 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2011) |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Palakkad district, Kerala Travancore Region (Thiruvananthapuram district, Alappuzha district), Kerala Thrissur district, Kerala Ernakulam district, Kerala Calicut district, Kerala[citation needed] | |
| Languages | |
| Tamil, Malayalam | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Iyers, Namboothiris, Tamil Brahmin |
Kerala Iyers, Pattars or Bhattars are Hindu Brahmins of the Indian state of Kerala; people who were residents in the Kerala region. The community consists of two groups: the Palakkad Iyers and the Iyera of the Cochin and Travancore regions.[1]
Kerala Iyers, like the Iyers of Tamil Nadu and the Nambudiris of Kerala, belonged to the Pancha-Dravida classification of India's Brahmin community. They mostly belonged to the Vadama and Brahacharanam sub-sects. Iyers were usually not recruited as the priest (shanthi) in Kerala temples which followed Tantric rituals. So Iyers being Vedic scholars built their own temples in their Agraharams to conduct puja, since they followed different rituals and not the Tantric rituals of the Nambudiris.[2]
- ^ Haridas, V. V. (2016). Zamorins and the political culture of medieval Kerala. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. p. 36. ISBN 9788125061281.
- ^ Temples of Kerala