The Iyengars of GadiBero , West Bengal

The Iyengars of GadiBero , West Bengal 

By

A.S.Narayan

Tamil Brahmins were migrated to many places, but can you imagine that many tamil Brahmin families were settled in a small village in purulia district of west Bengal and became landlord, Rajguru of 4 Royal Dynasties.     Few know about such a village in west Bengal. Our great ancestor named Sri Gopalachari became first deekhsa guru of Panchakot Raj King Sri Nilmoni Singh deo about 250 years ago. According to my knowledge, he met the King at either Puri or in Gangasagar, when both went there for pilgrimage. Sri Gopalachari was spiritually very powerful man, and the King liked his look and message.   After Sri Gopal, 3 more royal families became our disciple and gave us ownership of 57 mouzas (one mouza = 3 to 4 villages). So we became Landlords. Later 22 more Iyengar families from tamilnadu and 7 from AP ( both Vadagalai and Thengalai including  swayamachar) also migrated to that village. They were given agricultural land and also property to construct houses. The word "Gadi" means power and the word "Bero" originated from "Beda", in bengali means boundary wall, because the village surrounded by hills. The Landlords constructed two Shiva temples and one Devi temple apart from three Vishnu temple. They built many lakes, established three schools and one Charitable Ayurvedic dispensary. The Landlord family later divided in to three branches. Our family is the second branch.  The Iyengars  of GadiBero started speaking local Manbhum language, which is a local dialect of purulia district . Most of them forgot tamil or telugu and Bengali veg food became their favourite. However they have maintained their Iyengar culture, celebrating Avani avittam, navrathri, Dhanurmasa and other festivals, preparing tamil foods were not forgotten. They used to come south for searching alliances for their children. Later many moved to Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata or even abroad in search of better life. Now only 7 families are there. At present no vaidhyars are available in that village, so they are going to Jamshedpur or to Kolkata  for any religious rituals. The Ayurvedic dispensary was handed over to govt is closed now. My mother's cousin Dr Sri Raghavachari once worked there as consultant. CPM MP from Bankura constituency (from 1980 to 2014) Mr Basudev Acharia also from our community. While our ancestors hailed from Ambasamusram of Thirunelveli district, 3 more families also hailed from Sanyasigramam, Deshamanikyam and Papanashanam of the same district. Others are from Thanjavur, Kumbhakonam, Kanchipuram and Chingelopet region. While the telugu Iyengars were from Bobbili and Guntur areas. Two Tamil Iyer families came to a village named "Ekoinja" to work as priest in Shiva temples of a Landlord  in first half of 19th century, but they did not stay long, because the village is situated in very remote area and they left to Tamilnadu much before independece. I have little knowledge about them. 

The GadiBero village is situated in Purulia district which was earlie known as Manbhum district and was in bihar. After independence it was given to west Bengal. The village in situated near Purulia - Bankura high way and 2.5 km from the bus stop and Bero railway station on Adra Junction - Asansole Junction rail way. The Bero railway station is about 3 km from the village. Interestingly in Adra Junction, there are some tamil Brahmins who are railway employees and some of them are living there even after retirement. According to my knowledge 5 tamil and some telugu Brahmins are there. My distance cousin brother married to a Iyer girl of Adra. Asansole is in west Bardhaman district, which is on coal belt and also industrial area. Earlier many tamil Brahmins were working there. Now most of them left, but few still there. Purulia is a drought pronr district and except Kangsawati no other big rivers are there. The Kangsawati river is there near the Purulia town which is about 44 km from GadiBero village. Western side of the district is Jharkhand's Singhbhum and coal reach Dhanbad district. Kolkata is 126 km from the village.