Kolla Kurup

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This article is an excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d’Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa,Romana di Anthropologia. Assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. Government Press, Madras 1909.

Kolla Kurup

The Kolla Kurups of Malabar are described, in the Gazetteer of Malabar, as a sub-caste of, or a caste allied to, the Kammālans. “They combine two professions, which at first sight seem strangely incongruous, shampooing or massage, and the construction of the characteristic leather shields of Malabar. But the two arts are intimately connected with the system of combined physical training, as we should now call it, and exercise in arms, which formed the curriculum of the kalari (gymnasium), and the title Kurup is proper to castes connected with that institution.” Among Kolla Kurups, the following symbolical ceremony is necessary to constitute a valid divorce. “The husband and the wife’s brother stand east and west respectively of a lighted lamp placed in the yard of the woman’s original home. The husband pulls a thread from his cloth, and approaches the lamp, and breaks the thread saying ‘Here is your sister’s acchāram.’”

Kollan.—The blacksmiths are iron-workers among the Malayālam Kammālans. “These Malabar Kollans,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes, “are said to practice fraternal polyandry to a greater extent even than the rest of the Malabar artizan castes. Kollans are divided into (1) Tī (fire) Kollan, (2) Perum (big) Kollan, (3) Tīperum Kollan, (4) Irumbu (iron) Kollan. There are also Kadacchil Kollan (knife-grinders) and Tōl Kollan (leather-workers). These are of inferior status, on account of the nature of their professions.”