Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/334

SAMANTAN Mr. Stuart says * ' Neither philology, nor anything else, supports this fable.' From the word Sāmantra, Sāmanta can, no doubt, be conveniently derived, but, if they could not repeat mantras, they should have been called Amantras and not Sāmantras. In the Kērala Māhatmya we read that the Perumāls appointed Sāmantas to rule over portions of their kingdom. Taking the Sanskrit word Sāmanta, we may understand it to mean a petty chief or ruler. It is supposed that the Perumāls who came to Malabar contracted matrimonial alliances with high class Nāyar women, and that the issue of such unions were given chiefships over various extents of territories. Changes in their manners and customs were, it is said, made subsequently, by way of approximation to the Kshatriyas proper. Though the sacred thread, and the Gāyatri hymn were never taken up, less vital changes, as, for instance, that of the wearing of the ornaments of the Kshatriya women, or of consorting only with Nambūtiri husbands, were adopted. Those who lived in Ernāt formed themselves by connections and alliances into one large caste, and called themselves Erātis. Those who lived in Valluvanāt became Vallōtis. The unification could not assume a more cosmopolitan character as the several families rose to importance at different times, and, in all probability, from different sections of the Nāyars."

In the Travancore Census Report (1901) the chief divisions of the Sāmantas are said to be Atiyōti, Unyātiri, Pantāla, Erāti, Vallōti, and Netungāti. "The Unyātiris," the Travancore Census Superintendent writes further, "look upon themselves as a higher class than the rest of the Sāmantas, as they have an Āryapattar to tie the tāli of their girls, the other five castes employing only