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Now we come to the entry of Ezhava leadership from Travancore. Some very indelible facts need to be mentioned here. There is a very strong indoctrination being promoted that it is Sree Narayana Guru or an association connected to him, the SNDP that is responsible for the social reformation in Travancore kingdom. This claims does not seem to have much basis. For, the social reformation in Travancore was connected to entirely different two items.

The first was the Missionaries of the London Missionary Society who literally entered into the social system, interacting and living with lower castes such as the Ezhavas, Shanar, Pulayas, Pariah &c. They gave them education, and made them learn many trades and skills by which they could eke a livelihood.

The second terrific influence was the English rule in the neighbouring Madras Presidency. This administration went on forcing the Travancore king’s family to give more social rights to the lower castes. Due to this, a lot of proclamations that led to more freedom to the lower castes came up.

Slavery was banned and the slaves liberated. When Col Munro was appointed as the Diwan of Travancore, the lower castes were given right to wear certain dresses which had been prohibited to them till then. However they went beyond what was allowed. This created terrible social issues that the Sudras (Nayars) tried to block them on the streets. There were literally street fights between the Sudras and the lower castes.

What actually happened in the Travancore kingdom can be taken from the Travancore kingdom’s own Manual, the Travancore State Manual, written by V Nagam Aiya.

QUOTEs:

1. In 1833 A.D., there was a disturbance raised by the Shanars of South Travancore, but the riot was easily put down without military aid.

2. Shanar converts and Hindus — Disturbances in South Travancore. Reference has already been made to the establishment of the London Mission Society in South Travancore and the great toleration afforded to the Christian Missions by the Travancore Government that led to the rapid spread of Christianity in Nanjanad.

3. The result was that the Shanar converts (it may be observed here that the Mission work of conversion was mostly if not exclusively confined to the Shanars, Pariahs and other lowcaste people), who were looked down upon by the high-caste Hindus, relying on the support of the missionaries, caused great annoyance to them.

4. The casus belli in this case arose from the Shanar Christian females assuming the costume of high-caste women. By longstanding custom, the inferior classes of the population were forbidden to wear an upper cloth of the kind used by the higher classes.

5. During the administration of Col. Munro, a Circular order was issued permitting the women referred to, to cover their bodies with jackets (kuppayam) like the women of Syrian Christians, Moplas, and such others, but the Native Christian females would not have anything less than the apparel of the highest castes. So they took the liberty of appearing in public not only with the kuppayam already sanctioned, but with an additional cloth or scarf over the shoulders as worn by the women of the higher castes. These pretensions of the Shanar-convert women were resented by the high-caste Nayars and other Sudras who took the law into their own hands and used violence to those who infringed long-standing custom and caste distinctions.

6. The women of the Shanars or toddy-drawers who abound in South Travancore and from among whom the Protestant Missionaries have for the last sixty years reaped the richest harvest, had been prevented from covering the upper part of their person.

7. The mutual jealousies between the Sahanars and the Sudras were dormant for some time, but the Queen’s Proclamation of November 1858 on the assumption of the direct Government of India renovated these feelings. The Shanars imagined that it permitted them to infringe existing rules while the Sudras equally considered it as sanctioning their taking the law into their own hands to repress what they took as an aggression into their caste domains. Serious affrays ensued, and these were aggravated by the gratuitous interference of petty Sirkar officials whose general standard of capacity and moral worth we have already alluded to. Public peace was imperilled.

8. In December 1858 A.D., the two communities had assumed hostile positions against each other and troubles of a serious nature broke out. The Sudras openly attacked the Shanar women who dared to appear in public in high-caste costume and the Shanars duly retaliated.

9. Sir Charles Trevelyan, as Governor of Madras wrote to the Resident in these strong terms: “I have seldom met with a case, in which not only truth and justice, but every feeling of our common humanity are so entirely on one side. The whole civilised world would cry shame upon us, if we did not make a firm stand on such an occasion.

[My note: The English administration in Madras did not really understand the issue of the dress-codes. It was essentially connected to the feudal language codes of Malayalam and Tamil, which were the local languages. Dress-codes are essential to understand the social level of an individual. It is like an Indian police constable and his family members desiring to wear a clothing usually seen dressed on by an IPS officer and his family members. In the local society of Travancore, the hierarchy in verbal codes on who has the right to use the Nee word on whom and the Avan / Aval word on whom; and who has the duty to use the ‘respectful’ words for You, He/She etc. can be very readily understood by the dress-codes. It is similar to the police hierarchy. By seeing the uniform, the various ranks in the hierarchy arrange their words of addressing and referring as per proper protocol.]

10. Dewan’s reply to English Governor in Madras: As the Shanars took it upon themselves to infringe the Proclamation of 1004 M.E., so the Soodras took it upon themselves to punish such infringement. The Shanar women were attacked when they openly appeared with what was considered the high caste costume. The Shanars on the other hand did not confine themselves to a bare defence. They too retaliated the outrages on Soodra women.

11. “The decree of interference which for many years past has been exercised by the representative of the British Government in the Affairs greatly rests with the British Government and it has thereby become their duty to insist upon the observance of a system of toleration, in a more decided manner, than they would be at liberty to adopt, if they had merely to bring their influence to bear on an independent State.”

12. A Royal Proclamation was accordingly issued on the 26th July 1859 abolishing all restrictions in the matter of the covering of the upper parts of Shanar women and granting them perfect liberty to meet the requirements of decency any way they might deem proper with the simple reservation, however, that they should not imitate the dress of the women of high castes.

END OF QUOTEs.

A very detailed information on the way in which the missionaries of the London Missionary Society worked to improve the lower castes can be seen in the book Native Life in Travancore by Rev. Samuel Mateer. However, their improvement was focused on those who converted to Christianity. Actually this was a deed that literally created havoc and nightmare in the upper crust of the social system.

It was like giving the menial house servants to sit with the householders at the eating table in current-day India. Not only the Nayars, but even the traditional Christians were terrified. The Syrian Christians very categorically disallowed these converted Christians from entering their places of worship.

And among the converted Christians, the Ezhava converts refused to pray in the same church were the Paraiah, Pulaya &c. converts came for worship. Even though all this looks like pure madness, they were not insane human reactions. Very powerful verbal codes can be seen in the native feudal languages that can more or less ratify the reactions. The native-English do not have any means to understand these things. That is why they have allowed their nations to be overrun by outsiders who speak feudal languages.

The Ezhavas were quite perturbed to be on a platform of equality with the Pulayas and Pariahs inside the newly built churches. For, an equality thus created would get encoded as a Nee-Nee, Avan-Avan, Aval-Aval &c. communication code relationship. Once this is established, the Ezhavas would find it quite difficult to maintain their social connection with the Nayars. The Nayars would definitely get perturbed to find themselves at close proximity with persons who are addressed as Nee or referred to as Avan/Aval by a Pulaya or Pariah.

However, the converted-into-Christian lower castes were very much controlled and developed by the evangelists of the London Missionary Society. However, the other lower castes who also received the benefits of the social reforms literally had no one to control them. This is one of the reasons that the lower castes who remained in their own castes under the Hindus had a terrible fight with the Travancore police at Punnapra and Vayalar. The lower castes killed a police inspector who had come for a compromise talk.

Even the reason for the killing of the police inspector might be traceable to the feudal language codes. In a feudal language social ambience, if the lower side refuses to be treated as lower, then the very talks would inflame into an outburst. The police inspector would find it quite difficult to address the lower castes leaders with ‘respect’. In most probability, he would have used the words ‘Nee’ (lowest You) and ‘Avan’ (lowest he) to and about the lower caste leaders.

The lower castes who had assembled in strength would find it most distressing to see their leaders whom they addressed as ‘Chettan’, ‘Annan’, etc. being thus addressed and referred to. As if they are abominable dirt. They would react with profanities like ‘Pundachimone’, ‘Poorimone’, ‘Thayoli’ etc. which are terrible profanities, with a very jarring verbal sounds. (As of now, most of these profanities have been exported into English by the immigrant crowds from all over the globe). The lower castes would have used the Nee word also on the police inspector.

In this book, Malabar, there is this quote about the English effect on Travancore society: QUOTE: ... the presence of the English in Travancore was gradually leading to a revolution in that State. END OF QUOTE.

However, it is quite curious that Logan and the others who inserted their own ideas into this book, missed seeing what was happening under their own nose. The Mappilla attacks on the Nayars in Malappuram was also kindled by the English rule in south Malabar. The lower castes, especially the Cherumars were converting into Islam in large numbers in the general social freedom that had arrived in the location. Makkathaya Thiyyas also converted into Islam. Once converted to Islam, almost all social restraints got erased.

However, there was a difference here. Here the administration was run by the English Company and later on by the British government. They were under compulsion to support the maintenance of status co. The Nayars were attacked by the Muslims for issues which the English officials could not understand. This is a very deep verbal code issue. It might not be good if I skipped explaining the issue. However, I will do that in the location where I take up the Mappilla attacks on the Nayars and higher castes like the Brahmins.

Now, coming back to the Ezhava issue, it is true that though just under the Nairs, the Travancore government did not allow them to enter into government service at any level other than as a menial worker. I do not have any information on how Sree Narayana Guru improved them, beyond what was on offer from the English side and from the Travancore Government.

It is possible that his biography would also contain bits of connection to Brahmins and such other higher castes. This is how the ‘respect’ codes of yore worked. If he has a Brahmin disciple, then it would be a point to be mentioned in a hundred locations. However, I do not know anything about him.

He is said to have build Hindu temples. I am not sure why he went around building Hindu temples. He could have very well created places of worship which are connected to the traditional deities of Ezhavas.

It is true that the SNDP, which is the organisation that is connected to him has created a lot of educational institutions all over the state. However, the quality of education in these institutions, I understand, were in sharp contrast to the high-quality English educational systems that had prospered in the Tellicherry location under the auspicious of the English rule. Generally the SNDP educational institutions were of a very Malayalam (extreme feudal language) version of education. However, it might be true that their anti group, the NSS (the Nayars’ organisation) would also be of a similar kind. However, I do not have any records to substantiate these claims. They are mere feelings.

Talking about Sree Narayana Guru himself, there is something quite curious about his name. This is a point that is quite easily noticed by me because of my constant observations on language codes. It is possible that his name is Narayanan or something like that. I do not know exactly what it is. Usually in the feudal languages of the subcontinent, a mere ‘name’ is a very uninspiring entity. Usually a suffix is required that stands as a sort of bulwark to hold up a person’s ‘respect’.

Usually in the local feudal languages like Tamil, Malabari, Malayalam etc., words like ‘Chettan, Chetti, Akka, Ikka, Saar, Maadam, Mash, Teacher, Avarkal or anything else that comes handy is used. In the English-rule time in Malabar, words like ‘Butler’ were used as ‘respect’ suffix for persons working inside English households. Working inside an English household was a great social status inducing item. It is not like what is now being promoted. That the Englishmen were exploiting or enslaving them. Working in an English establishment would give that man a chance to converse in English with the English individuals. It more or less removes a lot of socially degrading content that had been placed upon the individual by the local languages.

In fact, any work that connected a person with the native-English was not an experience of enslavement, but a personality enhancing item. Only total birdbrains would go around saying that working under the English was a degrading item. Actually working under the local bosses who speak feudal languages was the real degrading item and experience.

Now coming back to Sree Narayana Guru, his name Narayanan was kept inside two words of ‘respect’. Birdbrain academicians have used a term, ‘honorific’ for such usages. However, it is a much more complicated item than is understood or delineated by birdbrains.

However, there is something more intriguing. Many persons feel that even enwrapping his name with two words of ‘respect’ on both sides is not enough to prop him up. It is seen that in many locations they add one more word of ‘respect’. That is, his name is then mentioned as Sree Narayana Guru Devan.

When seen from an English perspective, it is a very singular situation. Native English individuals who are connected perfectly to pristine-English do not want any suffixes or prefixes of respect. For instance, Robert Clive, if mentioned as a mere Clive still does retain his stature in his native language. However, in the case of most ‘great’ personages of the subcontinent, some suffix or prefix is required. If it is removed, then it becomes a terrible issue. The ‘greatness’ of the personage will go into oblivion.

There was on incidence with regard to the so-called ‘father of the nation’ (actually there is no such father of nation in any statutory records). When he was once, mentioned with as a Mr. by a political leader of those times, the followers of the ‘great’ personage ran on to the podium and started attacking him physically. The ‘great’ personage, who was present there at that time, did nothing to stop it. For, it was quite clear that his followers were trying to protect his ‘respect’.

This incident went on to the creation of a communal party, and this in turn led to the creation of Pakistan, when India was created.

This adding of ‘respect’ to hold up the stature of a personage is a deed that should seem to suggest that without these words of ‘respect’, the personage would not have any stature. In fact, if the various ‘Ji’, ‘Mahatma’, ‘Swami’, ‘Amma’, ‘Chettan’, ‘Anna’, ‘Saar’, ‘Maadam’ etc. words are removed from the names of various ‘great’ Indians, they would immediately appear in their stark human quality, as mere nondescript persons.

Usually, in the local areas, people who cannot find any such props, usually use their place name behind their name. It acts as a barricade that holds them up from tumbling down the gorge of ‘no-respect’. It acts in the verbal code area. It is a way to hold a person as an ‘Adheham’ / ‘Avar’ (Highest He/ Him) from falling down to the ‘Avan’ (lowest he / him) level.

Now, the next question would as to why the Sree Narayana Guru and his team tried to extend their influence to the Malabar region. Actually none of the problems that the Ezhavas were facing in Travancore was faced by the Thiyyas in locations like Tellicherry. There was no block to the Thiyyas joining the Civil Service even at the highest levels. In fact, they were eligible for competing for the ICS (Imperial Civil Service) officer cadre posts and for the highest officers’ posts in the British-Indian Railways.

The Marumakkathaya Thiyyas had their own traditional worship systems which had not gone into oblivion. Many of them were in the government service with some of them appointed as Tahsildars, Sub-Magistrates and a few even as Deputy Collectors. They were part of the Madras Presidency Civil Service.

There is one more thing to ponder upon. In the Travancore kingdom, it was the members of the London Missionary Society who inspired a lot of social reforms. The English East India Company and later the British administration both did exert their pressure to speed up this process.

However, the Christian Missionaries were not really interested in promoting pristine-English. They were more interested in developing a native language, for which they used the name ‘Malayalam’, thus more or less giving it a mixed up and confusing identity. The issue here is the local degrading and subordinating lower indicant words of ‘Nee’, ‘Avan’, ‘Aval’ etc. from Tamil could be retained and used effectively as a regimenting tool.

In the case of Sree Narayana Guru also, there would be no difference in the use of these verbal tools. The SNDP, the organisation which was to promote him and spread his name would also use the same things for regimentation and promotion of ‘respect’.

The promotion is like this: Our leader is the Swami, Avarkal, Adheham, Avar etc. (all highest He/ Him). You are Nee (lowest you), Avan (lowest he / him), Aval (lowest she / her). This kind of population stature improvement is directly opposite to the population stature enhancement done by the native-English administrators.

The very interesting item about the use of these verbal regimenting tools is that the more a person is suppressed, the more that individual becomes ‘respectful’ and obsequious. The mentionable items about these kinds of sinister languages is that if the lower person is extended any kind of ‘respect’ or consideration, the more he or she will become disrespectful and disobedient. Things do not work as they do in pristine-English.

The wider idea in this is that persons who fall in line to the regimentation induced by their verbal codes incessantly try to bring other persons under them using the same verbal codes. This creates a sort of satanic brotherhood of persons, all of them focused on to a single command centre, connected upwards and downwards with the same satanic verbal codes.

The still wider issue is that a lot of similar mutually competing brotherhoods form in the social system. Each would find the other one intolerable. For, the command codes downwards and ‘respect’ codes upwards in one brotherhood would have no relevance or acceptability in the other.

At the same time, for the people of North Malabar near to places like Tellicherry (about South Malabar I have no information), the English administration did support the spread of English. In a way, this was a direction away from the grip of the feudal languages. That is, persons who worked with them or associated with them naturally escaped from the thraldom of these sinister verbal codes.

Now, we arrive at the location for enquiring on how the Marumakkathaya Thiyyas became connected to the Ezhavas of Travancore. In the present-day times, North Malabar and Travancore are quite nearby due to the advances in technology, roads, railways and air travel. However, way back in the 1960s, when I was born in Malabar, the interior locations had very few roads. The travel time would take hours, days and weeks. I have heard from old people that a travel from Wynad to Tellicherry would take a few days by bullock carts. As of now, this is a distance easily traversed in a few hours.

In such a situation, Travancore was literally a very far-off location. It is quite possible that many persons who lived in the interiors from the seacoasts would have heard of Travancore only very briefly. However, it is true that the fishermen and other seafaring populations would be quite familiar with the seacoasts of Cochin, Alleppy, Quilon, Trivandrum etc. For that was the way they saw the land. However, the seafaring populations were seen as despicable by the people who lived in the interiors.

The above idea itself is a very curious bit of information. For instance, there are many highly jingoist persons who write about the ‘great’ Indian maritime-traders and other sea travellers. However, even now, these great jingoists would not find it interesting to be connected with the fishermen folks and populations who traditionally are associated with the sea in the subcontinent.

Off course, they would be quite happy to be connected to the Indian Navy officers. However, they are not the traditional people here. They are the part of the population who imbibed the English systems, and not the traditional systems. Even the uniform of the Indian Navy is what has been designed and copied from the English heritage. The native seafaring heritage looks are as given below:

The culprits who worked to connect the Marumakkathaya Thiyyas with the Ezhavas need not be Ezhavas or Ezhava leaders. It is here that one needs to understand the terrific aspirations for social leadership that grips everyone the moment they get a feeble right to leadership.

I can view the Thiyya condition of those times only from an impressionistic perspective. For, I was not the present at that time. As to trying to understand or gather information from local writings, it is for most parts a waste of time. Most persons who write such things write from a Fan-version mode. Words like ‘great’, ‘world-famous’, ‘it is in Roman records’ etc. are seen used to prop up a person or institution.

I remember many years ago sitting in the Kerala House in Delhi. This is the official office of the Kerala government in Delhi. A group of people had come from an interior village in Kerala. They were speaking about the coconuts of their area. They mentioned the coconut name, which was connected to their village. Their query was: ‘Don’t you know the ....Coconuts?’ and ‘Haven’t you heard of the ...Coconuts?’. The official had obviously not heard of them.

The other side continued: ‘They are world famous!’

The curious item in this was that if it was ‘world famous’, how come this information officer of the Kerala state government had not heard of it before?

In many ways, this is the condition of many items in current-day Indian history writings. “ ‘India’ is mentioned in Roman history. The word ‘India’ is there in that famous travellers’ writings. It is seen mentioned on that rock inscription. &c. ‘

The same is the case with Kerala also. “ ‘Kerala’ is mentioned in this and that, and in the rock inscription of Asoka’ etc.

The foolishness of all these claims would come out if a similar history studies are done in England. To prove the greatness of England, if the English were go searching other lands and their literature and rock inscriptions, it would be a very foolish level of greatness.

The larger truth never comes out from these kinds of wild-goose chase with regard to both ‘India’ as well as ‘Kerala’. There was no India before British-India and there was no ‘Kerala’, as understood now, before 1956.

As to the word ‘Kerala’, mentioned as seen mentioned on the Asoka rock inscription at Gaya, in this book, Malabar, it is seen mentioned that actually the transliteration of the original word is Ketala and not Kerala.

The presence of the English population in Tellicherry and in Cannanore did give a huge boost to certain Thiyya individuals and families. Some of them served in the English houses as butlers. Some became lawyers in the local courts. Many got government employment even as officers. Some of them learned the art of baking confectionary and pastry items from English households and went on to build up huge bakery businesses. Even though I am not sure about the case of the fabled Circus companies of Tellicherry, it is quite sure that these all improved fabulously due to the presence of the English population in near proximity.

For the Thiyyas who connected with the English households, it was simply a location where their traditional subordination in the local feudal languages stood erased. Those who had been Inhi (lowest ‘you’), Oan (lowest ‘he’ /’him’), Oal (lowest ‘she’ / ‘her’), Iyttingal (lowest ‘them’), Chekkan (degrading word for young man but generally used on all-age lower castes male labourers), Pennu (degrading word for young woman but generally used on all-age lower castes female labourers), etc. could simply jump above all these personality slicing social codes when they entered into the native-English locations.

It would be quite unwise to think that those who emerged out of the strangling holds of the social system would be interested in their own ancestry or in improving others who had not yet escaped.

It is a totally different social scene that is emerging. The individuals who improved would go on to set up businesses, hotels, bakeries, circus companies, join the higher cadres of the British-Indian railways, and of the British-Indian Civil Service (ICS – Imperial Civil Service), and of the British-Indian Army.

The more they improved, the more cut-off they would become from their traditional systems. They would have more disgust with their higher castes, especially the Nayars, who they would like to treat with disdain. They would have more complaints about the native-English also, who in the ultimate count would not treat them as one among them.

Even though these suddenly-improved Thiyya individuals would like to distance themselves from their own, lower-level, caste populations, their ire would be on the native-English also to a limited extent due to the above-mentioned fact.

I need to quote from Castes and Tribes of Southern India Vol 7 by Edgar Thurston:

QUOTE: In the pre- British days, a few of the well-to-do families of Tiyans lived in houses of the kind called nalapura (four houses), having an open quadrangle in the centre.

QUOTE: But, for the most part, the Tiyans — slaves of the Nayars and Nambutiris — lived in a one-roomed thatched hut. Nowadays, the kala pura usually consists of two rooms, east and west. Toddy-drawing, and every thing connected with the manufacture and sale of arrack (country liquor) and unrefined sugar, form the orthodox occupation of the Tiyan.

QUOTE: But members of the community are to be found in all classes of society, and in practically all professions and walks of life. It is interesting to find that the head of a Tiyan family in North Malabar bears the title Cherayi Panikar, conferred on the family in the old days by a former Zamorin. A title of this kind was given only to one specially proficient in arms. Even in those days there were Tiyan physicians, bone-setters, astrologers, diviners, and sorcerers. END OF QUOTE.

From the above quote, one can take a little bit of information, without being too enthusiastic about any claims. It is seen that there were Thiyyas who were land owners. It is seen that there were Thiyyas who were in all kinds of professions including that of martial arts. As to the mention of the Zamorin, one need not become too spirited. For Zamorin was the king of a small kingdom called Calicut. This king’s authority was not too widespread and in his own household, there was constant rebellion and mutiny against the person who occupied the title of king.

As to the claim that the Thiyyas were some kind of slaves of the Nayars, it can be a very partial view. It might be true that in some locations, the Thiyya families would be sort of totally suppressed servants of the Nayars. However, there were other castes which were much below the Thiyyas and some were acknowledged as slaves. But then the more a Thiyya family is suppressed by the Nayars, the more they would have to display disdain and suppression to populations and individuals lower than them. In fact, they would have to use verbal hammering to display that they are above them and not connected to them.

This display of disconnection to a lower positioned individual/s is a very important requirement in the feudal languages.

The newly-developed Thiyyas in the wake of the English rule need not be the traditional Thiyyas who were traditional land-owners and who may have been from the households which continued the ancient traditions of the Thiyya traditional worships, like that of the Muthappan.

In fact, I have heard directly from persons who had lived in the early 1900s that some of the newly-empowered Thiyyas were quite disdainful of Muthappan worship.

There might have been a competition between various social groups within the Thiyya community. However, the Thiyyas who had official positions and such persons as lawyers (vakil), lawyer clerks (gumasthans), English household staff (butlers), Nouveau riche Thiyya businessmen etc. would be yearning to convert their money and official power into a social leadership.

This could be the real inspiration for inviting Sree Narayana Guru and his team to North Malabar. It is possible that these persons did not have any information on what was the state of affairs in Travancore then (Readers who are interested in that information can check Travancore State Manual by V. Nagam Aiya; and Native Life in Travancore by Rev. Samuel Mateer).

Connecting to a totally unconnected population group was not going to do any kind of positive inputs to the Thiyyas actually. For, the amount of liberation that the English rule had bestowed on them was of a most supernatural level when compared to what the Ezhavas of those times were enduring.

However, a good percentage of the Thiyyas population was still disconnected to the English systems. They would be burning with anger and ire at their Thiyya brethrens who had improved.

The other tumultuous emotions among some of the Thiyya social leaders would be to somehow get-back the social leadership in the emerging situation wherein many lower-class Thiyyas were simply escaping their verbal stranglehold by learning English.

Even today, the non-English populations in India cannot bear to see the freedom of movement and articulation that the English-speaking populations get.

If an scrutiny is done of who all took part in bringing in Sree Narayana Guru and his team to North Malabar, it might be seen that it was a group that mostly consisted of the newly emerged Nouveau riche and newly become officials from the Thiyya Community.

It is seen that there were certain traditional households among the Thiyyas who were continuing the Muthappan worship over the centuries. It is not known if they participated in connecting the Thiyya worship systems with the Hindu (Brahmanical) gods and temples. As it is, only the Brahmins had the right to their own worship systems and to build their temples. No other castes, not Pulaya, Pariah, Malayan, Ezhava, Thiyya or any other caste in the subcontinent or elsewhere had the right to build temples for Brahmanical gods.

Doing such an action would be an irascible act and not a social reformation.

However, the Nouveau riche and the persons holding the official positions might not have any leadership over the Muthappan worship systems.

Now about the Nayars contribution in this act. It is possible that the Nayars also would have greatly supported the idea. For, it is seen in this book, written around this period that the Nayars are simply promoting the idea that the Thiyyas are Ezhavas, and toddy-tappers, toddy-tappers, toddy-tappers .......... .

So it is possible that the Nair side would have whole-heartedly given the support to connect the Marumakkathaya Thiyyas to Ezhavas.

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