The Mystery of South India

Hi Nazar , Salam , Vanakkam and Namaskaram to you. Great start at introducing SI to other cultural groups from Chowk.

Generally speaking the vast majority of South Indians are not vegetarians, except for the traditional minded Brahmins and others who are vegetarian by choice.

Marumakkathyam - it literally means that nephews inherit property, was prevalent in Kerala , but it may be a matter of history now. However that is not to say that generally speaking women are probably slightly better off in Kerala.

Carnatic actually comes from two Dravidian or Tamil words that mean Black earth or Karu Nad , this being the name given to modern day Karnataka in the past.

Regarding dietary habits , the entrees that were mentioned are typically prepared in Brahmin households. The South and Kerala in particular is one place where Hindus have beef apart from Chicken , Mutton and Fish.

Regarding physiognomy theories only go so far, generally speaking people from the West coast are fairer than people from the East coast, given that this area has had contact in the form of mercantile activities with many nations from the West. The Chinese influence is also palpable in such things as the Cheena Vala meaning the Chinese fishing nets and teh Cheena Chatti which is the Chinese Wok.

Coffee may be popular in TN but Kerala prefers Tea, in particular it is one part of India where people have tea or coffee without milk sometimes.

There is also a distinct difference in cutlure and ambience between two given states as for example when one crosses the Western Ghats from Kerala into TN.

Speaking of diversity another state that comes to mind is Karnataka where many languages other than Kannada are also spoken.

SameerJb

On a lighter note. So areas falling in Pakistan have a monoply over some invaders like the Bactrians, Parthians, Scythians, Alexander and Arabs.

The Punjab was covered with forests until 70 years ago when the British brought in the canals. I have myself seen Sind as a desert just 30 years back from the air. Baluchistan and NWFP are still mountainous barreness barring the Peshawar valley.

So essentially, anyone with some spare time, a spare horse and some spare food could walk into these areas - and be called a conquerer. There was a little to get from here and no one to resist.

NHK

Dost-Mitter, Alephnull, Mitran, Nikki, Gandiv, Avkrishna

Thanks for your authentic and personalized observations and interacts. Listening is learning.

It must be great visiting the thick lush green habitat of the South - the beaches, palmgroves, old colonial style buildings, unusual food and some Bharatnatyam. Probably, some thick dark clouds and some torrential rains at times. Does South have some local popular liquer?

NHK

Nazar Sahib,
``They are combined with sambhar (dal), rasam (tamarind dal), dry and curried vegetable and pachadi (yogurt)``

Small correction, pachadi is pickle not yougurt. Yogurt is called ``perugu`` in telugu (My mother toungue is telugu)

Each state has its own cuisine, and of all the states Andhraites eat the most spicy food ( I am not saying this, In US i had roommates from Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala all of them used to complain about the red chilly/spices in Andhra curries and pickles, but at the same time they liked them).

Of the SI food items i like these best.
Tamilnadu - Sambhar is best ( the tiffin and breakfast places in Chennai are best.)
Karnataka - Bisi bheli bath is the best kannada food i tasted (there may be more)
Andhra - Chepala Pulusu ( Fish curry in tamarind gravy), Hyderabad Biryani ( Its the best biryani in my opinion, tried lot of variety`s here in US from various parts of the subcontinent)

Captain Sahib, a great read through, as always.

There is no one specific attribute that we can ascribe to the South in India, but here are a few anyway . . . and I have done more than my share of travel/stay there, by sea, by road, by rail and by foot . . . as a shippie, as an operational person for shipping companies, as a salesman, as a son-in-law, as a wanderer, as an election researcher etcetc.

a) The male-female ratios are just about equal, or maybe slightly higher for women. As a result, there is none of the frustrated/staring kind of stuff that the women have to undergo in parts of the North. Besides, emancipation of women is generations ahead in the South, amongst other things, even traditional Muslims have ``women only`` mosques there now.

b) Education of a ``real`` sort is given high priority. Do anything, but do well in maths and/or music and/or humanities and/or physics etcetc. Hygiene and education are very strongly linked, even in the poorest of poor households.

c) Traditions going back centuries tend to cross newer religious afffiliations. This is very interesting to observe in areas where no on religion (Hindu / Muslim / Christian) is less than 10-12% of the population. The whole concept of ``minority`` changes when a minority crosses 10%, and this is something I learnt while researching elections there.

d) Social activism, often misconstrued by us impatient lot as obstructionism, is an elevated art form. Whether it is denial of ground water to Cola manufacturers, or efforts to move whole districts out of tobacco farming for established MNCs, South India is the place.

e) I personally have great admiration for the truck/bus driving and maintenance skills of the Tamilians. Philosophy of the gentle co-existence sort is in my opinion best experienced with Kannada taxi-drivers, as any visitor to Bangalore may tell you. It is another fact that much of the spare parts industry in the South has got a Punjabi Sikh face, maybe all this is just my perception.

In addition, the closer you get to the coastal areas, the more you understand the dictum of ``live your truths``.

Popular liquor? Well, toddy of various sorts, the one I really suggest is this transparent fire-water made out of coconut in and around the Tuticorin (South TN) area, a bit like ouzo . . . add water and it turns cloudy . . . best drunk with goat mutton biryani and washed down with large amounts of fresh curds.

As per the excise figures I read somewhere but now forget the source, Tamil Nadu has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol. So much for the image of the booze-swilling North Indian.

re:#26 by anil
You are right about the migration.
During a train travel from Madras to Bangalore about 2 years ago (on my visit to India), i was amazed to find the compartment filled with North Indians (mostly Punjabees, one Bihari). I was the only South Indian in that compartment. All the NIs were well settled in Bangalore with some business interests.
Sridhar

silly #52

{{Small correction, pachadi is pickle not yougurt.}}

Actually pachadi (Tamil/Malayalam) is the rough equivalent of raita for North Indians. Yogurt alone would be thayir.

re: this article
Nice attempt Nazar Sahib,
There is a lot of integration going on between North and South in the last 20years or so. I, myself am a South Indian (TamBram) who grew up in Delhi and am more fluent in Hindi than in Tamil and am now living in the US.
You mentioned Sangam period as starting at 200 BC. I think the purists will disagree. It started much earlier. Some Tamil historians contend that Tamil is more ancient than even Sanskrit!
More about your article later.

#8 by warpster
Rekha is an Iyer. She is the daughter of famous Tamil actor Gemini Ganeshan.
Sridhar

#50 nazar Hayat......

Partially true. If Punjab was a jungle, Sindh a desert...so was the rest of southasia. Maurya dynasty was almost obsessed with the area and Chandragupt as well as Ashoka spending most of their lives in the area. Their armies consisted of mostly people from the region that falls in Pakistan. Alexander and Porous war almost certainly a draw or Porous having slightly upper hand. That is why, he became more powerful after the war by acquiring areas between Ravi and Chenab rivers. Since the account of that famous war comes to us through two Greek historians, it is almost certain that they put the best possible spin on the events by not looking Alexander losing it. As far back as during Archaemenid (6 BC) rule over the area, the record show that this areas generated second largest revenue for the empire. Additionally a whole regiment was raised for Persian empire which fought battle with Greeks during Xerxes infamous conquering of Athens but ending up losing due to losing fleet in the narrow chanel. So the first contact between desis and Greeks took place 150 years before Alexander invasion which was sort of revenge for destruction of Athens by Persians under Xerxes.

whatever condition the region was in, was about fair under those conditions. The contact with the people from all over the region is proved by large number of people accepting Buddhism all along the Indus and other rivers in the area. Even going further back in time, reveals centers like Harrapa, Mohenjo-daro, Kot Diji and many more decent size settlement and thriving culture with contacts with the mesopotamian settlements (proven by unearthing bones of horses which are not native to the area).

re # 49

Aleph Null,

The temple of Shaolin, which is like the headquarters of martial arts, is widely believed by many historians to have been established by Bodhi Dharma, a Buddhist monk from Kerala. I think Kalaripayattu and Chinese martial arts are cousins. Even wall meditation, a form of meditation, where a point on the wall is used to obtain dhyana, is believed to have been articulted by Bodhi Dharma.

Kerala is probably the best example of tolerance and diversity from among the South Indian states. The fact that Hindu pilgrims who visit Sabari Malai MUST visit the mosque first before climbing the hill, speaks volumes about the tradition and tolerance of Kerala.

Kerala boasts of many other famous personalities, but my favourite among the present lot is Jesudas. Arundhati Roy is a close second...now only if she didnt indulge in self-promotion.

regards

Kabuli

SameerJB # 57

We always tend to miss out the earliest Euro-Indian culture of Peshawar valley - the Gandhara. This Greco-Desi amalgamation have left behind a complete school called the Gandhara Art - which is as neglected and as little publicised like much else from the past.

Also, the Roman shoes with straps comes very close to the Peshawari Chappel not to speak of the Pathan features and something very orderly and systematic in their genes. (a little corrupted now with too much of a theology doze in some of them)

NHK

nikki7777#47:
It would appear from your post that druze have assimilated into other christians in south india. I had asked the earlier question because the Syrian-Lebanese druze are unique among muslims in that they believe in some sort of reincarnation. I wondered if there was any connection between south india and this druze belief.
I have visited the church of Saint Tomas in Mylapore, Chennai. I found it somewhat amusing that christian worshippers going for a `darshan` of the saint removed their shoes before entering the sanctum-sanctorum.

kabuliwallah#58:
I believe that the chinese martial arts originated in the buddhist monastries, as the monks used these arts to defend themselves against marauders; so there may be a connection here.

``The fact that Hindu pilgrims who visit Sabari Malai MUST visit the mosque first before climbing the hill, speaks volumes about the tradition and tolerance of Kerala.``

Is the reverse true as well? If so, that would be a true differentiator of Kerala, because hindus routinely visit dargahs, etc. in north india as well. See Adnan Alavi`s on his visit to his home town.

#60 by dost-mittar

[Is the reverse true as well? If so, that would be a true differentiator of Kerala, because hindus routinely visit dargahs, etc. in north india as well. See Adnan Alavi`s on his visit to his home town.]

Legend has it that Vavar was a ferocious Muslim bandit who looted travelers that passed through the dense forests of Kerala. Lord Ayyappa (the deity of Sabarimala) defeated him in a battle and when Vavar expressed remorse, he forgave him. Vavar became a close friend and ardent devotee of Ayyappa. When Lord Ayyappa left his home for his abode at Sabarimala, he expressed the desire that any devotee who wished to come to his temple at Sabarimala must first pay obesiance to his friend Vavar and only then proceed further. It is not a mosque in the sense that no human-worship takes place in a mosque. Also, the caretakers of the dargah distribute vibhuti (sacred ash) to the pilgrims, which is more a dargah-tradition than of a mosque.

#54 by rsridhar on August 5, 2004 10:03pm PT
Sridhar would be an Iyer or Iyenger???

#53 by veeresh

[Tamil Nadu has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol.]

Wrong! Kerala leads the pack. Check the following piece.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040712&fname=Kerala&sid=1

Sorry, missed out on the most important ingredient

#55 by AlephNull on August 5, 2004 10:03pm PT

[Actually pachadi (Tamil/Malayalam) is the rough equivalent of raita for North Indians. Yogurt alone would be thayir.]

Thayir pachadi (curd pickle) is a common preparation in most Tamil households. It consists of yogurt, small pieces of onion, green chillies, dals, and some spices. It is the equivalent of raita.