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HINDUS
The Namboodiris
The men wore a very simple dress that consisted of two pieces of unstitched white cloth. The men tied around the waist a loincloth called MUNDU measuring 2 ½ yards in length and 1 ½ yard in width. The second cloth was thrown over the shoulders called the
MELMUNDU. KAUPINAM a strip of cloth was the underwear and was worn between the thighs, passed between the thighs and tucked into the front and back of a waist thread. While engaged in religious pursuits, the Namboothiri males dressed themselves in what is called
TATTUDUKKUKA, i.e., a cloth six or seven feet long tied around the waist, passed between the thighs and tucked in at the front and back, with the front portion arranged in pleats. The Namboodiris's Mundu
was always
white in color like the other castes, but had a gold border
that distinguished them from the other castes.. Many castes in old days apparently used to wear blue clothes, but
white is now practically universal. The Namboodiri men wore a
wooden slipper called METHIYYADI .
The Namboodiri women were seen in a dress called the PUDAVA,
that was a cloth 7 ½ feet in length and about 2 feet in breadth. One end of the cloth was passed between the legs and fixed in the waist at the back, while the other end was wrapped around. This style was also known as TATTUDUKKUKA . The
Namboothiri women traditionally used to cover the upper part of the body and carried an OLAKKUDA or MARAKKUDA to cover the face and the body.
Nayar, Kshtriya and Ambalavasi
Their traditional dress also consisted of Mundu, Kaupinam and a random mundu or
Neriyatu ( an upper cloth). The women belonging to these communities used to wear a Pudava or Onnarramundu in
Tattudukka style.
The upper part of the body was left bare. The Nayar women in Travancore were allowed to dress as they pleased by a Royal Proclamation in 1865.
Avarnas
Ezhavas, Pulayas and Parayans consisted of this group. Their dresses were mainly of a short loin cloth. Small children
both boys and girls used to wear only an underwear called Konakam.
However at an earlier period the Thanta Pulaya and Nayadi used to wear leafy garments.
And it was the common practice among the Avarnas to leave the
upper part of the body bare both among the males and females.
The lower caste women were not allowed to cover their
breasts and were prevented from wearing any cloth that
extended below their knees .
EZHAVAN women of Palghat and the Tiyattis and Mukkuvas of North Malabar sometimes wore dark blue
colored attires. Costly dresses like the Silk were never worn
by them. The higher classes always used very fine semi transparent cotton clothes
that distinguished them from the lower castes
MUKKUVA Women of those times had a practice to wear a black silk cloth similarly tied, but now this system
has hence vanished. Later on in the Malabar region a
change slowly became visible and women started to wear an the upper cloth
called (Torttumundu) or a short bodice that covered their
breasts..
Palm Umbrella
No turban was worn, according to the higher caste people as it
was beyond their dignity to cover the head; however, there existed a universal practice to carry an umbrella. The umbrella of those
times was made of leaves of palm tree or Palmyra. It had a long bamboo handle of which the length increased according to the dignity of
the person carrying it.
It was further stipulated that it should be carried with the end of the handle in the palm of the hand and the arm stretched down at full length. After the British rule, the natural umbrella gave way to the European black umbrella.
The lower castes often twisted a small cloth loosely round the head in the form of an embryo turban, but this
was to be removed in the presence of Superiors as it was
customary to be bare above the waist while standing before
them.
Characteristic of the west coast was the umbrella or
the mushroom shaped hat made of Palmyra leaves which fishermen and agricultural
workers invariably wore as an admirable protection against
the heat of the sun and the rains. The Nayar woman
also carried a similar hat with a crown too small for the head in their hands instead of an umbrella.
Hair Style
In the olden days the Malayali as rule shaved his head, face and body all over leaving only a small oval patch of hair on the top of the head in front called
'KUDUMI' .This patch of hair was allowed to grow long and was twisted to a knot and hanged over the fore-head in front or to one side, usually the left. This way of wearing the hair
was universal and was distinctive of the west coast Hindu. Some of the CHERUMANS and similar
low castes shaved their head completely and left no
trace of any hair on their person.
The devil dancers and their likes in the ancient
times wore the hair long; the hill tribes also used to wear their hair long but
with the advent of civilization they too took to KUDUMI.
The Namboodiri was also seen with a beard, but the
singular reason was that it was a period of mourning
(diesta) for him . Other castes were also forbidden from shaving when in mourning.
Women grew their hair long. They used many natural herbs and oils available in the soil to nourish their hair. Women wore their hair plaited in the middle and either drew tight to the ears and tied in a chignon or else twisted up in front in a sort of cone.
The latter was the common custom in the south, except among Namboodiris.
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