The Koil Tampurans are all regarded as blood relations, and observe birth and death pollutions like Dayadis among Brahmans. They follow the matriarchal system of inheritance. Nambutiri Brahmans marry their ladies. Their religious ceremonies are the same as those of Nambutiris, whom they resemble in the matter of food and drink. Their caste government is in the hands of the Nambutiri Vaidikans. Their ceremonies are the usual Brahmanical Samskaras--Gatakarma, Namakarana, Annaprasana, etc. Regarding the Namakarana, or naming, the only noteworthy fact is that the first-born male always goes by the name of Raja Raja Varma. The Upanayana, or investiture with the sacred thread, takes place in the sixteenth year of age. On the morning of the Upanayana, Chaula or the tonsure ceremony is performed. It is formally done by the Nambutiri priest in the capacity of Guru, just as the father does to his son among Brahmans, and afterwards left to be completed by the Maran. The priest invests the boy with the thread, and, with the sacrificial fire as lord and witness, initiates him in the Gayatri prayer. The Koil Tampurans are to repeat this prayer morning, noon and evening, like the Brahmans, but are to do so only ten times on each occasion. On the fourth day, the boy listens to a few Vedic hymns recited by the priest. There is not the prolonged course of severe discipline of the Brahmanical Brahmachari, which the Nambutiris so religiously observe. The Samavartana, or pupilage stage, is performed on the fifteenth day. The ceremony of proceeding to Benares is then gone through. Just as in the case of the Brahmans, a would-be father-in-law intercedes, and requests the Snataka (past Brahmachari) to bless his daughter, and settle in life as a Grihastha. The Nambutiri priest then steps in to remind the boy of his dharma (duty) as a Kshatriya, and gives him a sword symbolic of his pre-ordained function in society. The marriage of a Koil Tampuran does not present many peculiar features. One item in the programme, called Dikshavirippu, may be referred to. During all the four days of the marriage, the bride is confined to a special room, where a white cloth with a carpet over it is spread on the floor, and a lamp burns day and night. The ceremonial bridegroom is either an Aryappattar or a Nambutiri, now generally a Nambutiri. Of course, the marriage is a mere ceremonial, and the bridegroom at the ceremony is not necessarily the spouse of actual life. His death deprives her of the right to wear the tali, and makes her an Amangali (an inauspicious person) for all socio-religious purposes. At sraddhas (memorial service for the dead), the Tampuratti with her married husband alive faces the east, and one that has lost him has to look in the direction of Yamaloka (south).