Her statements would have to be proved, for example, she will have to state personal identification marks of the men who had liaison with her, or produce letters etc., to show that there was contact. A council of community elders is constituted and they question the accused and she has to state the truth as to whether she had any illicit relationship.

The accused woman is kept confined in solitary confinement with an old lady as guard. Although they call it 'smARta', I am unaware as to which smR^ti sanctions it and explains how it is conducted. If a doubt arose as to the chastity of a namboodiri woman, there was this procedure called smARta vichAram. (The namboodiri women were, reportedly, not allowed to wear upper garments.)

Some of the wealthier 'mana's - Namboodiri houses, used to have their own temples within their sprawling manors and the antharjanams could visit those temples in their mana (only) and that too after hiding the upper part of their body with an umbrella made of palmyrah leaf so as to avoid the gaze of men.

The Namboodiri women were called 'antharjanam' (lit., people inside) and were not expected to come out of their secluded quarters at any time. The rest could have 'sambandham' (sexual relationship with women of other castes, mostly from aristocratic nair households and women of royal lineage) but could not marry from their own caste. For the information of members who are unfamiliar with this custom, I may tell that among Namboodiris it was the custom (not practised now) that only the eldest of the brothers married a Namboodiri girl. As some of the senior members of our forum may know, the Malayalam cinema 'Parinayam', meaning 'Marriage', depicts the Namboodiri custom of 'smARta vichAram' in a more or less realistic (I suppose so, because the last such exercise was in 1905, which was slightly different from all the previous ones.) manner.

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