Letter XX

Of the Nairs (Sudras), or warrior caste of Malabar. Their families, occupations, mode of warfare, and numbers.

This letter shall be devoted to a minute account of the Nairs or warriors of Malabar, who attained much celebrity during the wars between the Zamorin and the Portuguese. They may be justly entitled born soldiers, as by virtue of their descent they must always bear arms. They constitute the third and last of the honoured castes under the name of Sudras.

Their ceremonies and observances coincide in a great measure with those of Chetriahs: like these they are allowed no lawful wives, and the children always belong to the mother’s family. Another point of resemblance between these castes is that their corpses are always burnt, a privilege which belongs exclusively to the higher castes; the members of the inferior ones alone are interred. The ceremonies observed on the birth of a child resemble also in many points those of the Chetriahs. At the age of 12 years a Sudra child begins to learn the laws of his caste, and when he has attained his 16th he first takes up arms.*

The Sudras may be divided into two classes: the nobles and the commons. The following are the noble families— Nambedi, Nambiar, Samandra, Patitsjan, or Belerte Nairs, Bellalen or Bellares, Wellekoc, Tallenairs (who are barbers and much esteemed, as they were privileged by Saneratojaar to assist the Brahmins at funeral ceremonies), Vellala Sudren, and Sudren. These all subsist on the produce of their own estates and carry on no trade, with the exception of bartering among each other.

Some of them are lords of their own territories, possessing royal power, but most of them merely hold their estates in fief from their prince, whom they are bound to serve in war, and to protect his dominions, for which service they receive no pay, but are maintained when employed out of the country. They generally own Pulleahs, whom they have inherited with their property, and who cultivate the soil.

There are also several Nairs who are employed in constant attendance upon their Rajahs, whose retinue they form. These receive daily pay, more or less at the Rajah’s pleasure; it is well if they get as much as 3 stivers a day a piece.

Rasidoors, Governors of towns and provinces, and high Military officers are chosen from this class of Sudras, as they are superior in dignity to the second class.

These inferior Sudras are also Nairs or soldiers, bound to accompany the Rajah at his behest in war; but in time of peace they maintain themselves by certain handicrafts and trades, to which they are called by their birth respectively. Thus there are the

The armies of Malabar are formed of these Sudras. They are expert in the use of arms, and set at nought the lower castes, who being unarmed are unable to protect themselves against their violence. The Pulleahs do not venture to approach them, and get out of their way to escape blows or perhaps wounds; for these heroes always carry a naked sword when they are abroad, and even in their houses they must have one at hand as a token of their dignity and office: these weapons vary in form; they are generally straight with both edges sharp. They sometimes have a small weapon called a Katjanel besides, which is fastened to the shoulder by a ribbon.

The weapons used in war are various. The most common are swords with which they can do considerable execution, and large round shields made of leather prepared with many colours, resembling the ancient clypei. Sometimes the shields are covered with tiger skins, they are very light and the Nairs are adroit in the use of them. Some are armed with bows and arrows; these are chiefly inhabitants of the mountains. They have also pikemen; their pikes are very small and light, and they are quick in hurling them. They are all foot soldiers; knowing nothing of horsemanship. I have never seen a Malabar on horseback; not even do their princes possess steeds, and indeed they would be of no use in the low flat lands, where the ground is much broken and very marshy, and intersected with streams: and besides this, there are no beaten roads, the whole country being covered with bushes and underwood. It often happens that our troops are obliged to march in single file, and if the natives at such times were wise and active enough they might easily annihilate our regiments by opposing their progress.

Moreover there are few or no horses found here. There are a few of a puny species unfit for riding at Tengepatnam. The wealthy Moors import them from Arabia, and these animals fetch a high price.

The Rajahs keep elephants, which are captured in the mountains and are of immense size, but they are only used for hard work, and in war for transporting baggage.

They have musketeers also among their troops, and they have a good notion of making the barrels of their muskets, which they do not bore, but cast. With these muskets they can reach nearly as far as we do with ours; but they are very heavy and their weight is increased by the ramrod being of iron. They take a very sure aim, and the first shot generally hits and often inflicts great mischief, for the wounds are inflicted by the grapeshot of various shapes which they use instead of round bullets are very painful. Their muskets have one great fault, that it takes a long time to load them, so that European foes, when they have stood the first fire can fall upon them while they are reloading. Besides this, they can never let off more than three volleys in succession, because when firing they place one of the finger nails between the eye and the nose, and by the time the third shot is discharged, all the skin is scratched off that part of the face. Like other barbarous nations they possess but little military science. They do not know how to form ranks, and pay little heed to the commands of their officers. They fight in a confused manner without any order or concert, for which reason they cannot be incorporated into our regiments like the other Indian soldiers, but must form a separate Corps. We beheld in the late war, how much they were terrified by the pikemen of Balise and Java, who led by Europeans made such a furious onslaught upon these Nairs that they were thrown into the utmost confusion. They have another fatal custom, which has cost many lives; Every body slain in battle must immediately be taken away to be burnt, which creates great confusion, and the survivors lose heart at the sight of their comrades thus carried dead off the field.

Again they are ignorant of the science of beleaguering strongholds, and they have no materials for cannonading, bombs, grenades, and other instruments of war being unknown to them: therefore we have not much to fear from them in this respect, if our forts are but tolerably well protected. We have seen how Anjengo held out against them when almost entirely bereft of garrison. They are better at defending a fort or fortified village, constructed in their own fashion, than at open fight in the field: for, when behind the shelter of their walls they can fire away at their ease through the gunholes, and we are obliged to keep out of range of their firelocks; but, after all, there is not much to fear from them, as they know so little how to handle them. The Rajahs endeavour to entice our men to act as officers for them, imagining that every European is well versed in military matters, though, may be, he has never seen a cannon fired.

I think it the wisest way in attacking their forts and paggers to make use of bombs, grenades, and combustibles, both because these missiles strike terror into them and because their fortified villages, being constructed generally of combustible matters, (for the houses are built of dry palmyra leaves,) speedily catch fire and are consumed.

The wars which the Rajahs wage among themselves are not productive of much bloodshed. A battle in which 20 lives were lost would be considered a very serious affair. The deaths in the course of a whole war often do not amount to that number, therefore these hostilities excite but little of our attention, though sometimes three or four Rajahs combine together against others. The principal mischief they cause is by hindering the transport of supplies, and very often the whole country is devastated and laid waste, the cattle driven away, and the miserable subjects sorely oppressed. There are sufficient reasons to account for this species of warfare, they possess no walled towns and very few fortified villages; but all their places are unprotected and open and their territories contiguous to each other, so that the injured party being the weakest in one quarter may be able to inflict reprisal on the aggressor by invading his domains in another.

The death of a Rajah or grandee in war tends to improve the condition of his party: for the enemy who has been the cause of his death must immediately quit the field, and pay a fine either in goods or lands to the family of the slain prince. Thus the Rajah of Mangatti once killed three Paroese princes and was therefore obliged to resign a considerable piece of land. This law is of service in protecting the lives of these princes.

And now let us consider the numbers of these Nairs. According to Malabar calculation there are 3,000,000 of them in this country; but this is incredible, for although many places are highly populated, we cannot believe that so small a track of land can contain so many hundred thousand, taking into consideration besides the numbers of the other castes. But the Malabar Rajahs, like other Oriental monarchs, are fond of exaggerating their importance, and they boast of the number of Nairs and soldiers they have in their country and service, to impress us with the idea of their wealth and power.