Parinayam;- Yesterday, I happen to watch a glimpse of this malayalam movie in TV, but due to some work could not watch the movie, I was fascinated by the single scene, wherein incense stick smoke is captures in the camera, my interest in the movie increased and searched for more details of the movie. No wonder, the movie PARINAYAM- Malayalam was National award winning movie for the year 1994!!!!
Out of curiosity, just searched more to find interesting matters about Namboodiri's life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyDGyOmYdQ
The Malayalam cinema "Parinayam", meaning 'Marriage', depicts the Namboodiri custom of "smARta vichAram" in a more or less realistic (I suppose so, because the last such exercise was in 1905, which was slightly different from all the previous ones.) manner. For the information of members who are unfamiliar with this custom, I may tell that among Namboodiris it was the custom (not practised now) that only the eldest of the brothers married a Namboodiri girl. The rest could have "sambandham" (sexual relationship with women of other castes, mostly from aristocratic nair households and women of royal lineage) but could not marry from their own caste.
The Namboodiri women were called "antharjanam" (lit., people inside) and were not expected to come out of their secluded quarters at any time. Some of the wealthier "mana"s - Namboodiri houses, used to have their own temples within their sprawling manors and the antharjanams could visit those temples in their mana (only) and that too after hiding the upper part of their body with an umbrella made of palmyrah leaf so as to avoid the gaze of men. (The namboodiri women were, reportedly, not allowed to wear upper garments.)
If a doubt arose as to the chastity of a namboodiri woman, there was this procedure called smARta vichAram. Although they call it 'smARta', I am unaware as to which smR^ti sanctions it and explains how it is conducted. The accused woman is kept confined in solitary confinement with an old lady as guard. A council of community elders is constituted and they question the accused and she has to state the truth as to whether she had any illicit relationship. Her statements would have to be proved, for example, she will have to state personal identification marks of the men who had liaison with her, or produce letters etc., to show that there was contact. If the charges were proved (usually it was so) the accused woman was thrown out of the house and excommunicated by what was called "paDi aDachchu piNDam vaykkal" - treating her as having died and not deserving any further obsequies. Such women could be 'captured' i.e., compulsorily taken away by men of the lower castes or even non-hindus.
The Namboodiri men who had liaison with the woman were excommunicated from Namboodiri caste and were assigned to a lower order but I am not sure about it; I read somewhere that 'chaakiar' was one such order . (The blog cited below also gives a different view.) The last "smArta vichAram" in history was a sensational one and slightly different from others. Below are excerpts from the blog:
Maddy's Ramblings: Kuriyedathu Thathriyude SmartaVicharam
"It was finally in 1905 that the shackles were broken by one woman. Call her brave, cunning, callous, whatever, but she was the first to rebel. This is the story of that beautiful Namboothiri Antherjanam who decided to use her body to lash out at society. She was Thathri. Let us now see what happened.
One fine day, a wealthy and aged but promiscuous Namboothiri man, reaches the bedroom of a well known and desirable prostitute. After a very satisfactory session, he finally gets to see her face and recoils in utter shock when he realizes that this was none other than his own young wife. The man flees the place and raises a hue and cry. Soon the prostitute, an Antherjanam known as Kuriyedathu Thathri is secluded according to the norms and a Smartavicharam trial (at the end of the story is a small description of the Smartavicharm) is launched. The Cochin King as required sanctions it. The public interest was huge, for rumor had it that the lady was a very clever and apparently popular person with much ammunition up her sleeve.
This sensational Smaartha Vichaaram involved Savithry (Thaathri) the wife of Chemmanthatta Kuriyedathu Raman Namboodiri, and daughter of Kalpakasseri Ashtamoorthi Namboodiri of Mukundapuram Taluk.
The Smartan who administers Vedic laws is none other than the famed Jathavedan Namboothiri of the Perumannan gramam. Thathri is sitting in a special outhouse (Achanpura or pacholapura) built for the seclusion and imprisonment during the trail. She has no problems at all and seems serene and ready to face the questioning. Unlike other timid prisoners, this is a proud and beautiful lady who had controlled many weak men above her for the last few years. She was not intimidated. Savithri was known for her beauty and she had been married off at the age of 18 to a 60 year old man .
The smarthan (prosecutor) and three Namboothiri scholars questioned Thaathri, who accepted all the charges but stated that the rule of law has to be administered equally. If she had to be pronounced guilty, so should the people who slept with her. They were people of supposedly high moral standing, and with that basis Thathri revealed the names of well-known scholars, musicians, kathakali artists and many other prominent people of that time, not only of the Kochi state but also the entire Malabar belt, who had slept with her. She also presented strong evidence to substantiate her charges including visual and written evidence (letters written by lovers, prominent marks on genital areas etc).
The pillars of the caste system started trembling. The King was in trouble and the public uproar severe. So against norms where only Thathri would have been implicated, the King agreed to administer equal justice. The reader must note here that a normal Smartavicharam involved only the lady and not the men. However based on the Kings ruling, the Smartan questioned the involved men as well and convicted the guilty. It was thus a landmark case. As the names started coming out, the number of nervous men increased. Many ran away, escaped to other nations even, many others conducted poojas so that Thathri would forgot their names & features (for she had to provide proof of physical characteristics of the men too). It is said that the lady was finally made to stop at man # 64. Salacious gossip to the effect that the 65th was probably going to the king himself went around like wildfire. It is said in jest that she could in theory have named not just 65, but 60,000, but the case was finally curtailed,
The verdict was pronounced on the night of July 13, 1905, indicting all the accused and of course Thaathri. They included 30 Namboothiris, 10 Iyers (Pattars or Tamil Brahmanans), 13 Ambalavaasis and 11 Nairs. Thaathri was sent to Chalakudy and settled as an intern in a riverside home, under tight security. The 64 victims left their homes humiliated, some living on bare subsistence allowance and some, begging. Another two ("Ambalavaasis") had died and hence not proceeded against.
The long list of victims of smartha vicharam had a disastrous effect on the cultural scene in Kerala. Celebrated kathakali artists like Kavungal Sankara Panikkar, Kaattalathu Madhavan Nair, Panangavil Govindan Nambiar, Achytha Poduval and many others had to leave their fields & professions. Following this event the Cochin Raja mentioned that future ‘SmarthaVicharanam’s’ required a large deposit in the state treasury for the reason that such public embarrassments (naming of prominent men) do not take place arbitrarily."
Courtesy:- http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/philosophy-traditions/4353-parinayam-heavy-malayalam-movie.html
Out of curiosity, just searched more to find interesting matters about Namboodiri's life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyDGyOmYdQ
The Malayalam cinema "Parinayam", meaning 'Marriage', depicts the Namboodiri custom of "smARta vichAram" in a more or less realistic (I suppose so, because the last such exercise was in 1905, which was slightly different from all the previous ones.) manner. For the information of members who are unfamiliar with this custom, I may tell that among Namboodiris it was the custom (not practised now) that only the eldest of the brothers married a Namboodiri girl. The rest could have "sambandham" (sexual relationship with women of other castes, mostly from aristocratic nair households and women of royal lineage) but could not marry from their own caste.
The Namboodiri women were called "antharjanam" (lit., people inside) and were not expected to come out of their secluded quarters at any time. Some of the wealthier "mana"s - Namboodiri houses, used to have their own temples within their sprawling manors and the antharjanams could visit those temples in their mana (only) and that too after hiding the upper part of their body with an umbrella made of palmyrah leaf so as to avoid the gaze of men. (The namboodiri women were, reportedly, not allowed to wear upper garments.)
If a doubt arose as to the chastity of a namboodiri woman, there was this procedure called smARta vichAram. Although they call it 'smARta', I am unaware as to which smR^ti sanctions it and explains how it is conducted. The accused woman is kept confined in solitary confinement with an old lady as guard. A council of community elders is constituted and they question the accused and she has to state the truth as to whether she had any illicit relationship. Her statements would have to be proved, for example, she will have to state personal identification marks of the men who had liaison with her, or produce letters etc., to show that there was contact. If the charges were proved (usually it was so) the accused woman was thrown out of the house and excommunicated by what was called "paDi aDachchu piNDam vaykkal" - treating her as having died and not deserving any further obsequies. Such women could be 'captured' i.e., compulsorily taken away by men of the lower castes or even non-hindus.
The Namboodiri men who had liaison with the woman were excommunicated from Namboodiri caste and were assigned to a lower order but I am not sure about it; I read somewhere that 'chaakiar' was one such order . (The blog cited below also gives a different view.) The last "smArta vichAram" in history was a sensational one and slightly different from others. Below are excerpts from the blog:
Maddy's Ramblings: Kuriyedathu Thathriyude SmartaVicharam
"It was finally in 1905 that the shackles were broken by one woman. Call her brave, cunning, callous, whatever, but she was the first to rebel. This is the story of that beautiful Namboothiri Antherjanam who decided to use her body to lash out at society. She was Thathri. Let us now see what happened.
One fine day, a wealthy and aged but promiscuous Namboothiri man, reaches the bedroom of a well known and desirable prostitute. After a very satisfactory session, he finally gets to see her face and recoils in utter shock when he realizes that this was none other than his own young wife. The man flees the place and raises a hue and cry. Soon the prostitute, an Antherjanam known as Kuriyedathu Thathri is secluded according to the norms and a Smartavicharam trial (at the end of the story is a small description of the Smartavicharm) is launched. The Cochin King as required sanctions it. The public interest was huge, for rumor had it that the lady was a very clever and apparently popular person with much ammunition up her sleeve.
This sensational Smaartha Vichaaram involved Savithry (Thaathri) the wife of Chemmanthatta Kuriyedathu Raman Namboodiri, and daughter of Kalpakasseri Ashtamoorthi Namboodiri of Mukundapuram Taluk.
The Smartan who administers Vedic laws is none other than the famed Jathavedan Namboothiri of the Perumannan gramam. Thathri is sitting in a special outhouse (Achanpura or pacholapura) built for the seclusion and imprisonment during the trail. She has no problems at all and seems serene and ready to face the questioning. Unlike other timid prisoners, this is a proud and beautiful lady who had controlled many weak men above her for the last few years. She was not intimidated. Savithri was known for her beauty and she had been married off at the age of 18 to a 60 year old man .
The smarthan (prosecutor) and three Namboothiri scholars questioned Thaathri, who accepted all the charges but stated that the rule of law has to be administered equally. If she had to be pronounced guilty, so should the people who slept with her. They were people of supposedly high moral standing, and with that basis Thathri revealed the names of well-known scholars, musicians, kathakali artists and many other prominent people of that time, not only of the Kochi state but also the entire Malabar belt, who had slept with her. She also presented strong evidence to substantiate her charges including visual and written evidence (letters written by lovers, prominent marks on genital areas etc).
The pillars of the caste system started trembling. The King was in trouble and the public uproar severe. So against norms where only Thathri would have been implicated, the King agreed to administer equal justice. The reader must note here that a normal Smartavicharam involved only the lady and not the men. However based on the Kings ruling, the Smartan questioned the involved men as well and convicted the guilty. It was thus a landmark case. As the names started coming out, the number of nervous men increased. Many ran away, escaped to other nations even, many others conducted poojas so that Thathri would forgot their names & features (for she had to provide proof of physical characteristics of the men too). It is said that the lady was finally made to stop at man # 64. Salacious gossip to the effect that the 65th was probably going to the king himself went around like wildfire. It is said in jest that she could in theory have named not just 65, but 60,000, but the case was finally curtailed,
The verdict was pronounced on the night of July 13, 1905, indicting all the accused and of course Thaathri. They included 30 Namboothiris, 10 Iyers (Pattars or Tamil Brahmanans), 13 Ambalavaasis and 11 Nairs. Thaathri was sent to Chalakudy and settled as an intern in a riverside home, under tight security. The 64 victims left their homes humiliated, some living on bare subsistence allowance and some, begging. Another two ("Ambalavaasis") had died and hence not proceeded against.
The long list of victims of smartha vicharam had a disastrous effect on the cultural scene in Kerala. Celebrated kathakali artists like Kavungal Sankara Panikkar, Kaattalathu Madhavan Nair, Panangavil Govindan Nambiar, Achytha Poduval and many others had to leave their fields & professions. Following this event the Cochin Raja mentioned that future ‘SmarthaVicharanam’s’ required a large deposit in the state treasury for the reason that such public embarrassments (naming of prominent men) do not take place arbitrarily."
Courtesy:- http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/philosophy-traditions/4353-parinayam-heavy-malayalam-movie.html
