Tarawads were matrilineal institutions. Fathers had no significant properties separate from their own Tarawads to’ give their children, and fathers held no special claims over their children. The Tarawad institutions included family, household, and lands maintained a status and a life beyond any individual. Material support for the household . was drawn from the inseparable lands of the Tarawad.

Properties of Tarawad were managed by a senior male called a ‘Karanavan’. The karanavan as the head of a large extended family. The internal management of the affairs of the tarawad was in fact directed by a senior female – a mother, aunt, of a grandmother of all sharing the wealth and status of the Tarawad.

Both males and females had a whole-life security within their mother’s tarawads; fathers visited only on occasion. The kamavan is an absolute ruler of the family. On his death the next senior male member becomes kamavan.

He can invest money in his own name, can mortgage property, can give money on loan, can give land as gift and is not accountable to any member in respect of income and expenditure. When Tarwad becomes too large, it is divided into Tavashis. A Tavashis in relation . to a woman is “a group of persons consisting of a female, her children and all descendents in the matrilineal.