For the following note on Malabar Kammalans I am indebted to Mr. S. Appadorai Iyer. The five artisan classes, or Ayinkudi Kammalans, are made up of the following:--
Asari, carpenters. Musari, braziers. Tattan, goldsmiths. Karuman, blacksmiths. Chembotti or Chempotti, coppersmiths.
The name Chembotti is derived from chembu, copper, and kotti, he who beats. They are, according to Mr. Francis, "coppersmiths in Malabar, who are distinct from the Malabar Kammalans. They are supposed to be descendants of men who made copper idols for temples, and so rank above the Kammalans in social position, and about equally with the lower sections of the Nayars."
The Kammalans will not condescend to eat food at the hands of Kurups, Tolkollans, Pulluvans, Mannans, or Tandans. But a Tandan thinks it equally beneath his dignity to accept food from a Kammalan. The Kammalans believe themselves to be indigenous in Malabar, and boast that their system of polyandry is the result of the sojourn of the exiled Pandavas, with their common wife Panchali, and their mother Kunthi, in the forest of the Walluvanad division. They say that the destruction of the Pandavas was attempted in the Arakkuparamba amsam of this division, and that the Tac'chans (artisans) were given as a reward by the Kurus the enjoyment of Tacchanattukara amsam. They state further that the Pandus lived for some time at the village of Bhimanad, and went to the Attapadi valley, where they deposited their cooking utensils at the spot where the water falls from a height of several hundred feet. This portion of the river is called Kuntipuzha, and the noise of the water, said to be falling on the upset utensils, is heard at a great distance.
The Kammalans, male and female, dress like Nayars, and their ornaments are almost similar to those of the Nayars, with this difference, that the female Tattan wears a single chittu or ring in the right ear only.
In the building of a house, the services of the Asari are required throughout. He it is who draws the plan of the building. And, when a door is fixed or beam raised, he receives his perquisite. The completion of a house is signified as a rule by a kutti-poosa. For this ceremony, the owner of the house has to supply the workmen with at least four goats to be sacrificed at the four corners thereof, a number of fowls to be killed so that the blood may be smeared on the walls and ceiling, and an ample meal with liquor. The feast concluded, the workmen receive presents of rings, gold ear-rings, silk and other cloths, of which the Moothasari or chief carpenter receives the lion's share. "The village carpenter," Mr. Gopal Panikkar writes, [80] "has to do everything connected with our architecture, such as fixing poles or wickets at the exact spot where buildings are to be erected, and clearing newly erected buildings of all devils and demons that may be haunting them. This he does by means of pujas (worship) performed after the completion of the building. But people have begun to break through the village traditions, and to entrust architectural work to competent hands, when the village carpenter is found incompetent for the same."