saathina, saathaatha muthalis etc..

[Guest guest]

>

>However, if possible could you send me / post some background on who

>these muthalis were, what were their previliges and duties,

 

There are a few eposodes, like the one on Kidaambi aachchaan.

But the others are not in that book. I will ask the author sometime.

Some of the episodes are from the earlier works of 12th-15th centuries.

Some episodes are from the "family" stories of their descendents.

 

So I would not swear on them as 100% fact. But are all the same

very interesting.

 

As for previlages, I do not know. Their duty was to carry the words of

Ramanuja, I suppose.

> also the

>difference between saathina and saathtaatha muthalis, please. I seem to

>have missed some threads in the discussion that might have clarified these.

 

saaththaadhavar are those who do not wear a pooNool and perform

vedic duties. naalaayiram is used extensively.

Most likely those of non-brahmin ancestry. It is also

likely that some gave up the vedic duties and the pooNool and vice

versa. Now the saaththaadhavar are a small sub group of then kalais,

mostly in srirangam, srivillipuththoor and mElkottai.

 

I was talking to one last year. They talk Iyengar dialect. The women wear

Iyengar madisaaru. He said they get full respect in the temple. But

is a poor community almost all in temple duties. He also said,

many saaththaadha sri vaishnavas in srivillipuththoor wear the

pooNool. I do not know if that makes them saaththinavar!.

 

Mani has posted about a publication in American Journal of Eastern

Philsosophy earlier, which talks of saaththaadha Sri vaishnavas.

 

There is another sub-group of thenkalai called "sOzhiyar", who

wear pooNool. They are also very devoted to naalaayiram.

 

K. Srinivasan