Thursday, May 3, 2018

Kolar iyers or Ashtagrama iyers-an Introduction


Kolar iyers or Ashtagrama iyers-an  Introduction

Compiled  by
P.R.Ramachander





     They bare also known as   Devarayasamudram iyers   and speak  a mixture  of Kannada   and Tamil. Being a border  district of Andhra   most of them also kow  Telugu.  .They are supposed to have migrated   to Karnataka  500 years back from Kundur  agraharam of   Kanchipuram.All of them belong to the Vadama  subcaste  of  Iyers.They have   settled in 16 villages  of KOlar district of Karnataka  , deva samudram being   their largest   settlement. There   are Shaivas   as well as Vaishnavites among them ,
   They follow a mixture of the customs  of iyers of Tamil Nadu and also   the Smartha   Brahmins of Karnataka, They follow   both the Solar as well as  Lunar  Panchangams   and celebrate   festivals   following  the Lunar calendar.

The villages of Ashtagrama are ,on either side of Palar river  in Kolar, Bangarpet and Mulabagal taluks of Karnataka state. Even though  a very small community   they have made a  mark   and there are  very emininent personalities   among them in almost   every field  of endeavour.  The world famous  Historian Sri Ramachandra Guha Indian politician V.S.Krishna Iyer  (Once MP from Bangalore) , the world famous  photographer Sri T.S.Satyan, Shatavadhani Ganesh  Actress  Soundarya    and the famous  writer and cartoonist Regret  Iyer   belong to their community. They also maintain a face book page  Ashtagrama Iyer's

 Please   see a  funny video   made  by the Ashta grama  iyers   settled in USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmAEd0Wpn80

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There needs to be an update to the history and the ancestral roots.
Few places among the ancestral origin are missed out I feel. There are good details in wikipedia and website. Not all are called devarayasamudram iyers.