Talk:Caste system in Kerala/Archives/2006/August

Merging

The Caste system in Kerala article should be redirected to Jati system of Kerala, for one main reason.....there are no concrete "castes" (Varna) in South India apart from Namboothiris, and it only serves to heighten the confusion. In Kerala the Jati system holds sway, so any reference to south indian and keralite social heirarchies should refer to Jati not Caste (Varna) Kshatriya knight 07:40, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Aryan/Dravidian

I deleted the following para as it didn't make much sense.

Kerala was initially a Dravidian country and Aryanaisation started here only in the 7th or 8th century AD. Initially the Aryans found Kerala uninhabitable and so went away. Later by the above mentioned time, a much smaller group entered Kerala, which was under the rule of the Chera Nair emperors. The people of Kerala, which was a flourishing centre for Buddhism and Jainism, converted to Hinduism and the slow and subtle Aryanisation of Kerala started.

Few points that I found illogical; 1. I wonder what the author wants to say with those words. It looks like Kerala was Buddhist/Jain before it became "Aryanized". As far as I know, even Buddhim and Jainism are also "Aryan" religions in the sense both these religions also spread by Indo-Aryan speaking people in South India. Therefore, Kerala was Aryanized long before other Aryans bringing Vedic culture migrated to Kerala. Anyway, I suppose since Kerala still is a pure Dravidian speaking area, I feel Aryan here means merely culture of North India. 2. The term Nair is not very clear here. Does it mean just a title or a caste identity? Considering, Nair, a caste identity is stupidity as caste system in Kerala was much a later phenomenon. Title makes sense. However, did Chera kings have "Nair" as titles?

— Preceding unsigned comment added by M arpalmane (talk • contribs) 09:18, 14 August 2006 (UTC)