8 Generations of Maternal History
through photographs.
I am the 7th generation. So, listing all the generations before me and their history here with photographs/paintings.
Much work has gone into compiling all this information. Hope you enjoy this valuable part of history that I like to share.
In the west the trend to find your ancestry started around 20 years ago when President Clinton decided to do it and went to Ireland to visit the places of his ancestors.
People in the United States pay thousands of dollars to trace their lineage which got me thinking… what kind of legacy am I leaving my children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren? So decided to document it. I am one of the more fortunate ones I guess who could trace my ancestry to seven generations prior. Karanavars (patriarchs) in my family diligently documented the history and thanks to them, I am able to find records and photographs/paintings easily. My pranams to them and their efforts.
We belong to a matrilineal lineage. (In the matrilineal system or marumakkathayam system, the family lived together in a tharavadu which was composed of a mother, her brothers and younger sisters, and her children. The oldest male member was known as the karanavar and was the head of the household, managing the family estate. Lineage was traced through the mother, and the children belonged to the mother's family. Surnames/last names would be of the maternal side. All family property was jointly owned. In the event of a partition, the shares of the children were clubbed with that of the mother. The karanavar's property was inherited by his sisters' sons/daughters rather than his own children).
Why were there no girls of childbearing age in the family? The reasons are unknown.
It was soon after Tipu Sultan’s invasion of Malabar. For those who do not know Malabar History, Tipu Sultan the king of Mysore was a very cruel and ambitious king whose aim was to not only conquer Kerala but also convert every being in Kerala to Islam. Convert or die was his policy. Many women were raped and thus forcefully converted or murdered.
As the family did not have any female progenies, two girls (twins) were adopted from another family in Vazhayoor near Ramananttukkara near Kozhikode in Kerala.
Parappil Raru Menon was the Karnavar (head) then and since it was a matrilineal system officially it was his sister who acted like their mother. Thus Raru Menon became their Uncle.
Uncles had a very important role to play in the lives of their sisters and their children, as the girls continue to stay in their own house even after their weddings and are entitled to inherit their mother’s property.
Narayani Amma was married to Mullasseri Velappa Menon (her cousin) who was the son of Parappil Raru Menon (the gentleman who adopted the twins into the Parappil family). Marrying your Uncle's children were quite common those days.
She had 2 sons and 4 daughters who continued the Parappil lineage.
𝐄𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐤𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐀𝐦𝐦𝐚, married to Kottakkal Kovilakam (Kingdom of Zamorin’s family) thus forming the Kottakkal Thavazhi. There are no photographs that exist of Kunjikutty Amma, unfortunately.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐤𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐲'𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐢 𝐊𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐊𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐤𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐳𝐡𝐢.
She is the great grandmother of Sivasankara Menon (National security advisor and Foreign Secretary of India) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivshankar_Menon
She was probably born around 1885 and was married to Ambalakkat Achutha Menon an eminent lawyer in Ooty. She had 1 daughter and two sons. Her daughter Rukmini is my grandmother. Unfortunately, she was a victim of the Marumakkathayam system. While enjoying a luxurious life in Ooty with her caring, loving husband, she had to give it all up when he died suddenly and was sent back to Kerala with her children to her mother’s house with just the clothes on her back. Marumakkathayam (matrilineal) system was responsible for it. The system was created for noble purposes, for the protection of women during a war, etc and as ancestral properties were passed on from one generation of mothers to another However when men started earning on their own in the late 1800s there were no set rules as to what would happen to their wealth. So as per the existing traditions, any possessions that the men owned had to be passed on to his sisters and her children. Things changed after people started writing their wills and passing the wealth to their wives and children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marumakkathayam)
(My mother is standing second from right. 4 generations are represented here)
She was fortunate to be one of the first Indian students in Nazareth the British convent in Ooty. Thus unlike girls from her generation, she was well educated, well-read, and could read, write and speak English, Malayalam, and Tamil fluently.
She was only 15 when she married my grandfather who was 20 years her senior. Yet they had a bliss-filled married life and were together for 54 years.
My grandmother Rukmini is my favorite person ever.
Here is a blog I wrote about her: https://ammusmusings.blogspot.com/2020/06/my-hero.html
My father worked with the Ordinance factories for 35 years and together, they were amazing parents and a great team.
My mother was very broadminded and way beyond her years and we remained friends till the day she passed in 2014.
Both my parents were well-educated, well-read, sincere, honest individuals who inculcated great values in my siblings and me.
Extremely proud of them and am lucky to have parents like them.
All the sweaters you see here were knitted by my mother. She was so talented and intelligent that she created her own patterns and was an expert in knitting, smocking, crochet, brocading, embroidery, baking, writing-directing plays, writing stories and poems to name a few...
Thank you Padmini for sharing such priceless piece of history through your commentaries and incredible pictures
ReplyDelete...So so proud of you..
Thank you Meerachechi!
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ReplyDeleteEight generations of family history!Interesting!
Names like Kunjitheyee and They'ee are quite familiar to me as I had some muthassis named Kunjitheyee, Ithukkuty and so on
Anyhow thank you very much for this informative peice
What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing this! I love the honor given to women in the maternal system!!
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