Kurichiya

Kurichiya or Kurichiyar also known as Hill Brahmins or Malai Brahmins are a matrilineal tribe of Kerala distributed mainly in Wayanad and Kannur districts of Kerala, India. Kurichiyans are one of the Scheduled Tribes of Kerala practicing agriculture.

The name Kurichiyan was given by the Kottayam Raja to this class of people as they were adepts in archery. The word Kurichiyan is derived from two words kuri (target) and chiyan (people).

Generally their houses are found in clusters and cluster of houses in one settlement is called Mittom also known as Tharavadu. A lineage head called Karanavar heads a Mittom. In addition to Karanavan, Kurichiya society includes medicine man, and other social functionaries such as Pittan. Joint family system is common among the Kurichiyan. Society is divided into lineages headed by lineage heads. A female initiation ritual called the pandal pattu is performed before a girl’s menarche and after the ear boring ceremony among the tribe. Among the Kurichiyas, a husband may divorce his wife any time he likes : but the wife has to bring her case before the elders, if she wants to leave him, and they decide the question. The Kurichiyans bury their dead ; an arrow is buried with the body if a male, and a scythe if a female. Seven days' pollution is observed and rice is offered to the soul of the departed. The funeral ceremony on a grand scale is observed at any time convenient in the year. They have no priests : the elders act for the occasion. The deceased ancestors are remembered and once a year, toddy, meat, etc., are placed in a room for their use and subsequently enjoyed by the Kurichiyans. They occupy the highest status among the Wynad tribes in point of caste, they do not take meals of any caste but of the Brahmins and the Nayars of Wynad : their houses are polluted if any other caste man should enter the same : and the slightest suspicion is enough to put a man or woman out of the caste. These outcastes have, on such occasion, been taken to the Christian fold.

The Kurichiyas worship some of the same deities as other Hindus in Kerala, such as Kuttichathan and Vettakkaran, and Kali (also called Mariamma). The Kurichiyas worship their deceased ancestors, called Nizhal (shadows) as well as a number of deities unique to their tribe. They worship Malakkari (Kari of the hills) and the fierce Mother-Goddess Karimpili (the dark one from the hills). Offering to the deities is given after the harvest in either of the two methods Thera or Koll. For the Thera, the platform or shrine where the puja (worship) is to be performed is purified by holy water from a Brahmin's hands, and a Kurichiyan dressed up for the occasion, with a white head-dress, acts as an oracle. The KumbTiam-Vettal (cutting the vessel) then takes place, the Muppen-headman cutting a bamboo piece full of toddy. Then all similar bamboo pieces in which toddy will have been brought are emptied and the contents consumed. In the offering known as Koll beaten rice, plantains and jaggery are placed on a plantain leaf at the shrine and the Muppen, after prayers, distributes them.

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Wikipedia