Kiryathil Nair

rdf:langString Kiryathil Nair

rdf:langString Kiryathil Nair

rdf:langString Anonymous 16th century Portuguese illustration from the Códice Casanatense, depicting a Malabarese couple of the Nair warrior caste . It illustrates a Nair soldier and his wife, with the inscription reading, "Malabarese gentiles that are called Nayars."

rdf:langString Kiryathil Nair

rdf:langString Nagavanshi Kshatriya

rdf:langString Mostly in Malabar and Cochin, and also in parts of Travancore

rdf:langString Nairs, Samantha Kshatriya, Nagavanshi, Samantha Nair, Kaimal, Kartha, Eradi, Pillai (Kerala title)

rdf:langString Less than 4% of the total Nair population

rdf:langString Kiryathil Nair or Kiriyath Nair is a martial nobility caste belonging to the Kshatriya varṇa, which forms one of the highest-ranking subcastes of the Nair community along with the Samantha Kshatriyas with whom they share a close history. They constituted the ruling elites (Naduvazhi) and feudal aristocrats (Jenmimar) in the regions of Malabar and Cochin in present-day Kerala, India, and have traditionally lived in ancestral homes known as Tharavads. As the pinnacle of the Nair hierarchy, the Samanthan and Kiryathil Nairs were second only to the Namboodiri Brahmins in the social status system of Kerala, and outranked even the priestly Ambalavasis. Furthermore, due to the absence of the 4-tier Varṇa classification in South India, the Samanthan and Kiryathil Nairs are historically considered to be the only two castes in South India that have been categorized as originating from the Kshatriya varṇa, since they both fulfill the royal, ruling, administrative, military and social requirements that are associated with warrior aristocracy. In medieval Kerala, all of the kings belonged to extensions of the Samanthan and Kiryathil Nair castes, including the Zamorins of Calicut who were from the Eradi subgroup of the Samantan Nair subcaste, the Kollengode and Sekharivarma Rajas of Palakkad who were from the Samantan Menon subcaste, the kings of Travancore, including Marthanda Varma, who were from the Samantan Nair subcaste, as well as the Koratty Kaimals and Kodassery Karthas of the Cochin royal family who were from the Kiryathil Nair subcaste. Historians have also stated that, "The whole of the Kings of Malabar belong to the same great body, and are homogeneous with the mass of the people called as Nairs." The Kiryathil Nairs were the original descendants of the Nāgas who, according to the legendary Brahmanical text Keralolpathi, migrated to Kerala from the North as serpent-worshippers and asserted their supremacy before the arrival of the Namboodiris, and therefore were historically given status and privileges that were not extended to other Nairs. In the words of the British anthropologist Edgar Thurston CIE, "The original Nairs were undoubtedly a military body, holding lands and serving as a militia." The Kiryathils, as a result of their royal and warrior lineages, claim descendance from the mythical Nagavanshi Kshatriya dynasty.