The History of the
Edakkad Nambiars

As handed over from generation to generation by word of mouth, our origin and history dates back to the days of Brahmanical hegemony in Kerala and the Malabar region in particular.

In order to get a general idea of our origin, it is useful to examine the socio-political history of our land and then understand where our story fits within it. The following account therefore brings together the historical setting and the traditions associated with the birth of the Edakkad Nambiars or the Randu Illam Vargam.

The Brahmins of Kerala are known as Namboodiris. Historical evidence as well as their own traditions suggest that they came from North India and settled in Kerala, migrating along the west coast. According to legends mentioned in Keralolpathi and Grama Padhati, Parashurama created the land between Gokarnam and Kanyakumari and settled Brahmins from Ahikshetra or Ahichatra in Panchaala into sixty-four Gramams.

It is traditionally stated that thirty-two of the sixty-four Gramams were in the Tulu-speaking region and the remaining thirty-two in the Malayalam-speaking region of Kerala. Edakkad, a stretch of land between Malikaparamba in the east and the Arabian Sea to the west, provided excellent country for agrarian settlement.

The villages of the Brahmin migrants were organised around temples, which owned landed properties in large measure. In Kerala, the term Oor was applied to Brahmin settlements whereas non-Brahmin settlements were known as Cherikal. Committees known as Ooralar managed these temples and their properties.

Sree Oorpazhassi Kavu is traditionally regarded as one of the temples of this ancient setting. Many Nayar families acquired Kanam, or long-term supervisory rights and intermediary tenancy, from their Nambudiri Jenmis in exchange for a share of the land's produce. Namboodiris and, to some extent, the Nayars consequently became significant economic, social and political forces in the region.

At this point in history the Chera Perumals were ruling over Kerala. The Perumal's ruling council included the Tali Adhikarikal, Brahmin councillors from the chief temples around the capital Mahodayapuram and representatives of the Gramams.

The defence of the Chera kings and their city was entrusted to groups of Nayar warriors known as the Ayiram, also referred to in traditional accounts as Onnu Kurai Ayiram or Patinayiram. The socio-political authority of the period was therefore distributed among royal, religious and military institutions.

During the tenth century there were extended periods of warfare between the Cheras and Cholas. Traditional interpretations associate this period with the development and consolidation of Marumakkattayam, the matrilineal system of succession, and Sambandham, forms of marriage association found among the Nayars.

As per legend, it should have been during the above-mentioned period that two Namboodiri youths, scions of Mullapalli and Velloor Illoms, prominent Brahmin families of Edakkad, visited the fort at Balussery, presently in Kozhikode district.

Before returning from the fort, the two youths married ladies from the taravads of two Nayar chieftains, Kavullavan Nambiar and Vennapalan Kurup, and brought them to Edakkad. These brides were settled in two separate residences at Kuliyambethu and Edupidikkeri respectively.

Legend has it that, one day, when these ladies ventured into the eachil grove nearby, they observed milk and blood overflowing from detached eachil leaves. They immediately reported this to their Nambudiri husbands.

The Nambudiri youths inferred that the event was an omen that the spirit of Vettakkorumakan, the presiding deity of Balussery fort, had accompanied their wives and required to be enshrined within the existing temple precincts.

The descendants of the two matrilineal stems of Kuliyambethu and Edupidikkeri, fathered by Mullapalli and Velloor Illoms, later expanded into eight separate taravads and formed an endogamous sub-clan referred to as the Randu Illam Vargam.

The descendants traditionally inherited the proprietorship of Oorpazhassi Kavu and its desam, or Ooraima, from Mullapalli and Velloor Illoms as a danam, or gift.

Each taravad referred to a family tracing descent from a common ancestress, with mudal sambandham, the relationship of property, and pula sambandham, the relationship of pollution. The four taravads from each ancestral stem regarded Kuliyambethu and Edupidikkeri respectively as their gothram.

Each block represented a wider matrilineal kin group, connected by symbolic ties including the sharing of birth and death pollution and the memory of a common ancestor. Marriages within taravads of the same block were initially prohibited.

In later years it was observed that when a death or birth occurred simultaneously in either block, temple administration could be jeopardised because none of the eight Ooralars could officiate during the prescribed period.

According to tradition, the predicament was presented to the then Raja of Chirakkal, the Kolathiri, who proposed the adoption of a ninth family into the Ooralar conglomerate. Kolathattil was consequently adopted as equivalent to the original eight matrilineal lines.

The Karnavan, the eldest male member of each of the nine matrilineal Ooralar families, traditionally becomes the Ooralan after a ceremony referred to as Churika Kettu or Chiriyettu.

The ceremony is performed only once in the lifetime of an Ooralan and is the ceremony officiating him after royal permission.

Nambiar men of the Randu Illam Vargam were traditionally addressed as family name followed by achan, or as Kaikkor. Women were referred to as name followed by amma, family name followed by amma, or as Moothamblakka.