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From: K. Srinivasan (srini_at_ireq.hydro.qc.ca)
Date: Fri Jul 21 1995 - 13:07:30 PDT
> >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