The history of the Mallu Nairs
To understand the origin of the Mallu Nairs, we first have to understand the history of the Tamilians, the neighbours of the mallus.
Long Long Ago, only Brahmins lived in TamilNadu. They are nowadays popularly known as Tambrahms. When the English first landed on the shores of Tamil Nadu, much before they had explored other continents, they were surprised to see people who spoke a strange language , wore strange clothes , even had strange markings on their forehead and other parts of the body. So, when they enquired around (in English of course), there were few who ran away and there were few who answered “Naan Brahmin” and then ran away fearing that the English would spoil their orthodox holiness. “Naan Brahmin” in Tamil means “I am a brahmin”. The English were not expected to understand this and classified this group of people as non-Brahmins. Thus, Non-Brahmins came into being and the English exploited this to create the caste system in India. In fact, all south Indians were only vegetarians at that time. A similar misunderstanding led to few people being understood as non-vegetarians and thus forced to eat meat.
Now, Brahmins consisted only of Iyers in the olden days. But, there were two “different” classes of iyers. One, who worked for daily wages and the other, who had their own businesses. The second category prospered over the years and eventually made enough money to buy and import cars from England. This group wanted to differentiate itself from the daily wage group. So, whenever they had to introduce themselves, they always said “Iyer with car”.Over the next 132 years, this phrase “Iyer with car” slowly evolved to “Iyengar”. Thus started the quest for dominance between the Iyers and the Iyengars.Since the Iyengars had cars, they slowly moved towards the eastern part of Tamil Nadu near the coast, where they made broad roads like the modern ECR, while the Iyers moved onto the hills close to the borders of Kerala.
Now back to Mallu nairs. When the British reached Kerala and started moving inwards towards the Tamil nadu Border, they were shocked to see two similar group of people at war with each other. Both were dark, spoke unintelligible language (they learnt later that both the languages were different) and yet, were fighting each other for control of the coconuts. So, the British started enquiring. Of course, the locals didn’t know English, but were proud of their own culture and identity. Since the British (through Knowledge Transfer) from their counterparts who landed in Tamil nadu, already knew about Iyers, they assumed that all dark people in this people were Iyers. So, they started addressing even the Mallus as Iyers. This enraged the mallus a lot and they started adding “Not an Iyer” at the end of their names like Harish “Not an Iyer”, Anil “Not an Iyer”. Because of the accent of the Mallus and the evolving of language over time, the surname “Not an Iyer” stuck to the mallus and it eventually transformed to Nair. Thus, we have harish Nair and Anil Nair.
All you Nairs, be proud of your history and be proud of the fact that you are “not an Iyer”.
Note: Looking at the comments, it looks like people are taking this post seriously and have started defending mallus/nairs and offending everyone else! Guys (and Gals), this post is meant to be taken in a light note. I am a s/w engineer, not a genealogist, So please don’t start off advising me on the history of the various groups. If you even have an iota of thought that anything that is written makes sense, thank you!
Note 2: If your comment has not appeared here (after a day or two), it is a deliberate act of mine and not a technical glitch. I am not approving comments which are full of expletives/hate stuff directed towards any group of people, be it mallus, iyers, tamilians or even punjabis! This article was intended in good humour, but if you dont get it or dont want to interpret it so, i can’t help it. But, i can’t let morons (like the ones hanging around on the rediff.com forums) start a hate war between communities or groups on my blog!
Note 3: After spending the last 4 years (after writing the above) on intensive research, i am almost ready to publish the history of the Mallu Menons. So, keep watching this space 🙂
Never knew this funda though Iam an Iyer.
Your site is good and great job.
keep up the good work boy!
I can’t wait to hear what happened when the English went to bengal…
First time here 🙂
Good one…Seriyaana Rouzeaa irukku…
is it really true i cant believe that…
so, when the english went to mumbai, did they find MIYERS….
good work
http://www.eyekerala.com
I hate these kinds of Morons, who spoil the essence of blogs. This entire blog is a total crap. I know girls are idiots, but i never thought it is really true to this extent. I can only get convinced with a non-sense reply from the “Greatest Idiot on Earth” , vaishnavi, You are a shame and total disgrace to Iyers. I knew from Day one, this concept of blogs websites is gonna let fools like Rajaram post any kind of non-sense. It is really disgusting. Hairsh Nair, dont you have better site to know about the evolution of Nairs, rather than believing in what ever, this moron writes. Go and learn from your ancestors.
Hi Anon, if you really want to give your “comment” (be it positive or negative, more for the case of it being negative), at least don’t hide behind the cloak of an anon login.
thanks for ur feedback though ..this will help me decrease my level of “moron”ness.
hehehehe
you really are jobless in CC… 😛
this is the most crazy and stupid thing i have ever heard…
come and knock next door to know more about nairs… 😛
WOW ! So, you spoke about anil nair and harish nair. Would this apply to me too? Rajesh Nair 🙂
Dinesh:-
MY GOODNESS ! WHEN PEOPLE LIKE U R THERE IN THE WORLD , WHY DO WE NEED NUCLEAR WEAPONS….
Thanks for emailing the link Mr, Harish Nair… Keep sending links like these.. Awesome !!
Dear Mr. Rajaram Seturam ,
The humour you intend to generate is a parody and well away from facts.
I do not think that just because google gives you some space to blog ,you keep writing whatever comes in your mind .
Please refrain from writing such nefarious contents in the future.
To read more facts about the Nairs’ just follow the link below:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nair
vivek nair
Mr. Vivek…I don’t think this qualifies to be called as “nefarious” ..
Since you seem to be offended by these, i hope that you are practising whatever you are preacing ..i.e
1) You don’t encourage Sardarji/Punjabi jokes
2) You don’t watch TV at all, because you would exhaust your income sending complaint letters to all the channels which make fun of ppl/their practices/their accents etc
and btw, “just because google gives you some space to blog ” is untrue, because the space is mine and i pay for it.
thanks for the link, it might give me more ideas 🙂
Have a nice day!
Ha, ha … this was classic. Even better I love the way some people respond to this like “vnair”. That guy has to obtain some sense of humor (pronto)
I’m not against this. And believe me I laugh at Kerala jokes. My blog wasnt about the jokes, but the hatred some people have at us. And the word “mallu” is short for “malayalee”; its just that I’ve heard it used against me like it was a swear word. That’s why I hate it.
Nice blog. A good laugh is just what this world needs.
🙂
What a poor effort?
Awesome boss! I am a Nair and I loved this. Ignore the folks above who do not get humour, when they see one. We Indians will laugh at others, but cannot stand a little harmless fun at ourselves. Great job indeed! Looking forward to more 😀
what rights are there for iyers to talk about the people of kerala. these nairs ad namboothiris were having great relationship.both of them contributed to the culture of kerala.there is no manthras and poojas at kerala temple without a namboothiri. and the entire kshetrolsavam and commitee is ruled by nairs.they are the temple account holders.and these tamil brahmins iyers migrated to kerala(palghat).tvm etc.just to prevent themselves from hearing them as pandis. many of the others migrated are having same concept.but one thing is there .THE KERALA LAND AND CULTURE AND ALL BELONGS ONLY TO MALAYALEES .WE ARE MANY IN NUMBER WE ARE ONE.AND KERALA BELONGS TO US.
are you educated… if not its so hopeless ..
if i am not educated then see some of the books which tells about people of kerala.and there is nothing mentioned about iyers or any thing or so.then you can say me hopeless.okkk
LOL 🙂 Thnx for letting us know the history of nairs.
Long back one nair migrated to tamil nadu and he conquered the hearts and minds of all Pandis there. his name was MGR. 🙂
whatever written here is rubbish . the name nair has a much gratter orgin the nair cast is much grater.It is linked with kalaripitu. The word Nair lends itself to two etymological interpretations. The first interpretation is that the word Nair is derived from the Sanskrit word Nayaka meaning leader. The Sanskrit word Nayaka appears in various forms in southern India (Nayakan/Naicker in Tamil Nadu, Nayak in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and Nayudu in Andhra Pradesh) and the word Nair has been suggested to be the corruption of Nayak in Malayalam.[14][15][16] The second interpretation is that the word Nair is a corrupted form of the word Nagar- serpent men because Nairs practiced snake worship.for further risult see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nair and dont belive this stupid.
hari om:
sir.nairs r a malayali kshtriyas ……they r from nepal…and anthroplogist also opine nairs r from “nayan mara “tribe in south america…….
i discern from ur view abt the term nair is from iyer…….nairs r nayaks- leader ,they r of dravidian and aryan roots..they r naga worshippers……….still every nair tharavdu has kavu…
they follow matriarchy……and women r held in high esteem……..where iyers and others women were confined only within house hold…….widowhood is least tolerated among tamil brahmins a nair women had and has say over her life……..
mate,, that was disgusting n interesting at the same time,,,
Hey…Nice to hear this new story…
simply hopless–author reads to educate himself!
In the first place the whole article is some kind of a caricature.. for those who enjoy humor, this article may suit them very well. But the way the article has been structured, tries to make believe that they are “Facts”. I am not against entertainment, humor or creativity. It is just wrong information that would do the round abouts.
In the first place, Britishers were not the first foreigners to reach India, they were the Portuguese who landed in Calicut, that is in Kerala.
Second, its not the Britishers who created the caste system in India. It started in the period when Aryans entered India. They created the caste system with four castes- Brahmins, Kshathriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Nairs are of the Kshathriya caste. And for your information all malayalis are not Nairs. (Like your article suggests “Not an Iyer”) Proof of existence of caste system is the rise of Budhism which was the first organized movement to abolish caste system in India (It all happened before Britishers arrived in India)
We may credit the Britishers for oone thing though. They were the first ones to explore the evolution of the caste system in India. Various British sociologist have come up with theories of Caste- “Political theory” “Traditional theory” “Evolutionary theory” etc.
Iyers and iyyengars were different from the beginning, when the evolution of Bhakthi movement when there was Shaivism and vaishnavism… Iyers were Shiva worshippers and Iyyengars were Vishnu worshippers and not like the article suggest that Iyyers were daily wage earners.
Goodness me… I just stumbled upon this page (Being a nair myself couldnt resist to ignore any thread with that name) and ROTFL. This is cool stuff and I couldnt help appreciate the humour. Just loved it..
Wonder why some people get into so much history… this page has nothing to do with any of it..
I can say only one thing in the subjects.
Iyers& all bhamans are cowards & so hide behind blog and write shit of warrior peoples like Nairs. In public he do chamchagiri & private character assassination.
Even holy Guru land up in trap of kashmiri brahmins and sacrifice his two small children to Mughals.
Happen to see n read this blog ! Rubbish that is all I have to say 🙂
Nair (Malayalam: നായരàµâ€, pronounced [naËjar]), is the name of a Hindu[1] forward caste from the southern Indian state of Kerala. They are a Kshatriya caste belonging to the Nagavanshi order. [2][3] Before the British conquest in 1792, the Kerala region contained small, feudal kingdoms, in each of which the royal and noble lineages, the militia, and most land managers were drawn from the Nairs and related castes like Maarans.[4] Nairs were prominent in politics, government service, medicine, education, and law.[5] Nairs constituted the rulers, warriors and landed gentry and of Kerala (pre-1947).The Nairs constitute the one of most important section among the Hindus of Kerala. Nairs were traditionally matrilineal.
dear sethu ram dont produce this kind of arrogant blunder abt such a kind of powerful community of kerala ,hope u ll not disgrace your credentials at all again
thnk u
Sir,
It was defenitly interesting to read your blog. But your sircasm is lost on people with limited imagination. Also some people may taker it seriously and believe that your view is the correct information. In other words may get mis lead. please avoid misleading people.
mr.nair… your photo is additional disgrace for you..spit on you… go and make nair tea for others… who told you bhramins were the initial people in tamil nadu? did some one tell you when you were selling tea… bhramins came to tamil nadu to beg in olden days… you mallus came to tamil nadu to beg later… go and die…
hey, you are not correct man.. you know what.. bhramins came from north india before the english came to india. they came to do pooja in temples.. basically they are people you worship vishnu.. every bhramin worships vishnu.. when they came to the south.. some bhramins changed to worship shiva.. so some bhramins did pooja in shiva temples called iyers.. some did pooja in vishnu temples and called iyengars.. and i dont know about nairs..
good one! like your style.
For the other commentators.. take it easy guys.. this article tagged as humour.. iyer, iyengar.. apppa swammy.ayyoo…..always the best..
Hi totally misleading blog.
the below mentioned comment,by mr.advice, is a total disgrace for kerala people.
advice:you mallus came to tamil nadu to beg later… go and die…
we didnt go to TN for begging.we are doing business and working in all kind of areas.we have shown our capability in all walks of life.MGR,justice Fathima Beevi (former governor),P Vasu,Goutham Menon(Directors),Yesudas,Chithra,Unni Menon,Unnikrishnan(Singers),Arya,Naren,Prithviraj(actors) to name a few.
mind your language.for your info most of the beggers in Kerala are tamilians and lot of construction workers come to kerala from TN since they are paid better there.
Sethu,
I am one of those “Not-an-Iyers” of Kerala. Your piece wasn’t particularly funny. But some of the responses it elicited are pure riot! Like some of the respondents have requested, I too would like to “learn” from your erudite scholarship as to what happened when the Brits travelled to other parts of India from Tamil Nadu. Be warned, however – caste, religion and language are serious issues in India. You can joke about them only among close friends; and even there, if you do, please watch your back!
BIG indian problem, always preoccupied with race, caste and dogmatic religious rituals like bathing the idols. however my personal opinion is we are all related malus or tamilan or even someone in the pacific ocean. all our languages have been confounded and until the day we seek our maker which is one, there will be much confusion and division among the children of god. imagine this malayalam and tamil is closely related which mean the people are too, get a life and do something worthwhile for mankind. all inventions and discoveries in the last 100 yrs comes from the west and they contributed much to our present life style like planes,phones,trains,space exploration and medicine.who is the blessed ones and who is cursed ? who cares where iyer or nairs come from anyways.
god bless you
HAHAHAHAAHAHAAAHHAHA, Thats the greatest bull-shit i have ever gone through. I dont beleive in caste system created by some maipulative jarheads who called themselves brahmins & dont even know the meanin of brahmin.
And as far as kerala is concerned there is archeological evidence of the presence of brahmin society in Kerala since 700-900 A.D. Brahmin society includes nairs. Factually nairs never existed as a group caste until independence. It was only wen, the importance of categorising people for better administration was realized that a group as nairs formed. Nairs existed as a caste and were the lowest in the Chaturvarna system. Chaturvarna system in kerala – brahmins,menons,kurup,panicker,…………..,nairs.
Since the country was in hand of brahmins they, generalised all in chaturvarna exept themselves as nairs.
So even varmans are nairs!!! it is very intriguing if u try to find out hw cum a person wearing a sacred thread n stuff is not accepted as brahmin nowadays.
Well to understand this and a lot of important similar intriguing stuff, u must first stop lostenin to the self-assumed brahmans, ur ammuma and put on ur thinkin caps. use logic, reasonin, politics n history as ur weopons.
Lets go bak to 700-900A.D. that time almost all of india was budhist, courtesy to ashoka. there wer lot of viharas n stuff, but only few practiced hinduism. One of them was Mr.Parashuraman. I firmly disagree that he was an avatar and he created keralam from the waters. That was just another theory used by the Jarheads to conquer the mind of people.
Dont beleive me, ok through archological evidence Jarheads settled in Kerala only after 700A.D. But Parashurama was born and died much b4 this period. And supposedly he had distributed Keralam to 64 Jarhead families. I dnt know hw this can be logically matched…Nw 700A.D Jarheads flee their northern state governed by kshatriyas to find a state of their own. they end up in a beautiful land called keralam. they cum with letters from kings of other lands to greet them with warmth. and people do. the king of kerala-cheraman perumal gives them respect, honour n privilege, since he beleived they are close to God. Jarheads so their thin space. God a beautiful Jarhead babe married to Cheraman, & started controllin him thru her. Cheraman gave permission to built temple. But inside those walls, it was a fortress of traitors. inside those walls they quitely planned hw to outst the king, hw to take hold of people n hw to ultimately etablish a brahman land.
Jarheads were good at usin occult, or use of spirits. and they creatd fear among peopl that only Jarheads can protect them and that hinduism was tru path to reach God. people started covertin in masses. cheraman dint mind, since there was nothin against him yet. those people who got converted into hinduism wer sworn into caste system, that which the Jarheads followed in north. n those who dint accept their terms wer made outcaste. By the time Cheraman realised his people were movin away from his control, things got late. Cheraman left his Jarhead bitch and warned all other kings under him of the situation. But no1 really bothered, cheraman left to madurai n first brahmin ruler established himself at cheramans place. Nw there is a theory that cheraman convereted to islam n left for mecca. but considerin the political situation then, it is obvious that mecca story was just another cooked up shit by the Jarheads, so that people wl remove him frm their hearts permanently.
B4 cheraman left he had warned his sub-kings and distributed land to more relatives for better governance. that particular incident is termed by the Jarheads as “Parusharama distributed land among brahmans”.
nw lets c hw brahmans after takin cheramans place established rule over entire kerala. well, cheraman was the head-king, all other kings were his subordinates. so jarheads had caught delhi, hw difficult is it to get remainin part of the country. they visited other kingdoms and offered kings to convert into hinduism. kings refused, jarheads offered them brahmanism n jarhead babes. kings had no other way, since public was in hands of jarhead. through some ceremony the rulin class was converted into brahmans. So finally a Brahman state established. all those acceptin brahman supremacy were allowed a place in chaturvarna. the others wer outlaws/outcastes.
u kno jarheads know this truth, thats y varmans are still counted as nairs n nor brahmins. those in the army n converted to hinduism wer called nairs. u wll find many menon fair, but normally nairs, panickersm kurups r dark. if u go by famous theory that nairs are nepalese, hw do u substantaite the this fact. menons came along with brahmins from north. remainin all were original inhabitants. n kalari was thus not created by nairs, it was already there through the ages with the indegenous people of keralam. n even after chaturvarna, ezhavas also practiced kalari, some of the best kalari ashans and chekavars were ezhavas. then hw cum kalari was established by nairs. UR text is bullshit.
Probably u must b of the Jarhead clan. So if u have changuorrapu, do not moderate my text. let them read n let those who find reason find it.
Hey what is this bullshit? this blog overshadow the original history of Nairs. Stop the nonsense. Nairs are people belonging to Dravidian Stock differ from Aryan Iyers. Infact Nairs are the pure form of ancient Tamil Nagars, Kings of Chera Country. Iyers or Iyengars or what ever brahmins all are Aryans.
OMG, what a variety of whacked up stories about mallu nairs. there is no comparision between tamil iyers and mallu nairs. I rather find tamil iyers far more intelligent, reliable and sensible than the mallu nairs who are arrogant scoundrels.
hi Rajaram…
if this was intended for pure humour…….. i could tolerate it…. when even ur Tamil brothers will discard it as MOKKAI,,,, and we Malayalis call it a CHALU…………..
South Indians have been known for their Intelligence …. not only in India but also around the world, be it a malayali, a tamilian, a kannadiga or a telegu….
but looking at the ur Humour ( if u call ur blog humorous) u justify the famous quote…. “There Is Always an Exception”….. Being Humorous is requires one to be intelligent…… its ok bro there is always an exception…..
in fact i feel bad for what u have written not because its something to do with nairs……….. but by looking at ur desperate attempt to make pple laugh……..
but if u were serious and no humour was intended…. then i feel sorry for u,…
Nairs are the Kshatria clan from Kerala……
and i came accross an Interesting fact about them thought i should share…
Nairs were the first to defeat any European army for the first time in Asia.. under king Martanda Verma …. and the brigade was called Nair Pada…..
they defeated Dutch…in Battle of Colachel
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Colachel)
but as u said its ur Blog … u can write whatever u want…..
thanku
Sir Rajaram
ha ha ha ha
Nairs are the Malayalee warriors (Kshathriyas) of Kerala. They are the owners of this land.
Nair – Hindu Caste of the Indian State of Kerala. Before the British conquest i.e. 1792, the region contained small feudal Kingdoms in each of which the royal and noble lineages, the militia and most land managers were drawn from Nairs and related caste. During British rule, Nairs became prominent in position, Government Service, Medicine, Education and Law.â€
Nair – A people of Malabar coast of India that are probably Dravidians with Aryan admixture.
No other society had possessed their status or standard. They were deeply immersed with the history and culture of Kerala. Truly speaking, the history of Nairs is indeed the history of Kerala.
(Oxford Dictionary)