Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/130

MUSSAD Poduvals) or Akapotuvals in North Malabar. The word Mūttatu means elder, and is generally taken to indicate a community, which is higher than the Ambalavāsi castes, as Ilayatu (or Elayad), or younger, denotes a sub-caste slightly lower than the Brāhmans. In early records, the word Mūpputayor, which has an identical meaning, is met with. Potuval means a common person, i.e.y the representative of a committee, and a Mūttatu's right to this name is from the fact that, in the absence of the Nambūtiri managers of a temple, he becomes their agent, and is invested with authority to exercise all their functions. The work of an Akapotuval always lies within the inner wall of the shrine, while that of the Purapotuval or Potuval proper lies outside. The castemen themselves prefer the name Sivadvija or Saivite Brāhman. A few families possess special titles, such as Nambi and Nambiyar. Their women are generally known as Manayammamar, mana meaning the house of a Brāhman. There are no divisions or septs among the Mūttatus.

The origin of the Mūttatus, and their place in Malabar society, are questions on which a good deal of discussion has been of late expended. In the Jātinirnaya, an old Sanskrit work on the castes of Kērala attributed to Sankarāchārya, it is said that the four kinds of Ambalavāsis, Tantri, Bharatabhattaraka, Agrima, and Slaghyavakku, are Brāhmans degraded in the Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali ages, respectively, and that those who were so degraded in the Dvapara Yuga — the Agrimas or Mūttatus — and whose occupation is to cleanse the stone steps of shrines — are found in large numbers in Kērala. According to Kērala Mahatmya, another Sanskrit work on Malabar history and customs, these Mūttatus are also known as Sivadvijas, or