Tuesday, September 17, 2013

I'm a Guju!

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Once upon a time long long ago perfect peace prevailed on the Indian Subcontinent, also known as Bharat Varsha. Seasons came and went on time, rivers were flowing but not flooding, people were happy and animals and forests flourished.

Sage Narada, also known as the Lover of Quarrels (kalahapriya), got bored and started itching. So, he went to the Vindhya Raja (of the Vindhya mountain range) and taunted him that he was just super but not super-duper. Because, the Meru-Kailas (Himalayan) range that he was just returning from was much much taller. 

Vindhya Raja was annoyed (like the frog in the frog-bull story) and started growing taller and taller. And everything got upset because monsoon winds which blew from the seas on the South got hit and turned back like tennis balls from walls...leaving the whole of North India a rain-shadow region...Ganga and Sindhu and Brahmaputra went dry. And there was famine and drought...making Narada very glad. 

So the North Indians went to Sage Agastya (of the Lopamudra fame) and prayed to him to talk to Vindhya Raja who was a fond chela of Agastya. Agastya started off with his family and traveled southwards and reached Vindhya, who, on seeing his Guru, bent down in prayer. Agastya was pleased and told Vindhya of his trip to South and thanked him for bowing down since he and his family could now cross over somewhat easily. And while crossing, he asked Vindhya to stay bowed for a little while since he planned to return to the North soon...like in the story of Atlas and Hercules.

And Vindhya Raja agreed and kept low. 

And Agastya never returned North...a little skulduggery there. 

Since then travel between north and south became easier. Agastya settled down in Tamilnadu and civilized the Tamilians by composing the first grammar and prosody of the Tamil language. So he is revered in Tamilnadu even now...they built temples for him like the Agasteeswar temple in Madurai district.

Meanwhile a large brahmin community started flourishing in Sourashtra (now in NaMo's Gujerat)...they were related to the Saraswat brahmins living by the Saraswati river (gone underground for unknown reasons, perhaps anger). These Sourashtra brahmins excelled in vedas and upanishads; and yagnas and yagas (of which I don't know the difference...I guess one takes to yagas after getting tired of yagnas...like RKN's donkey and ass).

I guess Narada got bored again and sent various muslim invaders from the West, like the sundry Mohammeds, to destroy and loot the temples of Sourashtra such as the Somnath temple repeatedly...5 times at the last count.

Our Sourashtra brahmins then got scared and started migrating south of Vindhyas carrying with them nothing but their genius...like Oscar Wilde. And settled down on the banks of the river Kavery and flourished again. They too enriched the Tamil culture and were accepted as part and parcel of the Iyer community like our redoubtable Mani Shankar...and were accepted as Dravidas.

And then Narada got bored again and sent famines and droughts to the Kaveri region. 

So the Sourashtra brahmins started migrating, creeping northwards by the Bay of Bengal and got charmed with the beauty of the Coast of Coromandel where, according to Yonghy-Bonghy Bo, early pumpkins blow, among other things. And settled down and civilized the Andhras living there for centuries. The kings and rulers of various places wherever they went donated them villages as Agraharams in return to their sastraic knowledge...unlike now.

These brahmins took the name of the village where they settled as their sub-caste, e.g. those who settled in Perur are called Perur Dravidas. And so on like Divili Dravidas, Puduru Dravidas, Aaraama Dravidas, Ryali Dravidas; and last but not the least, Tummagunta Dravidas of the Nellore District who are the best of the lot...according to them.

Narada was again unhappy and sent the British to upset the settled state of affairs of the poor Sourashtra brahmins, asking them to learn English instead of Sanskrit and persecuting those who didn't.

Then, a Sourastra baniya called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi threw the British out.

And asked Tummagunta brahmins to go forth again and seek their destiny elsewhere...

The youngest of these Tummagunta Brahmins went to West Bengal to teach Physics at IIT KGP...in 1965.



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