Moopil Nair

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Moopil Nair, also transliterated Mooppil and Muppil is an elite subgroup of the Nair caste. They were vazhunnors, naduvazhis and desavazhis of small feudal polities on the Malabar Coast, present-day Kerala state, South India, typically owing at least nominal allegiance to a superordinate Raja, despite frequently aggregating lands and political powers of sufficient scale so as to establish them as essentially autonomous monarchs in their own rights. Although Moopils frequently simply styled themselves as 'the' name of swaroopam/tharavadu Nair, virtually all were entitled to higher titular Nair rank, most saliently that of Nambiar, but also Nayanar and Mannadiyar, among others.

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Among them was Kavalappara Moopil Nair, who ruled the small kingdom of Kavalappara Swaroopam, and a nominal feudatory of the Vellattiri Raja of Valluvanad, himself a sometime Moopil Nair. [1] [ page needed ] Kavalappara holdings spanned some 155,358 acres of allodially freeheld jenmi lands, rendering them among Malabar's foremost jenmimars, alongside fellow Moopil Nairs such as the Mannarghat Nair, a feudatory of the Vallabha Velattiri Raja of Valluvanad, whose peak estates subsumed some 180,000 acres of Malabar lands, and Koothali Nair, whose total holdings are unknown, but whose rump holdings along as escheated to Malabar state amounted to some 53,000 acres.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Koothali Nair</span>

The KoothaliMoopil Nair or Moothavar, most commonly known as the Koothali Nair and styled Vallabhan Chathan, additionally known as the Koothali Payyormala Nayar, historically held and controlled an eponymous principality and sthanam of North Malabar, with his hereditary seat in Koothali. Towns and lands subject to the Koothali Moothavar's rule traditionally included Perambra, Changaroth, Cheruvannur, Kuttiady, and adjacent regions, including Kottathara. The Koothali Nair was traditionally one of Malabar's most prominent Naduvazhis, a Moopil Nair, as well as a major Jenmimar, and held the Nair caste rank of Nambiar or Samanta.

References

  1. Kurup, K. K. N. (1988). Modern Kerala: Studies in Social and Agrarian Relations. Mittal Publications. ISBN   978-81-7099-094-9.

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