TRUE STORY OF KAPI RANGA

NO NAMES AND NO DATES

Long back we were owning agriculatural lands in our ancestral village. Our father had moved to city long time ago and the lands were given on lease. There were no written agreements but only due to trust the lands were given on the basis of sharing the produce.
We used to visit the village once in a while and during the crop cultivation we used to visit and collect either the crop or sell the crop of our portion and get money for the same.
There was a farmer by the name of (kapi) Ranga in that village. He had his wife and two sons and a daughter in his house hold. He was a share cropper.
As ill luck would have it he got hold of an exotic variety of paddy for sowing as it was fetching good price in the market. The catch was that it used to take longer for the paddy to mature than what was planted by others in the surrounding field. When the paady crops of others matued and they took it home to their barn or home the only crop which was standing was that of Kapi Ranga.
All the pests and field mice from all over the area got into this field and destroyed almost all the paady crop. So he was forced to borrow money in order to compensate the loss to the owners of the land with minimum of paddy that was agreed.
Next year he got paddy seedlings which were ripe to be planted from various sources as he felt it was cheaper than sowing and trasplanting.
As the paddy planted was of different type the maturity period was also varying and different areas ripened at diffrent times.
It was very difficult to harvest this time .
Once again Kapi Ranga borrowed heavily to clear his lease. He was unable to clear the debt and also the heavy interest thereupon.
Once in a year after the harvest time some agents used to come to the village to recruit workers for the coffee and teas estates. They used to lure the people to join the labour force and used to give huge amount as advance. Mostly Dalits used to accept the offer. And once they left the village nobody retuned from the estates either to visit their villages or friends or relatives. Very rarely other communities used to go for this estate works.
When the recruiting agent came to the village Kapi Ranga was more than anxious to join and he got the advance grom the agent and cleared all the debts. He still had some amount left and he called upon all the villagers to a really a grand Dinner and one and all the villagers enjoyed the dinner. At the end of the dinner Kapi Ranga along with family cicumbulated the villagers andf prostrated before them saying that whatever mistages he has commited is to e forgiven and he should be remebered for a long time to come.
with meagre belongings he along with his family left the village.
Nothing was heard about Kapi Ranga afterwords.
I saw this scence when I was a boy of fourteen.
Later on I studied and joined Government department in a Hill Station.
In one of the estates during summer months the estate authorities were conducting
ball badminton tournaments and many teams from nearby estates and other Government organisations used to send entries. The matches were played only on sundays.
I also participated in the tournament
While I was playing in the doubles I was an boy who was going with a gait similar to Kapi Ranga walking at a distance of about 30 feet. I could not leave the match in the middle and I waited till the match was over . I thought that the boy might be seeing some match in some other court but i could not fined him.
I met the manager to the estate and asked him whether i can find from register the name of Kapi Ranga from the list of laboureres.
The manager laughed and sid that as soon as a new labourer comes to the estate a new name is given as most of the labourers who arrive are petty criminals who are in the wanted list of police.
This articles is deDicated to Kapi Ranga and his family.

STORY OF SMT VIJAYA A CHILD WIDOW OF NADIURAM FAMILY AND KNOW TO ME

Story of Smt Vijaya a child widow of Nadipuram family known to me
.
Sosale Samapathanna’s parents had I believe nearly 16 children. Except of sampathanna and his one younger sister and one younger brother all the others died. Sampathanna ‘s father was the first cousin of sahukar srirangachar. Among the second generation of ammanji family he was the senior most and sahukar srirangachar was next one..
Sampathanna was given in adoption to a family of kalalay which is near nanjangud.
This happened when sampathanna had lots of brothers and sisters. When almost all of them died except for sampathanna and his brother who was handicapped with one leg a bit crooked and one sister sampathanna was taken back. I do not know under what rules of the ancient script this was done. However sampathanna used to perform annual shraddha ceremony for the once adopted paents and his own parents.
His younger brother was married to the first wife’s daughter Vijaya of Ranganatha chkravarthy of sosale when both the boy and the girl were in their teens. Unfortunately the boy died even before the cosummation of the marriage and the girl had not yet attained puberty..
I do not know the reason but knew for sure that the girl did not have her hair removed even after attaining puberty. She never knew any of the realatives from the Nadipuram ammanji side, she was never invited for any functions . when ever any birth or death happened in the nadipuram ammanji family as is the custom she had to observe the “soothakam” or say pollution for the prescribed period. She never had seen the face or any nadipurams except for our parents and had not even been invited to the functions of any nadipurams still she had to observe the prescribed pollution period. In this her father and sampathanna were strict.
Every year sampathanna used to give her enough paddy for her use. This was more than sufficient for her. Unfortunately her father who had some property and lost it for reasons unknown to me had lots of children from his second wife and this quantity of paddy was not sufficient for their household and may be it was sufficient for a period of 3 months or so.. He used to pester sampathanna for more and more of paddy which sampathanna could not afford to give. Ranganatha chkravrthy used to shout from the house tops that he is not getting proper share for his daughter and this was a regular feature. He also used to say that he has sacrificed the life of his daughter for the nadipuram ammanji family and she is observing all the pollution period and still she is not treated fair. In fact sampathanna used to be not only fair but also was going out of way to help his brother's wife. Whatever sampathanna did this did not satisfy ranganatha chakravarthy and he used to shout at his daughter for no fault of her, vijaya led a pious life suitable for a widow always remaining within the house and not taking part in any function in her own fathers house. As she was not invited to any function of ammanji families her taking part did not arise.
When ever our mother used to visit sosale our mother used to spend some time with her and give her some money also for her use. Vijaya used to be updated on the families of nadipuram clan by our mother and this is the only way she knew about nadipuram clan,
After some years vijaya died and none of the nadipuram clan even bothered to visit ranganatha chkravarthy family to offer their condolences.
I have narrated this to show some weak armour of nadipuram clan and as a tribute to smt Vijaya. about whom nobody of nadipuram clan knows.

ONE BRANCH OF AMMANJI KRISHNAMACHAR'S FAMILY

ONE BRANCH OF AMMANJI KRISHNAMACHAR’S FAMILY

AMMANJI KRISHNAMACHAR had 5 sons and 3 daughters.
Our grand father SRI SUNDARAVARADACHAR was his second son. He was a scholar in grammar, logic, dharma shastra and mimamsa.. He had one son and one daughter (I do not even know her name) married when she was quite young to a DIKSHITHAR family of Narasipur. She died young without any issues. The dikshithar married for the second time and their family is flourishing well.
Sri sundaravaradachar was very orthodox. When out father settled at mysore he used to visit his son and his family once in a way and also attend any VIDVAT SADAS at parakalamutt after its being shifted to mysore after the floods during 1924.. Very rarely he used to take his lunch or dinner at his sons house.
But only at parakalamutt. The pontiff of the parakala mutt then Sri Brahmatanthra parakala mutt used to give sundaravaradachar some special honours and this made others jealous. Sundaravaradachar was very orthodox and used to sit seperately for lunch. . so some jealous scholars poured cowdung mixed water at that place . This gentleman never complained about this incident to the pontiff and went without food.. Usually the pontiff used to give a visit and go round during lunch and make enquiries. This was not a regular feature..
On one occasion he found that sundaravaradachar was not in his regular place and the place covered with cowdung water. He came to know that this was the work of some jealous individuals. He did not say anything about it then.
After dinner all used to assemble for Thamboolam and dakshina where sundaravaradeachar was also present. The pontiff pointed out to sundaravaradachar and asked him as to how he enjoyed the dinner. He replied that the prasadam of the Hayagriva was very good and he enjoyed it. Then pontiff went on asking as to how he liked the sweets (that were not prepared } and the particular savoury(this item was also not prepared on that day) sundaravaradachar said that savoury prasadam was also very good…After hearing this from sundaravaradachar he told the assembly as to how sundaravaradachar has been treated and inspite of his not having tasted anything sundaravaradachar never complained about as to what has happened to him in reality. He said,that those who have conducted in a very bad way should apologise to sundaravaradachar in that assembly other wise he knows who are behind this incident and they will be banished from the parakala mutt for ever . This had a sobering effect and all those who were the culprits prostrated in front of sundaravaradachar and asked him to pardon them. The real truth was that the pontiff did not know as to who were behind this act and this was disclosed to sundaravaradachar later on and had a hearty laugh!!
Sundaravaradachar used to wash the clothes of his parents everyday,dry it a bring it home in a thiruppu koodai when ever he was at Nadipuram. He considered this act as a sacred duty.
Every year he used to go to “Gadval” at present in Andhra Pradesh and take part in the logic (tharkashastra) sadas and come back with one gold coin and a kashmiri shawl. He will present the shawl to his father and the gold coin to his mother. His journey was by foot only. May be he used to take about 20 days both ways.
His halts were always near srivaishnavite agraharams or Vishnu temples. He knew the entire route . so his travel was not difficult for him.. If he sould not find food at any orthodox place he will immerse the whole Bengal gram tied in cotton cloth in the water which will be there until he performs “Aaradhanam”( worship) and offered the soaked gram to the deity as nivedanam and consume it. As I have narrated in earlier blog all the orthodox srivaishnavites used to cary with thme “madi sanchi”( a bag made out of pure white wool which contained washed and dried dhothi and upper garment and one cudgeon leaf basket with lid which contained one saligramakm of ishta devtha in a small wooden box, 4 small coconut shell cups, one large coconut cup one wooden spoon, one small sand stone grinding stone, one small sandalwood log, a cudgeon leaf small box with mirror and white namam and one small coconut shell containing yellow namam, some dry fruits and Bengal whole gram(unsplit). The last two for neivedyam purposes when other fruits or other offerings are not available. It also contained dried tulasi leaves for adoring the saligramam when no flowere or fresh tulasi leaves were unavailable.
He also used to attend any vidvat sadas(elite gatherings of scholars) at parakalmutt specially ones dealing with dharmashstra... once there was a difficult case.
The case was as follows
“a Brahmin had married for the second time after the demise of his first wife this Brahmin had one son by his first wife. The second wife . gave birth to a handicapped son with one leg crooked. Later on the Brahmin died. During the aparakarma on the date on which the lady’s (wife’s) head had to be tonsured (as per the custom during those days) the lady with her child left the village without anyones knowledge. The previous night. Sometimes later on it came to be known that this lady stayed with some other Brahmin of some other ethnic group. After some time this boy died and later on this lady also died. The question was whether the son of first wife has to perform the last rites as she had left the family and did not perform her duties like getting her head tonsured or attending to other rites where in her presence was necessary. After deliberating for a day sundaravaradachar said as “ghatashraddha” (this is performed by sanyasis when they assume the office of sanyasa, and for those who leave the house and get converted to other religion and those who commit heinous crimes and those who do not have any progeny to perform the annual rites ) was not performed for the lady she is considered still as the mother of the first son. So he has to peform the last rites. Everyone hailed this judgement and the son of the first wife did the last rites as if he is doing it for his very own mother. Only this I remember.
Sundaravaradachar’s only son migrated to mysore at the last decade of 19th century and started as a school teacher at Methodist mission school. Every time sundaravaradachar used to visit his son he used to present minimum of one Hana( made out of pure silver and wighing about 4 gms equivalent to four anna then and at present 25 paise) and sometimes one rupee(made of pure silver and weighing about 11.5 gms) It was valuable then. Our father sri srirangachar used to preserve this money given as a present to him by his father in a wooden box. and never spent them. I do not know as to what happened to it. In all probability they were melted and made into jewels and silver articles during the marriage of our sister sou Pushpa..
Ammanji krishnamacharaya when he came to aachariyyana hundi to settle had brought had brought with him oone pair of Padukas (wooden sandals ) sanctified by the then pontiff of peria ashramam of srirangam with him. After observing the orthodox manner in which sundravaradachar conducted himself he gave the sandals to him even though as a right it should have gone to the first son. This was preserved and daily pooja was done by sundaravaradachar as longa s he lived. After his demise this sandal pair was teken over by sri srirangachar his only son. This was placed in the shelf of our Mysore home at chaluvamba agrahar in the niche of the pooja shelf. ; may be it is with kittanna now. Or lost during the shifting of the old house.
Srirangachar used to condut the birth anniversary of periaandavan with great pomp and used to invite all the clan or nadipuram and also other orthodox srivaishanvites.
I do not know as to when sri sundaravaradachar attained “Vaikunta prapthi”(went to srivaikuntam of LORD NARAYANA”.
Sri rangachar was married when he was 12 year old. His wife was aged around 8 years at the time of their marriage. His wife was from a vedic scholar “chakravarthy” family of sosale.. I do not want to elaborate on this as more information is available already in the earlier blogs. They had a son who died in his infancy and they did not have any more children.. After the demise of his wife smt Lakshamma srirangachar married for the second time our mother seethalakshamma. They had son , daughter,son ,daughter,son inthat order. That is 3 sons and 2 daughters. The names are sundaravaradachar aka ranga, smt pushpa aka alamelamma, anantha krishnamachar aka a k char aka kittanna, anantha lakshmi aka paddu, anatharangachar aka raju.
When sri srirangachar died the eldest ws just 14 years old. Seethalakshamma only knew how to read and write in kannada. She did not have any formal education. Inspite of it she brought up all her children very well and got them educated. The eldest son became and engineer, the first daughter was married when she was in her teens, second son a k char became an officer in the armed forces and after returning from services started his own industry, the second daughter became a famous obs and gyn specialist. She also had ber post graduation in U S A. the youngest son become and engineer and started his own soft ware firm in U S A. . All are happily married and have their own happy families..
Now regarding the individual families:
Sundaravaradachar is an enigineer and retired as superintending engineer from tamilnadu Govt service and settled at Mysore with his wife.
The eldest son sundaravaradachar is married to shanthamani from pannampalli(near Bangalore) chakrvarthy family.. He has four sons and all of them are engineers.. they are all married.
The eldest son srinath is a civil engineer from IIT Madras and working as a design engineer in the Konkan railways at Bombay.. He is married to Ranjani(daughter of late narasimhan of madras) a chartered accountant and working as an officer with MMTC a Government of India undertaking at Bombay. They have a daughter by name Rajashri and she is in her 6th standard.
The second son mohan is a Ph.D PE in civil engineering and is working as Vice president of a design engineering group. His wife is from Gomatam family of Melkote Her name is Ranjini. And she is en engineering graduate of Mysore university. They have 2 daughters. The name of the elder one is Naya and the second one is Tara. They are very young.. this family is settled in USA
The third son Ravi is a soft ware enigineer specialized in computer security service. He is also and MBA from American university.. His wife is Megha. She is an MS in com science. She is from a family of srirangam who migrated to Bombay several years back and her father is having a finance company at Bangalore for several years running. They have one daughter by name shriya who is very very young. They have settled in USA
The fourth son is Rangaraj aka raja who acquired his masters degree in computer engineering from a university of USA.. He has also aquired advanced diploma from Pink Elephant.(A govt of Gt Britain organization) He is working as a software engineer . his wife is pushpavalli . she is an M tech in engineering from Visveswarayya tech university of Karnataka.. She is from Lakshmipuram(near Bangalore) family till now they have no issues. They are settled in USA.
Sou Pushapa is the first daughter. She was married when she was in her teens. Her husbands name is ramaswamy iyengar. They have one son by name raghu.he is an engineer with the Govt of Karnataka in the PWD. His wife is a commerce graduate. She is from hemmige family. They have a daughter who is in her pre university class.
The second son a k char looked after the property when his elder brother joined service in the govt of tamilnadu. He was s instrumental in getting back most of the loans advanced during srirangachar’s period by his tough stance and skill. and skill. He joined defense forces and retuned back to civilian life after becoming a captain. He established a small scale industry at mysore. given by our father by his tough stance. His wife is jayalakshmi from yelandur family. She is MS in pathology. She also served in defense forces (medical wing) and returned as captain.. she became head of the department of pathology at Mysore medical college and retired. They have one daughter by name vijay who is a software engineer and married to a software engineer from Gorur family and settled in u s a.. thye have one son and one daughter.
The second daughter is anantha lakshmi aks paddu. She is a graduate of mysore medical college and she acquired post graduation in obs and gyn in u s a. she was practicing for some years in USA and retuned to India. She is married to sriram from srirangam family. Sriram is an engineer and and officer of Indian ordanance factory service. They have a daughter by name Vani who is an engineer and an MBA.
Paddu is settled at Mysore.
The third son is anantha rangachar aka raju. He did his engineering degree from mysore university in mech engineering. Went to u s a and acquired masters degree in industrial engineering. He also did MBA in u s a. He is married to usha daughter of late seshaiyengar who was a chartered accountant. At the time of marriage usha was the programme executive of all India radiao of Bangalore.. Usha is an accomplished singer and has a masters degree in music and also sociology.. Raju is running a consultation firm at USA. His wife is also helping him in his venture. Usha is also having a cultural organization by name of “nadatharangini” which encourages karnatic classical music and arranges for karnatic music performances. Thss is a non profit organization. Usha also teaches karnatic classical music to those who are interested in it . also she is an “A” grade artist of akashavani and doordarshan. They have one daughter by name radhika. She is a chemical engineer working in a world renowned organization. In USA. She is also an accomplished violin player .
If any new items/facts are received they will be accomadated/or changed..


“..
.

.

SMT JAYALAKSHAMMA AND THE LADY COOK

SMT JAYALAKSHAMMA AND THE LADY COOK

Smt Jayalkhsamma was residing in the second house on the north of our house on the chaluvamba agrahar of Mysore City.
Though J’s husband was employed as a clerk in the office of lawyer brothers K K and K R Das who were residing in the house situated on the same road and at present Cauvery lodge is functioning after demolishing the old building.
J and her husband owned the house in which they were residing and also they were getting sufficient paddy from their lands and as such they did not find it difficult to manage the family of husband wife and one son and two daughters.
It was a luxury during those days to employ a cook in a house that too when the head of the family was working as a clerk .
However ’ J’ had a lady cook who was a widow. This lady was highly orthodox and had shaven head and always used cotton red saree.. Her salary per month was a grand 3 rupees .during those days .
I think the lady cooks name was Gowramma.
This lady was staying in Old Agrahar area on a rented small room on the pial(Jaguli) of a distant relative of hers
Every morning Gowramma used to come to “J” s house by 6-00 AM. There was store room which was kept under lock and key in the house and as soon as Gowramma arrives she will take 4 numbers of winnows(Moraw in Kannada and supla in hindi) “J” will open the door and in the first winnow she will measure and keep rice, dhal (Toor dal) and any other dal, sooji mustard, urad dal. In the next one she will put sooji (broken wheat) salt wheat flour. In the third one she will keep ghee, oil,spice powders coconut of copra dried chlly.. . In the fourth one she will keep the vegetables ,green coriander, curry leaves , greens and green chilly.
Then “J” will give instructions as to what dishes to be prepared. The groceries supplied only had to be used and no more or noless. “J” did not trust Gowramma for the preparation of good coffee so it was “J” who used to prepare coffee. Morning breakfast also had to be prepared by Gowramma. If any dough is required
for the preparation of idly or dosa or any savouries the dough had to be prepared by Gowramma sometimes one day in advance. All the spice powder required or any extra preparation for any festivalor household is to be prepared and it was the duty of Gowramma. “J” used to make surprise visit to the kitchen to see whether Gowramma consumes any grocery!!! Gowramma had to be there until 2-00 pm and then only she could leave the house .
As Gowramma was very orthodox she nevser used to eat anything in the house of “J” Also she never ever cleaned any vessels as she considered the vessels with cooked food as (Musuray”) polluted. So these vessels had to be cleaned by the house maid and before taking the vessels for cooking Gowramms once again used to wash it in water. Gowramma used to tell that she will return to her room and then she will prepare food for herself . she used to take food only once in a day and no dinner. Also on . the eleventh day of the waxing or waning moon she used to fast. No one knew as to how she used to manage with the rupees three she used to get as her wages. May be she had some relatives who used to supplement her meager wages.
After some time “j” sold the house at chaluvamba agrahar and shifted to the extention “Saraswathipuram” where she purchased a very big independent house.. it is not known whether Gowramma continued to work as a cook at “J”’s new residence. .




.

.

HISTORY OF NADIURAM AKA AACHARAIYYANAHUNDI

STORY OF NADIPURAM

At the very out set I am forced to make the following statement as a sort of prologue.
One (late) Krishnaswamy Iyengar (s/o Late Sundarachar) was telling me that he has written the history of Nadipuram’s and it required some editing. I even offered to get it published if he were to give it to me. For that he replied that he has enough money to publish it on his own and he does not require any help from anyone financially. This happended some months before his departure to Vaikuntam. Later on I met his brother Sri srinivasachar who told me that he is not aware of any such documents existing in the house of his brother.
Later on I approached Dr venugopalachar who is at Mandya. Even though he has written several books like “vishwavyapi srivaishanvism” “Americavannu aalida kannadigaru” etc he did not know much about the history of Nadipuram’s.. I requested the Sri Srinivasachar s/o Late Sampathanna of sosale) to tell me what ever he knows about the history of Nadipuram’s. He was sarcastic and said as to what I am going to do with it. Whether I am; going to add salt and khara and lick it.
I also wrote an e mail to one Mukundan Nadipuram. I am sorry to say that he did not even acknowledge my e mail.
I found out that he is from one of the families that had migrated from Hemmige and settled at nadipuram during the time of his great grandfather. Some three families of Hemmige srivishnavas sold their property at Hemmige on the opposite bank of river cauvery and purchased lands and built houses at Nadipuram and settled there. The reason for this is not known.
So what I am going to write may be almost a sort of hearsay and may not be completely correct. It is like writing about mammoths and dinosaurs etc.
If any one of you have any new information ,that can be sent to me so that I can revise it if necessary. I saw one magnum opus about ‘sankethi’s written by one Hariharan who took about 25 years to trace the origin and their present stage of sankethi’s. I don’t have so much of time at my disposal and if at all any one is interested they may take further work on this so called history. Let us at least be proud of our heritage as we know.

Now I shall start from scratch of what I know about Nadipuram’s
The present Parakala Mutt whose pontiff is the Rajaguru of Mysore Maharajas family.
earlier that is before 1924 A D it was situated on the banks of Cauvery below the river cauvery’s confluence with Kapila below T Narasipur on the left bank at a distance of about 8 kms.. That village was known as Krishnapuram.. About 5 KM below on the river cauvery was situated a village known as “Acharaiyyana Hundi” It had about 20 houses of Srivaishnavites and about 50 to 60 houses of Uppaligas, Before 1924 floods the village had its own washerman, barber, potter etc who used to render service for an annual gift of certain amount of paddy.. Among srivaishanvas two were from “Hemmige” situated on the opposite bank of river cauvery. It appears that they sold their land in the Hemmige village and purchased lands in aacharaiyana hundi and settled.
Earlier times it was the practice of the learned scholars to go on a pilgrimage with or without their families and visit as many places of religious significance. My be this type of “Pilgrimage trip “ used to take some times several months. They used to carry one “madisanchi” that is a bag made out of white wool and one palm covered basket known as “Thiruppukkodai”.The madisanchi contained usually set of washed dhoti and another smaller one usually used to cover upper portion of the body. If at all they carried any money that will be a gold coins worth at that period equivalent to rs 5/ rolled in a small cotton cloth and hidden in their loin clothes. The thrruppukkodai contained “saligram contained in a wooden cup with lid, a small round red stone a small sandal wood piece 4 sets of coconut shell cups and one big coconut shell cup, wood en spoon, a small wooden small plate or a plate made out of rattan cane, a small quantity of white namam and yellow namam, a small bunch of dharba grass, several pairs of sacred thread or yegnopavitham, a small quantity of dry fruit usually dried date and grapes a small quantity of sugar candy or country sugar blocks and some unsplit redgram.. These were for any occasion where in if the traveler is stranded he do not miss his pooja which required some “Nivedanam” during pooja. which was supposed to be obligatory. They never wore any foot ware except those who are very aged or the ascetics. who wore sandal (foot ware ) made out of wood. If at all they carried they carried a small cudgon or palm leaef umbrella The traveling was by bullock cart if it was available or by foot. They usually used to travel either in the morning or in the evening. They used to plan their journey in such a way that the halt will always be in a temple town or an agraharam where their used to be orthodox srivaishnavite brahmins Boarding and lodging was not a problem as almost all vaishnavite temples used to give free food to the Vaishnavites or some of the leading rich vaishnavites used to offer them food taking it as a sort of merit. Taking rest of for sleeping at night the pials in front of houses or the front of temple were always there
One such scholar from Therazandur near Kumbakonam in the present Thanjavur Dist of Tamilnadu visited the Parakala mutt. It may be around the beginning of 19th century. This is only a guess work and no written record is available.
At that time the Parakala mutt had many scholars from Karnataka, present Tamilnadu and also Andhrapradesh. In their names we can find even now the names of their original home such as Setlur, kethandapatti, koothandakuppam,ladapuram,mannargudi,vengipuram,doosi,maduranthakam veeravalli,navalpakkam, etc.
Many of their present day progenies may not even know the direction in which these agraharams , sites/villages are situated.
This scholar from the south stayed for a long time at the Parakala Mutt and he used to participate in the debates , give lectures , or attend lectures. This impressed the then pontiff of Parakala mutt. The pontiff was quite aged and so he requested this scholar to take over the reins of parakala mutt. This gentleman agreed to it. After the passing away of the pontiff the scholar from Terazndur became the Sanyasi or the pontiff of Parakala mutt. After sometime he sent words to his second cousins (sons of his maternal uncle) who were in Sholavandan near madurai to visit him and sending words that he has become the pontiff of parakala mutt. The brothers Srinivasa desikachar and Krishnamachar under took the journey and reached Krishanpuram parakala mutt. Both of them were scholars on their own right . The name of their father was Raghunatha char AKA Rangappangar. The name of their paternal grandfather was Sri Sundararyar. They belonged to Atherya Gothram kadambis and to vadagalai samparadayam. They stayed at the mutt for may be some days or months. The pontiff asked them to stay at the mutt itself and that they will be suitably rewarded with land grants. For this the elder brother told the pontiff that as their parents are aged and they have to be taken care of he will leave for sholavandan but will ask his younger brother to stay . These brothers belonged to an ethnic sect known as “Swyamacharya purushas” and did not owe any allegiance to any pontiff even though they respected all the pontiffs of Srivaishnava sect. Later on they became the sisyas of “Peria ashramam of srirangam” on their own free will. Both the brothers left for sholavandan and after some time the younger brother returned with his wife. At that time he did not have any issues. Using the influence the pontiff had with the “Raja “ of Mysore , Krishnamachar was gifted about one hundred acres of land near aacharaiyana hundi and also ammanji was given the second “Theertham” at Swethavaraha swamy temple at mysore after the Prakala mutt representative had his theertham.as first theertham. Similarly even at Marahalli Narasimhaswamy temple now in the outskirts at malavalli town. ammanji represented the Parakala mutt and had first theertham. Here is a small detail about “Theertham” After the pooja at the temple and after “sattrumurai “ holy water is given to the devotees. It is prestige to have the first serving of the theertham or the second srving of the theertham. . At that time itself aacharaiyana hundi had a small agraharam of Brahmins . As Krishnamachar was “Ammanji” that is the son of his maternal uncle to the pontiff in his Poorvashrama (that is before becoming the pontiff) he was being called “Ammanji Krishnamachar” and this name stuck to him and in all his records including land records. A really big house having about 12 pillars in the open centre of the house was constructed with a very big enclosure at the rear for the cattle. The house was on an elevated ground and was very near the cauvery. So there was no neccessity for having a well at all. All the vaishnavites at AAcharaiyana hundi who were earlier settlers were scholars on their own right. These scholars were honored by the “Raja” by grants knows as “Veda Vriththi” Brahma Vritti”..etc and also land grants which were not as large as that given to ammanji krishnamacharya.
These Brahmins never even tried to do farming on their own as they considered it against the laws contained in the sacred book. So also was doing business as it was considered as something not correct (Vyaparam Droha Chintanam”
The 18 houses of srivaishnavites never ever invited the Hemmige settlers for any function and also they never used to attend the function in the house of Hemmige’s. May be that they lacked the study in Vedas. So these hemmiges used to attend the functions in their relatives house on the other bank and also invite their kiths and kins to the function in their house hold.
The house of ammanji was very big and had big pial (jaguli) in front. It had a big door on the right of the house for entrance.The workers used the door in the cowshed at the rear and the front door was not meant for them except in exceptional circumstances. There was a grannery for which the opening was in the front wall in the jaguli. The granary was really big and sunken from the level of the jaguli and I had seen the ruins of it and also the house. my modest estimate was that the grannery could hold about 200 to 300 bags of paddy.. All the flooring of the house and pial were made of Strong mortar known as vajra garay. It was supposed to be a miture of river sand ,lime ,alalay kaai,jaggery and gobbali gum mixed with rounded pebbles of the river cauveri. I do not know the English equivalent to alalaykai, gobbali. The Pooja room and dining room and kitchen floors were made out of ordinary well rammed earth. This is because they had to be daily washed with cowdung mixed water. The other portions were also done. But these were washed by using a very diluted cowdung mixed water.

Even before ammanji settled at aacharaiyyana hundi there were about 19 well settled srivaishnavited families.
Out of this about 17 families were from the migrant vedic scholars from Tamilnadu. They belonged to different “Gothrams”
The daily routine in the household were as follows
Get up well before sunrise go to the rivser cauvery finish the morning abolustions, take wash the cloths, use the already washed and dried cloths. This is common for the ladies and gents. But in fact
The ladies used to get up a bit earlier. The ladies used to carry the water required for the house hold. . The senior ladies used to attend to the preparation of the pooja room made preparation of food items required and special items required during any special occasion whether it is auspicious or inauspicious. The younger ones used to clean the floor wash the floor and help in the kitchen. The name Breakfast was never heard off. Only the sick and pregnant ladies and ladies having children and the children were ususlly given rice mixed with curd in the morning. The rice was the left over from the previous night. Or specially prepard for the next day morning. In the late afternoon also sometimes some savouries used to be prepared.
The gents early in the morning used to take bath and after wearing the namam perform sandhyavandanam and so many japams. Elders used to come home and teach vedam to those who have undergone upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony) This will go on upto about 12-00 noon and all will go to the river once again. Take bath have namam and perform madhyanikam and return and perform “Thiruvaradhanam” This was done by the head householder. Others will join in the pooja recite “Sattrumurai” Even the ladies used to join while reciting “Thiruvoimozhi” or sattrumurai.
Offer neivedyam to the deity. By the time the pooja is finished it used to be around 1-30 pm or 2-00pm. Even those who were child grooms were not given any exception. So lunch will be served on plantain leaves or stiched muthuga leaves. The place was decorated with rangoli on which the leaves were placed.. .
After lunch the elders will take some rest. Now the others used to teach the younger ones writing, reading and simple arithmetics , “thiruvoimozhi” or Sanskrit grammar or logic.In the evening also the gents used to take bath and after wearing namam and all used to do sayam sandhyavandanam . come home and recite Sanskrit slokas in which all the gents used to participate. Around 9-00pm they will have their dinner and after some talk about the family matters retire for the day.This was what was being followed by all the residents of aacharaiyyanahundi On ekadashi, new moon day and full moon day , on sankramanam day and on festive days the routine would be different.. As I know there were no “Agnihothris” at Nadipuram..
Once I met a gentleman who said proudly that his ancestors belonged to Nadipuram
. When I questioned him as to whether he belongs to Kadambi family he replied me in the negative. Also he informed me that his aunt was married into nadipuram family to a gentleman by name Cheemaranga who settled at Bangalore. He did not much about the past history of Nadipuram. Due to the population explosion and due to the land not being directly cultivated and due to the fragmentation of land almost all the 16 households left Nadipuram for good after selling their lands. One of the Hemmige family also stuck at Nadipuram. Another family though had their parents here migrated to Bangalore to get modern education and they succeeded. They used to visit Nadipuram once in a while and come and stay for long during harvest times. Not much is known to me about the Hemmige families. The one who stayed at Nadipuram also left the village after the floods in cauvery during 1924.
In the course of time Ammanji Krishnamacharya had 5 sons and 3 daughters. Of the daughters one was married to a scholar of Hebbalaguppe, the second one to a scholar of Saragur and the third one to a scholar of Kollegal. All these marriages were child marriages and the boy or the girl had no say in these arranged marriages. One of the girls became a child widow. I think it is the girl married to the Kollegal family.
When the property was divided the property was divided inot 8 shares. Each son got one share, the widowed daughter got one share, father got one share and the mother got one share. This was because neither he nor his wife nor his daughter need not be under the benovalance of any of his sons later on. Only on the demise of these three the property was divided among the brothers. The local farmers used to refer to these lands as Ajjana Gadde(grand fathers land ), ajji gadde(grand mothers land), and mundammana gadde(widows land)
The Vedas and othere sacred books are named as shruthis and they were correct. It is said that the ladies in the household by hearing these sacred texts being taught to the children(only boys and not girls) them selves knew these shruthis and when ever the person who used to teach was absent and whenever the boys on their own started reciting if there was any error the ladies of the house hold used to correct them!! Some of the senior ladies used to teach the younger ones both girls and boys “Thiruvaoimozhi” almost all the ladies knew “Thiruvoimozhi.” Running into some 4000 verses.
There is a village by name “Naripura” which is dominated by tamil speaking muslims. This village is there in existence even now. I do not know as to whose idea it was and in all the local references the name is found as “Nadipuram” may be it was right on the bank of river “Cauvery” or may be due to some other reason.
The Ammanjis(I prefer to refer the nadipuram clan whose forefather is Ammanji Krishnamacharya) were quite well off with respect to their vedic knowledge, knowledge of thiruvoimozhi, logic grammar, dharmasastram ets. They knew tamil, manipravalam (sanskritised form of tamil) grantham, Sanskrit, prakrith, kannada very well.. they also knew simple arithmatics and astronomy to some extent. About a month or two before the start of Tamil newyear one almanac written on cudgen( seasoned Palm leaf ) leaf book used to be received by the Jodidar of Doddabbagilu from Srirangam who was staying in a palacial house at Krihnarajapuram agraharam (that is on the outskirts of Old Sosale). One of the members of the ammanji family used to go there and copy it either on cudgen(palm leaf) leaf book or paper book. This will serve as a guide to all srivaishnavites. Parakala mutt had also in its rank an astrologers . However the ammanji’s and other srivaishnavites used to take the details from the Srirangam almanac as correct. By observing the movement of sun and stars and moon they could tell the exact time (not Indian standard time but Ghaligai and vighaligai) of the day. During rainy season they could tell even during night time by hearing the voice of different birds and chirping of the birds. They had lots of cows and so there was not shortage of milk or curd or ghee required for the household. .
The materials required for the household were obtained by barter system only. There was really big tamarind tree (I think it is still there) which used to supply the required tramarind for the household. There was a bamboo groove which supplied articles for the consturctin and some grown up trees used to be felled and sawed to get the wooden articles required. So ther
Almost all the marriages were with in the known circle and relatives who were vedic scholars.. All the marriages were child marriages . the boys usually were married when they were hardly 10 years old and the girls around 8 years of age. The marriage alliance was fixed by the elders from the boy and girl sides and none was daring enough to question them. Sometimes this resulted in the married girl becoming a child widow. Without even having the knowledge of how she became a widow !! The position of the child widow was not very good. For any auspicious function she could not take part. She could not cross someones path when they are on the road, she has to take bath very very early, she had to cofine herself to her portion or corner of the house. She was served food(lunch only) only after all the household has taken food. At night times she has to take fruit or some preparation made out of broken wheat or wheat product. When she attained puberty her head will be shaved and no exception was made. Regarding married women the position was some what different. She will be taken into the household only after she attains puberty until that time she will be with her parents. After an elaborate function she will be taken into the house. until she had her “Shamashrayanam” she could not enter the kitchen. This was no problem as the senior member of ammanji family used to peform this ritual. The junior ladies used to help the seniors . also it was their duty to sweep,and wash the house with cowdung, including the front, deaw rangoli wherever necessary. They had to wear a saree of about 9 ;metres long in a traditional style. No stiched garments were allowed. And this rule of no stiched garments applied to gents also. So the the ladies had to cover the upper portion of the body with the paallu. They could not talk on their own with any elders , offer any suggestions or opinions and should talk to the elders only when asked. They could not even talk to their husbands in the presence of elders They can meet their husbands only when the Mother in law asks them to go and offer beetle leaves to their husbands on certain nights. These days will be fixed by the father in law after looking at the almanac. Inspite of all these measures Nadipuram’s had number of children. , except in the case of our grand father sundara varada char who just had one son and one daughter. This is a very rare exception indeed.. For any function or any assemblage of pandits scholars from nadipuram used to go to parakala mutt. Some of them used to vistt daily to gain knowledge in the fields that were not known to them as many of the scholars used to visit the mutt and stay there for months and also some used to stay at krishnapuram permanently.. The nadipuram’s used to visit the temple at krishnapuram on fetive days. These people were used to long walk. These scholars and elders from nadipuram used to go to the temple at Krishanpuram almost for all functions at the temple.
This absence of temple at Nadipuram had a profound effect on one (Late) sri avatharam krishnamachar. So he started collecting materials required both for the construction; of the temple and also the various ritual articles and articles for the Utsavar. He did construct the basement for the temple. (I had seen this ruin in my younger days) He got one Prabhavali made for the Utsavar deity and also collected some vessels and other ritual articles. Unfortunately due to the floods in cauvsery during 1924 all his efforts came to NIL. He preented many of the articles to Sosale temple (evsn now the prbhavali of utsavar temple at sosale can be seen carved with the legend that it belongs to the srinvasa temple at Nadipuram) He presented the “Satarai” to the Rama mandiram of uppaligas at AAcharaiyana hundi. It is still there. He had one daughter who was married to a vedic scholar of Krishanpuram and when they migrated to Mysore city Avataram krishnamachar also went to mysore. To stay with his daughter
Those srivaishnavites who were enjoying the brahma vritti and veda vritti had large families and they could not sustain themselves with the earnings from the lands they had. In the course of time these lands were partitioned and this barely was sufficient to run the household.. They started migrating to the nearby towns and cities after selling their lands. I am in the dark as to what happened to these srivaishnavites and their progeny.
Regarding the Hemmige family they went to Bangalore and studied in the colleges and got employed in good companies and government . They shifted their household to Bangalore and used to come once in the yesar during harvest time to collect their dues from the sharecroppers. One of the hemige family had built a really good house and it withstood the rages of the flood even during 1924. But later on collapsed due to neglect.
After the passing away of Ammanji the joint house hold did not exist. I do not know the reason but I know for sure that the third son and his family came out of the joint family system even when ammanji was alive and were allotted a corner independent portion . This family was always referred to as “Moolay aathu” or corner household.
Ammanji’s wife and child widowed daughter stayed together as they had their own source of income.The individual families grew beyond leaps and bounds except our grandfather sri sundaravaradachar who had one son and one daughter. The daughter was married to one Dikshitar family of Narasipur and she died young without any issues. So compared to other cousins our father (Sahukar srirangachar) inherited bulk that is one eigth of the property owned by Ammanji . also he got a share in the property of ammanji, pati and aththai after their passing away..
After the devasting floods in cauvery during 1924 many of the villages on the banks got devastated. To name a few kalharavaiyan hundi, Sri rangaraja puram agraharam, krishnapuram, aachariyana hundi, krishaniyengar hundi etc. the villages named by me mostly had srivaishnavites. At the time of flood at aacharaiyyna hundi all the villagers including their valuables , their cows buffaloes sheep and even poultry took shelter in Ammanji’s cowshed of the house which was really spacious.. Also it was situated at a higher elevation. The other villages did not have that facility. They clung to trees of on the roof of the houses but lost lots of cattle , poultry and household articles. Many of them lost their life also.
After the flood subsided it appears that the King(Maharaja of Mysore) paid a visit and was carried in a palanquin ,surveyed the entire villages affected by floods and gave them compensation. All those whose houses were damaged and was within the flood plains were given land for the construction of the houses at a higher elevation. Most of the uppaligas and village barber,potter,washrman left the village for good. Those who had alredy left aacharaiyyana hundi had no use for the land given for the construction of their houses. Ammaji’s family also got a land in Hullamballi but they did not move as nothing had happened to their house. as the entire “Krishnaiyengar hundi “ got wiped out without much damage to life almost all of them left the village for good and shifted to present kanakapuram and mysore and Bangalore. The villagers who belonged mostly to “Parivara “community shifted to Hullamballi village where they had benn given land for their house construction.
Of the three Hemmige families, I know about one . This family had three brothers who were the first to go to Bangalore for higher studies. One the eldest passed M.Sc., with distinction and whose name was sri venkatanarasimhachar AKA chamappa aka shamanna and retired as professor of chemistry at the Central college Bangalore. The next one went abroad and got degree and settled as a chief in one big company. Nothing much is known to me about him. The youngest brother by name sri gopalakrishnamachar AKA Bhojan got good degree in some branch of engineering and retired after getting a good position in a private company.. All these brothers shifted to Bangalore foe good and only Bhojan used to visit the village during the harvest season. Theirs was the only house which was habitable and standing until the very last and we of SahukarSrirangachar family also used to stay in that house. Later on this house also went into ruins. This house also had a very big tamarind tree in their vast backyard the yield of which was shared by all the villagers free. I also saw this tree falling due to heavy wind.
Anothere family which did not belong to the ammanji family had two daughters . The eldest one was smt Pendamma and the younger one was smt Singamma. Not much is known about their prents. They inherited the property and Smt pendamma ws married to one of the cousins of our father whose name was sri raghavachar. Singamma ws married to a gentleman of Kanchipuram. Pendamma had only one daughter. Singamma had one son and one daughter. She used to come during the harvest season to collect paddy and sell it After sometime singamma disposed her land and she did not visit the village of mysore as she did not have any interest.. I do not know as to when she died.. I (sundara varada char ) was at Kanchipurm for short while during .earlier part of 1976 . I tried to locate the son and daughter of smt singamma and I failed .
Another family was parents of smt ranganayakamma varadachar (mother of seenu aka b c s raghavan retd staion master of Southeren railway) smt Ranganayakamma had one elder sister. About them also not much is known to me.
I am at a loss to find out about any other families of vaishnavites and their progeny which inhabited Nadipuram
This is the situation as of now.
Nadipuram had a grove of banyan tree spreading over an area of nearly 2 acres. Any traveler or merchant used to take rest in the shade of these trees known as “Panchavati”
The cauvery nearby also had a bathing ghat which was constructed by using stones got from “Vodda kallu rangana betta” situated in Malavalli taluk..

Post Script:(Added on 26th October 2008)
In one of my blogs regarding Nadipuram , I had mentioned that the ancestral home of nadipuram had the kitchen and dining room and also the pooja room had the flooring of mud and every day they used to be washed with cowdung water.
Recently i heard by a scholar that the "Yagna" or "yaga " should be performed only on the soil which has been smeared with cowdung and not on any other type of floor.
So the ancestors were following the dictums of ancient scripts.
Cooking for the neivedyam (all food articles were offered / presented to Sriman Narayana before it was served . Late Sri Kanchi Kamakoti peetadhi pathi Chandra shekharendra swamiji had said in one of his speeches that Neivedyam is nothing but Nivedanam to God to show that due to his grace we have been able to partake the food prepared by us and to make it toxic free and bless those who partake. This nivedanam was not for God's consumption) for Sriman Narayana was considered as a sacred duty which can be considered as a sort of "Yagna". After the pooja this neivedyam was considered as prasad and partaken.
The place of pooja room was also considered as a "Yagna" the sacred offering to "Sriman Narayana".
Next comes the dining room. The partaking of the neivedyam was also considered as a "yagna"
This is the reason why the flooring of the kitchen and pooja room and the dining room were not done with "Vajra Garai".

Tail Piece.:
Kittanna informs me on 31st october 2008, that any sacred ritual such as “Yagna, Yaga and Homa” should have relationship with the five natural phenomenon. ( This was told to him by a scholar.)
They are (1) Prithvi (Earth) (2) Ap (Water) (3) Tejas (Light ) (4) Vayu (Air) and (5) Aakasha (Sky)
The Yagna ,Yaga or Homa are performed on soil in a pit, so the contact with soil or earth is established.
It is sprinkled with water alround and this gives contact with water. They are exposed to the sunlight and this takes care of light. They are in the open and so they come in contact with Air and sky.
Even recently the homas while being performed in the houses where there was flooring of cement or stone a homa kunda made out of unburnt clay was used. May be this is one of the ways of getting in contact with the soil.
This is a good commentary or explanation for leaving the kitchen , dining room, and the pooja room without the flooring..
ANOTHER TAILPIECE TO THE ARTICLE.
Extract from an article by Marguerite Theophil which appeared In the “ Times of India” dated 3rd December 2008.
“Kitchen as sancturay : Healing touch”
There are many ways to make our kitchens sacred centres of nourishment, some connected with religious beliefs, others not . All invole love and attention.
In a Vaastu-inspird kitchen . a basic principle is to ensure prana or vital energy.”

In one of the lectures Sri Velukkudi Krishnan informed that “The kitchen is a place where preparation is made for the Yaaga that is for the Pooja to God almighty. The pooja room is considered as a yagashala where offering along with the other items food is also offered. The place where the offering to God is consumed is known as “Upa Yaaga saalai”
Now I am finidng more and more reason as to why the kitchen and Pooja room and the dining room/ hall were left with rammed earth covered with cowdung coating with out being plastered.
May be I willfine more and more references as time goes on.




Next comes the question of sending the daugher in law to the husband only on certain days with betel leaves by her mother in law where they can have union.
For this also i heard the lecture by a famous astrologer that if the union takes place at any time and anywhere results in handicapped birth, or the birth taking place on a not so good asterisms.
May be with this in view the ancestors were having the practice of sending the daughter in law only on certain days and not allowing the unions of the boy and the girl on any day.

Only on hearing this i got clarification of some doubts whcih i could not get cleared ealier.

Even now many of the elders may not know the exact reason for the above doubts which i had earlier.





.

.