Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/458

IZHAVA be given by him to the villagers. In cases of failure, the services of the village priest and washerman, and also the barber, are refused, and the culprit becomes ostracised from society. The headman has to be paid a sum of ten chuckrams on all occasions of ceremonies, and the Nāluvitanmar four chuckrams each. There is a movement in favour of educating the priests, and delegating some of the above powers to them.

Three forms of inheritance may be said to prevail among the Izhavas of Travancore, viz.: (1) makkathāyam (inheritance from father to son) in the extreme south; (2) marumakkatāyam (through the female line) in all tāluks to the north of Quilon; (3) a mixture of the two between Neyyatinkara and that tāluk. According to the mixed mode, one's own children are not left absolutely destitute, but some portion of the property is given them for maintenance, in no case, however, exceeding a half. In families observing the marumakkatāyam law, male and female heirs own equal rights. Partition, though possible when all consent, rarely takes place in practice, the eldest male member holding in his hands the management of the whole property. In Quilon and other places, the widow and her children are privileged to remain in her husband's house for full one year after his death, and enjoy all the property belonging to him. On the subject of inheritance, the Rev. S. Mateer writes as follows, "The nepotistic law of inheritance is, to a considerable extent, followed by this caste. Those in the far south being more closely connected with the Tamil people, their children inherit. Amongst the Ilavars in Trevandrum district, a curious attempt is made to unite both systems of inheritance, half the property acquired by a man after his marriage, and during the lifetime of his wife, going to the issue of such marriage,