കർത്ത kartha was a hereditary aristocratic title awarded to middling chieftains in Kerala’s complicated hierarchical power network.¹ As was the wont in ancient days, hereditary titles morphed into community names.² Members of the kartha community now consider themselves a subdivision of the aristocratic Kiriyam Nayars.³ In 1912, there were three prominent families in the kingdom of Cochin bearing this title: Cheranellur Kartha, Kodasseri Kartha and Kuzhipilli Kartha.⁴
The word kartha supposedly derives from the Sanskrit word kartha meaning “doer.”⁵ Yet, why should it be so, when many other administrators without this title were also doers? Clearly, the similarity with the Sanskrit word is a mere coincidence or probably a later evolution after Sanskritization, because it adds no additional information distinguishing the title from others.
On the other hand, kartha is similar to a title used in ancient Egypt, where it was conferred on a middling chieftain, a “mayor” or “prince” who was the ruler of a regional subdivision. In that sense, it bears a strong resemblance to the Kerala titleholder’s status in the power hierarchy. However, the original pronunciation in Egyptian may have been different from Malayalam. According to the currently accepted interpretation as found in scholarly articles and on the Internet, the word was likely pronounced as haty-a.⁶ But in an alternative interpretation, it was likely pronounced as kherte, which morphed in modern Malayalam to Sanskritized kartha.⁷
Kherte was both a rank title and a functional title in ancient Egypt.⁸ The rank title is merely honorific, whereas the functional title indicates real responsibilities and tasks. Ancient Kerala too had rank titles and functional titles. For example, തമ്പുരാൻ tampuran was a rank title, merely honorific; whereas മേനോൻ menon was a functional title, indicating an actual administrative post. The kartha title was both a rank title and a functional title, similar to the Egyptian kherte, reflecting the titleholder’s post and rank in Kerala’s hierarchical administrative system.⁹
Scholars believe that kherte started out as a rank title during the Old Kingdom in Egypt and transformed into a functional title in the Middle Kingdom.¹⁰ The Old Kingdom nobles who held the title of kherte were very high in the power hierarchy, and they were buried in large, ostentatious tombs, many of which have been excavated by archeologists.¹¹ But by 2000 BCE, kherte emerged as a functional title of middling nobles, whose power varied according to the size and influence of the region they ruled.¹² While some nomarchs (akin to Kerala’s നാടുവാഴി naduvazhi) held the title kherte, rulers of smaller towns also held the title, but their tombs were much smaller, suggesting that they were officials of a lower rank than the nomarchs. This mixed status was reflected in Kerala too, with some kartha titleholders being lower in the power hierarchy than കൈമൾ kaimal, who were naduvazhi of the region, and others being the latter’s equals.¹³
The correspondence of titles and power hierarchy between ancient Egypt and Kerala suggests that kartha was more the Egyptian “mayor” than the Sanskrit “doer.” Just as the Indian administrative system was a replica of the colonial British system, could it be that Kerala’s ancient administrative system was coeval with the pharaonic system so that the latter inspired the former? Could it be that the pharaohs had claimed the sliver of southwestern emerald coast of the Indian subcontinent for themselves long ago? Or could it be that some subjects of the pharaohs had emigrated and resettled themselves along the Malabar coast, administering their diaspora with the familiar system of their homeland?
Notes
[1] Sreedhara Menon, 1962, Kerala District Gazetteers-Trichur, 207 (Thiruvalla: Government of Kerala). Other such aristocratic titles include Achan, Kaimal and Mannadiar.
[2] See, for example, C.J. Fuller’s explanation. C.J. Fuller, 1975, “The Internal Structure of the Nayar Caste,” Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 31(4): 283–312 (“Each male Nayar bears a caste title as his last name…In the past, it is said, these titles were conferred as marks of honor by kings and chiefs, although some of them refer to specialized occupations.”)
[3] Anantha Iyer, 1912, Tribes and Castes of Cochin, 2 vols., repr. 1981, 2:18 (New Delhi: Cosmo Publications); Cudalore Ramachandra Aiyar, 1883, A Manual of Malabar Law: As Administered by the Courts, xvii (Madras: Vest & Co.).
[4] Iyer, Tribes and Castes, 2:18.
[5] Iyer, Tribes and Castes, 2:18; Padmanabha Menon, 1924–37, A History of Kerala written in the form of Notes on Visscher’s Letters from Malabar, 4 vols., rev. ed. 2013, 3:190 (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services). Menon even goes so far as to allege that it derives from Bengali meaning “manager of a joint family.”
[6] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haty-a. There is no consensus on the pronunciation today, and it is left transliterated as such.
[7] The first hieroglyph is the forepart of a reclining lion 𓄂, Gardiner No. F4. This hieroglyph in some other words was exchanged with the papyrus clump hieroglyph 𓇉, Gardiner No. M16, and after 2000 BCE, the latter was sometimes interchanged with a variation of the papyrus clump hieroglyph 𓇇, Gardiner No. M15. See Alan Gardiner, 1927, Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. 3rd ed., 462, 481 (Oxford: Griffith Institute). Thus, the interchanging of F4 with M16 and M15 suggests that the three hieroglyphs had similar pronunciations. In some words, M16 was pronounced as kher, indicating that F4 may have been pronounced as kher too. Malayalam words confirming this hypothesis: കയറ് kayaru “rope” and Egyptian khere “rope” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/100450; കരു karu “best” and khere “best” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/100310; കരള് karal “heart” and khere “heart” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/100400; കുരു kuru “beginning” “young” “sprout” “first” and kheru “first” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/101180, khere “beginning” https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/100310. Going back to the combination of 𓄂𓂝, the arm hieroglyph Gardiner No. D36, had a plosive sound, which became ta in some Malayalam words. Thus, the hieroglyph combination of F4 and D36 may have been pronounced as kherte.
[8] Harco Willems, 2013, “Nomarchs and Local Potentates: Provincial Administration in the Middle Kingdom,” in Ancient Egyptian Administration, edited by Juan Moreno García, 341–92 (Leiden: Brill).
[9] The title was honorific (suggesting noble status) and indicative of the traditional profession of the titleholders. Menon, History of Kerala, 3:189–90.
[10] Willems, “Nomarchs and Local Potentates,” 373–74. Functionally, the Egyptian kherte was a provincial ruler who may also have headed temples in the region.
[11] Willems, “Nomarchs and Local Potentates,” 377.
[12] Willems, “Nomarchs and Local Potentates,” 375. Kherte of large regions such as provinces were more powerful that kherte of smaller regions, such as towns.
[13] Menon, History of Kerala, 3:190. One example of equals is Koratty Kaimal and Kodassery Kartha, who were rulers of neighboring provinces around six centuries ago. https://www.keralatourism.org/1000festivals//assets/uploads/pdf/1507747594-0.pdf. Interestingly, the title of kaimal likely derived from the analogous Egyptian title mal-ka (with the prefix and suffix transposing in Malayalam). This title, loosely translated to “baron” was granted only to very important or favored officials during the Old Kingdom, and towards the later period before 2000 BCE, it was conferred on important provincial officials, similar to the naduvazhi of Kerala. Nigel Strudwick, 1985, The Administration of Egypt in the Old Kingdom: The Highest Titles and Their Holders, 311 (London: KPI Ltd.).
