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About 500 Years ago there was a famous King called Krishnadevaraya who ruled most of South India from his capital at Hampi (now in fabulous ruins in Karnataka).
Wherever he went and saw and conquered, he built gorgeous (and not so gorgeous) temples. The ones he built in AP are still standing proudly.
A few centuries later, several thousands of brahmin families from Tamilnadu migrated towards the AP. I guess they were hounded out ;-)
Some settled at Puthur and are called Puthur Dravids. They kept their mother tongue (Tamil) though Puthur is in AP (Telugu). Some others traveled further and settled in Tummagunta (Nellore) and are called Tummagunta Dravids (self included). They dropped their mother tongue and imbibed Telugu language but kept their Tamil rituals. Yet others went further north and settled in Perur. They forgot their Tamil origins, almost. And the rest are scattered here and there and are called Arama (Konaseema) Dravids.
Wherever these brahmins went they became teachers and pujaris and cooks. And the local rajas were impressed by them (as HNB was by me at KGP). And the rajas donated lands to them for subsistence. These are called Agraharams.
My forefathers settled in Krishnapatnam, a few kms from Muthukur. The Bay of Bengal is a stone's throw from Krishnapatnam if you are an Olympic thrower and the stone can cross seven sand dunes. The then raja of Nellore gifted a few acres of land to my forefathers at Krishnapatnam. They took to teaching (and cheating). They hired farmers to till their lands but otherwise kept them at arm's length...feudalism.
By the turn of the last century my grandfather decided that there is no future for him and his sons in that seaside village and migrated to the town Nellore and sent his children to the English College there and then to Madras for higher education. Wise chap. And the farmers duly tilled his lands and he used to go and collect his paddy every year and that footed the education bills of his kids.
By the time my Father became HM at Muthukur, India got her Independence and the farmers got wiser. And used to turn in lame excuses like the entire paddy crop got destroyed by fire or floods or vermin. And by then my grandfather's sons didn't need the pittance of paddy that they got from their farmers. So, they sold their lands to their happy farmers and pocketed the money. And forgot all about their ancestral village. Except a 0.25 acres of land they kept in their family name just for nostalgia.
When my Father was heading the Muthukur school, he took us one day to our ancestral village to show it off to his wife and kids. We traveled in an open cart till the Buckingham Canal which we crossed by a country boat and walked up the few hundred yards then on.
My Father showed us the house he was born in and told us tall tales (as I do now). And then he took us to the famous Shivjee's temple there that he said Krishnadevaraya had built. That didn't sound a cock-and-bull story because the temple walls of solid stone had strange inscriptions in a strange script that none of us could read. And the structures were just about falling apart.
A couple of decades back, my younger cousin, the custodian of the 0.25 acres of farmland by the temple got fed up with paying taxes and so gifted the land to that Shivjee's temple. The gift was then a pittance.
But during the last decade, our village Krishnapatnam's fortunes skyrocketed because Vajpayee's Govt discovered that it is a great site for a huge port, now one of the biggest in AP. It is now thriving by (famously) exporting iron ore to China, among other things, and so the entire village and its environs got a facelift. And there came up a megagigapower plant (and pollution)...when the port comes, can the rest be far behind?
With the result that lands that were selling at a dumpaway price of Rs.10,000 per acre suddenly saw them shooting up to Rs 1,00,00,000...(a crore)!!!
Lord Shiva (the God who begs bhukti and pays mukti) became suddenly rich (on paper)!!! And the credit goes to my cousin (with a pinch of regret).
When Ishani was in the offing at Nellore, my son (naturally), my wife and I made several trips to Nellore. My wife was already diagnosed with cancer by then and I was in a hurry.
In one of those trips to Nellore, I wanted to show off my Muthukur school and our ancestral village Krishnapatnam to my wife and son and tell them tall tales. We drove in Reddy's spacious Ambassador Car and had an altogether nice time.
And my son clicked photos of his mom and dad in his ancestral village with the ancient Shiv Temple:
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About 500 Years ago there was a famous King called Krishnadevaraya who ruled most of South India from his capital at Hampi (now in fabulous ruins in Karnataka).
wiki
Wherever he went and saw and conquered, he built gorgeous (and not so gorgeous) temples. The ones he built in AP are still standing proudly.
A few centuries later, several thousands of brahmin families from Tamilnadu migrated towards the AP. I guess they were hounded out ;-)
Some settled at Puthur and are called Puthur Dravids. They kept their mother tongue (Tamil) though Puthur is in AP (Telugu). Some others traveled further and settled in Tummagunta (Nellore) and are called Tummagunta Dravids (self included). They dropped their mother tongue and imbibed Telugu language but kept their Tamil rituals. Yet others went further north and settled in Perur. They forgot their Tamil origins, almost. And the rest are scattered here and there and are called Arama (Konaseema) Dravids.
Wherever these brahmins went they became teachers and pujaris and cooks. And the local rajas were impressed by them (as HNB was by me at KGP). And the rajas donated lands to them for subsistence. These are called Agraharams.
My forefathers settled in Krishnapatnam, a few kms from Muthukur. The Bay of Bengal is a stone's throw from Krishnapatnam if you are an Olympic thrower and the stone can cross seven sand dunes. The then raja of Nellore gifted a few acres of land to my forefathers at Krishnapatnam. They took to teaching (and cheating). They hired farmers to till their lands but otherwise kept them at arm's length...feudalism.
By the turn of the last century my grandfather decided that there is no future for him and his sons in that seaside village and migrated to the town Nellore and sent his children to the English College there and then to Madras for higher education. Wise chap. And the farmers duly tilled his lands and he used to go and collect his paddy every year and that footed the education bills of his kids.
By the time my Father became HM at Muthukur, India got her Independence and the farmers got wiser. And used to turn in lame excuses like the entire paddy crop got destroyed by fire or floods or vermin. And by then my grandfather's sons didn't need the pittance of paddy that they got from their farmers. So, they sold their lands to their happy farmers and pocketed the money. And forgot all about their ancestral village. Except a 0.25 acres of land they kept in their family name just for nostalgia.
When my Father was heading the Muthukur school, he took us one day to our ancestral village to show it off to his wife and kids. We traveled in an open cart till the Buckingham Canal which we crossed by a country boat and walked up the few hundred yards then on.
My Father showed us the house he was born in and told us tall tales (as I do now). And then he took us to the famous Shivjee's temple there that he said Krishnadevaraya had built. That didn't sound a cock-and-bull story because the temple walls of solid stone had strange inscriptions in a strange script that none of us could read. And the structures were just about falling apart.
A couple of decades back, my younger cousin, the custodian of the 0.25 acres of farmland by the temple got fed up with paying taxes and so gifted the land to that Shivjee's temple. The gift was then a pittance.
But during the last decade, our village Krishnapatnam's fortunes skyrocketed because Vajpayee's Govt discovered that it is a great site for a huge port, now one of the biggest in AP. It is now thriving by (famously) exporting iron ore to China, among other things, and so the entire village and its environs got a facelift. And there came up a megagigapower plant (and pollution)...when the port comes, can the rest be far behind?
With the result that lands that were selling at a dumpaway price of Rs.10,000 per acre suddenly saw them shooting up to Rs 1,00,00,000...(a crore)!!!
Lord Shiva (the God who begs bhukti and pays mukti) became suddenly rich (on paper)!!! And the credit goes to my cousin (with a pinch of regret).
When Ishani was in the offing at Nellore, my son (naturally), my wife and I made several trips to Nellore. My wife was already diagnosed with cancer by then and I was in a hurry.
In one of those trips to Nellore, I wanted to show off my Muthukur school and our ancestral village Krishnapatnam to my wife and son and tell them tall tales. We drove in Reddy's spacious Ambassador Car and had an altogether nice time.
And my son clicked photos of his mom and dad in his ancestral village with the ancient Shiv Temple:
Some nice times!!!
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