Korapuzha
Encyclopedia
Kozhikode district
Kozhikode District , formerly Calicut, is a district of Kerala state, situated on the southwest coast of India. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The district is 38.25% urbanised...
of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
state in India. It is formed by the confluence of two streams, Agalapuzha and Punnoorpuzha which originate in the mountains of Wayanad district. The Korapuzha empties into the Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
at Elathur
Elathur, Kozhikode
Elathur is a town which is recently added to Kozhikode corporation in the Indian state of Kerala. It is located about 12 km north of Calicut city on the Calicut-Kannur National Highway 17 and is bounded by Arabian Sea on the west and Korapuzha River on the north...
. The river and its main tributaries become tidal as they near the Arabian Sea. There is heavy boat traffic over the last 25 km (15.5 mi) of its course. It forms part of the West Coast Inland Navigation System.
The Korapuzha is generally considered as the cordon sanitaire
Cordon sanitaire
Cordon sanitaire — or quarantine line — is a French phrase that, literally translated, means "sanitary cordon". Though in French it originally denoted a barrier implemented to stop the spread of disease, it has often been used in English in a metaphorical sense to refer to attempts to prevent the...
between the North Malabar
North Malabar
North Malabar , is a historic as well as geographic distinction in India used to refer the area covering; present Kasaragod and Kannur Districts, Mananthavady taluk of Wayanad District and Koyilandy & Vatakara taluks of Kozhikode District in modern Kerala and the entire Mahé sub-Division of...
and South Malabar in the erstwhile Malabar District
Malabar District
Malabar District was an administrative district of Madras Presidency in British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad , and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District in the northern part of...
. Until the 20th century the Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...
women of North Malabar crossing the Korapuzha and going south or marrying a person from South Malabar was considered a taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
and those who violated faced Bhrasht (Ostracism) and forfeiture of caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
.
Origin of Korapuzha based prejudice
There are three versions among anthropologist, historians and sociologists on the origin of Korapuzha centred superior feeling of North MalabarNorth Malabar
North Malabar , is a historic as well as geographic distinction in India used to refer the area covering; present Kasaragod and Kannur Districts, Mananthavady taluk of Wayanad District and Koyilandy & Vatakara taluks of Kozhikode District in modern Kerala and the entire Mahé sub-Division of...
masses.
1. The Nambudiri movement of conversion of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
into caste (varna) based society began from North Malabar (their initial settlements) and for at least generation, its south had only little knowledge about it. The caste system that entered Kerala from the north, remained there for long to fragment infinitely the masses as it moved southward. The earlier converts claimed superiority over the later converts and thus giving rise to the taboo of North Malabar Nayar
Nayar
Nayar, Nayyar or Nair can refer to:Groups of people:* Naga People from North Eastern India* The successors of Nāga tradition* Nayar – a caste from the South Indian state of Kerala...
women to cross the Korapuzha on fear of caste forfeiture. These restrictions obviously served to consolidate and stabilize Brahminism during its initial missionary activity to North Malabar by confining its main props (Nayars), preventing them from external communication and contact.It required considerably long time to obliterate the past and erase public memory of a pre-varna society and initiate new measures to indoctrinate and mesmerize the masses to be voluntarily at the feet of the Nambudiri without a murmur of protest.This taboo that was indoctrinated in to the masses in the form of superior-rank-claim, survived into modern times, long after the purpose for its perception was served.
2. The second version bases this prejudice in Kolathiri
Kolathiri
Kolathiri or Kolathiri Rājā was the title by which the senior most male along the matilinial line of the Mushika or Kolathunādu Royal Family was styled...
– Zamorin rivalry. South Malabar defined as south of Korapuzha was the territory of the Zamorin with patronage for Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
merchants. The Kolathiri is said to have proscribed the crossing of Korapuzha by Nayar women of North Malaba] to ensure their security from violation by Arabs in Zamori] territory by mesmerizing his subjects of their superior-rank-claim. Thus indoctrinating the Korapuzha centred superior feeling of North Malabar Nayars.
3. The third version bases this prejudice in the social practice of observing pollution. Nayar] women of North Malabar, while in her period, did not eat or drink with any other member of her kin, and at the end on the fourth day, must be purified by maattu (change of raiment). It involved, after a bath, accepting washed clothes from the washerwoman normally ordained for the Vannan caste (vannathi) .Pollution, which may come through a death in the family, through child birth, or menstruation must also be removed by maattu. There was no avoiding it. Until it was done, and it must be done on the fourth day, the woman was out of caste. It must be done in the right way at the right moment under pain of the most unpleasant social consequences. As the Vannan caste was a rarity towards South, the Nayar women could not ritualistically afford to venture past south of Korapuzha without fear of caste forfeiture.