Vinod Bhattathiripad who read the draft of this paper and made several important corrections. In 1999 the Calicut (Kozhikode)-based voluntary non-profit-oriented forum of Nambudiris launched the website: The 750-page site, with the objective of documenting Nambudiri traditions, is administered by Dr P. A detailed illustrated description of this ritual was published in two massive volumes with audio and video recordings and the articles of leading scholars on the subject. Staal studied this unique tradition profoundly and presented it in numerous works, including the outstanding Agnicayana Project – a unique documentary of the twelve-day Vedic śrauta ritual performed by Nambudiri Brahmins in 1975. It is a relatively small, but self-sufficient tradition, as it does not require officiating priests from elsewhere when rituals require several kind of priests. The ways in which the Nambudiris have preserved their Veda recitations, through their unique mnemonic techniques, have managed to conserve a number of distinctive and ancient features. Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Vol. The Four Vedas: The Oral tradition of Hymns, Chants, Sacrificial and Magical Formulas, NY: Asch Records, p.3 Staal, F. Nambudiri Veda Recitation, The Hague: Mouton, p.53 Staal, F. The Nambudiri Sāmaveda belongs to the Jaiminīya recension and except for in a couple of isolated Tamil villages has not been found anywhere else. The Nambudiri Yajurveda is of the Taittirīya recension, but follows the closely related sūtras of Baudhāyana and Vādhūla, which is uncommon in the rest of South India, where the Taittirīya recension is rather common.

ītaki in Kerala and now not found anywhere else in India.

1Īlong with the Āśvalāyana school, the Nambudiri Ṛgveda is of the Śaṅkhāyana (Vāskala) recension, which is called Kaus

The Vedic recensions that Nambudiris follow are considered to be more ancient than other surviving versions, most of them not found anywhere else in India. The Nambudiri (Nampūtiri, Namboodiri, Namboothiri) tradition is rather different from other traditions. Along with the two main powerful Vedic traditions (the Western tradition: Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Varanasi – and the Southern tradition: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Mysore) several isolated traditions have also survived: White Yajurveda tradition in Tamil Nadu the rare Atharvaveda tradition of the Śaunaka recension in Saurashtra the Paippalāda recension in Orissa and the tradition of Malayalam-speaking Nambudiri Brahmins in Kerala.

Sama veda mantra