History

Once upon a time, hundreds & hundreds of years ago, there lived a group of ‘Brahmans’ in a town called Sankota / Sangottai in Tamilnadu. It seems that these Brahman families were a part of the largest sect called Iyers. However, they were highly knowledgeable people, proficient in Sanskrit, Vedas, Upanishads and Shankaracharya’s philosophy of Advaita.

Once in a ‘Sabha’(Congregation of Brahmans), one Acharya made a mistake while reciting a Shloka.One lady boldly pointed out the mistake. But this challenge was not taken lightly. She was punished for being arrogant. The punishment was that she has to serve food to the Brahmans clad in a saree coated with chalkstone. Every body was well aware of the fact that because of the special coating the saree would be very slippery and will not hold. The lady, angered by the humiliation meted out to her, took up the challenged and conceived a new way of tying the saree which would be held in place with a knot. This saree is traditionally called as ‘Gandi Saree’ (Gandi probably standing for ‘Gant’ meaning ‘Knot’)

However, she came out of the episode with flying colours & teaching all the Brahmans a lesson. She also cursed them by saying that the land, which they presently occupied, will not bear any crop. This had serious repercussions on the community itself.

She also announced her intention of leasing the land. She had a good number of people following her. Thus the community was divided into two. One group settled in the region called ‘Koushik’ and the other is "Bettadapura".

The Koushikas concentrated mainly on farming & vedic studies. The Bettadapuras, on the other hand, aspired and acquired highly respectable positions in the Kings' courts, Government offices and such other professions. Both were highly revered by everybody. Slowly their expanse widened to other places like Ramanathapura, Agrahara, Rudrapatra, Mosale, Saligrama(K.R.Nagar Taluq), Thansoge, Mattur, Hosahalli, Lingadhalli etc. Most of these places are situated is the Hassan & Shimoga Dist. Even today we find many names which identify the family person with the place of their origin – where many generations were born like:

R.K.Srikantan – Rudrapatra Krishnashastri Srikantan

H.S.Ramesh - Hamoge Shrikantan Ramesh.

S.S.Seetharama Rao- Saligrama Subbaraya Seetharama Rao.

As evident the birthplace comes first, then comes the father’s name and then the name of the person himself.

The societal norms were patriarchal. Girls did not get much in terms of formal education. They got married at a very early age between the age of 12-18, in fact sometimes it was child marriage. They had very limited needs and wants, in fact it is said that in the early days they lived in abject poverty.

Any communication between the two sub sects was discouraged.

The journey from those days to today has been long, hard and tedious. But today, we are spread not only throughout India but in other countries too like USA, Australia, Singapore, Canada to name a few. Even today we are considered as a highly intellectual community. In terms of vocation we see families devoted to farming on one hand and on the other hand people holding high positions in Government organizations. There is no dearth of Entrepreneurs too who have world-class manufacturing units. Music was also viewed favourably. It is matter of pride that some of the greatest musicians of Carnatic classical, both vocal & instrumental, belong to this community.

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