Dear Madhuri and Mohan,
I said the word Ayyagaru is used specially to denote Sri Vaishnavas in our
Telengana parts of Andhra Pradesh by common folk. This is not used in the
Circar regions or Rayalaseema. But Iyengar no doubt is a word mostly used by
Tamil and Karnataka Sri Vaishnavas. There are many Sri Vaishnavas in Andhra
Pradesh whose origin should have been in Tamil speaking regions or Tamil
Kingdoms of yester years which is clear from their surnames like Kandadai,
Mudumbai, Nallanchakravathi etc and some of them use the title Iyengar even
though they do not speak Tamil at all. I agree that mostly the word Acharya
or Acharyulu is used at the end of their names in AP. Even the title "Chari"
as it is used in Tamil areas is not used in AP mostly.
The name "Ayya" itself should have been derived from ARYA in Sanskrit to
address an exalted person (not to be confused with word Aryas and Dravidas
as used by Christian and Marxist historians to divide and rule). In Telugu
we have many Sanskrit words called Tatsama Padas. They are referred to as
Prakriti which might also be words from Prakritam or equivalent Sanskrit
words. The equivalent colloquial words are called Vikrutis. For example
Bhojanam is Prakriti (the noun form of food or the verb form for the act of
eating) and the Vikruti is Bonamu in Telugu. Vikruti itself can mean
distorted. There are other words in Telugu which are not Sanskritised but
are akin to Tamil. The old Telugu and Tamil are very similar and should have
been sister languages.
Similarly the word Hrishikesa is made to sound Irudeekeysan in Tamil poetry.
Sri becomes Thiru.
Even the word "Ayyar" or "Iyer", which is the title used by Tamil speaking
Vaideekas, should be a distorted form of "Aryar".
I personally feel that the titles have more mundane origins rather than some
deep philosophical origins.
Regards,
Ramanujam.
>From: Madhuri and Mohan <mmsagar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [ramanuja] What does "Iyengar" mean?
>Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 21:57:28 -0600
>
>The term "garu", as Sri Ramanujam and Smt. Jayasree have said, is a term
>of respect akin to "avar" in Tamil. However, while Ayyagaru is used to
>refer to Brahmins in general, Iyengar is not at all used by SriVaishnava
>families in Andhra Pradesh. In fact, the term Iyengar is used to refer
>only to Tamil speaking SriVaishnavas. Vaishnavas in Andhra generally
>refer to themselves and are referred to by others with the term
>Acharyagaru, or in more colloquial term simply as Charigaru. The only
>unique variation on this is the term "Jeeyengar", which is used by
>traditional families to address Jeeyars.
>
>Be that as it may, however, I think it is important to note that
>historical references do not limit the use of the term Iyengar just to
>Brahmin SriVaishnavas alone. Indeed, there was one Kandadai Ramanuja
>Iyengar of non-brahmin origin who was instrumental in convincing the
>Vijaynagaram kings to renovate and support Thirumala. He took the name
>of Kandadai from his acharyan, but Iyengar was a title that I personally
>feel could only have been conferred upon him because of his dedication
>to Sri Vaishnavam.
>
>adiyen Ramanuja dasan
>Mohan
>
>
>
>
>
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