Shruthi keeps asking me if I am a Maharashtrian whenever she sees me. She came to conclusion that I am a Maharashtrian since my mother tongue is Marathi. Shruthi is my "mooh boli behan" or "koodapirava thangai" (like my younger sister). She was very curious to know where I belonged from. I told her that I am not a Maharashtrian. "Then what are you?" she pressed again. "Do you want to listen to a story?", I asked her. She seemed interested and thus today I explained to her my origins.
Before actually telling you my origins, I have been asked the same question by other people many times. Sometimes, I am sick of explaining it to them. Some don't believe it and some don't understand what I am talking about. I don't blame them for their ignorance.
I can be broadly classified under a Tam Bram (Tamil brahmin), but I am neither an Iyer nor an Iyengar...ok..I can understand your confusion. I think I will tell you the story anyway.
Everyone knows about Maharaja Chatrapathi Shivaji Bhonsle. His half brother Venkoji Rao Bhonsle came to Thanjavur in 1676AD and established an empire without any formal ties with the erstwhile Maratha Empire. Along with him many people, including my ancestors migrated to the south of India. So some people settled in Karnataka, some in Andhra and majority of them in Tamilnadu. On the way my father's great great granddad settled in Karnataka, near Arisikere. Whereas my maternal mother's side are actually from Thanjavur itself. My maternal father's side genealogy can be traced back to Bijapur sultan's regime. It so happens that some great ancestor of this lineage was in the court of Bijapur sultan. I don't remember the actual name of the sultan and the year and neither my ancestor.
Interestingly, my surname is “Yennamalli”. It sounds like Kotthamalli (Coriander) in Tamil. :P This is my ancestral village name that is present in my uncle's initials and my cousins as well. The interesting part is that only recently I came to know that this village is in the border of Andhra pradesh and Karnataka. Great heavens, one more state to add..... :)
More interesting, is that the language spoken by my community is so different from Marathi itself. I honestly can say that I can't comprehend a pure marathi conversation. Infact the language in my opinion hasn't changed or say evolved since 17th century. It is called Tanjore/Tanjavur Marathi. If I meet a person of my same community who is a total stranger to me, we will be speaking to each other in the same tone, accent and use the same identical words. There is no written down grammar for this and also there is no script for writing. It is quite understandable to think that the language has used the regional language grammar in the broader sense. Like Tamil grammar with marathi words.
Where does my confusion starts? Right here, when I have explain the whole story. I am quite not sure where exactly I am placed. We have a separate community, with its own customs and rituals, follow the same tradition. Still, I cant define myself as to which state I belong to. I have found the same Thanjavur marathi speaking people in Delhi, but they don't seem to be perturbed by someone asking the same questions.
In anyway, I am so confident of my origins and quite happy and proud that I am this way. I will tell you why. When some one approaches me saying ”Raghu you are marathi speaking guy, why don't you contribute for our Marathi function?” I will be like “I am a Tamilian. I am not Marathi”.....and vice versa as well....Honestly, I have used this tactic only once or twice but my friends keep making fun of such imaginary situations and predict the way I will react. Born and brought up in Madras/Chennai, personally, I am more of a tamilian than a maharastrian. I love the Tamil language and read lot of tamil books, mostly historical fiction ones.
Finally, after hearing my origin story, Shruthi was kind of more confused and before she could ask one more question, I interrupted her and said “Shruthi, let's leave it at this stage that I am an Indian born not so confused desi..” She laughed at my statement and asked “Not so confused???” “Yeah..I am not confused as to where my roots are”. In the end, she decided that she will not ask my origins again, since she realized by now that asking for it is like opening pandora box of unanswerable questions.
Before actually telling you my origins, I have been asked the same question by other people many times. Sometimes, I am sick of explaining it to them. Some don't believe it and some don't understand what I am talking about. I don't blame them for their ignorance.
I can be broadly classified under a Tam Bram (Tamil brahmin), but I am neither an Iyer nor an Iyengar...ok..I can understand your confusion. I think I will tell you the story anyway.
Everyone knows about Maharaja Chatrapathi Shivaji Bhonsle. His half brother Venkoji Rao Bhonsle came to Thanjavur in 1676AD and established an empire without any formal ties with the erstwhile Maratha Empire. Along with him many people, including my ancestors migrated to the south of India. So some people settled in Karnataka, some in Andhra and majority of them in Tamilnadu. On the way my father's great great granddad settled in Karnataka, near Arisikere. Whereas my maternal mother's side are actually from Thanjavur itself. My maternal father's side genealogy can be traced back to Bijapur sultan's regime. It so happens that some great ancestor of this lineage was in the court of Bijapur sultan. I don't remember the actual name of the sultan and the year and neither my ancestor.
Interestingly, my surname is “Yennamalli”. It sounds like Kotthamalli (Coriander) in Tamil. :P This is my ancestral village name that is present in my uncle's initials and my cousins as well. The interesting part is that only recently I came to know that this village is in the border of Andhra pradesh and Karnataka. Great heavens, one more state to add..... :)
More interesting, is that the language spoken by my community is so different from Marathi itself. I honestly can say that I can't comprehend a pure marathi conversation. Infact the language in my opinion hasn't changed or say evolved since 17th century. It is called Tanjore/Tanjavur Marathi. If I meet a person of my same community who is a total stranger to me, we will be speaking to each other in the same tone, accent and use the same identical words. There is no written down grammar for this and also there is no script for writing. It is quite understandable to think that the language has used the regional language grammar in the broader sense. Like Tamil grammar with marathi words.
Where does my confusion starts? Right here, when I have explain the whole story. I am quite not sure where exactly I am placed. We have a separate community, with its own customs and rituals, follow the same tradition. Still, I cant define myself as to which state I belong to. I have found the same Thanjavur marathi speaking people in Delhi, but they don't seem to be perturbed by someone asking the same questions.
In anyway, I am so confident of my origins and quite happy and proud that I am this way. I will tell you why. When some one approaches me saying ”Raghu you are marathi speaking guy, why don't you contribute for our Marathi function?” I will be like “I am a Tamilian. I am not Marathi”.....and vice versa as well....Honestly, I have used this tactic only once or twice but my friends keep making fun of such imaginary situations and predict the way I will react. Born and brought up in Madras/Chennai, personally, I am more of a tamilian than a maharastrian. I love the Tamil language and read lot of tamil books, mostly historical fiction ones.
Finally, after hearing my origin story, Shruthi was kind of more confused and before she could ask one more question, I interrupted her and said “Shruthi, let's leave it at this stage that I am an Indian born not so confused desi..” She laughed at my statement and asked “Not so confused???” “Yeah..I am not confused as to where my roots are”. In the end, she decided that she will not ask my origins again, since she realized by now that asking for it is like opening pandora box of unanswerable questions.
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