Karnavar
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Karanavar or Karanavan or Karanava , parsimoniously speaking, was the title of male head in Malayalee and Kodava society.
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[edit] Kodava
The founder of Kodava Okka(clannish family) was known as Karanava. During ancestral spirit worship, a Malayalee would act as a shaman and would get possessed by Karanava spirit of a particular Okka.
[edit] Malayalee
The senior most maternal uncle is/was addressed as Karanavan or Karnon. This term also worked as a title in many a cases.
[edit] Chaliyan
The honorific plural Karanavar is used for the community point man in the Bhagavathi temples. In old days, Koil Thampuran(a Namboothiri ruler) would nominate him.
[edit] Nair
The senior most maternal uncle was the head of the matrilineal joint families, known as Tharavadu, and was called Karnavar. The authority of the Karnavar in a family is unquestionable. Even after the decline of Matrilineal system, the word is used to denote authority, and elderly person.
Besides this, Karnavar is also a surname for some aristocratic Nair families in and around Chengannur, Kerala, India. One legend is that it was conferred by Marthanda Varma the King of Travancore. While consolidating his newly found Kingdom of Thiruvithamkur (Travancore), Marthandavarma was passing through this area and was attacked by his enemies. Marthanda Varma escaped and ran through the fields where he met an elderly Nair man who was farming in the field. He addressed the old man as "Karnavar" and asked for his help. The old Nair helped him by hiding him. Eventually Marthanda Varma endowed him with riches and the hereditary surname of Karnavar when he became the Rajah.
