"It is said that Parasu Rama ruled that all Nambudri women should carry with them an umbrella whenever they go out, to prevent their being seen by those of the male sex, that a Nayar woman called a Vrishali should invariably precede them, that they should be covered with a cloth from neck to foot, and that they should not wear jewels. These women are therefore always attended by a Nayar woman in their outdoor movements, and they go sheltering their faces from public gaze with a cadjan (palm leaf) umbrella." [88] The Keralolpatti relates the story of the exclusion of the Panniyur Brahmans from the Vedas. There were in the beginning two religious factions among the Nambutiris, the Vaishnavas or worshippers of Vishnu in his incarnation as a boar, and the Saivas; the former residing in Panniyur (boar village), and the latter in Chovur (Siva's village). The Saivas gained the upper hand, and, completely dominating the others, excluded them altogether from the Vedas. So now the Nambutiris of Panniyur are said to be prohibited from studying the Vedas. It is said, however, that this prohibition is not observed, and that, as a matter of fact, the Panniyur Nambutiris perform all the Vedic ceremonies. "Tradition," Mr. N. Subramani Aiyar writes, "as recorded in the Keralamahatmiya, traces the Nambutiris to Ahikshetra, whence Parasu Rama invited Brahmans to settle in his newly reclaimed territory. In view to preventing the invited settlers from relinquishing it, he is said to have introduced, on the advice of the sage Narada, certain deep and distinctive changes in their personal, domestic, and communal institutions. The banks of the Nerbudda, the Krishna, and the Kaveri are believed to have given Brahmans to Malabar. I have come across Nambutiris who have referred to traditions in their families regarding villages on the east coast whence their ancestors originally came, and the sub-divisions of the Smarta caste, Vadama, Brihatcharanam, Ashtasahasram, Sanketi, etc., to which they belonged. Even to this day, an east coast Brahman of the Vadadesattu Vadama caste has to pour water into the hands of a Nambutiri Sanyasi as part of the latter's breakfast ritual. Broach in Kathiwar, one of the greatest emporiums of trade in the middle ages, is also mentioned as one of the ancient recruiting districts of the Nambutiri Brahmans. Broach was the ancient Bhrigucachchha, where Parasu Rama made his avabhritasnana (final bathing) after his great triumph over the Kshatriyas, and where to this day a set of people called Bhargava Brahmans live. Their comparatively low social status is ascribed to the original sin of their Brahman progenitor or founder having taken to the profession of arms. The date of the first settlement of the Nambutiris is not known. Orthodox tradition would place it in the Tretayuga, or the second great Hindu cycle. The reference to the gramams of Chovvur and Panniyur contained in the Manigramam Syrian Christian grant of