OF MALABAR. 



183 



caste Sankara belonged, has been always the officiating priest 

 of Badari. 



After having thus summarised the various classes of 

 people in Malabar and given a brief account of the man 

 who made their religious laws and regulations, we shall now 

 speak a little more particularly of some of them. First the 

 Namburis. From the description of the various classes of 

 Brahmins it will be seen that there are two divisions of 

 Namburis of whom one is allowed to read the Vedas and the 

 other not. The former comprise two Sanghas (collection) 

 known as the Trisivaparore Sangha and the Tirunavayil 

 Sangha. There were two other divisions known as Choura- 

 koor and Panniar-koor. Each of these divisions had a 

 Vddhyan (spiritual preceptor) who lived at Tirunavayel and 

 Trichur, and under these vadhyans there were 6 Vydikens 

 (Vedic judge), Mlmamsakkars (expounders of spiritual laws), 

 and Smarthens (professors of spiritual laws). For educating 

 the boys of this class in the Yedas there are many schools 

 in various parts of Malabar. The teachers in the Yedas are 

 called Oyikkans. 



Every Namburi boy whether he belongs to this class or 

 not is obliged to perform the ceremony of Samavarthanam 

 before his 16th year. The age for this ceremony varies 

 according as the boy is a follower of the Rig or the Yajur, or 

 the Sama Yedas. Among the followers of the Rig Yeda 

 there are two ' sects called Assulayen and Koshidakan res- 

 pectively. The first perform the ceremony after the boy 

 has attained his 15th year. The Koshidakan performs it 

 before the boy is 13. The followers of the other two Yedas 

 perform the ceremony after the boy has attained his 1 2th 

 year. 



The other class who are not permitted to read the Yedas 

 have no definite rule, but they follow one or the other of the 

 above classes. 



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