origin of mudaliars

origin of mudaliars
As far as I know mudaliars, pillais and gounders have a common ancestry which many people are not aware of. All the three so called caste names were originally titles held by chieftains. These three groups actually belong to the “vellalar” community who were agricultural landlords and inhabitants of the "marutha nilam" (one of the five lands advocated by the sangam literature). It is said that pure tamilians should be able to trace there origin to any one of the five lands indicated by the sangam literature. The land marutham was inhabited mainly by two groups, the vellalas (agricultural landlords) and the pallalars (agricultural peasants). This land was a very fertile land with lots of agricultural fields. These facts can be verified by the ancient tamil poetry “mukkudal pallu” were the murthapalli (the elder pallar women) and illayapalli (the younger pallar women) along with the pallan (their pallar husband) make fun of the vellalar landlord.Latter, during cultural diversification the vellalas started diversifying into small groups depending upon the geographical regions of tamilnadu in which they inhabited. Thus, those of the "thondaimandalam" became the thondaimandala vellals (mudaliars and few pillais).This area includes the present day chennai, chengalpet, kanchipuram, vellore, cadalore, arcot, vadalore, thrivannamalai area were the vellala mudaliars (also called as arcot mudaliars) are the dominant community. Those who inhabited the chola (thichy, thanjavur, pudukottai area) and pandiya (madurai, thirunelvelli, thuthukudi, kanyakumari, nagerkovil area) mandalams became the shoziya vellalar (a modified version of the chola vellalar) and pandiya vellalar respectively. Both these communities have pillai as their surnames. The vellalas of the kongu mandalam were called as kongu vellalas (gounders or kounders). This area includes coimbatore, salem, pollaichi, udagamandalam and darmapuri) were the kongu vella gounders are the dominant community. Its also said that the pillai, menon and nair communities of kerala also belong to the vellalar community (the so called chera vellalas). Even though 90% of the tamilian vellalas have pillai, mudaliar or gounder surnames it should be remembered that not all mudaliars, pillais and gounders are vellalas. The vice-versa is also true- thus sometimes some vellalas have other surnames like chettiar, nayakar, etc). Similarly the agamudaiya mudaliars and senguntha mudaliars who form a significant number among the thondaimandala mudaliars are strictly speaking non-vellals. The agamudaiyars actually belong to the “mukkulathore” community which also includes the kallars and maravars. These three communities (as the name mukulathore suggest-three communities) have devar has their surname. But latter the agamudaiyars (the most upward community among the three) slowly migrated towards the northern part of tamil nadu, settled there, changed their surname to mudaliars and mingled with the local vellala mudaliars. This fact is denoted by the proverb which says “Kallar maravar agamudaiyar mella mella vandu vellalar aanaray, vellala ahi mudaliar shonnaray”. Similarly, the senkunthars who actually belong to the weaver community who form a significant population in kancheepuram and tirupur-salem area started using mudaliar surname for obvious social upliftment and started marring with the vella mudaliars. Today the caste “thuluva vella mudaliars” includes the vellalas, agamudaiyars and sengunthars. Even today inter-marriage between the vellala mudaliars and non-vellala mudaliars is not accepted in very orthodox families. A small but significant population of mudaliars also exist in other areas other than the thondaimandalam like madurai, tirunelvelli, coimbatore, etc but most of them are actually emigrants from thodaimandalam area.Among the coimbathore gounders (even though the word generally refers to the kongu vallala gounders) other non-vella gounders also exist including the “vettuva gounders” or “vanniya gounders”. Even thou both the vellala gounders and vanniya gounders share the same surnames they belong to a totally different communities and marriage between these two communities is forbidden by both of them. In general, among all the vellalas the kongu vellalas are unique and follow a totally different customs and traditions. Further endogamy among them is very strong and they strongly believe in the purity of their genes. They have a unique social organization called “kootam” which is the equivalent of the bhraminical “gothram”. Thus persons belonging to the same “kootam” are considered to be descendants of a single family and are considered as brothers and sisters and marriage between them is forbidden. Some of the vellala gounders were also rulers and thus are considered as kshtiyas. Their marriages are held by senior members of their family and not by Brahmins. Their temples also have vella gounder priests unlike other temples which have Brahmin priests. Thus most occupations in their society is managed by members of their own community except for the so called socially low profile jobs.Among the three vellala communities the pillais are the most heterogenous. Thus in many parts of tamil nadu many people belonging to diverse communities call themselves as pillais again as mentioned previously for obvious social upliftment. Thus the sub-caste system among pillais is very diverse. Thus even among the vella pillais eight major groups can be identified: 1. the karuneega pillai (kanaku pillai mainly in thondai mandalam area), 2. karkattha pillai (thanjavur kumbakonam area- many people belonging to this community are wrongly mistaken as Brahmins due to the strong association between these two communities in the cauvery belt area), 3. thuluva vella pillai, 4. shoziya vella pillai, 5. pandiya vella pillai, 7. thirunelvelli siva pillai, 7. nanjil pillai (senkottai pillaimar) and 8. kerala pillai (chera vellalar). Since there are so many sub-castes hierarchy among them becomes inevitable. Even though the thirunelvelli siva pillais are vella pillais who belong to the pandiya mandalam they tend to differentiate them selves from the non-vegetarian pandiya pillais and claim supremacy. Similarly even though the shoziya vellals and karkathars both inhabit chola mandalam and share the same pillai surname the vegetarian karkathars claim their supremacy over the non –vegetarian shoziya vellas, interestingly the thodaimandala saiva mudailars, thanjavur (kumbakonam) karkathars and tirunelvelli siva pillai though belonging to three different mandalams tend to flock together due to common food habits (strict vegetarians) and traditions (most of them are shivities) and inter-marriage among them is sometimes acceptable. Even among them each group claims supremacy over other in terms of genetic purity which is analogous to the fight between the “vadakalai” and “thenkalai” iyengars. These communities even though strictly speaking are minority communities claim supremacy over other pillais, mudaliars and gounders. Among the pillais, the most isolated group is the nanjil pillais. They inhabit the kumari mavattam (nagerkovil and kanyakumari). The other tamil pillais don’t marry with them since these people are strongly influenced by the kerala culture (which is quite obvious since the nagerkovil kanyakumari area is the tip of kerala and tamil nadu and was once part of kerala even though now it is in tamil nadu). The strong kerala influence is seen in their food habits, language slang and other customs which differentiate them from the other tamil pillai communities. But since this community pre se is of tamilian origin marriage with the kerala nairs, menons and pillais is prohibited. Finally, lord ayyappa was believed to have born in a kerala vellalar family who was latter was elevated as a god and son of shiva and Vishnu. Thus the vellala community of tamil nadu (and perhaps kerala) even though has a long heritage which can be traced back to sangam literature is largely diverse and much unknown to the modern world.
Recipes unique to mudaliars.
Mudaliars have a wide variety of unique cuisine. Some of them are
1. "atthika palagaram"- some people call it sweet bonda or pal bonda. its small balls of urud dal deep fried like bondas and soaked in sweetend coconut milk2. "mutta appam"- these are actually an indianized version of american pancakes made with maida-egg-milk mix and has a coconut-sugar filling3. "karaboondi thuvaram"- made from kadaboondi especially when it looses its crispness and cann't be had as a snack.4. "bagalore kathirikka halwa"- halwa made from grated chou chou (bangalore kattharikai)5. "rava pakoda"- pakoda's made with rava with a full cashew hidden inside
6. "thithipu nellika"- simple but time consuming. ara nellika is finely pocked with a needle and soaked in sugar syrup7. thengai pachidi- coconut scrapings in whipped curd 8."vella kolambu"- north madras speciality; basicaly katharikai kara kolambu with little bit of jagerry9."valzapoo vadai"- vadai made with bannana flowers10."parupu orunda kolambu"- toor-channa dal balls cooked in kolambu11. "vadakari"- another hall mark dish of north madras- best combo with idili and dosai- a must for veg mudalis in madras for diwali breakfast12. "pachai parupu orundai"- evening snack13. "odaichai kadalai orundai"- evening snack14. "sutta katharikai thuvaiyal"- i think even other do it and call it by a diffrent name...but the mudali way of doing it is very yummy
15. sundakari- all the leaft over meals except rice and kara kolambu which is mixed and simmered in very low flame till everything completely gels with each other and form a nice mix. in olden days this is always served as a side dish with "pazlaye sadam" and was the std breakfast for servants in the house.