MANGALAMBAL Vs. DIVAKARAN NAMBOODIRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE issue in this appeal was clear. What was the personal law applicable to the parties who are Nambis in the erstwhile Malabar area? Was it the Hindu Mitakshara Law as alleged by the plaintiffs or the law applicable to Nambudiri Brahmins, the Madras Nambudiri Act, 21 of 1933, as contended by the contesting defendants. THE courts below upheld the defendant's contention and dismissed the suit which was for declaration of plaintiffs' reversionary right and consequential reliefs. THE Madras Nambudiri Act was passed to govern, as is clear from the preamble and the provisions of S. 27 of the Act, not only Nambudiri Brahmins but also certain other communities. In s. 27 those other communities were specified as Adigals, Elayads, Moosads, pitarans and Nambisans. Some of those communities were not on a par with nambudiris because of the professions that they got themselves engaged in. Members of some Nambudiri Families served as soldiers when Malabar was ruled by brahmins prior to the days of Perumals. Tradition is that they received weapons from Parasurama and practised the art of war. THEy maintained training-schools and taught Nayars the Indian system of warfare. Some others practised medicine and surgery and in performing surgical operations had to shed blood. THEse communities, the members of which practised medicine and surgery and the art of war, although they continued to be Brahmins were not considered as distinguished or remarkable as the Vedic Brahmins. THEre were eight families, the members of which followed the medical profession. Those families were of the Ashta Vaidyans. Members of those families were called Moosads. Moosads are jatimatrakars or Jatimatreyans. THE traditional occupation of Nambisans who were Ambalavasis was chiefly to provide flower-garlands in temples. Elayads acted as priests to Samantans and Nayars. While Elayads belong only to the quasi-Brahminical class, the lowest of the Brahmins, Jatimatreyans occupy a higher position than them in social status although Jatimatreyans are only nominal or bare Nambudiris compared to spiritual samrats like Azhuvancheri thamburakkal or Visishta or remarkable or distinguished Nambudiris like thirunavayi Vadhyan and Cherumukku Vaidian or the Samanya Nambudiris or nambudiri proletariat constituted by the Nambudiri priests. Both Moosads and nambisans are called Nambis. See the Madras Gazatteers, Malabar Vol. I, page 109, Edgar Thurston's Castes and Tribes of southern India 1909 Edition, Vol. V, pages 151 and 163 and Vol. VII, page 311 and K P. Padmanabha Menon's History of Kerala, 1933 Edition, Vol. III, page 42. THE evidence of the third plaintiff who was examined as pw. 1 also shows that nambisans were called Nambis and that the system of inheritance, customs and culture of Nambis were the same as that of Nambudiris. In the partition deeds, exts. A4, B3 and B8, of 1934,1939 and 1946, in the family of the parties, family properties were shared equally by the male and female members. That was inconsistent with their being followers of Hindu Mitakshara Law. Copies of the decisions of courts, Exts. BI, B2, B4, B5, B9 and B28, some of them decisions of this court and one a decision of the Madras High Court, evidence several instances in which members of Nambi families successfully claimed rights under the provisions of Madras Nambudri Act. THErefore I shall be breaking no new ground in holding that the provisions of the Madras Nambudiri Act applied to nambis and 1 determine the issue accordingly and without hesitation dismiss this second appeal with costs. . .