Koil Tampurān
This article is an excerpt from Government Press, Madras |
Koil Tampurān
The following note is extracted from the Travancore Census Report, 1901. The Koil Tampurāns form a small community, made up of the descendants of the immigrant Kshatriya families from certain parts of Malabar lying to the north of Travancore and Cochin. They are also known as Koil Pantalas. In early records, the term Koviladhikārikal appears to have been used. Immemorial tradition connects the Koil Tampurāns with Chēramān Perumāl, and goes to say that their original settlement was Beypore. About 300 M.E. a few male members were invited to settle in Travancore, and form marital alliances with the ladies of the Travancore Royal House, known then as the Vēnāt Svarūpam. Houses were built for them at Kilimānūr, six miles from Attingal, where all the female members of the Royal Family resided. In M.E. 963, eight persons—three males and five females—from the family of Āliakkōtu, oppressed by the invasion of Tīpū Sultan, sought shelter in Travancore. Maharāja Rāma Varma received them kindly, and gave them the palace of the Tekkumkūr Rāja, who had been subjugated by Rāma Iyen Dalawah.
This site in Changanachery is still recognised as Nīrāzhikkottāram. In 975 M.E. one of the five ladies removed to Kirtipuram near Kantiyūr Mavelikara tāluk), and thence to a village called Grāmam in the same tāluk. Another shifted to Pallam in the Kottayam tāluk, a third to Pa̱liyakkara in Tiruvalla, and a fourth, having no issue, continued to live at Changanachery with the fifth lady who was the youngest in the family. Ra̱ja Raāja Varma Koil Tampura̱n, who married Ra̱ni Lakshmi Bai, sovereign of Travancore from 985 to 990 M.E. was the eldest son of the lady that stayed at Changanachery. Their present house at that place, known as Lakshmipuram Kotta̱ram, was named after the Koil Tampurān’s royal consort. Rāja Rāja Varma’s sister gave birth to three daughters and two sons. The eldest daughter and sons removed to Kartikapalli in 1040, and thence, in 1046, to Anantapuram in Haripad. In 1041, the second daughter and issue removed to Chemprōl in Tiruvalla, while the third continued to live at Changanachery. Thus there came into existence seven families of Koil Tampurāns, namely those of Kilimānūr, Changanachery, Anantapuram, Pallam, Chemprōl, Grāmam, and Pāliyakkare. Some time after 1040 M.E. (A.D. 1856), three more families, viz., those of Cherukōl, Kārāmma, and Vatakkēmatham, immigrated from North Malabar.
The Koil Tampurāns are all regarded as blood relations, and observe birth and death pollutions like Dāyādis among Brāhmans. They follow the matriarchal system of inheritance. Nambūtiri Brāhmans marry their ladies. Their religious ceremonies are the same as those of Nambūtiris, whom they resemble in the matter of food and drink. Their caste government is in the hands of the Nambūtiri Vaidikans.
Their ceremonies are the usual Brāhmanical Samskāras—Gātakarma, Nāmakarana, Annaprāsana, etc. Regarding the Nāmakarana, or naming, the only noteworthy fact is that the first-born male always goes by the name of Rāja Rāja Varma. The Upanāyana, or investiture with the sacred thread, takes place in the sixteenth year of age. On the morning of the Upanāyana, Chaula or the tonsure ceremony is performed. It is formally done by the Nambūtiri priest in the capacity of Guru, just as the father does to his son among Brāhmans, and afterwards left to be completed by the Mārān. The priest invests the boy with the thread, and, with the sacrificial fire as lord and witness, initiates him in the Gāyatri prayer. The Koil Tampurāns are to repeat this prayer morning, noon and evening, like the Brāhmans, but are to do so only ten times on each occasion. On the fourth day, the boy listens to a few Vēdic hymns recited by the priest. There is not the prolonged course of severe discipline of the Brāhmanical Brahmachāri, which the Nambūtiris so religiously observe.
The Samāvartana, or pupilage stage, is performed on the fifteenth day. The ceremony of proceeding to Benares is then gone through. Just as in the case of the Brāhmans, a would-be father-in-law intercedes, and requests the Snātaka (past Brahmachāri) to bless his daughter, and settle in life as a Grihastha. The Nambūtiri priest then steps in to remind the boy of his dharma (duty) as a Kshatriya, and gives him a sword symbolic of his pre-ordained function in society. The marriage of a Koil Tampurān does not present many peculiar features. One item in the programme, called Dīkshavirippu, may be referred to. During all the four days of the marriage, the bride is confined to a special room, where a white cloth with a carpet over it is spread on the floor, and a lamp burns day and night. The ceremonial bridegroom is either an Aryappattar or a Nambūtiri, now generally a Nambūtiri. Of course, the marriage is a mere ceremonial, and the bridegroom at the ceremony is not necessarily the spouse of actual life. His death deprives her of the right to wear the tāli, and makes her an Amangali (an inauspicious person) for all socio-religious purposes. At srāddhas (memorial service for the dead), the Tampurātti with her married husband alive faces the east, and one that has lost him has to look in the direction of Yamalōka (south).
Mr. Ravi Varma, the celebrated artist, who died recently, was a Koil Tampurān of Kilimānūr, an extensive village assigned to his ancestors rent-free for the military services they had rendered to the State in times of trouble.
