Married to a Maniyakar - Married into History

Those were the days, in the village of old vasantha krishnapuram.

Nobody knew the origin of the name, could have been the name of the first Maniyankar.

Vasantha Krushnapuram was blessed by the Kanchi Kama Koti peetadi pathi as his meditation abode.

Soon, it was followed by the Jains, the Madhavas and the Yadavas.

While the Deccani Nawabs, the French East India Company, The British East India Company perched themselves on top.

The ageing Mughals, the retreating marathas, the ancient Pandya's and the proud Chola's eventually gave room to the minor Reddy's from Andhra and the Madhava's from Mandya's to sneak themselves as sycophants but amongst all the decadence the Maniyakars of Tiruvannamali and Tirukoilur managed to keep their head high.

The Maniyakar's of South Arcot were a benevolent lot of brahmin landlords. Steeped deep inside the tradition of living the spiritually enlightened vegetarian farmer's life.

We can call them benevolent because they could string together and support the livelihoods of large multi casteist communities, while they were themselves driven by heirarchies of the eldest born being the caretaker of a fairly large 'joint family' - joint families could be anything between first siblings numbering at least a dozen, first married in laws counting twice the number, cousin's and nephews easily numbering 2 to 3 or 4 scores, uncles, aunts, cows, calves, buffaloes, farm hands, servants, maids and new borns all numbering another few scores.

Put together a Maniyakar of the South Arcot was the head bread winner of at least 300 humans, almost all blood linked the rest dependent.

Bread winnners, were responsible for managing the large tracts of farms, cultivating, harvesting, selling, collecting the money , distributing the wealth, spreading education, building schools, temples, sponsoring marriages ( by giving away partial portions of their own lands), ushering progress and development to their villages.  

And one such maniyakar was the maniyakar of Vasantha Krishna Puram - Krishnamurthy Maniyakar.



Erstwhile Dist: South Arcot
Present Dist : Villupuram
Taluk : Mugaiyur
PO : Veerapandi
Neighbouring Village : Arasankuppam
Pin Code : 605758
River : Chitteri
Nearest Govt School : Govt. High School, Veerapandi.


In some strange coincidence the late Sir. Krishnamurthy Maniyakar gave birth to Annie.

Ok, the kighthood part is my own.