In the Travancore Census Report, 1901, it is noted that "the term Ambalavasi (one who lives in a temple) is a group-name, and is applied to castes, whose occupation is temple service. The Keralamahatmya speaks of them as Kshetravasinah, which means those who live in temples. They are also known as Antaralas, from their occupying an intermediate position between the Brahmans and the Brahmanical Kshatriyas of Malabar on the one hand, and the Sudras on the other. While according to one view they are fallen Brahmans, others, such as the writer of the Keralolpatti, would put them down as an advance from the Sudras. The castes recognised as included in the generic name of Ambalavasi are:--
Nambiyassan. Nambiyar. Pushpakan. Pisharati. Puppalli. Variyar. Chakkiyar. Nattupattan. Brahmani or Daivampati. Tiyattunni. Adikal. Kurukkal. Nambidi. Poduval. Pilappalli.
"All these castes are not connected with pagodas, nor do the Muttatus, who are mainly engaged in temple service, come under this group, strictly speaking. The rationale of their occupation seems to be that, in accepting duty in temples and consecrating their lives to the service of God, they hope to be absolved from the sins inherited from their fathers. In the case of ascent from lower castes, the object presumably is the acquisition of additional religious merit.... The delinquent Brahman cannot be retained in the Brahmanic function without lowering the standard of his caste. He had, therefore, to be allotted other functions. Temple service of various kinds, such as garland-making for the Pushpakan, Variyar and others, and popular recitation of God's works for the Chakkiyar, were found to hold an intermediate place between the internal functions of the Brahmans and the external functions of the other castes, in the same sense in which the temples themselves are the exoteric counterparts of an esoteric faith, and represent a position between the inner and the outer economy of nature. Hence arose probably an intermediate status with intermediate functions for the Antaralas, the intermediates of Hindu Society. The Kshatriyas, having commensal privileges with the Brahmans, come next to them in the order of social precedence. In the matter of pollution periods, which seem to be in inverse ratio to the position of the caste, the Brahmans observe 10 days, the Kshatriyas 11 days, and the Sudras of Malabar (Nayars) 16 days. The Ambalavasis generally observe pollution for 12 days. In some cases, however, it is as short as 10, and in others as long as 13 and even 14, but never 16 days."