Guest guest Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 Could you please share that list of "totems" in Maharashtra with us? M. J. Magalhaes > Message: 4 > Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:18:37 -0000 > "Mahavir" <msanglikar > Clans and Totems > > > > > Hi > > > Many communities of India, especially those who > claim that they are > Kshatriyas, each clan of the community has a totem, > i.e. a symbol > which is an animal or a tree or any other thing. I > have a list of > such totems from Maratha community of Maharashtra. > > Do you know such totems in other communities, > especially in South > India? If yes, then please give the list of totems > with > corresponding clans. > > Mahavir Chavan > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 INDOLOGY, "Mahavir" <msanglikar> wrote: > Many communities of India, especially those who claim that they are > Kshatriyas, each clan of the community has a totem, i.e. a symbol > which is an animal or a tree or any other thing. I have a list of > such totems from Maratha community of Maharashtra. > > Do you know such totems in other communities, especially in South > India? If yes, then please give the list of totems with > corresponding clans. > > Mahavir Chavan"Mahavir" <msanglikar> wrote: > Many communities of India, especially those who > claim that they are Kshatriyas, each clan of > the community has a totem, i.e. a symbol > which is an animal or a tree or any other thing. I > have a list of such totems from Maratha > community of Maharashtra. > > Do you know such totems in other communities, > especially in South India? If yes, then > please give the list of totems > with corresponding clans. Dear Mahavir, I believe the totem symbols for clans can be found all over the traditional pancha Draavida lands of India. Each royal household had a clan tree - Cheras had palmyra tree, Pandyas had neem tree, Cholas had "aatti" tree as their totems, Pallavas' name itself is said to be a sanskrit rendering of their totem flower (called toNDai, aatoNDai in Tamil). Sangam classics mention wars for cutting down these totemic trees. Kadamba kings possibly have their kula name from kaDambu tree. In old Tamil literature and then aazvaars' poems, "kurundam" tree is mentioned in Krishna legends. A Maratha housename like Kurundwad has Tamil counterparts as well. See a Kurundwad senior person's message. http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0012&L=indology&P=R11091 Likewise, the totem name using mogha/mOkam tree INDOLOGY/message/2563 See examples of fauna, flora as totems of kulams of Kongu Vellalas. Bards (paNDaarams, barbers) sing an oral epic on the dominant caste (Brenda Beck, Elder brothers story, an oral epic in Tamil 2 volumes, Institute of Asian studies, madras, 1992) http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9805&L=indology&P=R17544 http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9911&L=indology&P=R9193 kUr is a tree name with sharp thorns, curam means arid land, desert. kUr-curam (in Dravidian) means (arid) land with kUr trees. kUrccuram became Kuurjara, and then Gujarat. kUr/cUr with k- > c- is in the regions' name suurashtra, modern saurashtra. Similarly, sIndu(Indu) means date palm tree in Dravidian. Hence, the name (in Harappan times), Sindu for the region. sIndu-kula kings are mentioned in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Lanka (called Iizham which is coming from words like Iisal/Iiyal, (s)Indu for date palm tree). Regards, N. Ganesan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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