Note 6 — N

The name Nāyar or Nair is, it may be noted, akin to Naik and Naidu, and signifies a leader or soldier.6 In this connection, Mr. Lewis Moore writes7 that “almost every page of Mr. Sewell’s interesting book on Vijayanagar8 bears testimony to the close connection between Vijayanagar and the west coast. It is remarkable that Colonel (afterwards Sir Thomas) Munro, in the memorandum written by him in 1802 on the poligars (feudal chiefs) of the Ceded Districts, when dealing with the cases of a number of poligars who were direct descendants of men who had been chiefs under the kings of Vijayanagar, calls them throughout his report Naigue or Nair, using the two names as if they were identical.”9