DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12673#0234
HINDOOS OF MALABAR.
215
sharp features, and delicate limbs. His toilette
is not elaborate ; a piece of white cotton cloth
fastened round the waist, and a similar article
thrown loosely over the shoulders, together with
the cord of the twice-born, compose the tout
ensemble. These Brahmans are solemn in their
manners and deportment, seldom appear in public,
and when they do, they exact and receive great
respect from their inferiors in caste. A Nair
meeting a Numboory must salute him by joining
the palms of the hands together, and then separ-
ating them three successive times.*
The Nairsf are a superior class of Shudra, or
servile Hindoos, who formerly ^composed the militia,|
or landwehr, of Malabar. Before the land-tax was
introduced they held estates rent free ; the only
* There is an abridged form of this salutation, which con-
sists of joining the hands and then parting them, at the same
time bending the fingers at the second joint.
t This word generally follows the name of the individual,
and seems to be the titular appellation of the class. It is
probably derived from the Sanscrit Nayaka (a chief), like the
Teloogoo Naidoo, the Canarese and Tamul Naikum, and the
Hindoo Naik.
X Captain Hamilton makes the number of fighting men
throughout the province, of course including all castes, amount
to one million two hundred and sixty-two thousand.
215
sharp features, and delicate limbs. His toilette
is not elaborate ; a piece of white cotton cloth
fastened round the waist, and a similar article
thrown loosely over the shoulders, together with
the cord of the twice-born, compose the tout
ensemble. These Brahmans are solemn in their
manners and deportment, seldom appear in public,
and when they do, they exact and receive great
respect from their inferiors in caste. A Nair
meeting a Numboory must salute him by joining
the palms of the hands together, and then separ-
ating them three successive times.*
The Nairsf are a superior class of Shudra, or
servile Hindoos, who formerly ^composed the militia,|
or landwehr, of Malabar. Before the land-tax was
introduced they held estates rent free ; the only
* There is an abridged form of this salutation, which con-
sists of joining the hands and then parting them, at the same
time bending the fingers at the second joint.
t This word generally follows the name of the individual,
and seems to be the titular appellation of the class. It is
probably derived from the Sanscrit Nayaka (a chief), like the
Teloogoo Naidoo, the Canarese and Tamul Naikum, and the
Hindoo Naik.
X Captain Hamilton makes the number of fighting men
throughout the province, of course including all castes, amount
to one million two hundred and sixty-two thousand.