"it is repugnant to other brahmans"

[Frits Staal]

(SINCE THIS IS WRITTEN FOR INTERNAL CONSUMPTION, NOT PUBLICATION, I NEVER
BOTHER ABOUT DIACRITICS OR OTHER DEVICES OF WHICH EVEN THE MERE DISCUSSION
TAKES UP MUCH OF OUR TIME)

There are 64 anacarams among Nambudiri brahmans. They don't refer to Nayars
but one of them says "The eldest son alone should marry" (this relationship
is called vivaha and requires a(n abbreviated) Vedic ritual; the
relationship with Nayars is called sambandha).

Outside the Malayalam sources that are inaccessible to me, the Kerala
anacarams are most easily accessible in: L.K.Anantha Krishna Iyer, The
Cochin Tribes and Castes, 1912, vol.II, pp.262-266. There are a few
characteristic (of Tamil brahmans, that is) comments, e.g.  to bathe naked
(anacaram #2) "is repugnant to other brahmans".

Ananta Krishna also describes numerous other irregularities pertaining to
the Nambudiri caste.

I have never heard of an acarya commenting adversely on these anacarams. On
the contrary, they are generally attributed to Adisankara!




At 01:48 PM 1/31/02 -0500, you wrote:
>In the 17th-18th century text Vedavicaara that I am editing and
>translating, there is an interesting line explaining why the draaviDa
>brahmans of the south do not have any interaction/co-participation with the
>gurjara brahmans, though the gurjaras are technically considered to be
>draaviDas.  The text says:
>
>gau.dadezavad gurjaradeze 'py anaacaarabaahulyaat te.saam
>aacaaryazaapa-dagdhatvaat keraladeziiyabraahma.naadivat
>samvyavahaaraabhaava.h
>
>Like the the GauDa region, there is profusion of misbehavior (anaacaara)
>even in the Gurjara region, and hence, by being cursed by the aacaarya
>(who?), there is no dealing with them, as there is no dealing (for similar
>reasons) with brahmans from Kerala etc.
>
>I wonder if anyone has come across this story of some aacaarya cursing the
>brahmans of Kerala and Gurjara regions for their supposed misbehavior?  I
>suppose the anaacaara in Kerala refers to the relations of brahmans with
>nayar women.  What sort of anaacaara is alleged for the Gurjara brahmans?
>
>                                        Madhav Deshpande
>

Frits Staal

http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/staal