Adhering The Vestiges Of Traditionalism, Even Today

By Author: Raja Babu
Total Articles: 17
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Having their origins as old as 2nd century A.D. the Chettiars are mercantile people involved in the trade of goods, service and finance. The reference of them is found in Vedas as they were called as the Vaisya-the trader community in Varnashrama classification.

The community boasts of uniqueness’s which are great and grand to make any one to raise their brows in surprise and prize the community for their long thriving magnificence. Chettiars excelled in various dimensionalities like trade, architecture, cuisine, hospitality, so on.

The adjoining areas 80 km west of Madurai and North of Thanjavur comprise Chettinad which include, the Karaikudi-the hub of Chettinad culture.
The Grandest of celebration a Chettiar community member ever conducts is the marriage. Irrespective of economical background, every Chettiar celebrate wedding with much élan. Many of the pompous weddings are conducted in the grand Chettinad houses. Where all the family members, friends and relatives gather to herald the new beginning of the Chettiar bride and groom. The matrimonial tie among the chettiar community make one ...
... wonder as if all Chettiars are related to each other one way or the other because in earlier days the marital tie is so closely knitted among the community members and weddings among first cousins were very common. Even today, though many of the chettiar families stay away from their village, they prefer to have their son/daughter's marriage within their community and in their native village too.

Not surprisingly, Chettiars food style precisely compliments to other aspects of their magnificent lifestyle. The tradition of “Achi”samayyal as actually emerged from the Chettiar community. The spicy gourmet range garnished with pepper is always a hard to resist temptation for the taste buds. Today Chettinad Achi kitchen has become a catch phrase of restaurants and food join in the urban areas where they advertise the Authentic Chettinad dishes or savour the forgotten flavor of Chettiar smayal so on.
Just like the celebration and food range the abodes also constitute chettiar community’s opulent life. The Bangala as the Chettiars call their mansions which stand as the personification to the community’s outreach of establishing and running their business ventures at various parts of the world. The buildings are embellished with Burmese Teak and European Tiles, where every square foot draws inspiration and elegance from colonial and palace architecture. The attention to detail showcases the merchant community’s passion for arts and crafts
Nattukottai Nagarthars have had their rich business tie with Ceylon and Burma. After the independence the community’s trade ties declined but they resurrected as professionals, educationists and industrialists in various categories. The community always enjoyed an affable bond with Hindu, Christian and Muslim people of the society.

Many Chettiar community members contributed immensely to hold on India’s rich legacy. To name a few there’s Alagappa Chettiar, Annamalai Chettiar, Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar who have contributed to education by starting universities across the state. There are businessmen like Murugappa Chettiar, Ramaswami Chettiar, and Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty. In addition there’s Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar, P.Chidambaram the Finance Minister of India, Kaviarasar Kannadasan, Famous Tamil Poet, S.A.P.Annamalai, Founder of Kumudam Magazine and many more.

The chettiar community members always have had the best geographical spread. Centuries ago they had their business tie with many countries abroad. Today many Chettiar people living abroad stay rooted to the culture of Chettinad & most of them prefer martial tie with their own community. To bridge the gap between the spouse searching Chettairs, many specific matrimonial websites have been started to enable easy inflow of matrimonial process among the Chettiar community. The free and paid online membership options are in place with many of these websites, wherein one can carry generalized search or an advanced personalized search. The right mix of e-age communication tools like e-mail, sms, mobile, chat coming together the best matrimonial search experience awaits for the bride / groom seekers in the Chettiar community.