Smartha Brahmins of Bangalore

Smartha Brahmins of Bangalore

A note by

P.R.Ramachander

Quite a large percentage of Bangalore Brahmins are Smarthas . Most of them are settlers from neighbouring states. I might have left many other groups .Please do write in this forum, if you know any more group . I would be writing about Vaishnavites soon.
The word Smartha  means  , followers  of Smrithi. Most of  the Smarthas are the followers of Adhi Sankara.Though they  worship all  Gods  of Hinduism, they  are referred   to as Shaivite Brahmins./

There are many types of Smarthas living in Bangalore .Here are a few that I know of:-

1.Havyaka Brahmins who have come from South and North Canara districts and are  the major  Cultivators  of  Arecanut  in those  districts   . They normally have a surname Bhats.They are well educated and normally rich. Though they speak Kannada , they prefer to speak Tulu language (To know about them read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havyaka_Brahmin )

2.Kolar Iyers or Ashtagrama Iyers or DEvaraja samudram Iyers. They are settlers from Tamil Nadu and possibly from Northern districts of Tamil Nadu about 500 years back and settled down in Banbgalore .They speak Kannada .You can find lot of information about them in http://kolariyers.com/

3.Sankethi Brahmins – They are again settlers from Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. They initially preferred to stay in the hilly districts of Karnataka state . They also speak Kannada and a sort  of Tamil  among themselves . You can know more about them by visiting http://www.sankethi.org/Culture/index.html

4.Desasth Brahmins - They are a group of Brahmins who have got themselves settled in Maharashta, Northern Karnataka and Andhra, You can know more about them by reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshastha_Brahmin

5.KOnkanastha Brahmins - They are mainly migrants from Goa and Maharashtra . There are many sub divisions to this community .The major potion are Gaud SAraswath and Saraswath Brahmins ,Chithpavans also belong to this group . You can more about them by reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkani_Brahmins

6.Babbur Kamme  Brahmins  .They are  Kannada  Speaking Brahmins  possibly  originating from  Maysore  and Bangalore  .Sage Vidhyarananya  who helped  in Founding Vijayanagar empire   was  one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babburkamme

7.Hoysala Karnataka Brahmins. They are  another  Kannada  speaking Smartha Brahmins  .Read more about them in  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoysala_Karnataka_Brahminshttp://hoysalakarnatakabrahmins.com/

                                                             
6.Andhra Brahmins , This is a very strong community in Bangalore , They speak Telugu and have several sub divisions.The Major  Sub divisions are  Niyogis   and Sasthris, which  have  many sub divisions  among them  .You can know  more about them by  reading  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_Brahmin

7.Tamil Iyers There are large number of Tamil iyers in Bangalore who have well settled there.Since Tamil Nadu is a neighbouring state they are able to easily visit their native places whenever they want.They speak Tamil in their home,Those who had come more than 100 years back , had come to the Mysore King’s court to show their expertise in music arts etc and have settled down in Mysore.They prefer to talk Kannada outside their homes. You can know  more   about them by reading  https://rajathathablog.blogspot.com/2008/10/brahmins-of-tamil-nadu.html

8.Palakkad Iyers. You would find that a good percentage of Tamil iyers are from Palakkad . They are Tamil iyers who had settled in Palakkad.They speak Tamil mixed with Malayalam in their home ,SEshadri iyer was a Palakkad iyer who became Divan of Mysore and contributed to the development of Bangalore. The grateful Bangloreans have erected his statue in front of the State central library and also named the Library after him. Seshadri puram also is named after him.The initial crop of Palakkad iyers came to run hotels in Bangalore.. Read  https://rajathathablog.blogspot.com/2017/12/palakkad-brahmins-or-kerala-iyers.html  to know more about  them

9.Konkanastha  Brahmins ..They  are settlers  from Goa and speak a language  called Konkani  ,Large  number of them have  settled down in coastal  districts  of Karnataka.Many of them  have settled  down in Bangalore .You can know  more about them by reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan

10.Pancha  Dravida  Brahmins  of Maharashtra  . The extreme northern part  of Karnataka  has a large  number  of Marahthi  Speaking  Brahmins  .Some  of them have  moved  to Bangalore  .You can no more  about them  by reading  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtrian_Pancha-Dravida_Brahmin

11.Large  number  of Smartha  Brahmins  belonging to North India  can be found as  living  in Bangalore .Since  they belong to varios states  and various sub groups  a single  web site  will not give details about them. Chaterji, Mukherji, Banerjee, Shukla  , Trivedi, Chathurvedi , Bharuah, Acharya , Mishra , Kaul, Bhat, Sathpathi, Upadhyay  , Deshmukh  , Kulkarni  are  some  of their surnames