Malabar, a tract of country extending along the western coast of India, from Cape Comorin to the River Chandragri, in N. lat. 12° 30'. Frequently the name Malabar, however, is erroneously applied to the whole country from Bombay to the southern extremity. Brit- ish Malabar is situated between the 10th and 13th de- grees of N. lat., belongs to the presidency of JNIadras, and has a population of 1,514,909. By far the most exten- sive portion of Malabar lies iu the vicinity of the Ghaut
MALABAR
672
MALACCA
Mountains, and consists of low hills, separated by narrow but fertile valleys. The upland is barren, and the cul- tivation much neglected; and it is in the valleys, and extensive ravines, and upon the banks of the rivers that the inhabitants chiefly reside. Until a recent period slavery existed in Malabar, but in 1843 a legislative en- actment was passed by the British government, by the provisions of which slavery has been abolished through- out the whole extent of the British possessions in the East. The country is distinguished by the neatness of its villages, which are superior to any in India, being built of mud, neatly smoothed, and either whitewashed or painted ; their picturesque effect is heightened by the beauty and elegant dresses of the Brahmin girls. The villages, as well as the bazaars, are the work of foreign- ers, the aboriginal natives of Malabar living in detached houses surrounded with gardens. The higher ranks use little clothing, but are remarkably clean in their per- sons, and all ranks are free from cutaneous distempers excepting the very lowest castes.
History. — It is supposed that IMalabar was, at a very early period, conquered by a king from above the Ghauts. The Nairs may have been established at the same time by the conqueror, or called in by the Brahmins, as a mil- itary body to support the government. In process of time they obtained settlements in the land, and the chiefs, taking every opportunity to aggrandize them- selves, became rajahs, and from a remote period contin- ued to govern Malabar like independent princes. In 1760 the Mohammedans first effected an entrj' here un- der Hyder Ali, who subdued the country in 1761, and expelled all the rajahs except such as conciliated him by immediate submission. Disturbances were occa- sioned by these proceedings, but he succeeded in estab- lishing his authority, and in 1782 appointed a deputy, who made still further progress in subduing and settling the country. In 1788 Tippoo Sahib, his son, attempt- ed forcibly to supersede Hinduism by his own faith, Mohammedanism. This produced a serious rebellion, which, however, was soon quelled by his vigorous ad- ministration, but in the mean time the country was laid ^vaste by his tyrannical proceedings. On the break- ing out of the war between Tippoo and the British in 1790, the refractory rajahs and Nairs joined the British, and Tippoo was driven from the country ; Jlalabar be- came a portion of the British possessions of India, and, with slight disturbances, has since remained in the hands of the English. Under the management of the British the countrj' is said to be advancing in prosperity.
Ri:U[/ion. — The original manners and i^eculiar customs of the Hindus have been preserved in Malabar in much greater purity than in other parts of India. Besides the Hindus, who form the greater proportion of the inhabi- tants, the pojiulation consists of Moplays or Mohamme- dans, Christians, and Jews. The Hindus arc divided into the following castes, namely, Namburies, or Brah- mins: the Nairs of various denominations; the Leers, or Liars, who are cultivators of the land, and freemen ; and, lastly, the Patiars, who were slaves or bondmen. Of these castes the most remarkable are the Nairs, the pure Sudras of Malabar, who all lay claim to be born soldiers, though they are of various ranks and proles- sions. There are altogether eleven ranks of Nairs, who form the militia of Malabar, under the Brahmins and rajahs. They are proud and arrogant to their inferiors, and in former times a Nair was expected instantly to cut down a cultivator or fisherman who presumed to de- file him by touching his person, or a Patiar who did not turn out of his road as a Nair passed. It is a remarka- ble custom among this class that a Nair never cohabits with the person whom he calls his wife; he gives her all proper allowances of clothing and food, hut she re- mains in her mother's or brother's housQ, and cohabits with any person or persons she chooses of ccpial rank; so that no Nair knows his own father, and the children all belong to the mother, whose claim to them admits of no doubt. This state of manners also prevails in neigh-
boring countries. The native Mussulmans (Moplays^) form about one fourth of the population ; thev are "de- scended from Hindu mothers by Arab fathers,"who set- tled in Malabar about the 7th or 8th centurv.
Christianity appears at a very early period to have made considerable progress on the INIalabar coast and there is a greater proportion of persons professing that religion in this country than in any other part of India. The accommodation theorj' of the Jesuits was practiced here in the 17th century by Pater Nobili. See IxniA. Three ecclesiastical chiefs — two appointed by the Portu- guese Church at Goa, and one by the see of Kome — rule over this establishment, besides the Babylonish bishops, who preside over the Nestorian community. The last- named Christians consider themselves descendants of converts made by the apostle Thomas in the 1st cen- tury. At the landing of Yasco de Gama, the native Christians are said to have numbered 200,000 souls. Dr. Buchanan, in his Journey from Madras, etc., however, computes them to number now only 40,000, with 44 churches. The total number of Christians on the Mal- abar coast, including the Syrians, or Nestorians, is esti- mated at 200.000 ; 90,000 of them are settled at Travan- core. There are also some 30,000 Jews in Malabar. See Cyclop. £ritannica, s. v. See Madras.