New member introduction: G. Srivatsan

Vivek Anand Ganesan v_ganesan at YAHOO.COM
Tue Jul 9 12:53:30 CDT 2002


Namaste Sri Srivatsan,
  Welcome to the list.

--- Srivatsan G <srivatsang at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
<P>But the fact is that I am a Vadamal Iyer from Tanjore
and so are my parents!</P>
Hmmm...That may explain your name. Vadamaas are mostly
Vishnu worshippers.  In fact, they are the only group
within Iyers who have more of a Vishnu orientation ( there
is a theory that "vadama" refers to "northerners" and that
the vadamas migrated from near Mathura ).  Sri Ramanuja,
the preceptor of the Sri Vaishnava school was also a
vadama!

<P>I have been told by my parents etc that Iyers worship
shiva as their main deity and my family shrine is 
that of Shiva( vaitheeswarn Koil ).</P>
Not necessarily. As Sri Jaladhar explained, a lot of it
depends upon family and local tradition. Thanjavur is a
strong saivite center, so it is not surprising that your
family has a saiva orientation. But, in Kancheepuram ( near
my native place ) I have found an equally strong vaishnava
orientation ( same for thiruchy which is right next to
sri rangam ).  In some places like "pazhani" etc., the
local Iyers are murugan bhaktas.  So, it is very hard to
generalize.

Regards,

-Vivek.


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