Brahman divisions

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:

> Such catchy statements express stereotypes among Tamil speakers too.
> examples:
> 
> vaDaman mutti vaishNavan - supposedly most of Ramanuja's original
> followers were vaDamas. 
> 
> tanjAvUr taLukku - Tanjavur Brahmins are supposed to be very shrewd.
> 
> north Arcot aSaDu, ashTasahasram aSaDu, kaNDramANikkam kaNDrAvi, ...
> 
> Tamilians like alliteration, I suppose!


Some more:

 "chOzhiyan kudumi chummA AdAthu"    difficult to translate because 
                                       the intended meaning is unclear.

 "Attukkum mAttukkum rendu kombu     Goats and cows have two horns,
   aiyyangAr sAmikku mUNu kombu"       Iyengars have three horns (the
                                       three-pronged "nAmam" that
                                       Iyengars put on their forehead)


Expectedly, there are also some bigoted
remarks about other castes:

  "thInikku thakuntha laddhi       The shit depends on the diet
    jAthikku thakuntha buddhi"       the mentality depends on the caste


No offence intended.


Narayan Sriranga Raja.