 This sets them apart from the later Aparaśikhā Brahmin (wearing their hair tufts on the back) migrants to South India such as the Tamil Iyers.According to T.P Mahadevan, the Nambudiris brought with them a very early recension of the Mahabharata which became the basis of the Malayalam language version of the epic.Anthropologists Heike Moser and Paul Younger note that the Nambudiri Brahmin presence predates the 9th century, as attested by grants of land given to them by ruling families.