Page:Castes and tribes of southern India, Volume 5.djvu/72

MERA Pillai down south. As soon as a person was made a Mēnōn, he was presented with an ōla (palmyra leaf for writing on) and an iron style, as symbolical of the office he was expected to fill, i.e., of an accountant. Even now, in British Malabar, each amsham or revenue village has a writer or accountant, who is called Mēnōn." Mr. F. Fawcett writes* that "to those of the sub-clan attached to the Zamorin who were sufficiently capable to earn it, he gave the titular honour Mēnōn, to be used as an affix to the name. The title Mēnōn is in general hereditary, but, be it remarked, many who now use it are not entitled to do so. Properly speaking, only those whose investiture by the Zamorin or some other recognized chief is undisputed, and their descendants (in the female line) may use it. A man known to me was invested with the title Mēnōn in 1895 by the Karimpuzha chief, who, in the presence of a large assembly, said thrice 'From this day forward I confer on Krishnan Nāyar the title of Krishna Menon.' Nowadays be it said, the title Mēnōn is used by Nāyars of clans other than the Akattu Charna." Indian undergraduates at the English Universities, with names such as Krishna Mēnōn, Rāman Mēnōn, Rāmunni Mēnōn, are known as Mr. Mēnōn. In the same way, Marātha students are called by their titular name Mr. Rao.  Mēra.— A sub-division of Holeya.  Meria.— At the Madras Census, 1901, twenty-five individuals returned themselves as Meria or Merakāya. They were descendants of persons who were reserved for human (Meriah) sacrifice, but rescued by Government officials in the middle of the last century. 