The Smarthas with
Vaishnavite marks among
Kerala iyers
By
P.R.Ramachander
Migration to
Kerala iyers took place due to various
reasons and was mainly from Thanjavur and Thirunelveli
districts of Tamil Nadu. They possibly settled there around 400 years back and built a
culture of their own . Their food
underwent a great change due to
availability of groceries that they were
used to in Tamil Nadu . The new recipes that they evoived were a wonderful combination of Tamil Nadu and the recipes of
Nambudiris of Kerala . Since the worship in Kerala temples were essentially Thanthra based , they
built their own temples
wherever possible and
the Vedic Pundits who migrated along with them started their own
Veda Patasalas and
preserved the recitation style they were
used to .
Strangely most of
the people who migrated to Kerala were
iyers. While most of these iyers
wore Vibhuthi (a smartha custom) , some
of them wore Gopi crescent
like Madhwas and some
the red Oordwa pundra like the Vaishnavites of Tamil Nadu . It is also
interesting to note that the majority of people wearing Oordwa Pundra are from two
of the eighteen villages in
Palakkad viz Thirunellai and Pallipuram . Even among those who normally wear a
crescent with Gopi Chandana , there are a few who wear short crescents and others who wear
long gopis. Being very much intersted in the
history of Kerala Brahmins , I
had enquired from those who wear Gopi and Namam whether they are Vaishnavites and they told they were but followed all the Acharas,
manthras and ceremonial dress of Smarthas
.For all practical practical
purposes except for Oordwa pundra they
were Smarthas. Another intersting
practice is that , in
most of the Vishnu/Krishna/Rama
temples managed by the
Tamil Brahmins , on special
days they summon an Azhvar to do the Pooja . I could not get information
as to
the village from which these Azhvars came .
I know that among
my friends , there are vey many
relegious scholars well versed
in Smartha and Vaishnavite Customs . I would like to know
more about this peculiarity among
Palakkad Brahmins .
1 comment:
+P.R. Ramachander Thanks for this question. I am a no expert in this field, but I belong to both Thirunellai (paternal) and Pallipuram (maternal) villages. Its not only in namam that we differ, we invoke vishnu instead of "mamopartha" in sandhyavandhanam and all sankalpams. Both my grandfathers were vadhyars.
Regarding azhvar, they are called to do "dwaja arohanam", "avarohanam" in ratholsavam and certain pujas only.
What I could assume is that there were two or more separate inflow from tamilnadu. my grandfathers would say we came from srirangam. my theory is that initially the vaishnavites came from tamilnadu, who settled in thirunellai/pallipuram. then in a separate movement later smarthas came in larger number and settled in other 16 villages of palakkad town (more villages in district).
why i believe that vaishanavites came first is because of the lower number of villages which exist, and for them to have survived the bigger number of smarthas whom could have came later.
However there is a popular belief that tamil brahmins were called by the ruling kings for various priesthood duties. i am not buying this argument mainly because of the big number of settlements, and the way in which there are separate temples built in agraharams instead of existing temples.
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