Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/16

CHAKKIYAR Chākkiyars represent a caste growth of the Kaliyuga. The offence to which the first Chākkiyar owes his position in society was, it would appear, brought to light after the due performance of the upanayanasamskāra. Persons, in respect of whom the lapse was detected before that spiritualizing ceremony took place, became Nambiyars. Manu derives Sūta, whose functions are identical with the Malabar Chākkiyar, from a pratilōma union, i.e., of a Brāhman wife with a Kshatriya husband. The girls either marry into their own caste, or enter into the sambandham form of alliance with Nambūtiris.They are called Illōttammamar. Their jewelry resembles that of the Nambūtiris. The Chākkiyar may choose a wife for sambandham from among the Nambiyars. They are their own priests, but the Brāhmans do the purification (punyāham) of house and person after birth or death pollution. The pollution itself lasts for eleven days. The number of times the Gāyatri (hymn) may be repeated is ten.

The traditional occupation of the Chākkiyans is the recitation of Purānic stories. The accounts of the Avatāras have been considered the highest form of scripture of the non-Brāhmanical classes, and the early Brāhmans utilised the intervals of their Vēdic rites, i.e.,the afternoons, for listening to their recitation by castes who could afford the leisure to study and narrate them. Special adaptations for this purpose have been composed by writers like Narayana Bhattapāda, generally known as the Bhattatirippāt, among whose works Dūtavākya, Pānchālisvayamvara, Subhadrāhana and Kauntēyāshtaka are the most popular. In addition to these, standard works like Bhōgachampu and Māhanātaka are often