Agraharam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Agrahara" redirects here. For other uses, see Agrahara (disambiguation).
An Agraharam in Thanjavur District

An Agraharam (Tamil: அக்கிறஹாரம்; Telugu: అగ్రహారం; Kannada: ಅಗ್ರಹಾರ) or Agrahara is the name given to the Brahmin quarter of a heterogenous village or to any village inhabited by Brahmins. Agraharams were also known as Chaturvedimangalams is ancient times.

The name originates from the fact that the agraharams have lines of houses on either side of the road and the temple to the village god at the centre, thus resembling a garland around the temple. According to the traditional Hindu practice of architecture and town-planning, an agraharam is held to be two rows of houses running north-south on either side of a road at one end of which would be a temple to Shiva and at the other end, a temple to Vishnu. An example is Vadiveeswaram in Tamil Nadu.

With Brahmins taking up professions in urban areas and some migrating abroad agraharams are vanishing fast. Many of the traditional houses are giving way to concrete structures and commercial buildings.

Contents

[edit] History

The earliest existing description of an agraharam has been found in a 3rd century AD Sangam Age work called Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai.[1]

The houses had in front of them, a shed with short legs to which were tied fat calves; the houses were washed with cowdung and had idols (inside them). Domestic fowl and dogs did not approach them. It was the village of the guardians of the Veda who teach its sounds to the parrots with the bent mouth. If you (bard) reach (the place), fair faced bangled ladies who are as chaste as (Arundhathi) the little star which shines in the north of the bright, broad sky, will after sunset feed you on the well-cooked rice named after the bird (explained by the commentator as the rice called irasanam) along with slices of citron boiled in butter taken, from the buttermilk derived from red cows and scented with the leaves of the karuvembu, and mixed with pepper-powder, and the sweet-smelling tender fruit plucked from the tall mango tree and pickled[1]

[edit] Places with the name Agraharam or Agrahara

[edit] Karnataka

There are a number of places in Southern Karnataka named agrahara. These places might have have, probably, originated as Brahmin villages.

[edit] Tamil Nadu

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar (1929). History of the Tamils from the Earliest Times to 600 A. D.. pp. 388–389. 

[edit] External links


Stub icon This article about Hindu theology, scripture or ceremony is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about the culture of India is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agraharam&oldid=455961793"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages