Kinship, Beliefs and Values within the Nayar of India
ANT101
August 6, 2012

Kinship Organizations of Nayar of India
The Nayar, are a group of Indian castes, described as not a unitary group but a named category of castes. The Nayar caste of Kerala in southwestern India has for over 100 years served as a source of paradigm and paradox (Moore, 1985). They are a power caste society that lives in extended matrilineal family groups. Hinduism is the main religion of these people and that combined with their social and economic structure make for an interesting combination of kinship, gender relations, beliefs, and values. The Nayar of India is an ethnographic and folk-culture society. The people are a complex, interesting, large and power cast society that live in extended matrilineal family groups. Hinduism is the main religion of these people and that combined with their social and economic structure make for an interesting combination of kinship, gender relations, beliefs, and values. This paper will discuss the fascinating aspects of this culture focusing on their kinship, gender relations, and their beliefs and values. The Nayars ought to be 'typical' of South Asia as any other group. As a populous caste of cultivators, warriors and sometimes rulers, they are far from being peripheral to the larger Hindu community of which they are a part, and can even be accorded the status of a dominant caste (Moore, 1985).
History of Nayars
Nayar also known as Nair is a name of one of the Hindu castes from the Indian state of Kerala, located on the coast of South-West India and was created in 1956, by the States Reorganization Act combining various speaking regions (Wikipedia). Kerala (Kerala) is located south most on the west coast and was created in 1956, November 1; by the States Reorganization Act combining various speaking regions. Taking it back further around 1792, the region contained small, feudal kingdoms; where the royal and noble lineages, the militia and most land managers where drawn from Nayars camp. When the British ruled Nayars became prominent in politics, government services, education, and law. The Nayars were efficient warriors like the Samurai of Japan. This specific Nayar caste encompassed certain Menon, Panichar, Pillai, Kurup, Nambiar etc. The Nayars played an integral part in the Kerala’s cultural practices. These people are aware of their cultural practices and history and played an active role in the society.
Perhaps the best known of India's unusual family types is the traditional Nayar taravad , or great house. High-ranking and prosperous, the Nayars maintained matrilineal households in which sisters and brothers and their children are the permanent residents. Here, a woman’s children were all legitimate members of the taravad. Women worked in the garden on the great house property, which provided most of the food for the family. In this type of family structure your earnings were not just yours. A large portion of individual earnings were put into the taravad. This meant everyone helped take care of each other and the household. Property, matrilineal inherited, was managed by the eldest brother of the senior woman. This system, the focus of much anthropological interest, has been disintegrating in the twentieth century and in the 1990s probably fewer than 5 percent of the Nayars live in matrilineal taravads. This is due largely to change in government and new laws mostly set when Britain was in control of India. The Nayars are considered as lords of the country and traditionally they are experts in martial arts like kazhari, Varmam etc. But now Nayars were seen in many areas other than Kerala and even in many countries.
Nayar Men, Women & Marriage
Women were considered to be educated and powerful members of the family and society in the Nayar’s culture. Nayar women have more rights in comparison to other women of India. Traditionally women in Nayar cultures hold decision making powers over themselves and their families and are the primary holders of all land and assets owned and maintained within the family line. Many scholars have suggested that the Nayar women are polygynous. Nayar women can marry multiple husbands consecutively or simultaneously.
Men of this community are more interested in certain fight practices to go war and so they had to spend more times in fields. The common duty of men is to fill at home is to train their nephews and visit their wives long enough to impregnate them, and of course to show up and claim paternity when necessary (Moore, 1986).
The Nayar women are allowed to take several husbands (Gough, 1952). Traditionally women in Nayar cultures hold decision making powers over themselves and their families and are the primary holders of all land and assets owned and maintained within the family line. Many scholars have suggested that the Nayar women are polygynous. Nayar women can marry multiple husbands consecutively or simultaneously (Iyer, 1932). A husband usually visited his wife after supper at night, and left before breakfast next morning. Traditionally, the visiting husband placed his weapons outside the door as a warning to other men that he was within (Gough, 1952). The common duty of men to fill at home is to train their nephews and visit their wives long enough to impregnate them, and of course to show up and claim paternity when necessary (Moore, 1985).
The marriage restrictions prevalent among the Nayars are more peculiar than the rest of the Hindu society. The bride must always be younger than the man, and must in strict orthodoxy belong to the same generation as his. A man cannot marry his mother’s sister’s daughter, who is recognized to him as his own sister. All his sisters, own and collateral, together with women of a previous generation in his family, form a legal incestuous group. A man has, therefore, to marry either entirely out of the circle of his relations, or from among his cross cousins. Marriage customs among the Nayars have evoked much discussion and controversy in India among both jurists and social scientists. There was considerable sub regional variation as well as variation by sub caste and family prestige. There were two kinds of marriage: talikettu kalyanam (tying ceremony) and sambandham (the customary nuptials of a man and woman). The tali-tying ceremony had to be held before puberty and often the ceremony was held for several girls at the same time to save on expenses. According to Gough, at a convenient time every few years, a lineage held a grand ceremony at which all girls who had not attained puberty aged about seven to twelve, and was on one day ritually married by men drawn from their linked lineages. The ritual bridegrooms were selected in advance on the advice of the village astrologer at a meeting of the neighborhood assembly (Gough, 1959). There after various ceremonies, each tied a gold ornament around the neck of his ritual bride. The girls had for three days previously been secluded in an inner room of the house and caused to observe taboos as if they menstruated. After the tali-tying each couple was secluded in private for three days. It was traditionally, if the girl was nearing puberty, sexual relations might take place. As stated by Gough “the pre-puberty tali-rite was essential for a girl” (Gough, 1959). If she menstruated before it had been performed, she should be expelled from her lineage and caste. This tail-rite brought girls social maturity. She now thought to be a least ritually endowed with sexual and procreative functions and thenceforward accorded to the status of a woman. After the rite, people addressed the girl in public by the respectful title “mama” meaning “mother”, and she might take part in the rites of adult women. Second, after the tali-rite a girl must observe all the rules of etiquette associated with incest prohibitions in relation to men of her lineage. She might not touch them, might not sit in their presence, might not speak first to them, and might not be alone in a room with one of them. Third, after the tali-rite and soon as she become old enough, a girl received as visiting husbands a number of men of her sub caste from outside her lineage, usually but not necessarily from her neighborhood. In addition, she might be visited by a Nayar of the higher sub castes of the village like the headmen, chiefs, or royalty.
Modernization Impacts
With the changing times, the modernization and the cultural homogenization created huge impacts among the Nayar people. The younger generations are less interested in knowing the unique attributes of the culture. They showed lack of efforts for maintaining their inherent strength. There were certain cultural practices held in all parts of Kerala by the Nayars without any intervention of political or other influences. By the end of 18th Century, the British invaded the small kingdoms and killed many great warriors of Nayar community with its advanced weapons. Thus the supremacy of the Nayars came to an end. Social change becomes evident when one compares written accounts of the past with contemporary ethnography (Moore, 1985). With the changing times, the modernization and the cultural homogenization created huge impacts among the Nayar people. There were certain cultural practices held in all parts of Kerala by the Nayars without any intervention of political or other influences. By the end of 18th Century, the British invaded the small kingdoms and killed many great warriors of Nayar community with its advanced weapons. Thus the supremacy of the Nayars came to an end.
Kinship
The Nayars were traditionally matrilineal and so traditional Nayars home consists of kin, both male and female. The kinship was greatly related with the Dravidian patterns and kin terms were not used for paternal kin. But today, the pattern follows a completely Dravidian pattern and there is a correct distinction between the matrilineal and patrilineal kin. In this mother’s sisters were called as elder or younger mother. The Nayars of the Malabar Coast are a Hindu caste of land-holders with a matrilineal kinship system (Gough, 1952). The traditional kinship system of the Nayars was made possible by their relationship to the land, not primarily as landowners nor as cultivators, but as permanent non-cultivating tenants (Gough, 1952). The bulk of the land in each village was owned by a chieftain of the Raja, by the royal lineage itself, by a Brahman-managed temple, or else by a Nambudiri Brahman family, the highest caste, and the priests of Malabar.
Economic Organization
The Nayar villages consist of farm lands for the cultivation of coconuts and rice. This is their major economy. The Nayars use these farmlands to produce all the necessary food items to feed their families. In this community, the family members share personal income and their assets. The Nayars are at present an essentially agricultural population. The vast majority of them are peasant proprietors owning small farms. Rice and coconuts are the chief things cultivated, though in North Malabar pepper. With regard to these matters, the Nayars have attained a certain stage of excellence. Their coconut estates are planted with a considerable amount of scientific skill and they are proficient in the industries, which are allied to coconut and rice such as coir matting, copra making, and extraction of coconut oil. Extensive coconut plantations owned by the same man are very few. The position is much like that in England before the Enclosures. Even if the same person owns all the land in a particular area it is seldom enclosed and transformed into one large estate. On the other hand, they continue to be regarded as separate compounds and the houses on them are generally occupied either by Nayar tenants or by Pulaya slaves. The fact that Nayar families live in garden houses is one of great significance. Horticulture is practiced with great interest in all families, rich as well as poor. It is, in fact, very seldom that any Nayar family uses vegetables bought from the market. All that is necessary is grown in the compound. The great difficulty of village life, effective sanitation, becomes an easy matter. Rice cultivation is still based on self-labor (Panikkar, 1918). In Nayar the attitudes of big private business to the government are economic planning that dominated the economic life over the past decades has found persistent conflict and only incidental adaptation. The quest for profits conflicts with the goals of mass welfare or “power.” The fluctuations in these attitudes over five planning sequences testify to cooperation only during periods of short lived, now-and-then nationalist fervor on the part of business, or during the temporary economic crises that compelled occasional indulgence of private enterprise on the part of government. Such private business progress as there has been reflects the inadequacies of public sector planning and program implementation more than any success for business in politics. As written by Malenbaum (1971), it is not surprising therefore that the conclusions on the public-private interplay in Indian economic life correspond with Nayar’s. Mostly business in politics is a record conflict. There are temporary adaptations but these are scarcely additive in their influence. They sum to limited achievement toward an interplay that contributes effectively to India’s economy and society, “since business cannot be relied upon to practice self-restraint, government must provide a strong harness for the monster it feels it has to with” (p.846). With Nayar, emphasizes the philosophical and emotional gaps that separate governmental and business elites. The recent efforts by younger and better-educated business leaders primarily to improve the business image and to exercise larger political influence through election activities have had no systematic success. The traditional political organization was feudal in nature with many small states. Rulers had only limited control. After the British occupation of Malabar and the posting of British resident officers in Cochin and Travancore, the state came to have greater influence. Some independence, large units of approximately 10,000 to 12,000 people has been governed by an elected panchayat (village council). There is a large bureaucratic structure and an elected legislative assembly in the state. Politics and political parties, especially those of the left, have penetrated into every niche and hole the state (Panikkar, 1918). Finally, the religious beliefs of the Nayars show an extraordinary mixture of Hindu and Dravidian cults. According to Panikkar, all the temples are dedicated to Krishna Siva or Kartyayani (Panikkar, 1918). There are also a few kavus or groves for the worship of the lesser Hindu deities. Nevertheless, the important point with regard to this is that the Nayars are as whole people almost without a religion and they use the Hindu temple for practices, which receive no sanction even in the generous vagueness of that creed. The religious conceptions of Hinduism have but the slightest influence on the Nayar community as a whole. Nothing shows so much the extreme persistence of primitive culture, even in the face of higher civilizing agencies, than the wide and almost universal acceptance of spirit-worship, and the almost entire absence of religious life, among the Nayars, after least twenty centuries of contact with Hinduism. Their contact with religious has not been limited indeed to Hinduism. According to Panikkar, “the Jews flying after the destruction of their Temple found refuge among the Nayars, and have lived in their midst for nigh 2,000 years” (Panikkar, 1918).
Conclusion
The Nayar group of South Asia is anything but typical. Perhaps they were ahead of their time. They made women very important in their society. They did this first by making a matrilineal family structure. Second, by giving women a great deal of sexual freedom. Also, by making the family unit comprised of a large close nit group, they ensured that their own family values and traditions continued. That is until their way of life was outlawed. They are instead a very interesting culture, with a caste of cultivators, warriors and sometimes rulers, they are far from typical. The Hindu community of which they are a part, and can even be accorded the status of a 'dominant caste. Even after hundreds of years, certain old practices are still followed by these community people. The Nayar have made women very important in their society. They did this by making a matrilineal family structure and giving women a great deal of sexual freedom. By making the family unit comprised of a large close nit group, they ensured that their own family values and traditions continued. Marriage among the Nayars has evoked much discussion and controversy in India among both jurists and social scientists. There was considerable sub regional variation as well as variation by sub caste and family prestige. Thus, there are ready explanations for private industry as against public enterprise, for big business as against small business, for industrialization as against agricultural development. This was discussed as the symposium as they are, at length, in growing literature of politics and political action in poor lands, and in India notably. On the other hand the evolving theories of economic development place more emphasis on closing internal gaps within a poor nation than on closing external gaps through net imports to meet the problems of scarcity. Finally, Nayar practices are carried on in secret, and nobody knows what they do except those initiated.

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References
Gough, E. Kathleen (1952) Changing Kinship Usages in the Setting of Political and Economic Change Among the Nayars of Malabar, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , Vol. 82, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1952), pp. 71-88 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2844041
Gough, E. K. (1959). The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2844434
Iyer, Ananthakrishna L. K., “Nayar Polyandry” Man, Vol. 32 (Nov., 1932), pp. 269-270 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2790609
Malenbaum, W. (1971). Politics and Indian Business: The Economic Setting. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2642776
Moore, Melinda A. (1985) “A New Look at the Nayar Taravad” Man , New Series, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Sep., 1985), pp. 523-541 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2802444
Panikkar, K. M. (1918) “Some Aspects of Nayar Life” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , Vol. 48, (Jul. - Dec., 1918), pp. 254-293 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2843423
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala