Bhattathiri are members of the Namboothiri caste of Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Some families among the Namboothiri community became Bhattathiris in one of the following three ways:

• Saasthra Bhattathiris (Meemaamsa Bhattathiris)
• Smaartha Bhattathiris
• Bhaagavatha Bhattathiri

There is another school of thought that original Bhatta Brahmins were the followers of Prabhakara Bhatta who was the contemporary of Adi Shankaracharya and the student of Kumarilla Bhatta who established the Purva Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy is divided into six schools of thought, or , which accept the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures. Three other schools do not accept the Vedas as authoritative...

 in Cheranadu. It is an accepted fact that all Brahmins in Kerala did not belong to Nambuthiri community alone and did not come at one time. Brahmins from different places must have come to Kerala at various periods as per the requirements of the then ruling dynasties. (This needs further research by scholars in the subject)