Menon Subcaste of Nair’s

Main Caste	Nair’s
Sub-Caste	Menon’s
Where Found	Kerala mostly in Malabar or Cochin
Languages Spoken	Malayalam
Indicative Job Done	Various administrative duties-Scribes & accountants, in service of the kings of Kerala.

Main Caste	Nair’s
Sub-Caste	Pattola Nair (Menon’s)
Where Found	Kerala mostly in Malabar or Cochin
Languages Spoken	Malayalam
Indicative Job Done	An Accountant-One who writes kingly orders & keeps accounts.

Menon is an honorific hereditary title that was used as an affix to the name of some members belonging to Kiryathi & Akattu Charna classes. In Nair community, the types of Menons were Paricha-Menon, Menon Panikkar, Pattola-Menon, the relative rank of each often varying from Taluk to Taluk.

Title Menavan or Menon, means a superior person and is derived from Mel, above & Avan i.e. he. The recipient of the title held it for a lifetime, or it was bestowed in perpetuity on his family, according to the amount of money paid down as Atiyara. As soon as an individual was made Menon, he was presented with an Ola (Palmyra leaf for writing on) & an iron style as symbols of office accountant, which he was expected to fill.

Bestowed by the various kings of Kerala (including the Zamorin) to the members of certain classes of Nair’s. The recipient of the title held it lifelong & the male members of his family held it in perpetuity along the matrilineal line.

It is considered to be a Kshatriya subdivision of the Nair caste that originated from the south Indian state of Kerala. The Menon’s were engaged in various administrative duties, such as being scribes & accountants, in service of the kings of Kerala.

I was astonished when i found that currently there are five types of Menons. Nair Menon, Cutchi Menon, Exhava Menon, Vattakadan/Chakkala Menon, Gounder Menon & Christian Menon. Surname of Menon is used in other Nair sub-castes also. To be noted that Kiriyathil Nair Menon's have no relation to other Menons.

Menon Name Meaning (Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press) Indian (Kerala): Hindu (Nayar) name, from Malayalam Menon, usually used to mean ‘Accountant’, but literally ‘exalted one’ (earlier menavan, melavan, from mel ‘high’ + the third person singular masculine pronoun, avan ‘he’). Originally, this was a hereditary title conferred by the rulers of various kingdoms in Kerala.

Are Menons Brahmins?

No they are Nair in caste, they are just one of the several titles within the Nair community (Nair, Menon, Pillai, Nambiar, Kurup, Panicker, Kartha, Kaimal, Unnithan, Valiyathan etc.)

Menon’s have nothing to do with brahmins, although brahmin men used to marry Menon women like they used to marry other Nair women. It is not true that Menon’s are the title given only to the children born to Nambudiri men & Nair women sambandham (loose marriage). Net result is genetically & visually, Nair’s/Menon’s look like South Indian Brahmins & don’t look like Dravidians, thanks to this genetic engineering by Nambudiri brahmins

(Now to speak of Menon’s as half Brahmins purely on the basis of sambandham or morganatic marriage with Nambudiri Brahmins, the marriage itself runs short of proper wedding as the wife was not accorded the status of Dharmapatni (Wife). She is at best what we may call a concubine who was admitted into family circle as a result of pudamuri form of Koottu Irikkal. And it was how children born out of sambandham never inherited their father’s property through intestate succession or whatever. In order to rectify this social anomaly Indian Judge at His Majesty's High Court of Judicature at Madras the Rt. Hon'ble Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair brought about a social legislation called the Madras Marumakkathayam Act of 1938, guaranteeing property rights and inheritance to children born out of sambandham marriage)

Menon’s, are predominantly found in the domains of erstwhile South Malabar & Cochin kingdoms, where the local kings used to give the Menon title to the Nair’s who were mainly entrusted with the duty of looking after state affairs, accountants, temple administrators etc. The Pillai (Nair) title in Travancore region is equivalent to the Menon title, due to the similar functional roles performed earlier by both in their respective domains. They are not to be confused with Vellala Pillai of Tamil origin in the region who also used to perform similar duties in Travancore.

Paricha Menon’s are highest among the Menons. Pattola Menon’s were the secretaries of the Nilambur Thirumulpads. First Pattola Menon was one Shri Kelu Menon who was reputed for his knowledge of toxicology & cures for snake-bites. Thazhakodenadu of Themmalapuram Taluk which was under Sekhari Varma Raja of Palghat was governed by the first Naduvazhi, Kanhumalpada Nair & the second governor Tharupada Nair & the Raja's accountant (Pattola Menon) was Anavangot Menon & the governors were Nannat Menon & Kulaviyil Menon respectively.

(Data were collected from The Indian Forester - Volume 51 - Page 118. Pattola Menon.  

Recorded, in the Cochin Census Report, 1 90 1, as a sub-caste of Nayars, who are accountants in aristocratic families,  Castes & Tribes of Southern India-Volume 1 By Edgar Thurston & Kandur Rangachari, Tales Once Told: Legends of Kerala.)

Traditionally, many Menon families used to be vegetarians (probably to maintain better contact with Nambudiris), but now there are few vegetarians in the community.