(1) BRĀHMAN OR QUASI-BRĀHMAN.
(a) Ashtavaidyanmar, or eight physicians, are eight families of hereditary physicians. They are called Jātimātrakaras (barely caste people), and it is supposed that they are Nambūdiris slightly degraded by the necessity they may, as surgeons, be under of shedding blood. Most of them are called Mūssad, but one at least is called Nambi.
(b) Urili Parisha Mūssad, or assembly in the village Mūssad, who are said to be degraded because they accepted gifts of land from Parasu Rāma, and agreed to take on themselves the sin he had contracted by slaying the Kshetriyas. This class, as a whole, is called Sapta or Saptagrastan.
(2) AMBALAVĀSI.
(c) Mūssad or Mūttatu.—They appear to be identical with the Agapothuvals, or inside Pothuvals, as distinguished from the Pura, or outside Pothuvals, in North Malabar. They are said to be the descendants of a Sivadvija man and pure Brāhman girl. According to another account, they lost caste because they ate rice offered to Siva, which is prohibited by one of the anāchārams, or rules of conduct peculiar to Kērala. They perform various duties in temples, and escort the idol when it is carried in procession on an arrangement called tadambu, which is like an inverted shield with a shelf across it, on which the idol is placed. They wear the pūnūl, or sacred thread.
(d) Karuga Mūssad.—So called from the karuga grass (Cynodon Dactylon), which is used in ceremonies. Their exact position is disputed. They wear the sacred thread (cf. Karuga Nambūdiris in North Malabar), who cook rice for the srādh (memorial ceremony) of Sūdras,
(e) Tiruvalayanath or Kōvil (temple) Mūssad.—They also wear the sacred thread, but perform pūja in Bhadrakāli temples, incidents of which are the shedding of blood and use of liquor. They seem to be almost identical with the caste called elsewhere Adigal or Pidāran, but, I think, Adigals are a little higher, and do not touch liquor, while Pidārans are divided into two classes, the lower of which does not wear the thread or perform the actual pūja, but only attends to various matters subsidiary thereto.
In an account of the annual ceremony at the Pishāri temple near Quilandy in Malabar in honour of Bhagavati, Mr. F. Fawcett informs[67] that the Mūssad priests repeat mantrams (prayers) over the goats for an hour as a preliminary to the sacrifice. Then the chief priest, with a chopper-like sword, decapitates the goats, and sacrifices several cocks. The Mūssads cook some of the flesh of the goats, and one or two of the cocks with rice. This rice, when cooked, is taken to the kāvu (grove) to the north of the temple, and there the Mūssads again ply their mantrams.
Mūsu Kamma.—The name of a special ear ornament worn by the Mūsu Kamma sub-division of Balijas. In the Salem District Manual, Musuku is recorded as a sub-division of this caste.
