In the lush and storied land of North Malabar, once folded into the cartography of the Madras Presidency, the coastal towns of Kannur, Tellicherry, Mahe, Dharmadam, and Vadagara pulsed with the rhythms of trade winds and the slow churn of history. It was here that the Thiyas, a matrilineal community, quietly nurtured generations of women who seemed at once deeply rooted in tradition yet ahead of their time. While colonial and princely India largely imagined women as secondary—cloistered, ornamental, dependent—these women of Malabar were charting another path, their lives infused with a dignity and autonomy that puzzled outsiders yet seemed entirely natural to them.
Marriage itself took on a form that confounded the prevailing norms. A Thiya wedding, until not too many generations ago, was orchestrated not by the bride’s people but by the groom’s family. There was no exchange of dowry, no parade of trunks laden with silks, brass lamps, or carved furniture. Instead, the groom’s family gathered the trousseau, and his sister or aunt procured sarees, blouses, underskirts, and even undergarments—an unspoken gesture of solidarity between women across households. The gold tali chain, too, came from the groom’s side, and the only wealth the bride carried was the jewellery she wore on her wedding day. Yet she did not enter her new life impoverished, for her maternal home remained her anchor, the enduring source of both emotional and material support.
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