Chakkiyar.--The Chakkiyars are a class of Ambalavasis, of whom the following account is given in the Travancore Census Report, 1901. The name is generally derived from Slaghyavakkukar (those with eloquent words), and refers to the traditional function of the caste in Malabar society. According to the Jatinirnaya, the Chakkiyars represent a caste growth of the Kaliyuga. The offence to which the first Chakkiyar owes his position in society was, it would appear, brought to light after the due performance of the upanayanasamskara. Persons, in respect of whom the lapse was detected before that spiritualizing ceremony took place, became Nambiyars. Manu derives Suta, whose functions are identical with the Malabar Chakkiyar, from a pratiloma union, i.e., of a Brahman wife with a Kshatriya husband. [9] The girls either marry into their own caste, or enter into the sambandham form of alliance with Nambutiris. They are called Illottammamar. Their jewelry resembles that of the Nambutiris. The Chakkiyar may choose a wife for sambandham from among the Nambiyars. They are their own priests, but the Brahmans do the purification (punyaham) of house and person after birth or death pollution. The pollution itself lasts for eleven days. The number of times the Gayatri (hymn) may be repeated is ten. The traditional occupation of the Chakkiyans is the recitation of Puranic stories. The accounts of the Avataras have been considered the highest form of scripture of the non-Brahmanical classes, and the early Brahmans utilised the intervals of their Vedic rites, i.e., the afternoons, for listening to their recitation by castes who could afford the leisure to study and narrate them. Special adaptations for this purpose have been composed by writers like Narayana Bhattapada, generally known as the Bhattatirippat, among whose works Dutavakya, Panchalisvayamvara, Subhadrahana and Kaunteyashtaka are the most popular. In addition to these, standard works like Bhogachampu and Mahanataka are often pressed into the Chakkiyar's service. Numerous upakathas or episodes are brought in by way of illustration, and the marvellous flow of words, and the telling humour of the utterances, keep the audience spell-bound. On the utsavam programme of every important temple, especially in North Travancore, the Chakkiyarkuttu (Chakkiyar's performance) is an essential item. A special building, known as kuttampalam, is intended for this purpose. Here the Chakkiyar instructs and regales his hearers, antiquely dressed, and seated on a three-legged stool. He wears a peculiar turban with golden rim and silk embossments. A long piece of cloth with coloured edges, wrapped round the loins in innumerable vertical folds with an elaborateness of detail difficult to describe, is the Chakkiyar's distinctive apparel. Behind him stands the Nambiyar, whose traditional kinship with the Chakkiyar has been referred to, with a big jar-shaped metal drum in front of