Ajay Kumar: Introducing Samantan

2023-07-23T15:12:41Z

Introducing Samantan

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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
|image =
|caption =
|group = Samantan Nair
|pop =
|popplace = [[Kerala]]
|languages = [[Malayalam]]
|religions = [[Hinduism]]
|related = [[Illathu Nair]]s, [[Kiryathil Nair]]s, [[Nambiar (Nair subcaste)|Nambiar]], [[Eradi]], [[Swaroopathil Nair]]}}

'''Samantan Nair''' or more commonly '''Samantan''' (meaning "equal to" or "deemed to be"), was a generic term applied to dignify a group of sub-clans among the ruling elites and feudal lords of the [[Nair]] community in [[Kerala]]. The Samantan Nairs are members of the [[Kiryathil]], [[Nair|Illathu]] and [[Swaroopathil Nair|Swaroopathil]] Nair communities whose ancestors performed various [[Śrauta]] rituals ''([[Hiranyagarbha (donation)|Hiranyagarbha]])'' to achieve a higher status that enabled them to rule over the [[Brahmins]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/19564591 | title= The Nayars of South Malabar | first1=Joan | last1=Mencher | year=1963 | publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref>

[[Robin Jeffrey]], an [[anthropologist]], described the Samantans as, "A [[matrilineal]] [[caste]] ranking between Nayars and [[Kshatriyas]]."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Decline of Nayar Dominance: Society and Politics in Travancore, 1847–1908 |url=https://archive.org/details/declineofnayardo0000jeff |first=Robin |last=Jeffrey |authorlink=Robin Jeffrey |year=1976|publisher=Sussex University Press |isbn=0-85621-054-4}}</ref>

==Dissent==

Some Samantans have objected to their grouping with the Nairs, claiming that Samantans are a different caste from the Nairs. One of them, Nilambur Thachara Kovil Mana Vikrama (Elaya Thirumalpad), filed a complaint against the Collector of Malabar ([[William Logan (Malabar Manual)|William Logan]]) on his refusal to enter the Samantan as a caste separate from the Nairs. Even after submitting evidence trying to prove that Samantans are a separate caste, the judge refused to act against Logan, stating that:<ref>Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston p.283-284</ref>{{quote|A consideration of all the evidence, appears to me to prove conclusively that the plaintiff is a Nair by caste. ... What appears to me, from a consideration of the evidence, to be the safe inference to draw is that the members of the plaintiff's family, and also the descendants of certain other of the old Nair chieftains, have for some time called themselves, and been called by others, Samantans, but that there is no distinctive caste of that name, and that the plaintiff is, as the defendant has described him, a Nair by caste.}}

The judge ultimately ruled that all Samantan Nairs are merely extensions of the Kiryathil subcaste of the Nair community.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Social groups of India]]
[[Category:Indian castes]]
[[Category:Kerala society]]
[[Category:Nair]]

Samantan - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Introducing Samantan