Chakkala Nair, also known as Vattakkat Nair,[1] and Vaniya Nair[2] is one of the intermediate subcastes[3][4][5] of the Nair community. They are distributed throughout Kerala. In Travancore, they are known as Chakkala, while in Cochin and Malabar they are Vattakattu[6] and In the extreme north of Malabar they are called Vaniya[7][8]
Vattakattu Nairs[9] are now indistinguishable from other Nair subcastes through alliances with other Nair communities and is treated as part of the mainstream Nair community by the government of Kerala[10][11]
It was the duty of Peru Vaniyan Nambiars; a section among Vaniya nairs in Kurumbranad to present the Kurumbranad Raja with oil on the occasion of his formal installation[12]
Muchilot Bhagavthi is the patron deity of the Vaniya Nair community, with more than 108 Muchilot temples spread across North Malabar from Tulu Nadu to Kozhikode. It is believed that Bhagavthi first manifested herself to Muchilot PadaNair, a chieftain of Mushika dynasty from the Vaniya nair sect.[13][14]
^Pallichan and Vattakad were treated as an intermediate class of Shudras because there was neither inter-dining nor inter-marriage between the members of these subdivisions and the high caste Shudras-Census of India, 1961 - Volume 7. p. 19.