Joshiankit994: started bio.

2026-03-19T10:15:29Z

started bio.

New page

[[File:Perambra 1981.jpg|thumb|historical image of Perambra, a major Koothali town]]
[[File:Elithesthanamsinmalabar.png|thumb]]
The '''Koothali''' (also spelt '''Kuttali, Kûtali, and Koodali''') '''[[Moopil Nair]]''' or '''Moothavar''', most commonly known as the '''Koothali Nair''' and styled '''Vallabhan Chathan''', additionally known as the '''Koothali Payyormala Nayar''' and as '''Vazhunnavar''', historically held and controlled an eponymous [[sthanam|principality and sthanam]] of North [[Malabar Coast|Malabar]], with his hereditary seat in [[Koothali]]. Towns and lands subject to the Koothali Moothavar's rule traditionally included [[Perambra]], [[Changaroth]], [[Cheruvannur Nallalam|Cheruvannur]], [[Kuttiady]], and adjacent regions, including [[Kottathara]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Sunanda |date=2022-08-16 |title=Could Britain Continue with the Gold Standard in Absence of Colonial India? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2022.2100591 |journal=Review of Political Economy |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=407–420 |doi=10.1080/09538259.2022.2100591 |s2cid=251639081 |issn=0953-8259|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nair |first=C. Gopalan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bL-DP6h-CtoC |title=Wynad, Its Peoples and Traditions |date=2000 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-1523-6 |language=en}}</ref> The Koothali Nair was traditionally one of Malabar's most prominent [[Naduvazhi]]s, a [[Moopil Nair]] and [[Vazhunnor|Vazhunnavar]], as well as a major [[Jenmimar]],<ref name="auto"/> and held the [[Nair]] caste rank of [[Samantan]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=co6JQXdiaLUC&q=Payyormala&dq=Payyormala&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJrtObu_OSAxW5V2wGHY6xK9cQ6AF6BAgKEAM |title=Madras District Gazetteers |date=1951 |publisher=Superintendent, Government Press |language=en}}</ref> and the family style of [[Tharavad|swaroopam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=S.C. Sreemanavikraman Raja, Zamorin ... vs Controller Of Estate Duty, Madras And ... on 18 February, 1957 |url=https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1783234/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=indiankanoon.org}}</ref>

== Origins ==
The Koothali succession descended matrilineally per [[Marumakkathayam]] through the aggregated family, known corporately as the ''Koothali Swaroopam'', which formed originally as a ''thavazhi'' or ''kovilakom'' of the Ayinhat swaroopam, after an Ayinhat princess married the [[Raja]] of [[Kottayam]], perhaps [[Pazhassi Raja]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Seow |first=C. L. |chapter=Perspectives on a Pluriform Classic |date=2020 |title=Reading Other Peoples’ Texts |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780567687357.0014 |access-date=2024-03-13 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |isbn=978-0-567-68735-7}}</ref>

Per the account, Lakshmi Kettillamma, the newlywed princess, passing through Kurumbala en route to the Ayinhat seat, observed along with her husband a series of strange omens featuring dogs and jackals. After reaching the Ayinhat palace, dreaming of the kuladevi, and consulting with priests, the Raja decided to give over to his wife and his future issue the tainted territories. His own family objects, but is outsmarted by the Ayinhat princess, who secures for her son, Ayinhat Nayar, vast demesnes of his own. The Kottayam Raja raised his son to the rank of [[Vazhunnor|Vazhunnavar]] and ceded to him from Kottayam's holdings the [[Kottathara]] and [[Kurumbalakotta|Kurumbala]] amsams, to be adjoined to Payyormala. Two Nayars - the Thenamangalath Nayar and the Poyil Nayar were appointed as lower nobility in service.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Knowledge-making Endeavours of the Dutch East India Company in Malabar, 1663-1795 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17151953 |publisher=Victoria University of Wellington Library |first=Meera |last=Muralidharan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nair |first=C. Gopalan |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bL-DP6h-CtoC&pg=PA21&dq=Payyormala+nair&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgrPbIy_aSAxUhyDgGHfQ1G-gQ6AF6BAgQEAM |title=Wynad, Its Peoples and Traditions |date=2000 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-1523-6 |language=en}}</ref>

== Details ==

[[File:Kerala in the Late Middle Ages.jpg|thumb|Payyormala as autonomous territories in the late Mediaeval period]]
By 1859, with the Paleri Nairs having gone extinct, the Koothali Nair, along with his Ayinhat cousin, were regionally second only in rank to the [[Porlathiri|Porlathiri Raja]] of [[Kadathanadu]], to which region Payyormala now belonged. Immediately beneath them in regional rank were Kadathanad nobles of the highest class: the Kurukkat Kurup, Pookote Nambiar, and Murchilotte Moopil Sthani (whence the Komath) ordered as the first three by precedence.

Under the [[British Raj]] the Koothali Nair, as ruler of a ''zamindari-type'' [[princely state]] was entitled to a [[Privy Purse in India|malikhana, or Privy Purse]], corresponding to one-fifth of the revenues from territories over which he had been mediatized from sovereignty, and paid land revenues of approximately 12,000 rupees.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kurup |first=K. K. N. |date=September 1988 |title=Peasantry and the Anti-Imperialist Struggles in Kerala |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3517171 |journal=Social Scientist |volume=16 |issue=9 |pages=35–45 |doi=10.2307/3517171 |jstor=3517171 |issn=0970-0293|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Following the death of Kunhiraman, the last Koothali Moothavar, in 1936, the voluminous [[jenmi]] landholdings of the sthanam were extensively litigated and ultimately [[escheat]]ed to the state, beginning in 1939, and accounting for some 47,000 acres of diversely forested and agrarian lands,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kurup |first=K. K. N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJvx0KWpf-UC&dq=Koothali+escheat+acres&pg=PA144 |title=Modern Kerala: Studies in Social and Agrarian Relations |date=1988 |publisher=Mittal Publications |isbn=978-81-7099-094-9 |language=en}}</ref> which were supervised by an appointed special [[tehsildar]]. During 1940s-era agitation echoing the [[Mappila Rebellion]] of 1921, peasant demands of the [[Karshaka Thozhilali Party]] included the expropriation of at least 16,000 acres or 20,000 acres of cultivable land from the estate to be repurposed for their use.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kirshnan |first1=V. V. Kunhi |last2=Krishnan |first2=V. V. Kunhi |date=1983 |title=Waste Land Cultivation and Peasant Agitation in Malabar (1940-1950) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44139880 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=44 |pages=450–457 |jstor=44139880 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref>

The final Koothali Nair Kunhiraman married married the eldest daughter of [[Raman Menon|Dewan Bahadur Dalawa Palakkal Ankarath Raman Menon]], foundress of the Vengalil tharavadu. Their only child, a daughter, married the only son of the [[Porlathiri Raja]] of [[Kadathanadu]], and his consort, the heiress of the [[Komath]] tharavad. [[V.K. Krishna Menon]] was the foremost of the children of the next generation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ram |first=Janaki |title=V.K. Krishna Menon: a personal memoir |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-564228-5 |location=Delhi Oxford}}</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Indian royalty]]
[[Category:Zamindari estates]]
[[Category:Kingdoms of Kerala]]
[[Category:History of the Nair]]
[[Category:Nair]]
[[Category:Indian landowners]]
[[Category:Indian landlords]]
[[Category:Indian princes]]

Koothali Nair - Revision history

Joshiankit994: started bio.