Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 4.djvu/90

KSHATRIYA Family of Mysore." Some Rāchevars style themselves Arya Kshatriyalu. For the following note on Malayāla 'Kshatriyas,' I am indebted to Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar. There is an old Sanskrit verse, which describes eight classes of Kshatriyas as occupying Kērala from very early times, namely, Bhupala or Mahārāja, as those of Travancore and Cochin, Rājaka or Rāja, as those of Mavelikkara and Cranganore, Kosi or Koil Tampurān, Puravān or Tampan, Sri Purogama or Tirumulppād, Bhandari or Pandarattil, Audvahika or Tirumulppād, and Cheta or Sāmanta. The Sāmantas cannot be looked upon as Malayāla Kshatriyas proper. The indigenous Kshatriyas of Kērala are divided into four well distinguishable septs, viz., the Koil Pandala, the Rāja, the Tampan; and the Tirumulppād. The total number of Malayāla Kshatriyas in Travancore is 1,575, the largest number living in the taluks of Tiruvella, Vaikam, and Mavelikara. Tampans live mostly at Vaikam, and Tirumulppāds at Shertallay and Tiruvella. The remaining two septs are not so much caste septs as isolated groups of families. Koil Pandala literally means the keeper of the royal treasury. Tampan is a corruption of Tampurān, the latter being a title directly applied to the Rājas, while the term Tirumulppād, in its literal sense, conveys the idea of those who wait before kings. Women are known as Tumpurattis in the first two, as Tampattis in the third, and Nampishthatiris in the fourth division. The Pantalam Rājas have the title of Sriviradhara, and those of Mullanikkadu of Narasimha.

According to immemorial tradition, Koil Tampurāns were the nephews of the Chēraman Perumāls or viceroys of Chēra, who ruled at Cranganore, their earliest residence being Beypore in British Malabar, where three or four