TRAVELS IN INDIA.

CHAPTER XXI.

MALABAR.

Calicut― Houses and gardens― Population of Malabar — Namburi Brahmins — Nairs Tiars - Slaves - Moplahs - Assessment of rice-fields, of gardens, of dry crops Other taxes-Voyage up the Beypoor river - The Conolly teak plantations - Wundoor- Backwood cultivation - Sholacul Sispara ghaut-Black-wood-Scenery - Sispara - View of the Nellemboor valley Avalanche Arrival at Ootacamund.

He who would desire to receive the most pleasant impression of India, on a first arrival, must follow in the wake of Vasco de Gama, and land on the coast of Malabar, the garden of the peninsula. Here Nature is clad in her brightest and most inviting robes, the scenery is magnificent, the fields and gardens speak of plenty, and the dwellings of the people are substantial and comfortable.

As we steamed into the anchorage at Calicut, on board the little yacht 'Pleiad,' no appearance of any town was visible, and no building except a tall white lighthouse. Thick groves of cocoanut-trees line the shore, and are divided from the sea by a belt of sand; while undulating green hills rise up behind, and the background of mountains was hidden by banks of clouds. The whole scene bore a close resemblance to one of the Sandwich or Society Islands, down to the canoes which came off to us the moment the anchor was let go. They are hewn out of the trunk of the jack-tree, with an upper bulwark fastened with coir twine; and the canoe-men were naked athletic-looking fellows, with enormous hats made of a frond of the tallipot palm (Corypha umbracu

lifera). When we shoved off from the Pleiad' a handsome fish-hawk, with white head and breast, was perched on the foretopsail yard-arm, and sea-snakes were playing in the water alongside. In-shore there were a few native craft, called pattamars, at anchor. Pattamars are the vessels which have carried on the coasting trade on the western side of India from time immemorial. As in the days of Sindbad the sailor, their planks are not nailed, but sewn together with coir-twine, and they have high sterns and bows sheering rapidly aft. The deepest part is at the stem, whence the bottom curves inwards to the stern. A pattamar has two masts raking forward, with long picturesque lateen yards slung with one-third part before the mast, and two-thirds abaft. They never attempt to tack, but always ware, and if taken aback there is no alternative but either to wait until she comes round, or to capsize.

On landing at Calicut, a carriage drawn by two white bullocks was, through the hospitality of Mr. Patrick Grant, the Collector of Malabar, waiting for us on the sandy beach, to convey us to his house; a drive of about two miles. The excellent road, of a bright red colour from the soil being composed of laterite, passes through groves of cocoanuttrees, interspersed with many houses, each surrounded by its garden of mangos, nux vomica trees, jacks with pepper-vines creeping over them, and palm-trees. The houses are all substantial and comfortable-looking, built of square blocks of laterite joined with chunam, or lime made from calcined seashells, and roofed with tiles. The laterite or iron-clay is a rock full of cavities and pores like coral, overlying the granite which forms the basis of Malabar. When excluded from the air it is so soft that any iron instrument can readily cut it, and is dug up in square masses with a pickaxe, and afterwards shaped into blocks with a knife or trowel. After exposure it soon becomes as hard, and is as durable as bricks.

Each house has a cocoanut safe or store-room on one side, of open wood-work. Many people were walking along the road, naked men with huge tallipot-palm hats, and women with nothing on but bright-coloured petticoats, looking picturesque in the foreground and middle distance of the palm-shaded vistas. At intervals the cocoanut groves were broken by fields of vivid green paddy, and tanks filled with red lotusflowers.

From Mr. Grant's house, on the top of a rounded grassy hill, there is an extensive and very beautiful view of the undulating hills and dales of Malabar, generally covered with forest; with the ocean on one side, and the Wynaad mountains on the other. Malabar is 188 miles long, 25 miles broad in the northern, and 70 in the southern half, and contains 6262 square miles. It is divided into 17 Talooks or districts, and has a population of 1,602,914 souls; of whom 1,165,174 are Hindus, 414,126 Moplahs, and 23,614 Christians.

The people of Malabar are a thriving active race, the men well built and handsome, and the women remarkable for their beauty. The highest caste among the Hindus is that of the Namburi Brahmins, who claim all the land below the ghauts, and appear to have actually possessed a large portion of it previous to the invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore. They declare that when Parasu Rama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, hurled his axe from the mountains, the ocean receded, leaving the land of Kerala, as Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore were called; which he gave to the Namburi Brahmins. It is true that the undulating flat-topped hills, which cover the part of Malabar near Calicut, are like the waves of the sea, and appear as if the ocean in receding had forced channels, and thus formed the intervening valleys. The Namburis are fast dying out they are landed proprietors, and perform such offices as bestowing holy water and ashes, or performing

poojah or worship for the other Hindus, but never enter the public service.

The most important portion of the population is included in the eleven classes of Nairs,' a race of pure Sudra caste. They pretend to be born soldiers, and formed the armies of the Zamorin and Cochin Rajahs, the lower castes not being allowed to bear arms. The Nairs now hold most of

Both

the land in Malabar, and are frequently very rich. the Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin are Nairs; and the origin of their rule is said to have been as follows. About a thousand years ago, a Viceroy of the Sholum Rajah ruled over Malabar, named Cheruman Permal, who made himself independent, and divided the country among his nobles, of whom five were of the Kshatri caste, and seven were Nairs. After the division it was found that one of his bravest officers, the ancestor of the present Zamorin or Tamori Rajah, had been left out; Cheruman Permal, therefore, gave him his sword, and all the territory in which a cock crowing at a certain small temple could be heard. Hence Calicut, from Colicodu, a cock-crowing. Down to the time of Tippoo the whole of Malabar was governed by the descendants of the sisters of these thirteen Nair chiefs. The Zamorin of Calicut has some influence, though he is much reduced in wealth and importance since the days of Vasco de Gama.

2

The Nairs live under the remarkable institution called murroo-muka-tayum. Sisters never leave their homes, but

1 These 11 classes are:-1. The Kirüm Nairs, who are agriculturists, clerks, and accountants, and do the cooking on all public occasions, a sure sign of transcendent rank. 2. The Sudra Nairs. 3. The Charnadus. 4. The Villiums, who are palkee-bearers to Namburis and Rajahs. 5. The Wattacotas, or oil-makers. 6. The Atticourchis, or cultivators. 7. The Wulla

| cutras, or barbers. 8. The Wallateratas, or washermen. 9. The Tunars, or tailors. 10. The Andoras, or potmakers. 11. The Taragons, or weavers, who are very low in the scale, for even a potter must purify himself if he chances to touch a weaver.Buchanan, ii. p. 408.

2 Buchanan.

receive visits from male acquaintances, and the brothers go out to other houses, to their lady-loves, but live with their sisters. If a younger brother settles in a new house, he takes his favourite sister with him, and not the woman who, according to the custom in all other countries, should keep house for him. The man's mother manages the house, and after her death his eldest sister takes her place; but no man has any idea who his father is, and the children of his sisters are his heirs. Moveable property is divided amongst the children of the sisters of the deceased equally, and the land is managed by the eldest male of the family, but each individual has a right to a share in the income.

This strange custom gives the women an important position; and as they are pretty, and take pains with their personal appearance, their influence is very great. The Nairs are addicted to drink, and may eat venison, fowls, and fish; and the families are fond of gaiety, and of visiting among people of their own rank, when there is much talking and singing. Most of the men, as well as the women, read and write in their own character, and there is a Government Gazette printed in the Malayalim language. The Collector was anxious, also, to establish a paper in Malayalim, containing general information, which would no doubt have an excellent effect, but the difficulty is to find a good native editor.

Next in rank to the Nairs come the Tiars or Shanars, a stout, good-looking, hard-working race, who do not pretend to Sudra origin. Formerly the Nairs exacted deference from the Tiars with extreme cruelty and arrogance, treating them more like brutes than men; and if a Tiar defiled a Nair by touching him, he was instantly cut down. But British rule is gradually uprooting these caste barbarisms, and the position of the Tiars is improving. Some of them hold appointments as clerks in Government offices, and they are protected