Ashtagrama iyer

The Ashtagrama Iyers(Margasahayam) are a group of Vadama Iyers or South Indian Karnataka Brahmins with their roots in the Ashtagrama situated in the Kolar district of Karnataka.

History

The Ancient history of this sect is not clearly known.But a few scholars claim that they migrated from present day Uttaranchal.In the early 16th century a few of the Iyers from the North Arcot and the Tanjavur districts of Tamil Nadu migrated to the Ashtagrama group of villages, at the request of the existing government, as learned Priests, Vedic Scholars and Agriculturists. They soon transformed it from a once poor community, into a well-educated and prosperous one.

Ashtagrama

Ashtagrama (literally,'eight villages') consists of several villages which are located in the Valley of the Palar River, which flows through the Kolar district into Tamil Nadu. The 10 villages on the North side of the river are Cholagunte, Doddiganahalli, Devarayasamudra, Gangigunte, Honnagaanahalli, Kothamangala, Minijenahalli, Thattangunte, Vijalapura and Yelagundanahalli. The remainder of the villages, Aralakunte, Chamarahalli, Gangapura, Hunkunda and Shillangeri are on the southern side of the river. Though the Iyers form the majority of the population all these villages show communal diversity.

Customs and beliefs

Most of the customs of the Ashtagrama Iyers remain the same as that of their Iyer counterparts elsewhere but some of them are derived from the Brahmin customs of Karnataka. Most Iyers follow both the solar calendar of Tamil Nadu and the lunar calendar of Karnataka. For example, the lunar tithis are followed for celebrating festivals while the lunar day is taken into account for Shraddh or death ceremonies. Similarly, on 14/15th of January both Sankranthi and Pongal are celebrated.

Language

Ashtagrama Iyers have a good knowledge of Kannada,Tamil and sometimes Telugu (Kolar being on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border). Also a dialect of Tamil is spoken which varies significantly from the way the other Iyers speak.

Some examples are:

Ashtagrama Iyers today

Today, many from the community have moved out into bigger cities like Bangalore, Chennai, New York, New Jersey etc. The Ashtagrama Sangha has taken shape in Bangalore to put forth the views of the community. Some known names from this community are Soundarya, the South Indian cine actress and Regret Iyer, a writer and cartoonist who had become a household name not too many years ago. Renowned body builder and kannada writer (late) K V Iyer, Photo journalists TS Sathyan and his son TS Nagarajan belong to this community

External links

http://www.ashtagrama.comhttp://kolariyers.com/index.htm

[http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/India/Iyer/iyer-index.htm Prof K V Iyer] , information on legendery Prof. K V Iyer