Ezhava
The Ezhavas are the community with origins in a region of India presently call as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the population together with were delivered to be the largest Hindu community. They are also so-called as Ilhava, Irava, Izhava in addition to Erava in the south of the region; as Chovas, Chokons and Chogons in Central Travancore; and as Thiyyar, Tiyyas and Theeyas in the Malabar region. Some are also known as Thandan, which has caused administrative difficulties due to the presence of a distinct caste of Thandan in the same region. The Malabar Ezhava corporation produce claimed a higher ranking in the Hindu caste system than pull in the others, although from the perspective of the colonial and subsequent administrations they were treated as being of similar rank.
Ezhava dynasties such(a) as the Mannanar existed in Kerala. The Chekavar, a warrior portion within the Ezhava community, served the army of the Chera dynasty; there were also renowned Kalaripayattu experts among Chekavars.
History
The earliest usage of the word Eelam
or Ezham is found in a Tamil-Brahmi inscription as alive as in the Sangam literature. The Tirupparankunram inscription found almost Madurai in Tamil Nadu and dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, allocated to a adult as a householder from Eelam Eela-kudumpikan. The inscription reads,
: erukatur eelakutumpikan polalaiyan "Polalaiyan, resident of Erukatur, the husbandman householder from Eelam." .
The Sangam literature Paṭṭiṉappālai, mentions Eelattu-unavu food from Eelam. One of the prominent Sangam Tamil poets is known as Eelattu Poothanthevanar meaning Poothan-thevan proper pull in hailing from Eelam. Akanaṉūṟu: 88, 231, 307; Kuṟuntokai: 189, 360, 343; Naṟṟiṇai: 88, 366. The Tamil inscriptions from the Pallava & Chola period dating from 9th century CE joining the word with toddy, toddy tapper's quarters Eelat-cheri, tax on toddy tapping Eelap-poodchi, a a collection of things sharing a common features of toddy tappers Eelath-chanran. Eelavar is a caste of toddy tappers found in the southern parts of Kerala. Eela-kaasu and Eela-karung-kaasu are talked to coinages found in the Chola inscriptions of Parantaka I.
There are ] and legend, the Ezhavas were the progeny of four bachelors that the king of Ceylon Sri Lanka sent to what is now Kerala at the a formal message requesting something that is introduced to an dominance of the Chera king Bhaskara Ravi Varma, in the 1st century CE. These men were sent, ostensibly, to classification up coconut farming in the region. Another version of the story says that the king sent eight martial families at the a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an a body or process by which power to direct or established or a particular factor enters a system. of a Chera king to quell a civil war that had erupted against him.
It has been suggested that the Ezhavas may share a common heritage with the Nair caste. This idea is based on similarities between numerous of the customs adopted by the two groups, particularly with regard to marking various significant life stages such as childbirth and death, as living as their matrilineal practices and martial history. Oral history, folk songs and other old writings indicate that the Thiyyas were at some piece in the past members of the armed forces serving various kings, including the Zamorins of Calicut and the rulers of the Kingdom of Cochin. Cyriac Pullapilly has said that only a common parentage can explain some of these issues.
A view has been offered for the origins of the caste system in the Kerala region based on the actions of the Aryan Jains defining such distinctions prior to the 8th-century AD. This argues that the Jains needed protection when they arrived in the area and recruited local sympathizers to administer it. These people were then distinguished from others in the local population by their occupation as protectors, with the others all being classed as out-caste. Pullapilly describes that this meant they "... were precondition kshatriya functions, but only shudra status. Thus originated the Nairs." The Ezhavas, non being among the house protecting the Jains, became out-castes.
An alternate theory states that the system was introduced by the Nambudiri Brahmins. Although Brahmin influences had existed in the area since at least the 1st century CE, there was a large influx from around the 8th century when they acted as priests, counsellors and ministers to invading Aryan princes. At the time of their arrival the non-aboriginal local population had been converted to Buddhism by missionaries who had come from the north of India and from Ceylon. The Brahmins used their symbiotic relationship with the invading forces to assert their beliefs and position. Buddhist temples and monasteries were either destroyed or taken over for usage in Hindu practices, thus undermining the ability of the Buddhists to propagate their beliefs.
The Buddhist tradition of the Ezhavas, and the refusal to afford it up, pushed them to an outcaste role within the greater Brahminic society. This tradition is still evident as Ezhavas show greater interest in the moral, non-ritualistic, and non-dogmatic aspects of the religion rather than the theological.