Re - Who are Mudaliars
A P MASILAMANI
Tamil Nadu. The word is the short form of "Padai Mudaliar" which means
"First Man of the marching infantry unit" or "unit foreman". In the
ancient battle order, a man in front leads the infantry.
Senguntham is made up of Sem+ Kuntham. Kuntham means a lance. Senguntham
is a lance carried by the Mudaliar whilst leading his infantry drivision or
unit. Sem is the word qualifying "kuntham", placing the lance in a higher
status than that carried by the soldier for any other purpose.
Kuntham in Tamil(T) and Malayalam(M) has the same meaning and refers to
any long spear or javelin. It is also known in Malayalam as "pada kuntham"
Pada(M), padai(T) mean "army", infantry, fighting men. .
Mudal - (T) = First. Mudali= First Man or Person. The "ar" at the end
is just a suffix showing plurality for respect.
Veera is just an adjective here to show that the Senguntha Mudaliar's
ancester had done some act of heroism or gallantry; it may also be a word
to distinguish a mudaliar attached to a fighting force from another
attached to a non-combat part of the army. As descendants of the early
Mudaliars began to carry the title on grounds of heredity, it became a
caste.
There are other groups also using the title of "Mudaliar". For example,
"Thuluva Vellala Mudaliar". They are clearly from Thuluva language group,
later becoming Tamilised. Vellala shows they were "vellalars" (landowners)
before becoming "Mudali"s.
A number of Mudaliars lately had adopted trading as their profession.
However. the caste name "Mudali" is not derived from the word "Muthal" in
its sense of :"capital."
Compare the development of the terminology in Tamil with English: Lance
Corporal, Staff Sergeant. Staff orginally meant a stick.
A stick ((though not all sticks) is a symbol of authority , for example: a
mace. Senguntham belongs to that class of sticks.
namskar!!
i'm a 21yr old frm the tiny island of singapore. i'm a veera sengonda
mudaliar by caste, and that's all i know abt it. i'm quite interested in
my heritage and the relevant info abt my caste. it would be great if
anyone could tell me abt its origins and other information. pls reply me
at esh...@pacific.net.sg
thank u!!
esha
pallavan
are called KAI KULAR in Sri Lanka. KAI=KHAI, KULA = KULA.==KSHATRIYA
KULA KHAI KULA is a PALI word. I think the Pallava kings of Kanchi spoke
Pali at their intial stages. All these people later Tamilized and
contributed for generations in the civilization of Tamil Nadu..
Umbertslyr
Like you say it was a title which became a hereditary caste with time.
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VIJAY
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