Muthuraja, Muthurajan, Mudhuraja, Mudhiraju, Muthiraja
Mutharaiyar, Mutharayar, Muthrayar, Muthiraya, Muthiray
Muthuraya, Muthurayan, Muthurayar,Muthurasa, Muthurasar
Muthuracha,Mutharaya,Mutharayan,Mutharayar,Muthrayan, Muthrayar, Mutharasu.
Videlvidugu Kadupatti was a Bana ( Vana ) king who assumed the title of Muttarasan and ruled the regions around Kodunbalur. Please see the page on KINGS in this website to get more details. They constitute a dominant grouping in Sarakottai and some of the south-central districts of Tamilnadu. The influence and image of Muthuraja community in Tamilnadu can be understood from the fact that the Tamilnadu government has named Tiruchirapalli district as Tiruchirapalli Perumpidugu Mutharaiyar district on account of their move to honor the historical Tamil heroes and respect the sentiments of the people of that region. Perumpidugu Mutharaiyar was a renowned king (chieftain) who ruled his kingdom making Tanjavur as his capital. The Mutharaiyar chieftains fought with Pandyas and their supporters on behalf Pallavas.
The Mutharaiyars were arch the rivals of Cholas in their struggle for supremacy in the South. The Perumbidugu Muttaraiyar ruled over Tanjore and Pudukkotai as the feudatories of the Pallavas from the eighth century to eleventh. While the word MUTTIRIYAR is used in general to refer to the people of Muthurajas / Muthurachas in Tamilnadu, the word MUTTRI is used to refer to the women of Muthuraja / முதுர்ச community to give a famenine sense to the word. The use of these words are some what similar to the usage of REDDIYAR and REDDY for refering to the people with a particular community identity.
GOUNDER : Gounders are a subsect of Muthurajas in Tamilnadu. There are two divisions in Gounder community - the Vettuvar and Vellalar. The Vettuva Gounders are militant and the other group is sophisticated and more amicable. Kongu Vellala Gounders are one of the earliest inhabitants of South India living in the North Western part of Tamil Nadu with agriculture as their occupation. Among the many other meanings the word "Kongu" has, the most acceptable ones are "honey" and "dense forest". The Kongu Velallas are a family oriented and clan oriented people. They are initially nomadics with less number of clans and gradually settled down in plains irrigating them by sheer had work and their clans increased over the years when they occupied more and more areas.The Vettuvas were their traditional rivals. Hunting is the main occupation of the Vettuvas. It is nothing but natural that the Vellalas had to face the resistance of Vettuvas in making the forest land cultivable. Now Vettuva Gounders are one of the sub-sects of Gounders including Nattu Gounder, Kurumba Gounder and Urali Gounder. Known for protecting self respect, many a Kongu Chiafrain had defied the commands of empires. Even the Cholas could'nt fully bring Kongu under their control.The word Gounder is believed to have originated from the word Kamindan which is found in insceiption belonging to the Hoysala's. The Kannada word had found its way to other insceiptions found all over the Kongu region. A Kamindan is a cattle breeder. The sanctity attached to cattle breeding by the Kongu Vellalas even to-day can be seen when they call their chief festival Pongal as "Patti Nombi". These Kamindans are believed to have migrated from the Kolar region of Karnataka. The Vokkaligas of Karnataka and the Kongu Vellala Gounders of Tamil Nadu have many social and cultural similarities. Vettuva, Pulaya Vettuva in Kerala are in SC/ST list and there is a move to remove them from the list of Scheduled Caste.
URALI : Urali is a Dravidian tribal speech variety spoken in the Sathyamangalam Taluk of the Periyar district in Tamilnadu. The hamlets occupied by this ethnic community are situated in the hill tracts bordering Karnataka and Tamilnadu at an altitude of 1105 meters above the mean sea level. The dominant language of the area is Tamil. Tamil is extensively used for all purposes, including official communications and education. Hence everyone living in this area need to know Tamil if they want to have any interaction with the outside their ethnic group. The Urali Kuruba (a dialect branch) traditionally worked as blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, and basket makers. Presently, they have given up all these trades, except for basketry. They now supplement their income by working as agricultural laborers in the estates nearby. The Kuruba inhabit the thickly forested slopes and foothills of the Nilgiri plateau in Tamil Nadu state. The Kuruba are closely related to the Pallava of the eighth century. As Pallava rule declined, the Kuruba's forefathers scattered over a wide area of southern India and became culturally distinct. During this time, the Kuruba survived by hunting, gathering forest produce, or small-scale farming. Some even became slaves. In time, the majority of Kuruba settled on the plains as small landowners or herdsmen. The kurubas are also known as bunts in Karnataka and bants in Andhra Pradesh.
ARAYARS : Arayar Natanam Arayar Natanam is enacted in December-January in Shrirangam and other Shri Vaishnava temples by groups of musicians and a dancer who are engaged to recite the sacred hymns called the Thiruvaimozhi. This class of choirists called Arayar or Chanters are on the temple staff receiving allowances and perquisites. They wear a uniform which includes a Kireetam or special conical cap as their badge during the chanting. While chanting the hymns, they also use a pair of cymbals made of bell-metal. One of them assumes the postures. In between their recitations, they utter the glory of the presiding deity by singing Kondattam. The Araya's practice a certain esoteric system of dance wherein the postures are conventional and present situations associated with lord Krishna's Juvenile Pranks.The Arayar tradition of the Srirangam temple traces its origin to Periyalvar and they sing Andal's Tiruppavai and Nachiyar Tirumoli in a delightful lilting manner infusing in the rendition, bhakti and a sense of joy.Some believe that the tamil word �Arayar� turned as Ariyar.The same word turnedRayar in vaduka kannada & Telugu. In Bengal it is as Rai. Ariyan was used in the meaning of king. Arai+ar- Arai means part / pakuthi. Thus the ruling class which ruled that part was called Arayar. Arasar / Arasu are also from this root. The word arayer itself means king. In Tamil, there are two ways to pronounce the letter 'r'. Said without stress like 'arayer' it means king and with stress like 'rr' it means 'speaker' or 'narrator'. In both cases the word fits these temple servants who dedicated their lives towards the worship and glory of Lord Vishnu through song, dance and drama.
TRIBAL BACKGROUND OF MUDIRAJAS:
The Mudiraj - Mudiraja - Muthuraja warrior community is one of the ancient royal community of South India which obsorbed all kinds of warrior tribes into its fold. But the back bone population of this community came from Bhil, Bhil variants, Kolis, and Koli variants with hunting & fishing background. There are also their mixed blood clans / rajputs resulting from matrimonial alliances with Aryans and Scythians. Some of them having mixed blood became agriculturilists.
These were the people of wild, militant, ferocious and warrior in their character. They were basically soldiers, commandos, daredevils, suicide squad members, administrators, ministers, chiefs, chieftains, kings and also emperors. It is a community that can not be easily forced to submit to alien rule and domination. When these warriors failed to win in open wars, they launched to gorilla warfare. Even they could dare to commit crimes against their enemies. Dravidian Warrior Tribes were the sole rulers of ancient India till Aryans and Scythians (Sakas) arrived into this country. After their arrival, the native Dravidian tribes got mixed up with with them and developed matrimonial relations.
Thus the Dravidian Bhils, Aryans, Scythians, Indo-aryans and Indo-Scythians ruled this country just like native Indians.These Indian and Indianised Hindu rulers resisted the Muslim invaders and the imperial British as they these new alien forces started grabbing their land, forests & country and also started imposing their religion, culture & customs on the native Indians reducing them to slaves. It has been observed that the Mudiraj community of South India always fought with their enemies to protect their country, religion, culture and customs.
They believe in freedom of worship and practice of their own tribal culture and customs. Mudiraja tribes became Hindus but they never stopped worshipping mother Goddess, the essence of tribal warrior religion. The great quality of these dravidian tribal sections is that they can accept all kinds of religious faiths in the world but they never forget their mother Goddess. Many sections of Mudiraj ( Muthuraja ) community of South India include several Warrior Tribes that spread across the country from Sindhu River to Kaveri River Basins. A great many Mudiraja & related kings laid down their lives in opposing the Islamic invaders who tried to destroy Hinduism and their Hindu culture.
The Mudiraja warriors also opposed and revolted against the British rule in India. They were all declared as Criminal Tribes by British when they miserably failed to control them from fighting against British Rule. Muthracha, Kallars, Maravars, Bedars, Pardhis, Kaikadis, Kuruvars, korawas, Boyars, Erukalas, etc are some Warrior Tribes of Mudiraja who were labelled as Criminal Tribes to deal with them mercilessly through oppressive methods. Veera Pandya Katta Bommana, Rana Pratap Singh, Rani Abbakka are some of the great patriotic rulers belonging to Bunt - Mudiraja - Muthuraja warrior community & block. Hence, we must declare them as the first freedom fighters of India and salute them for inspiring our leaders like Mangal Pande, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and so on during British rule.
PROFESSIONS OF MUDIRAJ / MUTHURAJ : -
Cane baskets and boxes of crude nature are manufactured by some Mutharacha families of Indukurpet of Nellore Talik in Andhra Pradesh. - Temples were built by Mutharayar kings at Narthamalai : Located at a distance of 17 kilometres from Trichi, Narthamalai is an important place to visit due to its religious importance. The place is specially characterised by its unusual stone temple, which is circular in shape. This temple has six large skilfully carved statues of Vishnu in the central hall. Moreover there are some other cave temples of historical importance too.
These are believed to have been built by the Muthariyars. - Mutharaiyars were philanthropic chieftains: From the point of poetical and thematic value, the Naaladiyar occupies an enviable position, next to the Tirukkural. Though the poems are generally attributed to the authorship of erudite Jain ascetics, who flourished at the Dramila Sangha of Vajranandi (A.D. 450) in Madurai, some poems (200, 296) seem to be of later origin, since they eulogise the philanthropic chieftains, Mutharaiyars, the powerful feudatories reigning in and around Thanjavur under the sway of Pallava kings during 650 A.D. to 750 A.D. -
Mutharayar chieftains erected monuments : The tract north and south of river Vellar were in the hands of the Mutharayar chieftains who till their annihilation by the resurgent Chola line of Vijayalaya, were owing alternate allegiance to the super powers. The Irukkuvelirs, at the end became the firm allies of the Cholas.Thus, one cannot expect to find early Pallava monuments, antiquities and inscriptions in Pudukkottai region but only those of the contemporary Pandyas along with those of Mutharaiyars and Irukkuvelirs.
- Thurston writes: "Round about Devakotta in the Sivaganga zamindari there are fourteen nadus, representatives of which meet once a year at Kandadevi, to arrange for the annual festival at the temple dedicated to Swarnamurthi Swami." Each "nadu" is headed by an Ambalakaran (president of an assembly) and the Ambalakarans took upon themselves the power to adjudicate disputes that arose among the inhabitants in the "nadu", belonging to different castes. They used to hear complaints, hold inquiries and punish the offenders. They wielded considerable powers to intervene in any kind of transaction or transfer of property among the people. No land could be alienated from one man to another without the permission of the Ambalakkarans. They were known for awarding crude punishments and collecting oppressive taxes from the people.
- An extract from "Castes & Caste Observances amongst Tamils in Ceylon, Rev. James Cartman, OBE, M.A., B.D., M.Th. rom Hinduism in Ceylon, 1957" (i) Ambalakarar - Cultivators (ii) Muthiriyar - A Telugu caste, hunters and fishermen now employed on the estates. - Muthuraja name of the community traditionally known as snake catchers. Live in the village name Paambati kalam of district Dindigal, Tamil Nadu, India. This village has the population of around 35 families comprising around 120 members including children.- Moopanars are a subcaste of Muthuraja in Tamilnadu. Shri G.K. Moopanar, a renowned politician and follower of Kamaraj passed away on the 30th August, 2001, at Chennai at the age of 71 years. Born at village Kabisthalam, Tamil Nadu, in August 1931, Shri Moopanar had his education at Papanasam, Tamil Nadu.
An agriculturist by vocation, Shri Moopanar was associated with various social and welfare activities. He devoted his life for the uplift of poor and downtrodden and propagated national integration. The distinguished legislative career of Shri Moopanar began with the Membership of the House representing the State of Tamil Nadu, from July, 1977 to July, 1983 and again from July, 1983 to February, 1989. Thereafter, he was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1989 and remained there till 1991.
Shri Moopanar again became the Member of this House from July, 1995 to September, 1997 and again from June, 1998 till he breathed his last. He was a Congressman and staunch Gandhi family loyalist. Mr. G.K. Moopanar was the founder of died Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in 1996 to fight the AIADMK. - Moopanars belong to one of the subcastes of Muthuraja in Tamilnadu as per Chola-Mutharayar Research Center, Tanjore. . Once upon a time, there was a queen by name Moopi. Her lineal descendents were known as Moopanars. There is a divya desam called Tiru Kavith Thalam under the trusteeship of the Moopanar clan. Long time back, they were poets, scholars and warriors. Hence this place was known as Kavi sthalam.
Over a period of time, it got changed to Kapisthalam. They are richest Tanjore farmers now. - Kohlis are related to kolis and kolis are related to Mudiraj. Kohlis of Thar desert in Rajastan are descendants of the hunting and gathering population once subsisted on Thar's abundant fauna, fruit and wild products such as honey. Although the only original inhabitants of Thar, the Kohlis are now the poorest and least established. They enjoyed a period of respect as soldier for the pre-British rulers, but now with the disappearance of game, are reduced to making the painful adjustment to herding and farming. - In Theneripatti village of Tamilnadu, majority farmers are Udayars and Muthurajas.