The Malayala Swims are the Nairs of Malabar. They are the agriculturists of the country, culti vating as tenants of the Namburi, who are the landlords or Janami of Malealam, and who are looked up to as the suzerain master, their household deity, their very god ou earth.' The titular designation given to nearly all the Brahmans of Travancore (except to the Papi caste) is Namburi (from Nam=Veda, and Purep pika, to complete), meaning an expounder of the Vedas. Among the varied clans of Brahmans in India, these Namburi take a very high position for sanctity. With the object of retaining their landed property unbroken, succession is from father to son, but it is strictly entailed on the eldest son. The younger sons are not allowed to marry, but visit the Ambulavasi (temple) and Sndra women, who receive them more for the honour than for any gifts they bring. The Nam buri are unboundedly hospitable to Brahman strangers, and are charitable. They are of a fair colour, their women are considered beautiful, and the race are remarkable for cleanliness of person and neatness in dress.
Their women often remain nmnarried after they have grown up, and even to an advanced age. Numerous daughters are considered a misfortune, the dowry and marriage expenses bearing heavily even on the wealthiest Namburi. Infanticide, however, is unknown. But a Namburi, anxious to see his sisters married, will give them to a family from which he takes one or more wives. The Namburi women are guarded with a more than Muhammadan seclusion. At home they dress like the Nair women, with a cloth from the waist downward. When they move abroad they are covered over with cloths, and attended by a Nair servant woman, who commands all men on the road to stand aloof.
There are 27,138 Brahmans, mostly immigrants from the districts of the Madras and Bombay Presidency. The Travancore people style these foreign Brahmans Putter,' a corruption of Bhatta, devout ; but they are also distinguished by affixing the localities whence they came, as Maltratta, Telugu, Tamil, Gujerati, randy. Kar natica, Choliar, Gowda, Mukkani, Pataya, Vanchi, Iyengar, and Sanati Brahman.
Inheritance Laws.—The peculiar marriage cus toms of the bulk of the races in Travancore originated the existing law of inheritance. That law is called Marumakkatayam ; it is the descensus ab utero of the Locrians, under which a sister's children inherit. Paiasu Rama urged all his Brahman colonists to adopt it, but those of Panniar alone complied. All the Kshatriya families, how ever, follow this law of inheritance.
The Marurnakkatayam law of inheritance is, however, followed by all the Brahmans who serve in temples, by all the Malealam Sudras, most of whom have the titular designation of Nair ; by the five artisan castes, the goldsmith, brazier, stone mason, blacksmith, and carpenter ; also by the .Baran Sudra, who eat rice prepared by a Varier, and whose women receive Variers' visits; by the old Kshatriya race, amongst whom are the sove reigns of the country ; and by the Nanjanad sections of the Vellalar race.
Nair girls are all married at an early age, before they grow up, and tho ceremony is attended with much display of wealth, but the husband or person who ties on the marriage string (the tali) has no claim to possess her then or in after life. But when she attains maturity she chooses the person with whom she is to associate, who presents her with a cloth. The union agreement, however, on either side is dissolvable at pleasure, the solo restriction on the Nair woman being that she must not admit any man of a class below her own. Accordingly .a Nair household has no husband, but consists of its owner, and the maternal uncles, the uterine brothers and sisters, and the sisters' children. Women may rule the state, and, under the Marumakkatayam law, in nearly half the houses in the country, women are the sole proprietors of their households.
Among those who follow the Marumakkatayam law, a female child is more highly prized than a boy, and the ratio of adult women to 100 men in Travancore is higher than in neighbouring districts, as under :— Malabar, . . . . 1104 Kistna, . . . . 1032 Travancore, . . . 110'5 North Arcot, . . 1022
Ganjam, . . . . 1102 Kurnool, . . . . 101'5 Salem, . . . . 1092 Chingleput, . . . 101'4 Coimbatore, . . . 1091 Nellore , South Canara, . . 1091 Cuddapah, . . 992 Godavery, . . . 1082 Bellary, . . . 98'6 Vizagapatam, . . 104'6 Neilgherries, . 801 South Arcot, . . 103'3 Northwards from Travancore the marriage and inheritance laws vary. The Tuluva people are remarkable for the law of succession called Aliya Santana. This is the law of the so-called Sudra, tribes, and a tribe that practises it is probably Tulu. But the race does not include Brahmans or low castes, who are mostly settlers from other parts of S. India, though in some cases they have adopted the custom. In South Malabar, descent is to sons-in-law ; but in N. Malabar, the Nair, the artisans, carpenter, brass-smith, blacksmith, and goldsmith, also the Tiar, who are toddy drawers, and the Mookwa fishermen, are all polyandrists, and the descent of property goes in the female line. In North Malabar, this law of descent is called Marumakkatayam, and the Muhammadan Moplah has conformed to this usage. In Canara, a similar law, called Aliya Santana, or nephew inheritance, prevails, and is in practice more strictly carried out than in N. Malabar. In N. Malabar, the adherents to Marumakkatayam form united family communities, termed Tarwaa.d. The senior member of whatsoever branch is the head of the family, is termed Karnaven ; the other members are styled Anandraver ; the re motest member is acknowledged as one of the family, and entitled to maintenance if living under subordination to the head of the family and taking part in their religious observances. For the women there is nothing analogous to the state of widowhood as existing elsewhere. Whether in alliance with men or not, they reside in their own families. The Nair marries before he is ten years of age ; but though he supports, he never associates with his wife, who receives, at her pleasure, any men, provided they be not of lower birth. Consequent on this form of descent, a Nair does not know who his father is. In law, property is held to vest in the females only ; practically the males are co-sharers with the females. In default of males, females succeed to the management of the family property. In some families the management devolves on them ,preferably to the males, and the senior female takes it. There is, however, a growing tendency to convey property from father to son, arising from the gradual abandonment of polyandry. The connubial connection in question is called in Malabar Goona-dosham, Goou good, Dosham, evil (for better or worse). In Travancore it is styled Mundu-vanga, viz. Mundu, cloth, Vanga, receiving, and the girl taken is of ripe age, and her consent must be obtained. Personal acquaint ance thus precedes the union. The hour selected for the ceremony is 8 r.m. There is an assemblage of friends ; the man presents the woman with a mundu or white muslin cloth, in a corner of which, in North Malabar, a small sum of money is tied. The girl either goes to the man's house, or remains in her own, and is visited by him there. Each party is unrestricted as to the number of such connections that may be formed, but these ordinarily do not exceed two or three. The descent being in the female line, the parentage of the father is immaterial. The Marumakkata yam law is not followed in North Malabar by the Aka Podwal, a class of pagoda servants, nor by the Brahmans of North Malabar or of Canara. But in Travancore law, as only the eldest brother of a Brahman family is allowed to marry with his equal, the other brothers form other connections, and their children, therefore, do not inherit. In the Tuluva country, the Brahman widow can devote herself to the temple, and reside outside or inside its walls. If within the walls, she is a servant of the idol, and receives the visits of men of her own caste only ; the offspring of such, if boys, are called Moylar, and the girls are married to them. But if she elect to reside outside the walls, she must pay a monthly sum to the pagoda, and may cohabit with any man of pure descent.