Kaniyar are a caste of India with origins in the states of Kerala and Karnataka. There are regional variations in the name used to define them. The Kerala Public Service Commission considers Kaniyar Panicker (otherwise known as Kaniyan, Kanisu, Ganaka, Kanisan, Kamnan, and Kani) to be one group in their list of designated Other Backward Classes, and Kalari Panicker (otherwise referred to as Kalari Kurup) to be another.^[1] .Dakshina Kannada region of Karnataka, they are known by the name Balyaya.

Various occupational groups exist within the caste. For example, traditionally the Kaniyar Panicker were found in the area of Malabar and northern Travancore, and the title recognised their occupation as teachers of physical exercises, especially those relating to military purposes, as well as their role as Hindu astrologers. The Kaniyar Asan members of the caste, who did not teach such things, were primarily to be found in southern Travancore.^[2] The Tinta group, and in particular the women, were makers of palm-leaf umbrellas;^[3] the group members also exorcised spirits, with their name literally meaning "polluting".^[2] As with the various transliterated names, so too the occupational titles adopt various spellings, such as Panikkar and Aasaan.^{[citation needed]}

Historically, the various Kaniyar groups were endogamous. The root word kani is a Malayam corruption of the Sanskrit word for an astrologer, ganaka.^[3]

Traditions of origin[link]

There are various myths traditionally believed by caste members regarding their connections with astrology and, in some cases, the origins of the caste itself. Edgar Thurston, a government official who compiled a survey of Indian castes based on existing writings,^[4] attempted to summarise them in 1909:^[5]

• a gift of divine knowledge from the god Subrahmanya

• they are the offspring of a revered Brahmin astrologer, Thalakkakalathur Bhattathiripad, who suffered misfortune, mistakenly thought a Kaniyan woman was his wife while engrossed in his thoughts of home and was outcast for the relationship. He went on to have children with the woman and taught them the traditional practices of astrology as known at that time only to the Brahmins.^[6]

• a Ganakan sage was making predictions for a Sudra while in an unclean state, which caused the sage to be cursed and condemned him and his descendants to be teachers and astrologers to all castes below the level of the Brahmin caste.

• they are the descendants of a union between a Gandharva woman and a Brahmin saint called Kani, whose grandson appeased Subrahmanya.

• Parvati, the wife of Parameswara, and Agni were conducting a relationship that was under threat of being discovered, causing Agni to hide inside the body of Parvati. Parvati became ill due to this inner presence, her husband cried to see her in such pain and one of his tears turned into a man. This man relieved the pain using incense, the fumes from which allowed Agni to make his escape. Seeing his wife's relief Parameswara blessed the man and appointed both him and his descendants to exorcise demons, cure diseases and predict the future.

• the Malabar Kaniyars have associated themselves with the Valluvar caste of astrologers, priests and doctors of Tamil Nadu. The Valluvars moved into the area, practised their calling and took on the local name of Kaniyan, effectively demoting the existing Kaniyars to the Tinta group.

More recently, Kathleen Gough recorded that the caste believed that they were descended from a degraded section of the Tamil Brahmins and that they ascribed their "rudimentary" knowledge of Sanskrit, medicine and astrology to those origins.^[7]

Traditional occupations[link]

Thurston reported in 1909 that the caste was not flourishing because its members relied on their traditional occupation of astrology and were averse to manual labour. He stated that they were generally intelligent people who were "well versed in both Malayam and Sanskrit", punctilious in both manner and appearance, and conservative in cultural matters. In some areas they were strictly vegetarian but in others would eat meat and fish. Thurston said that:

The Kaniyars are practically the guiding spirits in all the social and domestic concerns of the Travancoreans, and even Muhammadans and Christians do not fail to profit by their wisdom.^[8]

Gough has argued that the caste in many ways played the role of

pseudo-Brahmans in relation to the lower castes ... Their lore was, of course, a much simplified version of Brahman lore. Through them, however, some of the elements of Sanskrit religious belief and practices were filtered to lower caste people who could not attend high-caste temples or receive Brahmanical services ... [They] served as media for the Sankritisation of the lower castes ...^[7]

The traditional vocations of astrology and astronomy, which also required a knowledge of mathematics,^[9] were noted by western visitors such as Marco Polo in the 13th century and the Portguese traveller Duarte Barbosa^[10] in the 16th century. Cowrie shells were among the devices used for divination^[11] and at around this period they were a prosperous community, called upon by kings for their knowledge and in much demand generally at the time of sowing seeds, harvests, sickness and many other life events. They were, however, a very low caste according to Thurston.^[8]

The vocations of exorcism and sorcery were limited to the Tinta group, who used a dance called Kolam Thullal in order to drive out the evil spirits. This dance would be performed around the affected person in their own home and was believed to frighten the spirit into leaving. A dance was also used to cure ills when other forms of medicine had failed.^[12] These dances are now generally appreciated as folk art and are featured in padayani performances in Devi temples. Although the modern dances (which occur in the temples of Alappuzha, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam) are performed by Nairs (a caste which had a social rank higher than the Kaniyars),^[7] it is the Kaniyars who decorate the elaborate costumes.^[13]

Thurston also reported that many Kaniyars were once teachers but that by the time of his writing the occupation was in decline due to "the abolition of the old methods of teaching".^[3] The teaching had been primarily of low caste children in village schools.^[7] The arrival of the British in the area saw the demise of traditional teaching, with Sanskrit teaching being deprecated in favour of its English counterpart, disruption due to various wars and also a discouragement of the village schools in general. The standard of literacy declined greatly for nearly a century and began to improve once more with the advent of state aid for (principally English-based) education at the end of the 19th century.^[14] Thurston also said that some Kaniyars were "clever physicians"; and that those who were less learned were the umbrella makers. He remarked that the occupation as umbrella makers was also in decline, this being due to foreign imports.^[3]

Aside from general teaching, the Kaniyar Panicker also operated kalari, which were schools for the instruction of young Nairs in the martial arts and warfare, specifically the art of Kalaripayattu. They also taught fencing to the Izhava caste.^[7] Kalari Panicker and Gurukkal^{[citation needed]} are other names used for the northern group because of their involvement with these schools. They asserted that because of this they were superior to the Asan members of the caste, who were primarily to be found in southern Travancore.^[2][7] Apart from Veda, some members also studied Tantra, Mantra and yantra writing.^[15]

Religious and social customs[link]

Kaniyars were worshippers of the gods Subrahmanya, Shiva, Vishnu and various Bhagavati, as well as the sun, moon and other planets. Kaniyars worshipped daily, with each day of the week being dedicated to a different planet.^[3] More generally, they tended to follow in large part the high-caste Hindu ceremonies, including the pre-puberty ritual^[3] known as talikettu. There were ritual exorcisms of infants at the age of seven or nine days, followed by education from the age of seven and a coming-of-age ceremony similar to the "sacred thread" upanayana of the higher castes at the age of sixteen. It was at this point that the newly-confirmed adult would be taught about sorcery and astrology, a process which lasted 41 days during which the student had to abstain from meat and alcoholic drink as well as performing daily prayers to the planets. Only after completing this phase, which was marked by a ceremony similar to the high caste samavartanam, could a Kaniyar marry.^[16]

The Kaniyars had practised fraternal polyandry, whereby several brothers would share one wife, although this practice appears to have been becoming less common by the time of Thurston's writing. An earlier ethnologist, L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, had remarked that the fact that the brothers often travelled away from home in order to earn their living as astrologers meant that in a practical sense there was usually only one husband in the house at any given time. Inheritance was through the father to the oldest son.^[17]

Although there were social leaders in various areas where the Kaniyar were concentrated, it was the spiritual headmen who held much respect. These people, who were known as kannalmas, received payments from every household on festive occasions and held the power to adjudge on social and moral matters.^[3]

Community dialect[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Apart from using highly sanskritized language for the profession, an in caste dialect had been in prevalence among the Kaniyar caste ,till recently.

Notable people[link]

• The Niranam Poets, (1350-1450)

Further reading[link]

• Singh, Kumar Suresh (2003). People of India. 26. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 717. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=FRQwAQAAIAAJ&q=kaniyan&dq=kaniyan&hl=en&ei=f8m2TZWnOYnIuAOx7smiAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ. 

References[link]