Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/258

UNNI and Nattu Pattars, their social precedence being in this order. Pushpakan comes from pushpa, which in Sanskrit means either a flower or menses. Brāhmanis, more vulgarly known as Pappinis, are so named because they perform some of the priestly functions of the Brāhmans for the Sūdra population of Travancore. Tīyattunnis, also known as Taiyampatis in British Malabar, are so called from the peculiar religious service they perform in some Hindu temples. Nattu Pattars are also known as Pattar Unnis and Karappuram Unnis. Unni means a child, and is used as an honorific term to denote the male children of a Nambūtiri's household. The reason why these Ambalavāsi castes came to be so called was that they were looked upon as more respectable than the Nāyars, by whom the term must doubtless have been made use of at first. The Pushpakans are said to be divided into three classes, namely Pushpakans, Nambiassans, and Puppallis. The first section live only as far south as Evūr in Central Travancore, and are called Nambiyars in the north. The Nambiyassans live in Cochin and North Travancore, while the Puppallis are found only towards the south. There are no sub-divisions among the Brāhmanis and Karappuramunnis. But the Tīyattunnis are divided into two classes, namely the Tīyatinambiyans of the north, who are generally employed in the temples of Sastha, and Tīyattunnis proper, who perform a similar function in the shrines of Bhadrakāli. Women are also known as Atovarammamar and Kōvillammamar.

Pushpakans are said to have arisen out of the union of a Brāhman woman in her menses with her husband. Parasurāma set them apart, and gave them the occupation of making garlands in the temples of Malabar. Though this derivation is given in the