According to K. V. Krishna Iyer, the court historian in Calicut, the members of the royal house of Zamorin belonged the Eradi sub caste of Nair aristocracy.[24][2] The Samantas claimed a status higher than the rest of the Nairs.[3] The Hindu theological formula that the rulers must be of Kshatriya varna may have been a complication for the Samantas of the Kodungallur Chera monarch. So the Samantas – already crystallized as a distinctive social group, something of a "sub-caste" – began to style themselves as "Samanta Kshatriyas".[4] The Samantas have birth, marriage and death customs identical to other Nair community.[5]