Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Chozhiya Brahmins of Kerala


Chozhiya  Brahmins  of Kerala

Complied by
P.R.Ramachander





Among the several sub castes  of  Brahmins who live in Kerala  , Chozhiya  Brahmins  are  one of the smallest .According to Tamil history  ,  after  migration to Tamil Nadu   they landed in Kingdom of Chozhas   and took up temple worship as their profession. Unlike all other  sections of Brahmins the males  had   a tuft in frone of their head, similar to Nambudiris    as well  as Chidambaram Deekshithars.  In the initial days  , they were   considered  inferior  by other Brahmins    and there  are records to show   they were  not allowed in side houses of  Vadamas . In Kerala    they  continued to live in separate  communities  of their own    and I understand  that in olden days  they were not allowed   to mingle with other Brahmins  .Among the villages   they  chose to live  were KOdunthirapalli  , Chembai, Padur  , Kottai, THennilapuram , Anju murthi, TRithamarai   , Vengaseri etc.  There are some Chozhiya Brahmin villages    even in Nagar Koil.Most  of them followedTaithreeya SAmhitha  of Yajur vedam and Jaimeeniya  SAmhitha  of  SAma vedam. They also mostly  married  among themselves   and relatively they  were  a lesser in come group.
      They claim  that the great  political scientist   Chanakya   as well as Adhi Sankara  belonged  to their group. The claim is doubtful   because  Both these  great people  were  not tamilians .In fact Adhi Sankara  in spite his travelling never wrote   any thing in Tamil and in spite of knowing about tamil SAivism  , did not take  any interest  in that. There is some proof that  Padma Pada  one of the greatest   disciple of Sankara  belonged  to this group.
     One of the professions in which   they shined was music and the greatest  among Kerala Chozhiya Brahmins  is undioudetdly   Chembai Vaidyanatha   Bhagawathar. Most of them chose to be priests  in Temples   as well as Vadhyars .
     There are  several  Chozhiya families   who are  working as Vadhyars  in Bangalore . They  do not prefer to advertaise  this fact and prefer  to keep Pin Kudimi like all other Brahmins
     There  must be   many great  people   among them also  but  I do not know about them.
   

4 comments:

Venkitachalam KS said...

This piece is interesting. But is silent as to why these Chozhiyas were considered inferior. Could it be economic,social or other reasons ?

Venkitachalam KS said...

This piece is interesting. But is silent as to why these Chozhiyas were considered inferior. Could it be economic,social or other reasons ?

Tarun Narayan said...

poorly researched piece on sholiyar brahmins. Please do a more thorough job and get it aligned to google search engine. Really curious to find some terrific insights about this sect of Brahmin community and the political conspiracy they were trapped by other sub sects...

Anonymous said...

Hi Sir, I just went through your article it is well written. I have a doubt regardingbthis comminity that I heard that chozhiya brahmins are also called as ucha pelayan. Is that correct?