22 Facts About Nair

The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom historically bore the name 'Nair'.

Some Nair women practiced hypergamy with Nambudiri Brahmins from the Malabar region.

Nair were historically involved in military conflicts in the region.

These traders had been visiting the area for several hundred years but their activities increased to the point that a third Nair kingdom, based on the port of Calicut, became established.

The Nair men are described as being polite and well-mannered in old sources, and nearly all historical descriptions describe them as arrogant.

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Sources on Nair women are scant and were written by men, and these primarily comment on their beauty.

Gough states that the title Nair existed prior to that time referring to only those families that were involved in the military.

Under Marthanda Varma's reign, the Travancore Nair Infantry distinguished themselves in battle against the Dutch at the Battle of Colachel (1741).

The Nair army was re-organized in the European style and had transformed from a feudal-based force into a standing army.

Nair leaders noted the decay of their community and struggled to deal with issues regarding widespread infighting, disunity, and feuds.

Nair men eschewed turbans or other head coverings, but would carry an umbrella against the sun's rays.

Nair traditionally practised certain rituals relating to births, although often only for those of the first-born.

Anthropologists, ethnologists and other authors believe that the last name of a Nair was a title which denoted the subgroup to which that person belonged and indicated the occupation the person pursued or was bestowed on them by a chief or king.

Nair argued, in 1966, that "Some Nayars "ripened" into Samantans and Kshatriyas.

Nair has full control of the common property, and manages the income very much as he pleases.

Nair arranges marriages for the boys as well as the girls of the family.

Nair had till lately full power of alienating anything that belonged to them.

Nair is of the opinion that the system existed principally to facilitate the wedding of Nair women to Nambudiri Brahmins.

Disparity in caste ranking in a relationship between a Brahmin man and a Nair woman meant that the woman was unable to live with her husban in the Brahmin family and so remained in her own family.

Nair believes that both polyandrous sambandhams and hypergamy were most common in Central Kerala.

Nancy Levine and Walter Sangree state that while Nair women were maritally involved with a number of men, the men were married to more than one woman.

Nair's argues that all European travelogues describing polyandry came from the region of Central Kerala.