Nambudiri

Southern Indian brahmin community, which is a sub-division of the
Dravida brahmins, one of five southern Indian brahmin communities
(Pancha Dravida). The Nambudiris’
traditional homeland is in the region
that is now the modern state of
Kerala. The Nambudiris are noted
throughout India for their learning
and piety. According to tradition, the
great philosopher Shankaracharya
was a Nambudiri brahmin. In his
desire to revitalize Hindu religion,
Shankaracharya reportedly chose one
Hindu sacred center in each corner of
the subcontinent, and at each established a Dashanami Sanyasi monastic center (math) to train learned
monks. One of these sacred centers
was at Badrinath in the Himalayas.
According to the Badrinath temple
records, for several hundred years the
temple worship was performed by
the Dandi Sanyasis, who were also
Nambudiri brahmins. When the last
of these died without a successor in
1776, the local king, who served as the
protector of the shrine, invited a nonascetic Nambudiri brahmin to serve
as the temple’s priest. This priest was
given the title rawal (“deputy”), and
his extended family has maintained
the shrine since then. The rawal was
the only person allowed to touch the
image of the presiding deity. As a
consequence he was required to
remain a bachelor, lest the ritual
impurity arising from the birth of a
child (sutakashaucha) render him
unable to attend to his duties. For a
long time the rawals had sole rights to
the offerings given at the shrine, but
since 1939 the temple has been managed by a committee, and the rawal
has been restricted to ritual duties.
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Namarupa