1563.—"... The Naires who are the Knights."—Garcia.
1582.—"The Men of Warre which the King of Calicut and the other Kings have, are Nayres, which be all Gentlemen."—Castañeda (by N. L.), f. 35b.
1644.—"We have much Christian people throughout his territory, not only the Christians of St. Thomas, who are the best soldiers that he (the King of Cochin) has, but also many other vassals who are converts to our Holy Catholic Faith, through the preaching of the Gospel, but none of these are Nayres, who are his fighting men, and his nobles or gentlemen."—Bocarro, MS., f. 315.
1755.—"The king has disciplined a body of 10,000 Naires; the people of this denomination are by birth the Military tribe of the Malabar coast."—Orme, i. 400.
1781.—"The soldiers preceded the Nairs or nobles of Malabar."—Gibbon, ch. xlvii.
It may be added that Nāyar was also the term used in Malabar for the mahout of an elephant; and the fact that Nāyar and Nāyaka are of the same origin may be considered with the etymology which we have given of [Cornac] (see Garcia, 85v).
NALKEE, s. Hind. nālkī. A kind of litter formerly used by natives of rank; the word and thing are now obsolete. [It is still the name of the bride's litter in Behar (Grierson, Bihār Peasant Life, 45).] The name was perhaps a factitious imitation of pālkī? [Platts suggests Skt. nalika, 'a tube.']
1789.—"A naleky is a paleky, either opened or covered, but it bears upon two bamboos, like a sedan in Europe, with this difference only, that the poles are carried by four or eight men, and upon the shoulders."—Note by Tr. of Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 269.
[1844.—"This litter is called a 'nalki.' It is one of the three great insignia which the Mogul emperors of Delhi conferred upon independent princes of the first class, and could never be used by any person upon whom, or upon whose ancestors, they had not been so conferred. These were the nalki, the order of the Fish, and the fan of peacock's feathers."—Sleeman, Rambles, ed. V. A. Smith, i. 165.]
NAMBEADARIM, s. Malayāl. nambiyadiri, nambiyattiri, a general, a prince. [See Logan, Malabar, i. 121.]