Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/100

KSHATRIYA deceased is not in the form of cooked food, but of presents to Brāhmans. All the Malayāla Kshatriyas are adherents of the Yajur-vēda. The anniversary of maternal grandmothers, and even sisters is punctiliously observed. If a maternal aunt or grandaunt dies without children, their srāddhas must be performed as for the rest. The Malayāla Kshatriyas hold rank next to the Brāhmans, and above the Ilayatus. They are permitted to take their meal in the same row with the Brāhmans, and receive prasada from the temples directly from the priest, and standing at the right side of the inner gate. Further information concerning the Malayāla Kshatriyas is contained in an article by Mr. K. Rama Varma Rāja,* who concludes as follows: — "The Kshatriya community is an intermediate caste between the Brāhmin (Namburi) and the Sudra (Nair) classes, and has affinities to both; to the former in matters of ablution, ceremonies, food and drink, and to the latter in those of real matrimonial relations and inheritance, i.e., the constitution and propagation of the family .... The intermediate caste must be the Aryans more Dravidianised, or the Dravidians more Aryanised, that is,the Aryans degraded or the Dravidians elevated, more probably the latter."

It is recorded,† In a note on the ancestry of the Rājas of Jeypore, that "the family chronicles ascribe a very ancient origin to the line of the Jeypore Zamindars. Beginning with Kanakasēna of the solar race, a general and feudatory of the king of Kashmir, they trace the pedigree through thirty-two generations down to Vināyaka Deo, a younger son, who left Kashmir rather than hold a subordinate position, went to Benares, did penance