Q-14. Will you please comment on this? I know that the Tamil Brahmanan sub-castes mentioned above are usually Aapastambins if they are Yajurvedis and if Samavedis, followers of Kauthuma Saakha and Draahyaayani Sutra. As you know, these Vedic Saakhaas and Sutraas do not exist among the Namboothiris at all. (Prof. Mahadevan, Howard University, USA)

Ans: No Namboothiri is found as Aapasthamba Yajurvedis. But the "Pattathyaar Madhom" family of Thodupuzha (east of Ernakulam Dist. followed Aapasthamba. Now they follow Boudhaayana. When they came and why it is so are unknown. Maybe, a Tamil Brahmanan married a Namboothiri girl and thus evolved traditions which are closer to the Namboothiri tradition.

No Namboothiri is found today as Koutthuma or Draahyaayani (Raanaayani) but there is reason to believe that there were. (All Namboothiri Saamavedis are of Jaimineeya). Namboothiris strongly believe that the Koutthuma and Draahyaayani Namboothiris later converted themselves to other Samaveda tradition as there was a lack of priests to teach their style of Vedic chanting, and to perform Yaagam, cremation ceremony, etc. In Koodiyaattam, there is a mention that when he heard that someone died, the "Vidooshakan" (comedian character) worriedly enquires if the expired person is a "Chandokan" (Koutthuma) or not. He worries about the difficulty in getting a priest for conducting cremation according to the expired person's Vedic recension. Since Koodiyaattam was evolved several centuries back, these two Saamavedi sub-classes would have become extinct long back.

Most of the Tamil Brahmanans in Kerala, as far as I know, are Yajurvedi Boudhaayana or Samaavedi Koutthuma.

Adv. B Agnisarman Namboothiri
Athrasseri Mana
P.O.: Trikkalathur - 683 557