NAIR MATRILINY:

AN OVERVIEW

The population of South India contains three distinct

racial types, the pre-Dravidian, the Dravidian and the Aryan. The Nair, the Vellalas

and other castes represent as nearly as possible the true Dravidian type, no doubt

with a large mixture of Aryan blood. The Pulaya, Paraya and other "depressed

classes" are pre-dominantly, pre-Dravidian who are pushed back into inaccessible

fastnesses by the advanced people. In Dravidian India prior to Aryan influence

there was no caste system as it is understood today. There is sufficient evidence in

Tamil literature to show that the Dravidians who occupied practically the whole of

Southern India in ancient times were a homogeneous race speaking a common

language. There were no Kshatriyas till the 7^ and no Sudras till the 9̂ '' century in

Kerala. By the 8* century A.D, the Aryan missionaries had established their hold

in Kerala society and this led to the imposition of caste system. These immigrants

however subjugated Kerala culturally and established the caste system between the

8̂ " and U'*" centuries. Till then the social stratification of Kerala was based on

functions and not on birth.

By the 11'^ century A.D under the impact of the forces set in

motion by the Chola-Chera war, the caste system became more rigorous. Kerala

became one of the most caste-ridden societies with a more accentuated form of

touch and distance pollution between higher and lower castes and a denial of entry

to Hindu temples for the lower castes. During the 150 years of British domination,

Kerala was divided into three parts - the British Indian district of Malabar in the

North, the Princely State of Travancore in the South and the much smaller State of

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Cochin in the middle. Travancore was the third most populous of the Indian princely

states after Hyderabad and Mysore.

A distinctive feature of the social organization of Kerala until

recent times was the prevalence of marumakkathayam or the matrilineal system of

inheritance among some communities. Marumakkathayam means the system of

inheritance in which descent is traced in the female line. It involved inheritance and

succession through the sister's children in the female line. Though Kerala was

generally known as a matrilineal area, there was no exclusively matrilineal zone

anywhere in Kerala and matrilineals and patrilineals were found everywhere.

The Nair Social System

The Nair community constitutes the third and the last of the

honoured castes of Kerala who formed the chief militia in Cochin Malabar and

Travancore states. They were in fact the magnets of the rulers in Kerala which they

managed through their educational qualifications and patronage of Dewans. They

held or controlled most of the land in many of the villages. Among them, though they

belonged to the Sudra Varna, were big landlords and many of them were owner

- cultivators; and some others were only tenants. Though they were not ritually as

pure as the higher castes, they had a fairly high ritual status which gave them the

great advantages over low-caste men and non-Hindus.

The Nairs lived in matrilineal joint families called tarawads and

they followed the marumakkathayam system. The matrilineal joint family called the

tarawad, is made up of a woman, her brothers and sisters, her own and her sisters'

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sons and daughters and the children of their daughters. According to justice

Kunhiraman Nair, the marumakkathayam tarawad is a joint family consisting

generally of several members, all tracing descent from a common female ancestor

and living in subjection to the power and under the guidance and control of the

senior male who for the time being is its head and representative. No affines

generally lived in this house except occasionally the Karanavan's wife. She was

considered an unwanted guest, an intruder in the tarawad, a constant source of

troubles and a thorn on the side of all. The wife of every male member and the

husband of every female member lived in their own respective households, where,

they had their mothers, brothers, sisters and children in the female line.

Each member of a tarawad acquires an interest in the tarawad

properties by reason of his or her birth alone and when any member dies, the

interests of that member devolves upon the other members of the tarawad. Thus the

interest of every member of a tarawad is a fluctuating factor; it increases by deaths

of other members and gets reduced by new births in the tarawad. A member of the

tarawadazqmes right to the assets of the tarawad by birth. A tavazhi\s a branch of

a tarawad. It is comprised of a group of descendants in the female line of a female

common ancestress who is the member of a tarawad. It may own separate properties

as distinct from tarawad properties. It is more or less analogous to the concept of a

coparcenary within a coparcenary under the Hindu law.

A /V<9/rwas the child of a Kshatriya male and a Nair female, or

a Nambuthiri male and a Nair female or a Nair male and Nair female. Among the

Nairs there are many sub-groups arranged in a hierarchical manner depending on

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whose child a Nair is. Not only the Nair, Menon, Poduvals, Nambisans and

Samathams are included here on one side of the socio-economic scale, but are the

North Malabar Tiyas also on the other. The Nairs of Kerala are different from other

castes mainly because they trace their descent in the female line and they had a

marriage system in which they are allowed to have several husbands simultaneously

with strict rules of hypergamy. Given matrilineal descent and inheritance, and given

the mobility of men and the absence of male economic obligations to kinswomen,

there was no reason why either men or women should restrict themselves to

particular spouses.

Origin of Matriliny

The antiquity of the system has been a theme of controversy

among scholars. The traditional view propagated by the Brahmin aristocracy is that

marumakkathayam was the most ancient practice here and Makkathayam or the

patrilineal system of inheritance was unknown to ancient Kerala. This group

attributes to the system a divine origin by arguing that Parasurama, the legendary

founder of Kerala ordered Sudra women "to put off chastity and the clothes that

covered their breasts" and do their best to satisfy the desires of the Brahmins. The

fear of divine wrath prevented the Nair families from questioning the right of the

Nambuthiris from cohabiting with their women and the Sambandham form of

marriage came to have general acceptance.

As opposed to this there is a view that Makkathayam was the

system of inheritance prevalent in ancient Kerala society and marumakkathayam

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came into vogue at a later period of Kerala History under the impact of some

compelling forces. They feel that matrilineal system was imposed on the people of

Kerala by the Nambuthiri Brahmins during the long drawn out war between the

Chera and Chola kingdoms in the 11'*̂ century. Some scholars have suggested that

the matrilineal system must have been brought to the area during very ancient

times by a Nair sect which migrated to South West India from the Pre-Aryan Indus

Valley Civilization.

The "military theory", on the other hand, suggests that as the

male members of the Nair families were condemned to military service from the early

days of their youth to the decline of manhood so much so regular married life was

not possible in their case and under these circumstances, the Nair women were

forced to have Sambandham form of marriage as a necessary evil. In 1518, Barbosa,

the Portugese writer stated, "And it is said that the Kings made this law, in order that

the Nairs should not be covetous and should not abandon the King's service" (Dames

1921 : 124). Similarly Joao de Barros wrote at about the same time, "They say

that this (polyandry) is a very ancient law among them, and that it springs from the

wish of a certain king to relieve the men of the burden of maintaining sons, and leave

them ready for warlike service whensoever the king calls upon them."

The Nambuthiri and Nair Marriage System

One can understand the Nair matriliny only in the background

of the marriage system of the two dominant castes in Kerala - the Nambuthiri and

the Nair. The Nambuthiri Brahmins have a patrilineal and patriarchal joint family

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{illam) in which a man, his wives, his sons, his sons' wives and sons' sons, his

own unnnarried daughters and his sons' unmarried daughters live. In the Nambuthiri

patrilineal extended family, only the eldest son was permitted to marry (with

vedic rites) within his caste, and to get children for his family. The younger sons of

the Nambuthiris who cannot be married contract connubial relations with the women

of matrilineal Kshatriya and Nair castes. The offspring thus born out of the relations

cannot be a Nambuthiri, but can only be a Kshatriya or a Nair.

Because of this peculiar marriage custom the fertility potential

of this community is not realized to its full value with the result that it showed a

steady decline in numbers in the successive censuses of 1911 to 1941. This system

which was evolved with an object of keeping the family property intact by not

dividing the ancestral property led to unrestricted polygyny. These hypergamous

unions were regarded by Brahmins as socially acceptable concubinage, but since the

union was not initiated with vedic rites, the children were not legitimized as Brahmins

and neither the woman nor the child was accorded the rights of kin. In spite of the

cruel custom that made the Brahmins undertake a purificatory bath if ever they

touched their children born to wives in other castes, and the freedom from the

obligation of maintaining such wives and children that they enjoyed, several Nair

families went for such alliances on the blind belief that it would enhance their

respectability.

There are different ways of looking at the Nambuthiri -

Nair relationship and the gradual change in the family pattern of each. The

hypothesis that matriliny was imposed on the Nair "jaties" by Nambuthiri Brahmins,

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to suit the convenience of tiieir second and younger sons was quite popular. The

joint family system of the Nairs was an outcome of the institutionalization of values

almost contrary to those on which an illam was based. The tarawad v^as based on

the principle of matrilineal descent. Even though women formed the center of the

tarawad it was managed by the eldest male member called karanavan. Under this

system, individuals are assigned to their mothers' lineage or clan and not to their

fathers'. For sometime it was held that the children of these marriages could not be

legitimate heirs of the father.

In Kerala caste system, the status of a child is that of its

mother, but it is also conditioned by the status of its father. The name of the father is

very often unknown to a Nair child. In all possible respects attempts were made to

reduce the intensity of marital ties for the sake of the unity of the tarawad. The I

marriage bond being reduced to its barest essentials the affinity that it created

between the 'kin' and the married couple was feeble in the extreme. The only socially

valid marriages among the Kerala Hindus were those in which the bridegroom

belonged to a clan superior to that of the bride. Other unions entailed social stigma

upon the fame and dignity of the bride's family and such families were socially

ostracized.

Two forms of marriage called talikettu kalyanam and

sambandham were in vogue among the Nairs of Kerala. The talikettu kalyanam was a

form of marriage which every giri had to undergo before reaching puberty in which

a man ties a tali round the neck of the giri. This ceremony had no legal significance

and did not confer on the participants the status of husband and wife. The

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Sambandham, which was arranged by the Karanavans of the family, was not in truth

a marriage, but a state of concubinage to which the woman enters on her own choice

and she is at liberty to change as and when she pleases. A Nair woman could have

several Sambandham marriages concurrently and in such a case received her visiting

husbands seriatum.

The leading characteristic of sambandham was the ease with

which it was entered into and dissolved. Ending a relationship was very simple. A

man stopped coming to a woman's house, or a woman instructed her brothers or

uncles not to admit an erstwhile partner. There was no law of divorce or maintenance

governing the married couples. Sambandham was dissoluble at will and often it

happened that, due either to the misunderstandings and incompatibility of the

partners or the dislike for the Karanavans the partners broke off their relation. The

aggrieved party can without any formality marry anybody else. Such a temporary

association, or concubinage, even if it should be continued till death, as it sometimes

is, cannot in any proper sense be dignified by the sacred name of marriage, though

in such cases the union may have much of the effect of marriage through the mutual

affection and fidelity of the parties. It is also curious to observe that a wife ceases

to have any connection with her husband's tarawad^f^ox his death. Long established

custom requires that she must quit her husband's house for her own as soon as he

has drawn his last breath.

In Kerala, women did not become an instrument of male

tyranny or a religious rope tying two individuals in to death. The proud Nair woman

would not go and live with her husband. If a husband arrived to find his bedding put

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outside, it meant just that his services were either not satisfactory or just not

required. He understood the message and, with all the dignity he could muster, he

moved out of the life of his wife and her tarawad. The rule is that is that the

marriage connection lasts during pleasure and is dissoluble at will; lent, as

sambandham is always an affair carefully arranged and settled after consulting the

wishes of both parties, divorce is a very rare occurrence. Permanent attachment is

the rule.

Nair women were quite amiable to their husbands and hence,

there were only very rare occasions a Nair husband could have become a victim of

his wife's freedom and of the custom of the society. But women always had a voice;

and in Kerala a woman knew how to make herself heard Economically, the Nair

woman was completely independent. She never regarded her husband as lord and

master, because there was no material reason for her to do so.

In theory, tarawad \\did^ been described as the realm In which

women ruled but in practice it was ruled by the matriarch, the Karanavan. The spirit

of the law governing these tarawads is that while the joint property belongs to the

females, their natural incapacity for family government has made the eldest male

member the life trustee of joint estate. One of the foremost complaints against

marumakkathayam is the autocratic behaviour of the Karanavan, who acts as the

manager and virtual head of the tarawad {lineage) property. The complaint about the

authoritarianism on the part of the Karanavan, Ehrenfels says is something to be

expected, because he feels that the position of a patriarch in a patrilineal joint family

is still worse where his position is monolithic and unquestionably autocratic.

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It was the right and duty of the Karanavan to manage alone

the property of the tarawad, to take care of it, to Invest It In his own name either on

loans or on other security, or by purchasing land in his own name and to receive the

rents of those lands. He was not accountable to any member in the tarawad In

respect of the income of it, though there were silent protests against the arbitrary

decisions of the Karanavan regarding the disposal of landed property. He was entitled

to sue for the purpose of recovering or protecting the property of the tarawad in his

own behalf. The Karanavan might delegate his powers of management to some

members of the tarawad ̂ nUzh cannot be revoked except with the consent of all the

adult members or by a decision of a court: of law. Courts have held that In the

absence of a male adult member, the senior adult female member (Karanavathi)

14 could take over. C. Ramachandra Iyer writes that on the death of a Karanavan, if

the male member happens to be a minor, the management of the tarawad would

devolve on the senior female where no distinction is made between the male and

female Karanavan.

Breakdown

By 1908, the unquestioned dominance which the higher castes

enjoyed in the traditional society vanished; the plural and competitive nature of

Travancore society In the 20̂ '̂ century made it impossible to achieve the political

influence available to "dominant castes" so far. The non-Malayali Brahmins took

advantage of the changes In the administrative system because of their high ritual

status together with their scholarty traditions and retained their Influence around the

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Maharaja of Travancore holding the most powerful posts. The Syrian Christians,

Muslims and Ezhavas took advantage of the new situation and joined the stream of

the new socio-economic changes.

By 1805, the system of land tenure was changed and the

British created a new class of 'land-owners', thus translating the native situation in to

capitalist concepts. Until then nobody really 'owned' land in Kerala but all were

attach to the land in the sense that they felt that they had some hereditary

inalienable rights over the land and its produces based on one's position in the

social hierarchy. Having passed in to private ownership, land could be sold

freely in the market and was done so with increasing frequency. The period

between 1830 - 1955 was one of increasing concentration of land in the hands of a

few. Land was extensively converted to cash-crop farming. The report of a

government committee set up in 1908 to investigate the matrilineal joint family

produced statistics which showed an alarming rate of land transfer from Nairs to

15 Syrian Christian and even low castes. The Syrian Christians who had a respectable

ritual status diversified their interests in land and trade with their advantage of

connections with the ruling race through the missionaries. The Muslims, Ezhavas and

Shahnars also proved advantageous in the new situation. Having no reservations and

fixed ideas about what constituted a respectable occupation Syrians, Christians,

Muslims and Avarna Hindus entered into trade and other commercial activities and

gained control of money power. Nairs, on the other hand, were prevented by law

from using family assets for individual enterprises. At the same time the ethics of

high caste Malayali life dissuaded them from the money-grabbing enterprises.

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The new capitalist entrepreneurs, taking advantage of their

profits from cash-crops and from the new forms of professional and salaried work

were able to buy up the land of small owners in the vicinity. It dispossessed the

village headmen and many independent Nairs reducing them to the status of tenants.

These Nairs wandered much between villages in search of a wage work or a salaried

job. In such situations the only mobile Kinship unit was a married couple or an

elementary family.

Incessant disputes, heart burnings and litigation sprang up;

many families sinking to ruin and the Nairs on the whole diminishing in wealth and

position. One of the foremost complaints raised against marumakkathayam is the

autocratic behaviour of the Karanavan, who acts as the manager and virtual head of

the tarawad property. It was also a general complaint that the karanavaiis children

were treated better when on a visit to their father's family or staying with him. In

addition to his authoritarianism, the Karanavan was not infrequently accused of being

disloyal to his sisters and their children, whose common property he had traditionally

managed. The new system of administration sucked children into costly formal

English Schools, and not all families could afford to send their children in to such

schools. The Junior members resented the fact that they were denied opportunities

for higher education on account of the high expenses. At the same time the

karanavans had a general tendency to send their own children at the expense of the

tarawad income.

The country was awakening to a new sense of values on^

account of the spread of western education. Both the curriculum and the

[00

atmosphere of school fostered a sense of 'individualism', often at odds with the

values of the matrilineal joint family. The modern educational system introduce by

the British undermined the respect for age and custom on which the smooth working

of the matrilineal joint family was based and even ridiculed at matriliny at every

opportunity.

Appeals to caste and religion became fashionable and oft

repeated during the second half of 19"̂ century. This period saw the rise of powerful

social and religious reform movements and institutions like Sree Narayana Dharma

Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), Sujananandini, Kerala Kaumudi, the Sahodara Samajam,

Nair Service Society (NSS), Sadhujana Paripalana Yogam, Yogakshema Sabha,

Christian Reunion Movement etc. The Hindu reform movements were led by two

outstanding leaders of non-Brahmin communities, viz, Sri Chattampi Swamikal and Sri

Narayana Guru who propogated the great ideals of eradication of untouchability, the

breakdown of inter-sub-caste barriers, the change in the marumakkathayam law of

inheritance and the abolition of many costly and wasteful social practices and

customs.

The changes created by the modern capitalism and the sudden

discharge of many tenants including the tarawad members in to a wage earning

group floating in the market did not leave the structure of society unscathed. The

series of land-reform movements which came subsequently was an answer to this.

The Kerala Land Reforms Act Q^ 1969, which was an amendment of the earlier Land

Reforms Act of 1963, for the first time abolished absentee landlordism in Kerala. This

act also made provision for tenancy right and restriction on the area holdings. Th^s.--^

: i o i

vast majority of the Nair and Nambuthiri landowners suffered because they were

absentee landlords while a large proportion of the landless becanne owners of the

land overnight. This act was a liberation for them but proved impossible the survival

of matrilineal joint families which required joint ownership of ancestral land. The

series of land reforms introduced in Kerala since the latter half of the 19'*̂ century

have had as their cumulative effect the disruption of the Jenmisystem which brought

about rapid socio-economic changes.

A study of the legislative measures affecting the destiny of the

marumakkatha^am systems and laws leading to the disintegration of the Nair

tarawads are of abiding interest. In the past the laws relating to the partition of

marumakkatayam tarawads were so strict that the courts concluded that the

matrilineal joint family had been divisible only with the unanimous consent of all its

adult members. Until the 1850's in Travancore and the 1870's in Cochin, the courts

did not insist on unanimity, they fairly readily awarded decrees allowing matrilineal

joint families to divide themselves. The Nair, Ilava (Ezhava) and Nanjanad Vellala

Regulations passed during 1920's have brought about a complete disintegration of

the properties belonging to these communities.

An analysis of the role of various marriage acts to bring about

the matrilineal disintegration will be of great value. The Malabar Marriage Act 1896,

the two Nair Regulations of Travancore 1912 and 1925 and the Cochin Nair Act are

significant. The Malabar Marriage Act of 1896 restricted itself to declaring

sambandham being registered as marriage , in which case only the wife got the

right of maintenance, the right to half the property of the Nair husband if he died

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intestate, and the right of alimony in the case of divorce for unjust reasons, but

under certain conditions all rights flowing from the validity of the marriage.

The Travancore Nair Regulation I, 1912, provides for the law of

marriage, succession and family management but did not touch the question of

partition. Earlier legislations like the Cochin Nair Regulation of 1920, the Travancore

Nair Act of 1925, the Madras (Malabar) Marumakkathayam Act o^ 1932, the Mappilla

Marumakkathayam Act of 1938, the Nambuthiri Act and the Cochin Nair Act of 1937-

'38 accepted the right to partition and allowed families to divide property if they so

desired. The Nair Regulation II of 1925 made the marriage tie more binding; and

divorce made practically impossible. The Travancore Nair Act of 1912, granted half

the self-acquired property of the male to his wife and children and the other half to

his sister's children. The amended Regulation gives the whole to the widow and

children, reserving a share to his mother, if living. It was the Travancore Nair Act of

1925 which provided for the partition of Nair tarawads in that region, the share being

calculated per capita and it deprived the nephews of all claims in the properties of

their uncles.

With this Regulation, the impartiality of the tarawad and its

single management by the karanavan had disappeared. The maintenance and

guardianship of the wife and children were vested in the husband or father thus

making a shift from marumakkathayam to makkathayam. This right to individual

partition was quickly extended to other matrilineal groups in Travancore like the

Ezhava community and Nanjanad Vellala community. The result was the legal

registration of more than 120,000 family partitions in the ensuing five years. By the

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Madras marumakkathayam Act (1932) the Nairs of Malabar came to enjoy similar

privileges as their counterparts in Travancore, but we find that individual partition

spread less quickly in Malabar once the right of claiming individual shares were

granted.

Earlier in 1919-'20, the Cochin Nair Regulation Act had already

limited the powers of the Karanavan and legalized customary marriages. It declared

the wife and children as being entitled to maintenance by the husband or the father.

It made all husbands including non-Nairs responsible for the maintenance of their

Nair wives and children, if any. The Cochin Nair Act of 1937-38 which superseded the

regulation of 1920 retained the main provisions of the latter and introduced more

progressive changes with a view to doing away with the evils of the joint family

systeiD, Jhe Act brought about the complete disruption of the marumakkathayam as

an institution and freed the members of the joint family from the shackles of the

autocratic Karanavan. The wife and children of a husband or a father became the

legal heirs of his property. It repeated the earlier prohibition on polygamy and also

prohibited the marriage of a female under 16 years of age and of a male under 21

years of age.

The continuous litigation between tayazhis and tarawads

expedited the decline of matriliny. The winning and loosing Nairs sold their land to

meet the expenses of litigation. The Madras (Malabar) Marumakkathayam Act of

1932 allowed the partition of the tarawad property and legalized inheritance from

18

father to son. The partition could also be effected without the consent of the

Karanavan, if majority of members wanted the partition. The Act applied to all the

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Hindus of Malabar including the Nambuthiris of Payyannur. An amendment to the Act

of 1932 which was passed in 1958 conferred the right of individual partition on the

members of the Marumakkathayam families.

An important piece of legislation which affected the life

of the Nambuthiris also deserves attention. The Madras Nambuthiri Act of 1933

changed the law of inheritance governing Nambuthiri families. Every member of a

Nambuthiri illam, whether male or female, could get an equal share in the family

19 property under its provisions. The earlier practice of allowing only the eldest male

son to marry within the community, leaving his brothers to fend for themselves by

taking Nair women as sambandham partners was also changed. The Act gave the

right to all Nambuthiri males to marry within their own caste and the children of such

marriages became the legal heirs of property.

Legislative measures passed by the Indian Parliament after

independence have included those affecting the law of inheritance among all classes

of Hindus. The Hindu Succession Act which came in to force in 1956 provides for a

20 uniform system of succession for all Hindus with respect to intestate succession.

The Act gives equal right to man and woman with regard to inheritance of property

and it applies to all persons governed by Marumakkathayam law as well. Under the

same Act the law relating to Hindu marriage has also been modified so as to make

monogamy compulsory for all classes of Hindus. Mention may also be made in this

connection of the Kerala Hindu Joint Family System (Abolition) Act 1975 passed by

the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The last among its kind, it has ensured the

disintegration of the traditional matrilineal system of inheritance and ushered the

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patrilineal (makkathayam) system which is in vogue among progressive societies all

over the world.

References:

1. Panikkar, K.M. A Survey of Indian History, The National Information & Publication Ltd., Bombay 1947.

2. Pillai, K. Elamkulam Studies in Kerala History, National Bookstall, Kottayam, 1970, p.311. 3. Pillai, Kunjan Census of India. Vol XXVIII, Part I, 1931. 4. Variar, Sreedhara Marumakkathayam & Allied Systems of Law, The Author, Cochin, 1969. 5. Ibid, p.29-30. 5. Menon, Sreedhara A. Cultural Heritage of Kerala, S.Viswanathan Pvt.Ltd., Chetput, 1996,

p.260. 7. Ibid. 8. Ehrenfels, in Govindan Unni, Kinship Systems in South and South East Asia, Vikas

Publishing House, 1994, p.81. 9. Gough, Kathleen "Nair Central Kerala", in David Schneider and Kathleen Gough (ed),

Matrilineal Kinship, A.H. Wheeler and Co. Private Limited, Allahabad, 1972, p.370. 10. Karve, Iravati Kinship Organization in India, Asian Publishing House, 1965. 11. Puthenkalam, J. Marriage and the Family in Kerala, University of Calgary, 1977, p.18. 12. Fawcett, F. Nayars of Malabar. Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 1990. 13. Ehrenfels, U.R. "Matrilineal Joint Family Patterns in India" in George Kurian, The Family in

India, Mouton & Co., N.V. Publishers, 1974. 14. Aiyar, Sundara P.R. Malabar and Aliya Santhanam Law, The Madras Law Journal Office,

Mylapore, Madras, 1922, p.36-42. 15. Pillai, Kunjan op.cit. 16. Mannathu, Padmanabhan Reminiscences of My Life, Nair Service Society,

Changanacherry, 1998. 17. Nair, Madhavan Kozhikot The Madras Marumakkathayam Act, Vidya Vilasm Press,

Calicut, 1993. 18. Variar, Sreedhara op.cit. 19. Ibid 20. Kaleeswaram, Raj & Suchitra, K.P. Commentaries on Marumakkathayam Law, Centre for

Legal Studies, Payyannur, 1995.

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