Any suggestions - 2

[George Hart]

It's also important to determine which sort of Tamil Brahmins are concerned
-- Smarta Brahmins (Iyers)?  Vaisnava Brahmins (Iyengars)?  There is also at
least one smaller category -- Sivacaryas, who are proper Saiva Brahmins.
Even within Tamil Nadu, these groups do not respect one another.  And within
the Vaisnava Brahmins, the VaTakalai group considers the Tenkalai's
converted Sudras, while the Tenkalais think the VaTakalai must have some
Portuguese blood to be so light-skinned.  There are 18 major points of
difference between the VaTakalai's and Tenkalais.   Among the Smartas, there
are also several divisions, and certainly there has never been any love lost
between Iyers and Iyengars.  I'm not sure either group even considers
Sivacaryas Brahmins.  It's even more interesting to delve into the relations
between different non-Brahmin castes (and within the castes).  George Hart

On 1/31/02 10:48 AM, "Madhav Deshpande" <mmdesh at UMICH.EDU> wrote:

> In the 17th-18th century text Vedavicaara that I am editing and
> translating, there is an interesting line explaining why the draaviDa
> brahmans of the south do not have any interaction/co-participation with the
> gurjara brahmans, though the gurjaras are technically considered to be
> draaviDas.  The text says:
>
> gau.dadezavad gurjaradeze 'py anaacaarabaahulyaat te.saam
> aacaaryazaapa-dagdhatvaat keraladeziiyabraahma.naadivat
> samvyavahaaraabhaava.h
>
> Like the the GauDa region, there is profusion of misbehavior (anaacaara)
> even in the Gurjara region, and hence, by being cursed by the aacaarya
> (who?), there is no dealing with them, as there is no dealing (for similar
> reasons) with brahmans from Kerala etc.
>
> I wonder if anyone has come across this story of some aacaarya cursing the
> brahmans of Kerala and Gurjara regions for their supposed misbehavior?  I
> suppose the anaacaara in Kerala refers to the relations of brahmans with
> nayar women.  What sort of anaacaara is alleged for the Gurjara brahmans?
>
>                                       Madhav Deshpande
>