Extract of Book on WYNAD Its People and Tradition By Rao Hahadu C. GOPALAN NAIR pages 57-59. By Rao Hahadu C. GOPALAN NAIR pages 57-59.

About forty families of Mandadan Chettis  are to be found in   Veliyambam and Pulpalli desams in Puthadi amson.

           

            They are found nowhere in Wynad and they appear to have migrated from GudalurDivision  of the  Nilgiri District where, it is said about 500 families of this community exist.

            Between Mandadan Chettis and Wynadan Chettis, already mentioned, there is a similarity tha both bear the kuduma in front and the males interdine ; but the former follow Makkthayam and the latter Marumakkthayan.

            They have heir own paddy and hill cultivation and while hey do not go out as labourers, they manage to live on the proceeds of their own.

            They have no separate shrine for their God who is called “Athiralan,” and who is worshipped in every house, and any special offering they desire to make is made at Nambulakotta in Gudalur (Nilgiri District) once a year. Marriage  is permissible before or after puberty. Arrangements are made by the bridegroom’s father or uncle and on the day fixed for the wedding, the father and, in his absence, the paternal uncle or elder brother proceeds to the bride’s   house with thali and ear ornaments, which are handed over to the father of the bride. She wears them and accompanies the party to the bridegroom’s home. The ceremony lasts generally for five days and the garlanding is done on the third day in a special pandal erected for the occasion, where the bridegroom ties the thali round the neck of the bride and they exchange garlands which, for a consideration of a rupee and eight anias, a Brahmin provides.

            Cremation is the rule among them except where children die, but in cases of death from cholera and small-pox, the dead are buried and not cremated. Fifteen days` pollution is observed after death.

            The husband may divorce the wife and the latter may marry again,but the children live with the father. On the husbands`  death his brother may marry the widow; in fact it is the brother’s right to marry her to the exclusion of a stranger.

            The origin of these Chettis cannot be ascertained. They have adopted the kuduma in front which is a Malabar custom; but everything else indicates their headquarters, as they represent, is in the Gudalur Division of the Nilgiri District, but their original home is unknown.

                                                      //TRUE EXTRACT//