Samantan

Samantan Nair or more commonly Samantan (meaning "equal to" or "deemed to be"), was a generic term applied to dignify a group of Kshatriya sub-clans among the ruling elites and feudal lords of the Nair community in Kerala. The Samantan Nairs are members of the Kiryathil, Illathu and Swaroopathil Nair communities whose ancestors performed various Śrauta rituals (Hiranyagarbha) to achieve a higher status that enabled them to rule over the Brahmins.

Robin Jeffrey, an anthropologist, described the Samantans as, "A matrilineal caste (but that matrilineal but strictly patriarchal not matriachal) ranking as a high caste between Nayars and Kshatriyas, and brahmins"