Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India.djvu/481

Rh or Ārya Pattars, they wear their kudumi (top-knot) on the back of the head in the east coast fashion, and not on the top and hanging over the forehead, as is done by the genuine Malayāli castes. They also live as a general rule in regular streets or grāmams on the east coast plan. Few Pattars, except in the Palghat taluk, are large land-owners. As a class, they have embraced modern educational facilities eagerly, so far as they subserve their material prospects. Both Pattars and Embrāndiris, but especially the latter, have adopted the custom of contracting sambandham (alliance) with Nāyar women, but sambandham with the foreign Brahmans is not considered to be so respectable as with Nambūdiris, and, except in the Palghat taluk (where the Nambūdiri is rare), they are not allowed to consort with the women of aristocratic families."

In connection with the Ārya Pattars, it is recorded, in the Travancore Census Report, 1901, that "the term Aryapattar means superior Brahmins. But the actual position in society is not quite that. At Rāmēsvaram, which may be considered the seat of Aryapattars, their present status seems to be actually inferior, due probably, it is believed, to their unhesitating acceptance of gifts from Sudras, and to their open assumption of their priestly charge. Though at present a small body in Malabar, they seem to have once flourished in considerable numbers. In the case of large exogamous but high-caste communities like the Kshatriyas of Malabar, Brahmin husbands were naturally in great requisition,and when, owing to their high spiritual ideals, the Brahmins of Malabar were either Grihasthas or Snātakas (bachelor Sanyāsins dedicating their life to study, and to the performance of orthodox rites), the supply was probably unequal to the demand. The scarcity was