Chettinad

A palatial house in Chettinad

Courtyard of a Chettinad house

Chettinad cuisine

Chettinad (Tamil: செட்டிநாடு) is a region of the Sivaganga district of southern Tamil Nadu state, India. Karaikudi is known as the capital of Chettinad^{[citation needed]}, which includes Karaikudi and 74 (traditionally its said as 96) other villages.^[1] Chettinad is the homeland of the Nattukottai Chettiars (Nagarathar), a prosperous banking and business community, many of whose members migrated to South and Southeast Asia, particularly Ceylon and Burma, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The people of Chettinad speak Tamil. Today there is a diaspora of Chettinad people, who live in the USA, Singapore, Malaysia, among other places.

Chettinad is well known for its Chettinad cuisine, mansions, and temples. Chettinad also means a social caste that specializes in the preparation of food. Chettinads can be considered as the master chefs who prepare food that reflects the excellence that people in Chennai/South India look for in the preparation and serving of food. Some cuisines have been renamed e.g. Chicken Chettinad (Spicy Chicken Curry), Veg Chettinad (a curry of selective vegetables) to reflect the speciality and care given during preparation of food.

Chettinad Cuisine

Chettinad is known for its Culinary delicacies. Chettinad food now is one of the many reason why people get to know Chettinad. Chettinad food is essentially spicy, with a standard full meal consisting of cooked lentils, Brinjal curry, drumstick sambar, ghee for flavouring rice, and sweet meats like payasam and paal paniyaram. "Kara kolambu" is a highly regarded south Indian sambar. Chettinad delicacy:Aadi kummayam, its a mouth watering delicacy for the sweet toothed ones, made from pulses.

Mansions

Chettinad is rich in cultural heritage, art and architecture, and is well known for its houses, embellished with marble and Burma teak, wide courtyards, spacious rooms, and for its 18th century mansions. Local legend has it that their walls used to be polished with a paste made out of eggwhites to give a smooth texture.

Temples

Originally built by early Tamil dynasties like the Cholas, the temples of Chettinad stand testimony to the spiritual beliefs of its denizens. Scattered over the whole place, each temple has its own tank called oorani where water lilies are grown, and used for holy rituals. Even today much of Chettinad's daily tidings are centered around the festivities around the temple. Among the many famous temples, a few are Vairavan Kovil temple, Karpaga Vinayakar temple, Kundrakudi Murugan temple, Kottaiyur Sivan temple, Kandanur Sivan Temple.

The nearest airport is Madurai airport, 85 kilometers away. The largest town in the area is Karaikudi. Trains that run from Chennai to Rameshwaram stop at Karaikudi, kanadukaathan (chettinad station) and kallal

Karaikudi is also known for CECRI, a CSIR laboratory specialising in electro-chemical research. The lab has been operational for more than forty years, and has produced patents and inventions in the areas of battery research, corrosion prevention, and paints among others.

• The Chettinad Sari: This cotton sari is unique in the dramatic and spontaneous use of colour and pattern with bold checks, stripes and contrasting hues. Its vibrance and its weight are its distinguishing factors. The thickness of this sari and changing demands have kept this sari out of production for nearly a hundred years. Records and old photographs show the use of this sari by previous generations, before the advent of blouses and underskirts, worn rather differently from the regular sari.

Well-known people

• P. Chidambaram, Home Minister of India
• Dr Alagappa Chettiar, the founder of the various educational institutions in Karaikudi and its surroundings. Alagappa University, Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering and Technology, and Alagappa Government Arts College are a few institutes named in his honor. A friend of Jawaharlal Nehru, he brought Central Electro Chemical Research Institute (CECRI) to Karaikudi, by donating large tracts of land.
• M. A. Chidambaram Chettiar. The M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is named after him.
• Kaviarasar Kannadasan. Famous Tamil poet.
• Raja Muthiah Chettiar of Kottaiyur - a great Bibliophile and founder of one of the world famous Libraries with more than 100,000 books, journals, drama notices, wedding invitation, and other materials that normally do not find place in a library. The University of Chicago acquired the collection in 1994 after his death and moved the collection to Chennai and is functioning in Taramani, Chennai as Raja Muthiah Research Library. Interestingly, he is a neighbour of another illuminating personality - A.K.Chettiar - Ulagam Sutriya Thamilar - the first to produce a documentary on Mahatma Gandhi.
• Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar of Chettinad. The famous Annamalai University bears his name.
• A. V. Meiyappan Chettiar of Karaikkudi - Founder of AVM Productions, the oldest and largest film production studio in Kollywood, the Tamil language film industry of India.
• AMM Murugappa Chettiar - founder of Murugappa Group of Companies which includes EID Parry, Tube Investments of India, Cholamandalam Finance, TI Cycles and Cormandel International. MA Alagappan (till recently the Chairman), A Vellaiyan (the Chairman) and MM Murugappan (the Vice-chairman) are descedndents of Mr Murugappa Chettiar. MV Subbiah, who was the Chairman of the group for a long time, is a grandson of Murugappa Chettiar. The business has its origins in 1900, when Dewan Bahadur AM Murugappa Chettiar established a money-lending and banking business in Burma (now Myanmar), which then spread to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. In these 100-plus years, it has withstood enormous vicissitudes, including strategically moving its assets back to India and restarting from scratch in the '30s, before the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War The Group, headquartered in Chennai, India, is a Rs 9,582 crore (USD 2.4 billion) conglomerate with interests in engineering, abrasives, finance, general insurance, fertilisers, farm inputs, sugar, bio-products, nutraceuticals, cycles and plantations. It has 29 limited companies under its umbrella, with manufacturing facilities spread across 13 states in India. Together, they have over 30,000 employees. The Group, which has forged strong joint venture alliances with leading international companies like Mitsui Sumitomo, Cargill, China Engineering & Expoloration Bureau and Groupe Chimique Tunisien, has consolidated its status as one of the fastest growing diversified business houses in India.
• Dr.Justice A. R. Lakshmanan B.A., B.L., (b. 1942) is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India and current chairman of the Law Commission of India. He studied in Chennai (Madras). Before his elevation to the Supreme Court, he served as a judge on the Madras High Court, Kerala High Court, Rajasthan High Court and Andhra Pradesh High Court. He retired in 2007.
• Karumuthu Thiagarajan Chettiar, philiantropist, educationist and founder of mills and theagaraya engineering college, madurai
• Justice Chockalingam, a sitting judge of Madras High Court
• M.Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettiar, the founder of Indian Overseas Bank

Notes

1. ^ According to Guy Trebay, "Houses of the Holy," (New York Times, 17 Nov. 2010): "By the best available estimates, there are 74 Chettiar villages remaining of the 96 that once dotted a 600-square-mile region. The rest have been erased, lost either to neglect or to the avarice of antiques dealers who bought and razed them after first stripping out their irreplaceable materials." (Retrieved 28 Nov. 2010 from NYT at http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/houses-of-the-holy/?scp=3&sq=Tamil%20Nadu&st=cse.)

External links

• Chettinad Palace in Kanadikathan photo impressions
• Roja Muthiah Chettiar - RMRL - Article from Frontline Dec 2005
• Roja Muthiah Chettiar - Article from the University of Chicago Library Magazine
• Roja Muthiah chettiar - Article from Frontline - Sep 2000