Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/135

Rh representing the weapons of the god Siva, and partaking of the offerings made to that god." A correspondent, who has made enquiry into caste questions in Malabar, writes to me as follows. There are several ways of spelling the name, e.g., Mūssu, Mūssad, and Mūttatu. Some people tried to discriminate between these, but I could not work out any distinctions. In practice, I think, all the classes noted below are called by either name indifferently, and most commonly Mūssad. There are several classes, viz.: —

Rh

(a) Ashtavaidyanmar, or eight physicians, are eight families of hereditary physicians. They are called Jātimātrakaras (barely caste people), and it is supposed that they are Nambūdiris slightly degraded by the necessity they may, as surgeons, be under of shedding blood. Most of them are called Mūssad, but one at least is called Nambi.

(b) Urili Parisha Mūssad, or assembly in the village Mūssad, who are said to be degraded because they accepted gifts of land from Parasu Rāma, and agreed to take on themselves the sin he had contracted by slaying the Kshetriyas. This class, as a whole, is called Sapta or Saptagrastan.

Rh (c) Mūssad or Mūttatu. — They appear to be identical with the Agapothuvals, or inside Pothuvals, as distinguished from the Pura, or outside Pothuvals, in North Malabar. They are said to be the descendants of a Sivadvija man and pure Brāhman girl. According to another account, they lost caste because they ate rice offered to Siva, which is prohibited by one of the anāchārams, or rules of conduct peculiar to Kērala. They