Swaroopathil Nairs or Chernna Nairs were one of the subcastes belonging to the
Nair community in
Kerala. This subcaste is found only in
Travancore. In Malabar, two related subcastes, ''Akathu Chernna'' Nairs and ''Purathu Chernna'' Nairs, are treated as being equivalent to Swaroopathil Nairs in caste hierarchy. They formed the bulk of the soldiers who were under the military command of the
Kiryathil Nair
Kiryathil Nair or Kiriyath Nair is a martial nobility caste belonging to the Kshatriya varṇa, which forms one of the highest-ranking subcastes of the Nair community along with the Samantha Kshatriyas with whom they share a close history. Th ...
s, the pinnacle of the
Nair hierarchy.
Demographics
According to the 1891 Census, Swaroopathil Nairs composed around 9.2% of the total Nair population, while Akathu Charna and Purathu Charna Nairs accounted for 3.3% and 11.1% respectively.
[The Internal Structure of the Nair Caste ]C. J. Fuller
Christopher John Fuller is an emeritus professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has studied and written extensively about the people of India, particularly with regard to subjects such ...
See also
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Illathu Nair
The Nair , also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom histo ...
*
Demographics of Nair community
References
{{reflist
Nair