Historic Alleys

The Moothan, Guptan, Mannadiar and Tharakan communities

The Moothans are a trading or Vaishya community, migrants from the Tamilakam of yore, comprising broadly, the Moothan, Mannadiyars, Guptans, and the Tharakan subgroups. A decade ago, a classmate of mine, Mr Aravindakshan, provided me the gist of a legend connected to the arrival of the Moothans at Cheranadu, after having to depart Cholamandalam, in a huff. It was quite an interesting story, but after I found more details in the copy of an old book, I decided to narrate the details here, for there could be broader interest in this community and their links to the Tamil trading world.

Whenever I hear about Mannadiyars, I remember our landlord at Koduvayur. My father, a doctor of medicine, spent a while practicing in Koduvayur and we lived in a leased home belonging to a prominent Mannadiyar.  As it so happened, he also owned a provision store, which we visited often or hung around, while waiting for the school bus. I cannot help but remember the dark-complexioned, potbellied Mannadiyar at the cash counter, his peculiar Tamil Malayalam accent, his calling us children ‘appey’, and the two assistants who handled matters at the bustling shop, how they packed provisions in newspaper cones, how they doled out small amounts oil into bottles and so on, so also the smell of the shop – a mixture of spices, oils and food grains, musty and heady at the same time. Sure, they had a good business going and the owner kept the assistants on their toes, throughout the day, bellowing into the darker areas of the shop if he suspected one or the other slacking, while patting his belly or alternately scratching his back, absent-mindedly watching the passersby.

During a visit to the Padinjare Kovilakom some years ago, in a search for details on my great grandfather Vidwan Ettan Thampuran, the Zamorin 1912-1916, I happened to meet (late) Mr Virarayan (Rajettan), a member of the Padinjare Kovilakom matrilineal family. He gave me a copy of a book authored by P Kunjikrishna Menon, detailing the procession and investiture ceremonies of the Zamorin, a book where the author thanks to my great grandfather, for support & inputs. The book itself covers multiple subjects through short essays and one of them happened to be the history of the Moothans. I had misplaced the copy during my many moves across the world but located it recently. So, without much ado, let me start with the legend behind the Moothan migration.

The Moothan community were originally Vaishyas in the Chola kingdom and hailed from Kaveripoompattinam (Poompuhar). One among them, was a minister in the Chola court, hailing from Eralapuram. Beads, jewels and such were staple exports and it appears that the king was once gifted by the lord of another land, a number of pearls, each with a hole running through them (some sources mention that these came from Ming China). A number of jewelers tried to make a necklace out of it, but failed (don’t ask me why). The perplexed minister mentioned about the situation at home, when his bright and young (as always in stories, very beautiful) daughter said she could do it easily. The girl applied ghee at one end of the hole in each pearl and lined them up near an anthill, with a fine thread just inside the hole of the first pearl. The ants smelling the ghee got to work, and as they traversed the aligned holes, threaded the pearl necklace. The minister presented the completed pearl necklace at the court the next day, to everybody’s amazement.

The king asked the minister to bring his daughter to him, but the minister demurred, stating that it was not in line with the community norms to bring an unmarried girl to the court. The furious king threatened to banish him and the proud minister stated that he would in such a case prefer to leave the kingdom. The community understanding that they were all doomed, agreed to follow the said minister who decided to move westwards to the Cheranadu, crossing the ghats at the Palghat gap. Per the legend they arrived in nine groups over a period of time. The first set comprised people from the ancient Chola period towns of Eralapuram, Adityapuram, Paschimapuram and Ramapuram. As is the practice of many communities, they brought along their kula devatha (reigning titular deity) the Bhagavathy and their learned guru Shiva acharya, as well as a good amount of wealth.

The migrants, as it appears, wanted to settle down wisely, in a land where honesty, peace and law prevailed. So, they decided to test the regional Rajas by offering them a copper vessel filled with gold dust but topped off with sugar, in exchange for an abode. They did this in a peculiar fashion, sitting down, somewhat arrogantly, instead of standing or bowing down with covered mouths, as was the practice in Cheranad. Most kings refused to accede to their request and sent them away, seeing their impertinence and the fact that the pot had just some sugar, not bothering to check any further. They arrived finally at Malabar and met the Zamorin. As they did elsewhere, they came in and sat before the Zamorin, something he found quite unusual. Calling the Mangattachan (his senior minister) they inspected the pot and discovered that the pot did contain gold, not just sugar. He accepted the gift, set it down, but still curious about their practice of sitting down, asked the two representatives to come back the next day.

They came in the next day, and sat down as usual, but the Zamorin sent word that they should return the following day as he was ill. On the third day the Zamorin asked the Mangattachan, his minister, to douse the location where they usually sat, with water. The visitors arrived, and without hesitation, lay their upper garments on the wet surface, to sit down. The Zamorin understood then that the two were not impertinent, but were just following a practice they always followed, from whence they came. He had a long chat with them thereafter, listening to their story and agreed to provide them not only the land and assistance for resettlement, permission to build temples and homesteads, but also security with a force of 10,000 Nairs.

The Ramapuram group settled at Mangot and installed the Bhagavathi in a temple there (Mangottu Kavu at Athipotta, in Alathur, Palghat). These Ramapuram traders comprised the Mangotkoottil Chettys and Nalonnukoottil Chettys and the prominent family heads are titled Manna- diyars of the North and South Mannam (like in Kuzhal Mannam).

The Eralanad group settled in Tiruvazhiyode. Curiously the girl (the minister’s daughter) with the great powers, vanished the very next day, but an apparition of a Bhagavathy is seen soon after, following which the members constructed a Bhagavathy temple in her honor. This is the virgin goddess (Kanyaka Bhagavathy) at the Thiruvarakkal Bhagavathy temple. The group itself split into the Eastern and Western factions of the Cherupurathu Chettys. The Eastern faction comprises the Shankarath, Mannath, Mangalath, Vattavankunnath, Etipath, Pallithodath, and Aramballi families. The Western faction comprises the Chokath, Chilambath, Chassedath and Pambath families.

Similarly, the Adityapura group went to Vayilamkunnath, settled down and constructed their Bhagavathy temple, and finally the Paschimapura group settled down in Thatchanattukara. After all of them had settled down, the senior members together with their guru the Shiva Acahrya, met and paid their obeisance to the Zamorin. According to the practice in Malabar, these traders were then instructed to remove their sacred thread (punool) and shave off their rear tufts of hair and to start sporting front tufts as worn in Malabar. The traders remonstrated against the removal of the sacred thread to which the Zamorin agreed (wearing it during important occasions I presume), and also provided the groups with supporting artisans such as carpenters, goldsmiths, washermen etc. They adopted matrilineal practices too, in due course. The groups over time split into subgroups of Moothar and Tharakans. Whenever the Zamorins representatives traveled (Kottichezhunellath) to survey their domains, they called on some of these locations and participated in pompous reception ceremonies. So much from the Zamorin Chronicles.

Another source mentions that the Pathukudi branch traces its origin to the Perumkudi overseas trading Vaishyas among the Ippar, Kavippar & Perumkudi traders of Poompuhar. The story of the migration is much the same as we read before, only a bit more colorful, eventually ending up as asylees under the Zamorin. In another web source, the minister’s daughter requests a 41-day abstinence period before the wedding, allowing the Vaishyas to plan their departure to Cheranad. She also arranges for a girl named Vanaja to immolate herself (in her place) so that the group can inform the king that the minister’s daughter is dead, and close the case.

The entire epoch is also connected to Kannagi by other sources, though the timeline takes the migration back quite a few centuries. The legend is narrated as follows, quoting Madhava Menon - In a Sanskritized version of the same legend, Kannika is the daughter of Daksha, and the wife of Siva, who had visited her father in violation of the warning of her husband. For this transgression, she had been cursed to take three incarnations as a woman. The first was as Auvayar, who became a widow while still remaining a virgin, and devoted the rest of her life to the worship of Murugan. The second was as Kannaki (Kannika as pronounced by Muthan), the heroine of Cilappatikaram - they believe that she had remained a virgin as her husband had been fully taken up making love to Madhavi the courtesan. According to this version the Muthan had migrated to Kerala along with her, when she had wandered distraught after burning Madhurai in the tragic aftermath of the victimization of her husband. The Muthans have a temple dedicated to her at Palakkad.

The Tharakan version agrees with these main details, but they believe their ancestors had accompanied Kannaki from Tanjavur onwards. The Gupta version is that Dakshayini was incarnated for the third time as Kannika, their own specific deity, and the daughter of the minister who had fled from the attentions of the Chola prince. They have several temples in her honour, but they enshrine her in the form, and the modes of worship are identical with those prescribed in Kerala for the worship of the mother-Goddess Bhadrakali.

Another legend agrees that these Vanika Vaishyars accompanied Kannaki and settled in Palghat over 400 years ago, and came to be known as Moothans. In this version, the Palghat Achan gifted land, authorized temple construction and thus came about the Moothan community of Palakkad. The local belief in Palghat, which is different from the versions where Kannagi goes to Vanchi, is that Kannagi first came to Palakkad along with some devotees who belonged to the Moottatu (S Jayashankar, writing in the temples of Palghat District, uses the term Moottatu instead of Mootan) community there. The original seat of the Goddess, according to them, was at the center of Palakkad Town.

From the Handbook of Kerala (Madhava Menon) and research conducted by PRG Mathur, we can glean the following additional aspects. The community prefers to term themselves as Arya Vaishyas with multiple subdivisions. Guptans, the most Sanskitized and perhaps the earliest migrants can be found at Ottapalam, Mannarghat and Perinthalmanna. Moothan or Tharakan, the largest majority can be found in Palghat and Alathur, whereas the most affluent, being the Mannadiyars can be found at Chitoor, Koduvayur and other parts of Palghat. It appears also that some of the learned Moothans use the Ezhuthacchan title. Always in a tussle to climb up the social caste ladder, even though they were considered lower by Nairs, the Moothans termed themselves Vaishyas (without the sacred thread) and therefore superior. The term Moothan (Muttavan – Elder) itself is explained as a title given to their leader by the Zamorin, but the Tarakan perceives himself superior to the Moothan, eventually becoming a Nair, according to Thurston. The Moothans and Mannadiars maintain Tamil observances whereas the Guptans are more inclined towards Brahmanical forms.

As we can summarize, the groups branched into three distinct subgroups, the Guptans, the Mannadiyars and the Moothans. The Mannadiars were considerably richer, and some of them changed their caste names to Nairs, while some in Tattamangalam termed themselves Menon stating that they were conferred the title by the Cochin Raja. The teachers among them, especially in the Valluvanad region (the Zamorin’s domain) who learned Sanskrit, called themselves Ezhuthatchans. According to the oral testimony of one such learned person in Kadambazhipuram (near Cherplasseri) a former Moothan approached Punnassery Nambi at Pattambi to learn Sanskrit, who after ascertaining that they were Vaishyas suggested the caste subgroup name of Guptan. Thus, came about the learned and Sanskritized Guptan community, who kept to themselves (not intermarrying with Moothans and Mannadiars) termed themselves Vaishyas and wore a sacred thread during important ceremonies. The Guptans took to Astrology, Tantrism and Ayurveda.

The Moothans and Mannadiars stuck to trade and the community spoke in a dialect - a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam, and in the past wrote their accounts in Tamil. According to Madhava Menon. The Moothans are segmented into five exogamous clans whereas the Guptans adopt lineage names. The Moothan community in Palghat has over 45,000 members these days and still derives much of their revenue from domestic trade, hardly venturing beyond Indian borders.

We get the following additional inputs from Thurston - It is recorded, in the Madras Census Report, 1891, under the conjoint heading Muttan and Tarakan, that “these two are allied castes, but the latter would consider it a disgrace to acknowledge any affinity with the former. Tarakan literally means a broker. Dr. Gundert says that these were originally warehouse-keepers at Palghat. There is considerable antagonism between the Palghat and Walavanad sections of the caste.

He adds a note explaining the difference between Taragan and Tarakan - Another caste of traders, which has now been practically incorporated in the Nayar body, is the class known as Taragans (literally, brokers) found in Palghat and Walavanad, some of whom have considerable wealth and high social position. The Taragans of Angadippuram and the surrounding neighborhood claim to be immigrants from Travancore, and to be descendants of Ettuvittil Pillamar of Quilon, who are high caste Nayars. They can marry Kiriyattil women, and their women occasionally have sambandham with Samantan Rajas. The Palghat Taragans on the other hand can marry only in their caste.” I believe however that the Taragan’s responsibility was tax collection for the Raja and not working as brokers or agents, and later intermingled with Nairs. The Moothan womenfolk are called Chettichis.

One other interesting aspect is that the Chetty womenfolk of Palghat make the chuttu or kai murukkus which we can only find in Palghat. It is perhaps my favorite among savories and something I always remember to carry back to the US, after visiting Palghat. We can also see that most metalware shops in Palghat are owned by Mannadiars.