Courtesy: Sri.PK.Ramakrishnan
तयोरेवान्तरं गिर्यो:
आर्यावर्तं विधुर्बुधा: //
The land between the eastern and western sea and also between the north and south mountains
(between the Himalaya and the (Vindhya mountain) is called aaryaavartam.
Those who migarted from this place to the south are called the aaryas.
Agastya was the first such person to cross the Vindhya mountain.
Agastya means the person who stayed the aga. aga means mountain.
na gacchati iti agah. Parvati means the daughter of Parvata. agaja is
another name of Parvati.
Agastya pushed down the Vindhya mountain and asked it to stay like that
till he returned from the South. He never returned. He was an aarya. Many
more aaryas followed him. They are all aaryas. Iyer is the Tamil form of
aarya and aaryar. For example Ramaswamy Iyer, Seshadri Iyer, Parameswara Iyer and so on.
In Kannada it becomes ayya like Visweswara Ayya. In Telugu like Sitaramayya. But there are
आसमुद्रात्तु पुर्वा वै
आसमुद्रात्तु पश्चिमात् /तयोरेवान्तरं गिर्यो:
आर्यावर्तं विधुर्बुधा: //
The land between the eastern and western sea and also between the north and south mountains
(between the Himalaya and the (Vindhya mountain) is called aaryaavartam.
Those who migarted from this place to the south are called the aaryas.
Agastya was the first such person to cross the Vindhya mountain.
Agastya means the person who stayed the aga. aga means mountain.
na gacchati iti agah. Parvati means the daughter of Parvata. agaja is
another name of Parvati.
Agastya pushed down the Vindhya mountain and asked it to stay like that
till he returned from the South. He never returned. He was an aarya. Many
more aaryas followed him. They are all aaryas. Iyer is the Tamil form of
aarya and aaryar. For example Ramaswamy Iyer, Seshadri Iyer, Parameswara Iyer and so on.
In Kannada it becomes ayya like Visweswara Ayya. In Telugu like Sitaramayya. But there are
some names like Siddaramayya who are not Brahmins. Here ayya means a respected
person.
Sri Ramanuja who was an aarya wanted to convert many non-aaryas as aaryas.This ceremony
was called aaryamkara ceremony. In this ceremony all non-aaryas are given a sacred thread.
This is practically a conversion programme - converting non-brahmins to brahmins.
After this they were given a feast. This is called sadya in Tamil/Malayalam. Amarakosham
says - sagdhi: stri sahabhojanam or Group feeding. The most important ritual of this conversion is to take meals in a sagdhi.
During the first sadya those who were participating belonged to various castes or jatis - like aasaari, muusaari, kollan, thattaan, karuvaan, vaaniyan,veluthedan, kumbaaran, and so on.
They did not like each other. So in the first feast also they did not sit in a row. I am told that even now ayyamkars do not sit in a row for a feast.
Some vaishnavas did not accept this practice. Then the two divistions started - as vadakalais and thenkalais. kalai means a branch. Vadakalai people are purely aaryas while thenkalais are mixed. Thenkalais use Tamil also in the worship while vadakalais use Sanskrit only.
It is believed that while the Vadakalai society was rigid, the Thenkalai society, on the contrary, accepted a significant proportion of the non-Brahmin population into its fold.
Sri Ramanuja who was an aarya wanted to convert many non-aaryas as aaryas.This ceremony
was called aaryamkara ceremony. In this ceremony all non-aaryas are given a sacred thread.
This is practically a conversion programme - converting non-brahmins to brahmins.
After this they were given a feast. This is called sadya in Tamil/Malayalam. Amarakosham
says - sagdhi: stri sahabhojanam or Group feeding. The most important ritual of this conversion is to take meals in a sagdhi.
During the first sadya those who were participating belonged to various castes or jatis - like aasaari, muusaari, kollan, thattaan, karuvaan, vaaniyan,veluthedan, kumbaaran, and so on.
They did not like each other. So in the first feast also they did not sit in a row. I am told that even now ayyamkars do not sit in a row for a feast.
Some vaishnavas did not accept this practice. Then the two divistions started - as vadakalais and thenkalais. kalai means a branch. Vadakalai people are purely aaryas while thenkalais are mixed. Thenkalais use Tamil also in the worship while vadakalais use Sanskrit only.
It is believed that while the Vadakalai society was rigid, the Thenkalai society, on the contrary, accepted a significant proportion of the non-Brahmin population into its fold.
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