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