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Tamil Kshatriya

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Tamil Kshatriyas are a group of Hindus belonging to the Kshatriya caste who spoke the Tamil language and ruled much of the present day Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the first millenum. Large parts of the present day Sri Lanka were also ruled by Tamil Kshatriyas.[1] Many of the royal clans now living in Kerala are also thought to have been descended from Tamil Kshatriyas.[2]

Ancient period

The Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas royal dynasties who ruled Southern India were originally Tamil speaking. The Cheras are thought to have been descended from Fire and therefore Agnivanshi, the Cholas from the sun (Suryavanshi) and the Pandyas from the moon (Chandravanshi).[3]

Present period

Nowadays, scholars consider the high ranking Vellalar castes Kongu Vellalar, Chozhia Vellalar, etc., are the scions of the ancient Tamil aristocracy[4][5][6]. Some of the other Kshatriya varna communities include Thevars,Kallars,Muthuraja/Mutharaiyar[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] ect who in different stages of history have ruled over different parts of Tamil Nadu.Uraiyur the ancient capital of Cholas is dominated by the Muthuraja community indicating the Clolas & Muthuraja are one and the same people, who like Kauravas & Pandavas we descendants of same ancestors, but later there was a conflict of interest that led to battles between the two communities. The Muthurajas of Tamil nadu also see Mudiraju, Vettuva Gounders, Ambalakkarars, Urali gounders and other Denotified Communities under their ancestor Muttani Raja descendent of Kannappa Nayanar of Kalahasti, frontier place between the Tamil lands and, according to the plates were invited by the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings to face the Oddiars. These people are still called vadugar or the people from the north. Sundarar mentions these people as 'Vadugar' people from the immediate north i.e Andhra Pradesh [15]. Some historians even count the Vanniyars with their prime deity Periyandavar (Peddaranaswamy), Pedda being Telugu for 'big', as part of the 'Vadugar' corpus. Denotified Communities in the Mukkulathor corpus as Kallars, Maravars and Agamudaiyar are descendents of the great (Kalabhra) invaders from Odra desam and Sallia desam of the north, who are called 'Oddiars' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odisha#Origin_of_the_name_of_the_State as per the Nanjai Idayar copper plate inscriptions[16].

The above two rival fierce peoples, the Oddiar - Salliars and the Vadugar (also called Vadugu, Pidugu and Mudugu) have made Tamil Nadu as their homeland ever since. The Vellala hegemony over the Tamil regions was broken at this time thereby ushering the end of the Golden age of Tamils, the Sangam period and the beginning of the Kalabhra interregnum.

References

  1. ^ Tamil culture in Ceylon: a general introduction By M. D. Raghavan [1]
  2. ^ History of medieval Kerala By V. K. R. Menon, Rathi Ramachandran, Girija Narayanan, Ammini Ramachandran [2]
  3. ^ Malabar, Volume 1 [3]
  4. ^ Ancient Indian History and Civilization By Sailendrda Nath Sen page 205 & 207: "... the Vellalars were the aristocratic classe and were held in high esteem..."[4]
  5. ^ The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago by V.Kanakasahai page 113: "The Chera, Chola and Pandyan kings and most of the petty chiefs of Tamilakam belonged to the tribe of Vellâlas." [5]
  6. ^ Tamil studies: essays on the history of the Tamil people, language, religion and literature By Muttusvami Srinivasa Aiyangar pages 63: "No traces of the Tamil kings are to be found at present in this country, and it is highly probable that they should have merged in the pure Vellala caste." [6][7]
  7. ^ Early Chōl̤a art:origin and emergence of style
  8. ^ The political structure of early medieval South India, page 112
  9. ^ Journal of Indian history, Volume 19, page 40
  10. ^ History of Tamil language and literature:beginning to 1000 A. D., page 89
  11. ^ Śaṅgam polity:the administration and social life of the Śaṅgam Tamils, page 33
  12. ^ Tirupati Balaji was a Buddhist shrine
  13. ^ The History and Culture of the Indian People: The classical age
  14. ^ http://www.iasexams.com/NCERT-Books/NCERTBooksforClass7/FreedownloadClass7HistoryNCERTBook/Class7_History_Unit02_NCERT_TextBook_EnglishEdition.pdf
  15. ^ http://www.thevaaram.org/thirumurai_1/songview.php?thiru=7&Song_idField=7049&padhi=100+&button=%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%86%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95
  16. ^ http://www.archive.org/stream/p1salemrich01richuoft#page/148/mode/2up

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