leased it out to the Mopla at high rents, and then took advantage of legal rights to turn them out.
Small numbers of them with agrarian griev ances, and sustained by religious fanaticism, have taken up arms, their favourite weapon being a knife. In 1849, after a series of oppressions inflicted on Hindus, the Mopias seized the pagoda of Munjerry, near Calicut, and slew a Brahman priest at the very altar itself. Madras infantry were sent to dislodge them. Mr. Wyse and others who kept close him were killed, and the 94th Queen's came from Cannanore. The Moplas, 64 in number, fought with the greatest fury, leaving their bodies on the field, for not one man escaped.
In at Kallatur, a burst of religious zeal led to the murder of Hindus, and they were attacked in their stronghold by Madras sepoys. The 94th had to be again summoned. But outrages took place in several other places at the same time, and a wealthy Hindu and a Nair fell victims to Mopla attacks. They have had an Arab, called Taugul, as their religious leader.