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Wikipedia article about Kerala Iyers

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I do not know whether any of you posted a response.

The problem is that an attempt is being made to show the Kerala Iyers as a community of cooks who are not even Brahmins.

Though I know the originator I am unable to help because of my position in Wikipedia.

It is sad that no Kerala Iyer has protested against this kind of portrayal.

Of course it would help matters a lot if a citation/reference could be provided for many of the statements made in favour of Kerala Iyers.
 
Nacchi,
I already love your avatar.
I read your blog today, and I admire your writings and the cause you are fighting for.
I agree with the 4 principles or your conviction, and could not believe that they are identical to my views. FYI I have met a number of TM, with similar views. I have met other people of Indian origin who share your view. I wish you will make it into a post.
I never lived in Tamil Nadu, and have been too busy living in material world, with a yearning for knowledge.
Congratulations, keep up the good work, we need people of your wisdom in forums like this and in Wikipedia.

Just like your Avatar please kill the demon "ignorance-mahisha".
 
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It is a known and accepted fact that most of the Kerala Iyers in Travancore came in search of livelihood from Tabra centres in the neighbouring districts of Tamizh Nadu like Shencottah, Tenkasi, Kallidailurichi, Aaykkudi, Tirunelveli, and so on. In regard to Iyers of Palghat are concerned, the legend is as under:

Palakkad and surrounding areas had a number of Nampoothiri Illams before the advent of Tipu Sultan. They were doing the puja in the various temples.When Tipu Sultan attacked
Malabar, these Nampoothiri families fled northwards (Payyannoor, Kannoor etc.).The Samuthiri of Kozhikode (the ruler) then brought Tamil Brahmins from Thanjavoor to conduct the pujas in the temples.Thus Palakkad became a settlement of Tambrams.Now there are very few Nampoothiri illams in Palakkad whereas there are large number of them in Payyannoor and surrounding places.
(http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/chit-chat/5406-brahmins-kerala-2.html#post63536)

There is also a belief that at one time, the then ruler of the Palghat area, a saamanthan under the samoothiri of Kozhikode, fell in love with a low caste woman and was bent upon making her the royal consort. Namboodiris who had been his traditional purohitas refused to officiate and conduct this royal wedding and they further threatened that if the king goes ahead with his plan, no Namboodiri will function as poojari in any of the temples in his realm. The king then made 6000 families of Iyers from Thanjavur and nearby areas to migrate to Palghat, promising them all comforts and adequate means of livelihood. That was how so many Iyer agrahaarams came into being in Palghat, they say.

These Tamizh brahmins sanctified the Raja's marriage with the low caste woman but again, they were rather unwilling to take up the poojari's job in the Temples, because their saastras decreed that such brahmanas will be considered fallen from caste once they do pooja in temple for their livelihood. So, the legend goes, the saamanthan imported Tulu-speaking brahmanas from the north (Mangalore, Udupi, etc., areas) who readily agreed with a caveat that the job of temple priest should be the monopoly for their people in that kingdom. These Tulu brahmin pojaris were called Embranthiris, the word Embraan being empiraan of archaic Tamizh. In due course of time the embraanthiris' monopoly became de facto throughout what is present day Kerala, i.e., the erstwhile Travancore, Cochin and Malabar. Of course at present Namboodiris officiate as "Tantris", and also as priests in the more prosperous temples like Sabarimala, Guruvaayoor, etc. In the south these Tulu brahmins came to be known as "pOtti" may be because the pooja mainly consisted of archana once upon a time and the common people identified it with the "manipravaalam" equivalent of "namaha" viz., potti (This is my hunch.).

... to be continued.
 
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Some saying is also there..

That is when Shri C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer who hailed from Kumbakonam and when he was the Diwan of Travancore King brought many brahmins from Tanjore Districts to Palghat and placed them in high posts.

Thus The Brahimin Predominance existed and developed in Kerala...

Any more opinions from Seniors like Kunjuppu ji is also welcomed about the Existence of Brahmins in Kerala...
 
Kerala Iyers (contd.)

About Palghat Brahmins and their spread, prosperity, etc., I do not have much knowledge. Anyway CP could not have done anything in that respect since the kingdom stopped with Alwaye and not further north and as Dewan of Travancore CP could not have done much in Palghat which was in the British-ruled Madras Province.

As for the Tabras (Iyers) of Travancore, there was a research paper by one Smt. Lakshmi, of Alappuzha which was serialized in Brahma Sandesam, (in 2007) the mouthpiece of the TVPM district unit of Kerala Brahmana Sabha. I am trying to furnish relevant portions therefrom which may be useful for this thread.

The tabras came to Travancore right from the very early times which are no longer historically clear. There was a period of about one-and-a-half centuries following wars between the Cheras and Cholas c. 12th. century A.D. to mid 13th. century. (The Chera king ransacked the Chera capital at Kodungallur in 1102 A.D.)

After that lull, the paradesi braahmanas once again started moving in both directions - mainly through pilgrimages to the Temples in both countries. Thus cultural and other types of contacts once again got reinstalled and strengthened. Some of the incoming brahmana families were given land, houses and income sources such as agricultural lands, etc., by the local rulers and made to settle in the Kerala side. There are several such paradesi brahmin families in Travancore even now, who trace back their original home to Tirupathi, Thanjavur and many other parts of TN.

Apart from the beliefs as above, there are references to "Pattars" in the vaDakkan pATTu (lit. songs of the north - folk songs from north Malabar) as also medieval literary works. One from the former says—

’പട്ടന്മാര്‍ രണ്ടു പേര്‍ വന്നുചേര്‍ന്നു
മഞ്ഞളു വിറ്റുവരവല്ലാണെ’
’paṭṭanmār- raṇṭu per- vannucer-nnu
maññaḷu viṟṟuvaravallāṇe’
Two Pattars arrived, trade in turmeric is the purpose

Kunjan Nambiar (1705-1770) famous for his "ThuLLal poems" mentions this way—

കോട്ടക്കച്ച, മണപ്പാടന്‍ വക
കോട്ടാറന്‍, പല തുപ്പട്ടികളും
കുട്ടിക്കവണികള്‍ പട്ടുതരങ്ങളും
എട്ടുമുഴം പല സോമന്‍ മുറിയും
കെട്ടിക്കാച്ചിയ മുണ്ടുകള്‍ എന്നിവ
കെട്ടിയെടുക്കും പട്ടന്മാര്‍ ചിലര്‍

koṭṭakkacca, maṇappāṭan- vaka
koṭṭāṟan-, pala tuppaṭṭikaḷuṃ
kuṭṭikkavaṇikaḷ- paṭṭutaraṅṅaḷuṃ
eṭṭumuḻaṃ pala soman- muṟiyuṃ
keṭṭikkācciya muṇṭukaḷ- enniva
keṭṭiyeṭukkuṃ paṭṭanmār- cilar-

As was Kunjan Nambiar's wont he is describing the different constituents of society in his days, superimposing them on some Puranic incident like Subhadra's marriage. The meaning of the above lines is that the tabras or paTTars were cloth merchants carrying their ware as headloads. he describes the items as கோட்டக்கச்சை, மணப்பாடன் வகை, கொட்டாரன், பல துப்பட்டிகளும், (shawls or upper garments) குட்டிக்கவணிகள், (small dhotis for children) பட்டுத் தரங்கள், எட்டுமுழம் பல ஸோமன் (Double Veshtis of various mfrs.), முறி (single veshti).

This 250 year old observation is true. Even in the beginning of the last century there were many tabras in Kerala doing cloth business. People preferred their shops because the people felt that their will be no 'cheating' and they will get their money's worth. But the tabras in business were generally frowned upon as inferior because they came in close contact with low castes during business.

In addition to cloth business, tabras in Kerala also traded in chillies, mustard, oil (especially gingilley oil), etc. Yet another activity in which tabras established themselves was money lending. Hearsay is that through loans given against pledge of lands (paddy fields, coconut gardens etc., as security) and by finally appropriating these security, some of the tabras at least enriched themselves. The more orthodox tabras looked down upon these money-lending brahmins because their activity brought them in contact with all castes.

Now we come to the role of tabras (Kerala Iyers) as cooks. True, some Kerala Iyers did take to the profession of cooks and they were experts in this line. Some of them had hotels also running and some of them prospered also as a result. But the cooks were mostly showing their expertise in the feasts (which were not few) given by the Braahmana Sammoha Mathams and temples; their hotels catered mostly to brahmin travellers utilising the new Motor Transport mode of conveyance. The higher castes did visit these hotels but the common, unwritten rule was that food including meals were served only in planatain leaves and the eater had to remove the leaf. Lower castes started entering the brahmin hotels only later, as India approached its Independence and by that time significant change had come to the social set-up and the outlook of Iyers itself.

I, therefore, feel no one with even some knowledge of the history of Kerala Iyers will honestly say that they were a community of cooks.
 
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sangom,

if one went to those little towns and villages of southern andhra, ie those which were part of the deccan districts of the old madras state, one will find almost in every one of them, pattar families, migrating in the 30s and 40s, establishing 'coffee stalls'.

usually two or three brothers, and one wife maybe, came and started a little shop with idli dosa and coffee. some prospered. others remained poor. most of these, married locally and have become teluguized these days. i have a few in my relationship tree, starting from gudur and going as far as tuni and penugonta. :)

so, if some one from these parts looked at our community, they could not be found fault for terming us as a community of cooks. maybe 'chefs' would be more respectable?

:)

btw does it really matter, if some of us took to hoterliering? it is an honest profession. i have cook relatives who moved to kuala lumpur, and who used to service the brahmins there. these however did not want to put down roots there. the children were sent to india and these folks, on retirement, closed their shop and came home, laden with gold, which is the international currency of prosperity.
 
sangom,

if one went to those little towns and villages of southern andhra, ie those which were part of the deccan districts of the old madras state, one will find almost in every one of them, pattar families, migrating in the 30s and 40s, establishing 'coffee stalls'.

usually two or three brothers, and one wife maybe, came and started a little shop with idli dosa and coffee. some prospered. others remained poor. most of these, married locally and have become teluguized these days. i have a few in my relationship tree, starting from gudur and going as far as tuni and penugonta. :)

so, if some one from these parts looked at our community, they could not be found fault for terming us as a community of cooks. maybe 'chefs' would be more respectable?

:)

btw does it really matter, if some of us took to hoterliering? it is an honest profession. i have cook relatives who moved to kuala lumpur, and who used to service the brahmins there. these however did not want to put down roots there. the children were sent to india and these folks, on retirement, closed their shop and came home, laden with gold, which is the international currency of prosperity.

Kunjuppu,

In any case, there were always the majority of iyers in Kerala who were "eaters" and not cooks by profession. I agree the saying "braahmanaah bhojanapriyaah" may be right but only as consumers, not producers. :)
 
Talking about Migration presents certain problems.

The linguistic division of states in 1956 made many people migrants in their own state.

There was a cry to include Madras in Andhra Pradesh. Chennai patnam Manathe was the slogan. If that had happened would Tamil Brahmins from Tanjore in Madras have become migrants?

Shencottah, Kadayam (kallidaikurichi was not prominent then), Cheramaa devi and other parts of Thirunelveli were part of the Travancore state. The Madurai kings and Travancore fought for these places. The last treaty ceded Kadayam, Cherama devi and other places in Thirunelveli to the Madurai kings. Travancore became a tutelary state of the Maduari kings. They were paying annual tribute to them till the British took over. Shencottah was part of Travancore till 1956.

Travancore Iyers are derisively called Pandi Pattars by the people especially from the Malabar region. But history reveals that southern Kerala was once called then Pandi Nadu and was part of the Pandyan kingdom. The Naickers constructed the Trivandrum Padmanabhaswami temple. Old history books state that. But new Kerala history books would not mention that.

But the Pattars also called themselves pandi pattars to distinguish from Malabar pattars. They have two samoohams in Trichur. One of them called Pandi samooham. There never was any unity between the Brahmins of Travancore_Cochin and Malabar. They did not inter marry.

The Pandalam kings claim a Pandyan ancestry. Today the history of Kerala is based on Kerala Mahathyam and Kerala Uthpatthi two books of very doubtful antiquity. Written by the Namboothiris they are dated from 16th to 18th century.

People do migrate from one part of the state to another. When it was Pandi Nadu the pandi Brahmins came there. Then when it was Travncore they came to the capital. Does that mean migration?

There is no historical record of any migration of Brahmins to Travancore.

Then again these are neighboring districts.

Palghat Brahmins do have some historical data regarding migration. Then they came from Tanjore to Palghat which is quite far off. But the migration theory does not explain Ramanathpuram and other Pandi villages. Chittur near Palghat belonged to the Cochin state. It was earlier called Chittur cochin.

Since the Palghat Brahmins migrated from Tanjore (even there not all of them), it is facile to assume that the Travancore Brahmins also migrated.

Talking about Sir. C.P helping Tamil Brahmins in Kerala is a joke. Yes. He did bring his chelas from Tanjore and Madras to hold some high positions. But he was against the local Tamil Brahmins who suffered a loss of position because of him. Judges who would have normally got promoted to the High Court lost out because he imported Brahmins form Madras. This happened to all the local Brahmins holding high positions.

To fully understand this we have to see the history of the Travancore Pattars. An unwritten history which no one including other Kerala Brahmins want to acknowledge.

The Wikipedia effort may fail because the Kerala_Iyers are not aware of their own history. The web site history of the Kerala Iyers does not even mention the position of the Travancore Brahmins. Number of Dalawahs and Divans from the community are never mentioned. Either because they do not know or they do not want to know.

It has failed. No thanks to Kerala Iyers.
 
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Kunjuppu sir,

Am told ALL gold shops/dealers in southern tamilnadu employed pattar goldsmiths and they held the monopoly in that for a long time. Am also told the kerala iyers were active in export, wholesale and normal trade of spices, cashews, cloves, pepper, etc... The average NB of tamilnadu certainly did not view them as a community of poor brahmins. Back then if a man had some land, some cows, some products or produce to trade, he was considered wealthy.

Regards.
 
Kunjuppu,

In any case, there were always the majority of iyers in Kerala who were "eaters" and not cooks by profession. I agree the saying "braahmanaah bhojanapriyaah" may be right but only as consumers, not producers. :)

sangom,

if eating were a contest, i think, pattars would give a good fight to reach the top. even now, sometimes i wonder, if the purpose of all the ayyappan vazhipaadu, is solely for the much awaited, saastha preethi :)

on another topic, my mother's maternal grandfather, was a munsiff in travancore cochin, and had no love for sir CP. he voluntarily retired and bought a house in pallipuram graamam and died there, just to be off CP's clutches.
 
Shri Nachinarkkiniyan,

Most of what you say in your post #10 may be factual. But migration also means movement, lock, stock and barrel, in search of livelihood from one part to another in the same kingdom, or even same district. You might have seen rural to urban migration highlighted by the 2011 census results, in today's papers. Similarly people leaving their homesteads in Aykkudi, Shencottah, Kallidaikurichi, Thirunelveli, etc., to the west of the sahya ranges is, imho, migration if it was not pilgrimage or visit. The overall history, under which king chera or pandya the places were, etc., are irrelevant to this issue.

Similarly, the names of Dalawas or a few other people who might have risen to high positions in the secular areas is not of much relevance imo. Other than that the Pattars (only Pandi Pattars are known as Pattars, I have never heard of Malabar Pattars; even Logan's Malabar Manual refers only to Pattar caste. So it will help all here to know where the term Malabar Pattar has been used.

Kerala Iyers as a distinct group will continue to exist and prosper even without a citation in wikipedia, I believe. (We are not as particular about our customs, rituals etc., being preserved and so on.) Kunjuppu may be able to say more.
 
Dear Mr. sangom/Nachi, I got lot of information when I read the above points. I want to add one point , referring to Naboodri Brahmins. It was written by K.P.S.Menon in THE Illustrated weekly. Many may remember. He says, in Kerala in a family of Namboodri Brahmins, only the eldest gets married to a namboodri girl. The rest of brothers do not marry. But will have KEEPS/ Concubines in other caste women. That was the custom, observed. Some of you should tell whether this continues ? Besides, he also had written that, when the women encounter any Namboodri on the road, coming in the opposite direction, the women, would immediately, take off the upper cloth, which would obviously expose their bare chest ( as they never wear blouse) in mark of respect. If the concubine gets married, still the right of the Namboodri does not stop. He would visit the woman's house and have a relation & return. It had been possible, because the woman continues to live with her Mother & does not go to her husband;s house.When Namboodri is inside the woman's house, & the husband also happen to visit his wife, he will not enter the house & will go away seeing a vessel (sombu) filled with water just at the entrance. So, preference is for Namboodri , & not to the husband. I have heard some dialogue in villages in early Forties, running thus :- "avvalavu Perya manishar koopdrar, eppadi pohamal irukkamudi?

A.Srinivasan
 
Dear Mr. sangom/Nachi, I got lot of information when I read the above points. I want to add one point , referring to Naboodri Brahmins. It was written by K.P.S.Menon in THE Illustrated weekly. Many may remember. He says, in Kerala in a family of Namboodri Brahmins, only the eldest gets married to a namboodri girl. The rest of brothers do not marry. But will have KEEPS/ Concubines in other caste women. That was the custom, observed. Some of you should tell whether this continues ? Besides, he also had written that, when the women encounter any Namboodri on the road, coming in the opposite direction, the women, would immediately, take off the upper cloth, which would obviously expose their bare chest ( as they never wear blouse) in mark of respect. If the concubine gets married, still the right of the Namboodri does not stop. He would visit the woman's house and have a relation & return. It had been possible, because the woman continues to live with her Mother & does not go to her husband;s house.When Namboodri is inside the woman's house, & the husband also happen to visit his wife, he will not enter the house & will go away seeing a vessel (sombu) filled with water just at the entrance. So, preference is for Namboodri , & not to the husband. I have heard some dialogue in villages in early Forties, running thus :- "avvalavu Perya manishar koopdrar, eppadi pohamal irukkamudi?

A.Srinivasan

srinivasan,

coming from malabar/palghat for ever, this is what i know.

nairs/menons were a matrilineal society. the women did not marry per se, but had only sambandham. basically an arrangement for conjugal visits.

the hierarchy of the male if i remember right, was the namboodri, pattar, nair in that order. many a pattar, including my own uncles have had relationships, known and tolerated by the womenfolk.

all this stopped with the new hindu marriage act passed by nehru 1955, legally. though in practise, with the increasing mobility, awareness etc, the marumakkathaayam tradition was on the wane.

nowadays, the nairs are just like us. governed by hindu laws of succession, including equal rights for the females. i think personally, they are much more advanced socially than us, in that they do not have archaic customs which entraps them into excuses for partial or watered down observance like us.

it is a love hate relationship between pattars and nairs, for the obvious reasons. the founders of the dravidian movement included nairs. i have relatives, ie nieces married to nairs, as recently as last year, and welcomed by both families. what i wish to say, is that, today, nairs/menons/nambiars are more a fellow forward caste, than a brahmin NB divide, atleast in kerala or mumbai. that is my understanding, though folks like sangom who live in tvpm can give a more 'on site' view.

yes, in the days of old, nair nadar and ezhava women did not and were not allowed to wear upper garments. something of a sore spot, even now with the nadars, who use this to remind brahmins of their erstwhile humiliation of the nadar womenfolk.

the chombu thing, i have heard, but all that had practically disappeared in my hometown of badagara by the time i came to understand things.

the nairs treated the dalits, as badly as the brahmins.

all these are bad memories of the way hindu society was cast and practised. best forgotten, and in introspection, apologies delivered to the 'lower' castes of the hierarchies, with the brahmins, starting the process, to be followed by everyone else, except the dalits. that, and a formal revision of our values re caste and rituals, i feel are long overdue, if we desire to prevent more folks, just abandoning our customs. keep it simple and relevant to current values. we need to reinvent our mode of praying. it is not new. every eons, folks have come and reformed, before lethargy sets in, and we fall back into the cozy but tainted bed of casteism. maybe the future will be different.
 
hi
in Kerala....generally 2 groups of brahmins...pattars and namboothiris...generally namboothiris are temple priests even in pattar

gramam...i know personaly....when i was young in ayakkad gramam of palakkad....very small and beautiful gramam....all are thayadis....
my maternal grandfather's gramam....there is a ganapathy temple...the priest was namboothiri....when i last 2 months back

visuted the same ayakkad gramamam....mainly occupied by nairs.....only very few pattars there....i went to temple...

i heard abt that ...the priest is pattar...due to non availabilty of namboothiri priests...thisi present reality of many palakkad gramams.....


i visited more 5 different gramams in my last visit....like ayakkad/puthucode/pallasena/chittur etc....the veda patashala was closed....

many nair faces are in the middle of gramam.....my 2 cents.....

regards
tbs
 
after reading all this,as an urban tam bram life long and now international tam bram,cannot say kerala bram as different from any bram from any part of the world.i think bram is just a class of ppl within a hindu life.
 
yes, in the days of old, nair nadar and ezhava women did not and were not allowed to wear upper garments. something of a sore spot, even now with the nadars, who use this to remind brahmins of their erstwhile humiliation of the nadar womenfolk.

.

Recently a book was released by the South Indian Social History Research Institute titled "Shoulder Cloth Riots; Known lies and unknown truths", which, I believe, gives quite a different picture of this issue.

Cover page: http://www.sishri.org/tscover.jpg

A passage from the cover page of this book:

சான்றோர் குலத்தவருக்கும், வேளாளர்-நாயர் குலத்தவருக்கும் இடையே ஏற்பட்ட மோதல். உயர்ந்த சாதியினருக்கும் தாழ்ந்த சாதியினருக்கும் ஏற்பட்ட மோதல் அன்று. வீழ்ந்துபட்ட பழைய ஆட்சியாளர்களுக்கும், புதிய ஆட்சியாளர்களுக்கும் இடையே நிகழ்ந்த போராட்டமாகும்.

Those who try to paint a false picture, with vested interests, that there are only two groups - B and NB (this was never true) and that constituents of NB group lived at peace with each other without any oppression or caste divisions may do well to read this book.

Here is the ad related to this book released in Kalachuvadu: http://www.sishri.org/tsad.pd
 
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Kunjuppu sir,

Very nice post # 15. The nairs / menons are into calling themselves 'kshatriyas' of nagavanshi lineage or some such thing. It is very obvious the claim is baseless.

The sambandham system is nearly like a harem system where any namboodiri man can procure a woman for a stipulated time of mock marriage. Though this wud be a 'mock' marriage only IF we were to go by dharmashastras and prescribed rites. Otherwise even panigraham was considered sufficient for 'marriage' (supposedly Krishna 'married' 16,000 women just by panigraham).

I tend to compare the sambandham system with that of the chola harems where enslaved women were used by chola kings to produce elite soilders. Been digging into details if the Namboodiris had a long lost marital past. Am curious since when did the sambandham system develop.

As regards tambrams of kerala, whoever is trying to dub the community as those of cooks is being foolish and does not know sufficient history. Perhaps they are not aware of vijayanagar history where traders were brahmins and a privileged class. There were several guilds active, manigrammam guild and anjuvanam guild were active in kerala areas. Details are all over the internet.

This is a very good link on the trade guilds, life and times in vijayanagar -- Of note is that the agambadiyas were indoor palace servents, but today the agamudaiya claim to be 'kshatriyas'. Kathleen gough's records notes the kallars as slaves, but they too claim to be 'khsatriyas'.

I very much agree with the brahmanical view that there is nothing called a Kshatriya class (irrespective of whether this is kaliyuga or not). But methinks the colonial period shastris probably never imagined this era of information boom...they never realised that everyone's origins wud be dug up...

Regards.
 
May I know why the Brahmins in Palghat, popularly known as 'Palakkad Brahmins', regardless of mother tongue, be it Malayalam or Tamil, are not considered as one among them by either Brahmins in other parts of Kerala or Brahmins in Tamil Nadu!! Its an exclamation and not an interrogation. They seem to be unique. The Palakkad Brahmins mingle neither with other Brahmins in Kerala nor with Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. This exclusivity is conspicuous especially in Cosmopolitan cities viz Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Delhi etc. Do the Palakkad Brahmins follow different scriptures, different rituals etc? Could someone enlighten me on this fact please?

Thanks.
Iyer
 
May I know why the Brahmins in Palghat, popularly known as 'Palakkad Brahmins', regardless of mother tongue, be it Malayalam or Tamil, are not considered as one among them by either Brahmins in other parts of Kerala or Brahmins in Tamil Nadu!! Its an exclamation and not an interrogation. They seem to be unique. The Palakkad Brahmins mingle neither with other Brahmins in Kerala nor with Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. This exclusivity is conspicuous especially in Cosmopolitan cities viz Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Delhi etc. Do the Palakkad Brahmins follow different scriptures, different rituals etc? Could someone enlighten me on this fact please?

Thanks.
Iyer
hi iyer
the palakkad brahmins are generally called PATTARS.....the scripture/rituals more similar with tamil nadu brahmins....the only

main difference is ...THEY SPEAK THALAYALAM.....MEANS TAMIL WITH MALAYALAM....THE FOOD IS MAINLY DIFFERENT...

FOOD IS VERY CLOSE TO MALAYALAM COUSINE....WITH MORE COCONUTS ....DUE TO LOCAL INFLUENCES....becoz they

generally migrated from tamil nadu and adopted local culture together.....becoz my blood is part of palakkad brahmins.....my 2 cents..



regards
tbs
 
May I know why the Brahmins in Palghat, popularly known as 'Palakkad Brahmins', regardless of mother tongue, be it Malayalam or Tamil, are not considered as one among them by either Brahmins in other parts of Kerala or Brahmins in Tamil Nadu!! Its an exclamation and not an interrogation. They seem to be unique. The Palakkad Brahmins mingle neither with other Brahmins in Kerala nor with Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. This exclusivity is conspicuous especially in Cosmopolitan cities viz Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Delhi etc. Do the Palakkad Brahmins follow different scriptures, different rituals etc? Could someone enlighten me on this fact please?

Thanks.
Iyer

I have spent some years in Bombay and also in Palakkad. These are my observations.

You have to go into the background of the Palakkad Brahmins to get an answer. Palakkad was a Brahmin dominated area. I can say confidently that there was no place where the dominance of Brahmins was so pronounced. More than even Tanjore or Kumbakonam. The community was the majority of the population. They had numbers. Sixty or more villages. They owned most of the agricultural lands around Palakkad. For years together the municipal Chairman was a Tamil Brahmin.

The Brahmin in Palkkad rarely came into contact with other communities. They did not have to. Except for the families which were from Pandi nadu like Ramanathapuram, Vadkkanthara and some other villages, the general Tamil Brahmin had no contact even with Brahmins from Travancore and Cochin.

Palakkad was in Madras Presidency that is British India. Travancore and Cochin were princely states.

The Brahmins of Palkkad migrated to Bombay in large numbers in the after 1920. When they left Palakkad they still were the dominant community.

In Bombay they congregated together and formed their own colonies and housing societies. Because they had not come in contact with Brahmins from other parts of Kerala earlier they did not develop a close relationship with them. There were totally unexposed to Tamil non Brahmins.

Things changed. The Tamil Brahmins who had leased out their lands to others for cultivation lost their lands due to the land reform bill.

Though things changed in Palakkad, it did not happen in Bombay. They were living in a world of their own. The Palkkad of the 1920 and 1930s. Of course with a lot of grouse about Kudiyans( tenants) usurping their lands.

The other Brahmins from Travancore and Cochin never enjoyed this position. They came into contact with others and competed with them. When they migrated to Bombay the identified themselves with Thiruneveli Brahmins. In Madras they have almost merged with them. One of the reasons was that most families had some connection by marriage or otherwise with Thirunelveli and Madurai.

What has happened to the Bombay Tamilians could happen to the NRIs in U.S. The India that they left is not the India of today. Brahmins in India have changed. The Brahmins in U.S may not. They could still be in a time warp.

Among the Brahmin in Bombay they have a couple of terms. They ask you whether you are Panchai or Parambarai. Panchai are the Brahmins who came late to Bombay for a living. Parmbarai are the Brahmins who have been there for generations. These terms were used by college students. The NRI students in U.S may also develop such terms if they do not have them already.

My wife is a Palghat/Trichur/Kozhicode Brahmin.
 
hi nachi sirm
nice info....i heard abt 98 brahmin gramams around palakkad......they are thonnuthi ettu gramamakara.....in keralaiyer.com...they triied
all the names of palakkad gramam..its abt 98 villages purely dominated brahmins around palghat.....

regards
tbs
 
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