Marumakkathayam (മരുമക്കത്തായം )

I was born in a traditional Nair tharavad (ancestral family) of Kerala, where Marumakkathayam (matriarchy) was practiced in those days. Though by the time I was born marumakkathayam was slowly giving way to makkathayam I have to describe for the coming generations “what is Marumakkathayam”. Marumakkathayam was a system where property rights vested with women. Every family would have a unique name, and all the members from the oldest men down to the great grand son or daughter living in the tharavad would be known by this family name. The lineage is always through female members. Perhaps this was the only society that looked upon girls with respect and ardently prayed to have their offspring to be females.

The eldest male member of the family would administer the property.  He was the patriarch known as Karanavar. In our case,the elder brother of my grandmother was the Karanavar. Unlike makkathayam(patriarchial  line of succession) that exists today,marumakkathayam followed joint family system where uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers all lived in one house.  Married women generally do not leave their tharavad.  Their husbands could visit them at night.

My mother,her brothers and all children were living with my grandmother and grandfather.The authority of the karanavar was absolute and undisputable. He would allot money for the day today affairs of the house where his sister, nephews and nieces, etc. lived.However, under marumakkathayam,Karanavar’s daughters would not inherit the property as they belonged to another tharavad.Only Karanavar lived with his wife and children at the tharavad. If other male members are married their wives stay at their own tharavad. If Karanavar dies, his wife and children would have to leave the tharavad on the sixteenth day of his demise. That was the true marumakkathayam practice. Other male members would visit their wives at their wives’tharavads. That was normally the arrangement in Marumakkathayam. But by the time I was born,  that was not the case In my tharavad .

 Karanavar was living in another house nearer to our Tharavad, but he was taking food from Tharavad

Fortunately,Marumakkathayam was replaced with Makkathayam during my childhood itself, but we suffered a lot during this transition.The Karanavar became the legal heir to all the property, and he began to give less importance to his sisters, nephews and nieces. Karanavar’,his wife and children  then enjoyed full rights to the property. 

Our tharavadu, a traditional Nalukettu (Quadrangular building with inner courtyard)was situated in the middle of a four acre land.  It had a padippura (gatehouse), poomukham(portico), Nalukettu, bedrooms and kitchen.The house was built with wooden walls and some areas with brick and lime.The roof was thatched with dried coconut leaves. There were five sarpakavu (snake temple), and seven ponds in the compound.

The padippura faced east.It had two partially covered walls and a coconut leaf thatched roof with a traditional lantern called Ranthal hanging from the roof.The door of the padippura was kept locked during the night.Poomukham was the main entrance to the house from the eastern side.  It had an open space with a roof supported on four round pillars. Adjacent to the poomukham, there were two bed rooms,and these areas were for the male members of the family,.Karanavar would sit on a reclining chair called Charukasera which had two foot rests on either side.He would lie on this chair with both his legs up on the foot rests watching everything that goes around the house.  When karanavar was present at the poomukham, no one dared to come near him.

There was a chuttuvaranda(or round verandah) starting from the poomukham and going round to the Nalukettu.One brass water pot called  kindi would be placed with full of water on the steps leading to the veranda. Kindi has a water dispensing spout,and before entering the house everyone had to clean his feet with water from this pot.

The main building called Arappura was situated  between poomugham and Nalukettu,its door closed with manichithrathazhu (ornamental padlock).Arappura consists of a pooja room, and behind it, another room with a door, this room is called ullara (inner room).In the ullara there were two wooden pathayams (granary) in which grains were stored. Keys of this ullara were kept in the custody of the karanavar.At the side of the Pooja room a wooden ladder would lead to a low height upper storey with ceiling paved with wooden planks beneath the hatched coconut leaf  roof known as mutch (attic).  Just below the ladder, there was an opening leading to an underground room called Nilavara(underground cell)  where gold ornaments containing “Netturpetti,”brass and bronze utensils like uruli, chempu etc and  all other  costly items in the house were kept. 

The Arappura chuttuvaranda lead to Nalukettu,which is rectangular building on four sides of a central courtyard called Nadumuttam.  The Nadumuttam(inner courtyard) means an open space with no roof.  The building around Nadumuttam stands on four round pillars, and the open areas at the four sides of the nadumuttam were used by children for sleeping.  Two bedroom on the southern side of the nalukettu were used by women folks.  Room at the back side of these women’s bedrooms  were known as pakkalappura  where milk  and curd were stored in earthen pots in a swinging shelf hung by a rope called         ‘uri  ‘  ‘in which three clay pots could be placed at a time one upon the other.

The northern side of the nalukettu was the dining area there were small wooden planks used as seats called palaka were kept.All of us including the karanavar  used to sit on the floor on these wooden blocks to take food. The kitchen was on the eastern side of the dining area.

The door from the dining area lead to another broad veranda where a big wooden box called Arippetti (or rice chest) was kept.  Rice and other provisions were kept in the arippetti. This broad veranda leads to a   floor with  bricks built around and  nearer to the  well is  called Kottathalam. Aattukallu(grinding stone)was kept there.  Utensils, plates, glasses etc. were washed and  cleaned in Kottathalam  from where one could enter the kitchen through a door.  In addition to this there was a chuttuveranda all around the house.

Outside the house there was an Urappura (mortar shed) where ural (mortar for grinding grains), Thirikallu(mill-stone), etc. were kept. Paddy  was boiled  here and dried paddy was pounded in the ural to get rice. A little far away from the building there wasThozhuthu(cattle shed) where cattle were kept.

I have described about our old house in detail since the next generation and future generations to come  may not be aware of the architectural structure of a Nalukettu where their grand parents lived.

One of the sad part of marumakkathayam, coming to my mind at this point of time when we talk about ”women liberation” and “sthreesaktheekaranam” (women empowerment).  Let me share  it here: Most nights around 7 pm or 8 pm,  I had seen my grandmother sitting on the western  side of veranda looking towards the south, waiting for the karanavar to come for the dinner.  She would sit eagerly to see a light.Karanavar usually came swinging a country torch called choot  made of dried coconut leaves rolled into a stroll and lit at one end. There were no electricity then, and the whole area would be pitch dark.  When she  sees  his light from far she would fill the kindi with water and keep it at the steps leading to the veranda for washing his feet, and place a palaka for him to sit for the dinner. A mug,(Lotta) ) of water would be kept near the palaka for him.My mother would be at the kitchen, all children would hide themselves in the  bedroom, my grandmother would stand outside the kitchen to oblige. The karanavar would wash his feet and come into the Nalukettu.  We, children, would peep from the bedroom as if to see in the dim light of a kerosene lamp a tiger eating.He would sit on the palaka, and grandmother would serve him while my  mother would be watching from the backside of the kitchen door  to see whether grandmother needed anything more to serve Karanavar. There would be pin drop silence until he had his dinner.  Necessities like rice, sugar, kerosene, etc. would be expressed in low voice by the grandmother at this time.  We would have a sigh of relieaf only after he leaves, and would come out to take our food.

Can anyone living now imagine this? Though we loved sleeping in the nalukettu on the sides of nadumuttam, looking at the stars and moon, we were scared of rainy season, especially when there were lightning and thunder. When a flash of lightning reach the nalukettu through nadumuttom, we would close our eyes tightly and shut our ears with our palm. When we became older we were even more frightened of thieves who might climb down through the open roof of nadumuttom.

Later,slowly  Marumakkathayam  gave way to Makkathayam,and my mother and we children moved to a place where my father was working as a drill master .  There we lived in a  very small rented house. Before that my maternal uncles (grandmother’ sons) also left the house in search of jobs, and they settled in different parts of India; One uncle joined Railway, another joined Indian Army, and the youngest one reached BhilaiSteel plant. My grandmother  often had heated discussions  with the Karanavar  to give everyone their share of property.,  Finally when she approached her  second brother(younger brother of karanavar , who was a member of parliament by then and staying at Trivandrum ,) he agreed to have a partition.  All of us got our share, and each family started living separately in true Makkathayam style (father, mother and their children) yet proudly keeping our tharavad tag along with our proper name.  Incidentally our tharavad figures amongst the famous tharavad names mentioned in the book “Nayars of Malabar” written by F. Fawcett and published in 1901.

C.K.Sasikumaran Nair