Nambudiri: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Varikkassery maa.jpg|thumb|A traditional Nambudiri manaMana]]

The '''Nambudiri''' ({{IPA-ml|n̪ɐmbuːd̪iɾi}}), also transliterated as '''Nampoothiri''', '''Nambūdiri''', '''Namboodiri''', '''Namboothiri''' and '''Nampūtiri''', are a [[Malayali Brahmin]] caste, native to what is now the state of [[Kerala]], India, where they constituted part of the traditional feudal elite.<ref name=":0">{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-12252-3_3 | first1=Robin | last1=Jeffrey | title=Politics, Women and Well-Being | chapter=Old Kerala | year=1992 | series=Cambridge Commonwealth Series | pages=19–33 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, London | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-12252-3_3 | isbn=978-0292704176}}</ref> Headed by the [[Azhvanchery Thamprakkal | Azhvanchery Thamprakkal Samrāṭ]], the Nambudiris were the highest ranking caste in Kerala.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/2238183 | title=The Nayars Today |first1=Christopher |last1=Fuller | page=11 | year=1976 |publisher= Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-21301-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Krishna Iyer|first=K. V.|url=https://archive.org/details/TheZamorinsOfCalicut|title=The Zamorins Of Calicut|date=1938|publisher=Norman Printing Bureau, Calicut}}</ref> They owned a large portion of the land in the region of [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]], and together with the [[Nair]] monarchs, the Nambudiris formed the landed aristocracy known as the [[Jenmi]]mar,<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516560 | jstor=3516560 | title=Organized Struggles of Malabar Peasantry, 1934-1940 | last1=Karat | first1=Prakash | journal=Social Scientist | year=1977 | volume=5 | issue=8 | pages=3–17 | doi=10.2307/3516560 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/749941 | title=Slavery in Kerala | last1=Nair | first1= Adoor K.K. Ramachandran | publisher=Mittal Publications, New Delhi | date=January 1986}}</ref> until the [[Land reform in Kerala|Kerala Land Reforms]] starting in 1957.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Land Reforms in Theory and Practice: The Kerala Experience| first=Radhakrishnan |last=P.| journal=Economic and Political Weekly | date=December 1981| volume=16| issue=52 | pages=A129–A137 |jstor=4370526}}</ref> [[Tuluva Brahmin|Naturalized Tulu Brahmins]] who took up Nambudiri customary ways are known as [[Embranthiri]] Brahmins.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Operating from their ''[[illam]]'' houses, Nambudiris' ownership of agricultural land under the [[janmi]] system increased over many centuries and, according to Moser and Younger, they "established landholding temples and taught the people the rules of caste". The Nambudiris have been described to be responsible for the Sanskrit influence on [[Malayalam]], basically a Dravidian language, due to the Nambudiri Brahmin's mixing of [[Sanskrit]] and the local [[Tamil language|Tamil]] language.<ref name="moseryounger" /><ref name="Pullapilly1976pp26-30">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNAI9F8IBOgC |title=Religion and Social Conflict in South Asia |volume=22 |series=International studies in sociology and social anthropology |editor-first=Bardwell L. |editor-last=Smith |publisher=E. J. Brill |first=Cyriac K. |last=Pullapilly |author-link=Cyriac Pullapilly |chapter=The Izhavas of Kerala and their Historic Struggle for Acceptance in the Hindu Society |location=Netherlands |year=1976 |access-date=9 June 2011 |isbn=978-90-04-04510-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religionsocialco0000unse/page/26 26–30] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/religionsocialco0000unse/page/26 }}</ref>

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