[1] Kathleen Gough has recorded that the caste believes that they descended from a section of the Tamil Brahmins and that they ascribed their "rudimentary" knowledge of Sanskrit, medicine and astrology to those origins.
Through them, however, some of the elements of Sanskrit religious belief and practices were filtered to lower caste people who could not attend high-caste temples or receive Brahmanical services ... [They] served as media for the Sankritisation of the lower castes ...[3]It was the Kaniyars who decorate the elaborate costumes.
They were also famous in the field of ayurveda treatment (Traditional Indian medical stream) across Kerala.
[3] The arrival of the British in the area saw the demise of traditional teaching, with Sanskrit teaching being deprecated in favor of its English counterpart, disruption due to various wars and also a discouragement of the village schools in general.
They asserted that because of this they were superior to the Asan members of the caste, who were primarily to be found in southern Travancore.