Thandan or Thandayan is the honorary title given to the headman of the

Thiyya The Ezhavas () are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the population and were reported to be the largest Hindu community. They are also known as ''Ilhava'' ...

community people in

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

Thrissur Thrissur (), formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and t ...

district, who reside in the Indian State of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. Thandan is the hereditary headman of a Thiyyar tara (village) and is a Thiyyar by

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

. He is appointed by the senior Rani of the

Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited by ...

's family or by a local Raja in territories outside the Zamorin's jurisdiction. Thandan becomes the of the or . They are designated as

Other Backward Classes The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...

by the

Government of Kerala Government of Kerala is the subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision ...

as per anthropological studies conducted by the Kerala Institute of Research, and Development Studies.

Status

''Thandan'' was the most commonly-used title to represent the highest privilege among the Thiyyar of the

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

area. The most notable Thiyyar of the

Malabars Malabari is a term used for Indians originating from the Malabar region. The region does includes the present state of Kerala in India ''or'' southwestern coast. See also *Malabar district Malabar District, also known as Malayalam D ...

received the title as Thandan for their service to the state either in the administration of

Malabar district Malabar District, also known as Malayalam District, was an administrative district on the southwestern Malabar Coast of Bombay Presidency (1792-1800) and Madras Presidency (1800-1947) in British India, and independent India's Madras State (19 ...

. The Thandan, the privileged Thiyyar-Karanavar in a has to carry out the instructions of the politically powerful. He was powerful enough to rule the caste people in his area. In Malabar, the smallest political unit is known as . The head of the is known as , "The one who got privilege from the king."

1. According to Historian A.K.iyer, "Thandan.-Thiyya like the Nayars receive titles from the rulers of the State. That of thandan is purchasable and gives a person the right to be the headman of the caste in his village. He can wear a gold knife and style, may walk before a Nayar with a cloth on his head, ride on a palaquin or a horse, carry a silk umbrella and have a brass lamp borne before him. For each of these privileges he pays separately a tax to the Sircar. Any person using these privileges unauthorised lays himself opeh to a penalty. A Thandan cannot go for cooly work such as ploughing and gathering cocoanuts: Below him there is an inferior officer who is called a Ponamban. Thus in Cochin it is a title pos- Beseed by the headman of the caste, while in the Valluvanad Taluk, the name is applied to a sub-caste. Habits.-Their habits are settlod and they are found in all parts of the State. Houses.- The poorer classes of people live in huts with mud walls and thatched roofs, with a room or two and a verandah either in front or all around, while the richer people have their houses like those, of the Nayars".

2. According to F.Fawcett, "headman of the Tiyans ealled the " Tandan," comes to the temple followed by two of his caste- men oarrying slung on a pole over their shoulders three banches of young cocoanuts, an appropriate offering, This time thero will be loud dramming and a large crowd with the Tandan, and in front of him are men dancing about, imitating sword play with sticks and shields, clanging the shields, palling at bows as if firing off imaginary arrows, the while shouting and yelling madly. The sticks represent swords".

References

{{Reflist

External links

Supreme Court Verdict on Thiyya thandan of North kerala and thandan caste of South

Socio- cultural Study on Thirurangadi

Indian castes Malayali people Indian surnames ml:തണ്ടാർ