Azhvanchery Thamprakkal or Azhvanchery Samrāṭ () is the title of the senior-most male member of the

Nambudiri The Nambudiri (), also transliterated as Nampoothiri, Nambūdiri, Namboodiri, Namboothiri, Namboodri, Namboori, and Nampūtiri, are a Malayali Brahmin caste, native to what is now the state of Kerala, India, where they constituted part of the ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

feudal lords of Azhvanchery Mana in

Athavanad Athavanad is a village and Gram Panchayath in the Tirur Taluk, in the Malappuram District of the state of Kerala, India. The town lies on the National Highway 66, between Puthanathani and Valanchery. Puthanathani is the main town of the Ath ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. They had the right over

Guruvayur Guruvayur ) is a municipal temple town in Thrissur district, of Kerala State in India. It is a suburban town of Thrissur city, located from Thrissur towards the north-west. It houses the Guruvayur Shri Krishna Temple. It is located at ...

, and were the titular head of all

s of Kerala. The Lord of Azhvanchery based at Athavanad and the Lord of Kalpakanchery based at neighbouring Kalpakanchery were usually present at the coronation (''Ariyittu Vazhcha'') of a new

Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edi ...

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

. Kalpakanchery Thamprakkals were related to the

s of Panniyoor while Azhvanchery Thamprakkals to those of Chowwara.

History

There are lots of theories as to how

s came to settle in Kerala, the commonly accepted point of view is that they moved in from

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

via

Tulu Nadu Tulu Nadu, or Tulunad, is a region and Proposed states and union territories of India, proposed state on the southwestern coast of India. The Tulu people, known as 'Tuluva' (pl. 'Tuluver') are speakers of Tulu language, Tulu, a Dravidian langu ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. Another theory based on the retention of ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

'' types as memorized by different

communities points to

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

as the base from which they migrated to Kerala via the

Palakkad Gap Palakkad Gap or Palghat Gap is a low mountain pass in the Western Ghats between Coimbatore in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Palakkad in the state of Kerala. It has an average elevation of with a width of . The pass is located between the ...

, which is also the largest opening in the southern Western Ghats, and settled around the river

Bharathappuzha The Bharathappuzha ("River of Bhārata"), also known as the Nila River, is a river in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. With a length of 209 km, it is the second longest river that flows through Kerala after the Periyar. It flo ...

. The region around

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

near

- western

border was ruled by the

Cheras The Chera dynasty ( or Cēra, ), also known as Keralaputra, from the early historic or the Sangam period in Tamil-speaking southern India, ruled over parts of present-day states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Cheras, known as one of the mu-ventar ...

during

Sangam period The Sangam literature ( Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam''), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' ( Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ''), connote ...

between 1st and the 4th centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the

, the principal trade route between the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

and

. The ''Azhvanchery Thamprakkal'' originally had right over parts of present-day

Palakkad Palakkad (), Renaming of cities in India, also known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery, is a city and a municipality in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of P ...

Taluk. Later they moved westwards along the River

and settled around the river. Finally the ''Azhvanchery Thamprakkal'' bought Athavanad-

Tirunavaya Tirunavaya, also spelled as Thirunavaya, is a town in Tirur Malappuram, Kerala. Situated on the northern bank of Bharatappuzha (River Ponnani/Nila or Perar), it is one of the major Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. Tirunavaya, home to Tirunav ...

region in present-day

Tirur Taluk Tirur Taluk comes under Tirur revenue division in Malappuram district in the Indian state of Kerala. Its headquarters is the town of Tirur. Tirur Taluk contains four municipalities - Tanur, Tirur, Kottakkal, and Valanchery. Most of the adminis ...

and gave Palakkad to ''Palakkad Raja''s (''Tarur Swaroopam'') who were originally from

region. Many of the oldest Nambudiri settlements of Kerala are situated around the River

. The

Kingdom of Tanur The Kingdom of Tanur (also referred to as Vettathunadu, Vettam, Tanur Swaroopam, and Prakashabhu; or the Kingdom of Light) was a feudal List of feudal states of Kerala, principality on the Malabar Coast of the Indian subcontinent during the Mi ...

Kingdom of Valluvanad Valluvanad (), or the Arangottu Swarupam, was a medieval state that exerted considerable influence in the region corresponding to present-day north-central Kerala, south India, from the early 12th century until the close of the 18th century CE. ...

, ''Perumpadappu Swaroopam'', and the kingdom of

, located around the river

, were once strongholds of Nambudiris. The introduction of

Grantha script The Grantha script (; ; ) is a classical South Indian Brahmic script, found particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Originating from the Pallava script, the Grantha script is related to Tamil and Vatteluttu scripts. The modern Malayalam script ...

which later got evolved into

Malayalam script Malayalam script (; / ) is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic script used to write Malayalam, the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 45 million people. It is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union ter ...

, and the evolution of Malayalam literature from

Middle Tamil Middle Tamil is the form of the Tamil language that existed from the 8th to the 15th century. The development of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil, which is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of ...

are highly related to the Brahmin migration.

Position in Indian social order

The Azhvanchery Thamprakkals were also temporally, the rulers of

: The name

is believed to be derived from them or vice versa. Before abolition of the princely-order of government, The Azhvanchery Thamprakkal was considered as the supreme religious head of Kerala Brahmins. His presence was required for the anointing of the

Thachudaya Kaimal The Thachudaya Kaimals were a lineage of ruling Nair chiefs in Travancore, now in the Indian state of Kerala. This line goes back to the period of the early rulers of Venad, now known as Travancore. Based on the 18th-century installation of Thachu ...

of Travancore, the Yogathiripad of Thrissur and the ruling chiefs of South India Census Report of Travancore, 1901 and 1927 Edited by Dr N Kunjan Pillai mentions the Azhvanchery Thamprakkal and their special status The Thamprakkals were great patrons of mathematics and astronomy. The

Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics or the Kerala school was a school of Indian mathematics, mathematics and Indian astronomy, astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Kingdom of Tanur, Tirur, Malappuram district, Malappuram, K ...

flourished between 14th and 16th centuries of

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the ...

Tirur Tirur is a major municipal town in Tirur Taluk, Malappuram district, in the Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of . It is one of the major business centers in Malappuram district and is situated west of Malappuram and south of Kozh ...

- Triprangode region on the bank of the river

. In the famous work ''Brahmandapuranam'', of poet Thunchath Ezhuthachan, Azhvanchery Thamprakkals had been mentioned with the title "Netranarayanan".

Title and Privileges

The title of ''Thamprakkal'' literally means Emperor. It came to be used to refer to the

s of Azhvanchery Mana family. The story according to popular lore is that while returning from the coronation ceremony of Kulashekhara Perumal with the gift of a golden-cow, the Thamprakkal was stopped on the road by Pakkanar, a person of low

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

. He claimed that it was the exclusive right of his castemen to take dead cows. The Thamprakkal, affronted, sprinkled water on the golden cow and brought it to life. The low caste man exclaimed "You are indeed a Thamprakkal" and since then the title has stayed with the family. The Thamprakkal had four privileges within the Hindu Social Order of Kerala. * ''Bhadrasthanam'': The chief seat in any assembly * ''Sarvamanyam'': Universal respectability * ''Brahma Samrajyam'': Sovereignty over all Brahmins * ''Brahmavarchas'': Highest authority in

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

learning The opinion of the Azhvanchery Thamprakkal was considered supreme in deciding matters relating to religion, caste, society etc. Only the anointed head of the family received the title. The junior members of the family are ordinary Adhyan Namboodiris and use the style of Namboodiripad.

References

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

State Manual, Volume II by V.Nagam Aiya, page number 249. * Census Report of Travancore, 1901 which mentions the Azhvanchery family and their special status with details. Thamprakkal History of Malappuram district Kerala society Malayali Brahmins People from Guruvayur {{hindu-bio-stub

History

Position in Indian social order

Title and Privileges

See also

References