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Monday, January 27, 2020

agraharams and ottra madams.. kerala palakkad iyer culture..



one fact to be reckoned is that the Kerala Tamil Brahmin settlements have different patterns..
Two main patterns are agraharams and ottra madams(ഒറ്റ മഠം).
The traditions of people living in agraharam clusters based on replication of some traditional tamil agraharam perhaps vary considerably from those tamil brahmins who have settled all over kerala in isolated homes..
Also the traditions vary between agraharams on the basis of their origial spots from which they migrated..
Some agraharams have Vadama majority, lsome have Brahacharanam,Ashtasahasram Mankudi, Vaadhyama majority,
some are Chozhyas and in the south kerala we can find Mukkaalis ..
(The names of the groups have stuck to them from the earlier dens from which these people migrated)
Their traditions vary..
The traditions of Palakkad brahmins, Trichur brahmins Ernakulam brahmins Kollam brahmins and Trivandrum brahmins Kozhikode Brahmins, Kannur Payyanur Taliparamba Brahmins etc vary..


But the basic unity of complete faith in the primacy of Vedas, sandhyavandahanam and other rituals.. etc run like Golden threads binding them

The respect given to Kanchi and Sringeri Acharyals by smarthas of kerala is another common feature..

For the people of agraharam, their prime lord is their or grama devatha and in addition they have some adimai kavu..

Even traditions in core Palakkad town Agraharams and Agraharams other than these in other parts of palakkad vary.

Then even in palakkad city core agraharams the Kalpathy centred agraharams and Nurani Pallipuram Tirulakkadavu based agraharams have different traditions..

Of course, it has to be noted that every tamil speaking brahmin who migrated from Tamilnadu and settled somewhere in Kerala.. the whole Kerala created by Parasurama throw -- an axe throw.. is generally bracketed as a Palakkad Iyer.. I could sense a minor protests from my blood bandhus other that from Palakkad on this issue .. but just like every South Indian is a Madrasi in the north.. every kerala iyer is a Palakkad iyer.)

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