It all depends how one wants to classify for examples Nairs/Menons.
If one calssifies them as Kshatriya Varna ..then obviously you have the Rajus of the Kshatriya Varna in Andhra Pradesh.
Thanks for throwing some light. But what was the actual fact? What truly was the basis on which Tamil Society was classified? I think we need to probe into the actual facts than how we perceive. Perceptions will vary. What was the reality is what I am trying to find out.
As far as Tamil Community is concerned, my humble opinion is there were caste system during Azhwar/Nayanmar period. But there was no discrimination based on caste during that period.
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All these things happened during 7th to 9 th Century AD.
It is my humble opinion that caste based discriminations have started cropping up in the subsequent period only.
We can probably analyse the subsequent period based on available information.
Renu, the orthodox view is that Nairs / Menons are Shudra.
In the dharmashastra period, Kshatriyas had to undergo certain samskaras, including the upanayana investiture.
However the foreign hordes such as the Kambhoja, Yavana, Savara, Khasas, etc considered mlechha in the east of india (bengal), also seem to have been considered the same way in the south. Being outside the fold of vedic rites, they did not undergo samskaras required for warriors.
Framework of communities (and their names) mostly began occuring around the 2nd to 3rd century. This is the period when puranas began to be written and geneologies began to be constructed. Dharmashastras written during and after this period also contradicted things written in the early dharmashastras. This period was also the after-math of the absorption of indo-scythians into hindu religion.
Despite the construction of elaborate geneologies, it is hard to say which were the communities that existed at that time; and if claims of being kshatriya were made by them (since the geneologies included people of various occupation groups).
It appears that the revival of the vedic religion, after the 8th century, might have resulted in dominant groups claiming a kshatriya status. These claims obviously become the most vociferous and hit a cresendo in the colonial period.
After the huge gap between the vedic times to the 15th century, communities began claiming to be kshatriyas (as a reward for fighting the Mughals or so it seems).
Communities that came to exist, such as the Marathas, Nairs and Kayasthas adopted the upanayanam ceremony (not all, but sub-sects within them) to become part of the vedic religion. The community called Rajus were non-existent before the medieval period. Marathas adopted upanayanam around the 1600s, Nairs (or those that became Malayala Kshatriya) did so around the 17th century, and Kayasthas increasingly did so in the colonial period just as the telugu Arya Vysyas (who claimed vaishya varna status).
Among the Tamil communities, the Vellalars, Thevars or Gounders, etc do not undergo the upanayanam ceremony, but claim to be kshatriyas.
Its interesting to note that of all the tamil communities, its the Nadars who traditionally performed upanayanam (not as an adopted practice, but apparently since a very long time as their own traditional practice).
Koundinya rishi who discovered the brewing technique is considered to be the progenitor or kula guru by former soma brewing (later liquor brewing) communities.
Its really hard to say who were part of the vedic tradition in the ancient times and who were not. I have been reading the works of indologists and historians who mention that the vedic communities of the BC times disappeared somewhere along the way, most probably during the Buddhism period, having merged into the larger masses.
What we now have is names of communities or a continuation of the names, but the people who came to constitute every community, over a period of time, came from diverse backgrounds and possibly, ethnicities.
Despite the endogamy practiced by all indian communities, there are only some rare communities today that turn up allele frequencies not found in any other community as yet (eg: nadars).
With the kind of changes that the world has witnessed, it is very hard to answer Iyer's question of how the Tamil society was classified in the past. Obviously what it was in the past, is not what it is in the present.
From what am reading, i agree with Shri RVR ji that widespread discrimination did not seem to have existed in the past, esp in south india. Looks like it was only in the later times that rigidity occured wrt non-inclusion of certain castes into spiritual matters.
Regards.
