Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 7.djvu/54

TIYAN friendly call on him, his body loosely covered with a cloth, and to all appearances unarmed. In less than a second, he could unfasten the sword round his waist, and cut the other down. The well-known Mannanar belonged to the Varakat illam. Those who know Malabar will recall to mind the benevolent but strange institution which he initiated. He provided a comfortable home for Nambūtiri women who were thrown out of caste, and thus in the ordinary course of events doomed to every misery and degradation to be found in life. On being outcasted, the funeral ceremonies of Nambūtiri women were performed by her own people, and she became dead to them. She went to the Mannanar, and her birth ceremonies were performed, so that she might begin life anew in a state of purity. If, on arrival, she entered by the left door, she was his wife, if by the front door, his sister. It is said that, when their chief, Mannanar of the Aramana, is destitute of heirs, the Tiyans of Kolattanād go in procession to the Kurumattūr Nambūtiri (the chief of the Peringallūr Brāhmans) and demand a Brāhman virgin to be adopted as sister of Mannanar, who follows the marumakkatāyam rule of succession. This demand, it is said, used to be granted by the Nambūtiris assembling at a meeting, and selecting a maiden to be given to the Tiyans. Kiriyam is said to be a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word griham (house), but this seems rather fanciful. There are said to have been about two kiriyams for each village. The names of only three are known to me, viz.,Karumana, Kaita, and Kampathi. There is a village called Karumana, near the temple of Lakshmipuram in South Canara. Karumana is applied as a term to signify a Tiyan during the ordinary devil-dancing in temples, when an oracular utterance is delivered. The