has been noticed before, Of the remaining castes of Kerala, the numerically most important are the Nayars, the Tiyans, the Iluvans and the Cherumans, none of which are now to be found in the east, though the names of villages like Vellancheri, Idacheri, Ayancheri, Valayanad, Parayancheri and Pallipuram in the Kurunbranad, Valluvanad, Ponnani and other taluks of the Malabar district clearly prove that Kerala was once inhabited solely by the Tamils. Then, how did these castes come into existence and how are they ethnically related to the corresponding castes of the Tamil districts ?
About a thousand or more years ago all the modern Tamil castes were not in existence; the Tamil people were divided into tribes according to the nature of the soil in which they lived and the conventional tribal names like the Vellalas, Maravas, Idaiyans, Mallars, Pallars, and Kuravas survive to this day in the Tamil districts.
The word Nayar, like Vellala which includes a large number of cultivating castes, is a vague name, The present Nayar caste has grown by the gradual accretion to it of Chakkan (oil-presser), Vaniyan (trader or oil-monger), Eruman or Kol-ayan (Tamil shepherd), Kanisan and Panikkan (sub-division of the Tamil Iluvans), of Pallichan and Urali (Tamil Pallis), and lastly of the Vellala castes. Among the important sub-divisions of Nayars, 'Sudran' has no meaning ; Agattucharna and Purattucharna are only later innovations introduced after Hyder's invasion.
