Chettiar

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"Chetty", "Chetti", and "Chetties" redirect here. For the Sri Lankan community, see Sri Lankan Chetties.
Kanadukathan Chettinadu Palace entrance. It is an example of Chettinadu architecture.

Chettiar (also spelt as Chetti and Chetty) is a title used by many traders, weaving, agricultural and land owning castes in South India, especially in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.[1][2][3]

They are a subgroup of the Tamil community who originated from Chettinad in Tamil Nadu, India. Traditionally, the Chettiars were involved in the trade of precious stones, but later became private bankers and moneylenders.

Etymology[]

Chettiar/Chetty is derived from the Sanskrit word Śreṣṭha (Devanagari: श्रेष्ठ) or Śreṣṭhin (Devanagari: श्रेष्ठीन्) meaning superior, Prakritised as Seṭhī (Devanagari: सेठी), and then Śeṭ (Devanagari: शेट) or Śeṭī (Devanagari: शेटी) in modern Indo-Aryan dialects.[4] [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][excessive citations]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Chettiar Band, AVM To FM". Outlook. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  2. ^ "Chettiars reign where wealth meets godliness". The Economic Times. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  3. ^ "BBMP move shocking: Puttanna Chetty's grandson".
  4. ^ Gomantak Prakruti ani Sanskruti, Part-1, Page-221 by B.D. Satoskar, Shubhada Publication
  5. ^ Fox, Richard G. (January 1969), "Varna Schemes and Ideological Integration in Indian Society", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11 (1): 27–45, doi:10.1017/S0010417500005132: "When recognition of a regional varna scheme has been unavoidable — such as the tripartite division into Brahmins, non-Brahmins, and Untouchables in much of the South — it has been explained in terms of an historical corruption or breakdown of the standard four-class system, rather than regarded as a functional entity in its own right."
  6. ^ Jalal, Ayesha (1995). Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: A Comparative and Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-521-47862-5.
  7. ^ Bernard, Jean Alphonse (2001). From Raj to the Republic: A Political History of India, 1935–2000. Har Anand Publications. p. 37. ISBN 9788124107669.
  8. ^ Raychaudhuri, Tapan; Habib, Irfan; Kumar, Dharma (1982). The Cambridge Economic History of India: c.1200–c.1750. Cambridge University Press Archive. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-521-22692-9.
  9. ^ "The Dawn and Dawn Society's Magazine". 12. Calcutta: Lall Mohan Mullick. 1909: 91. Cite journal requires |journal= (help):”In all the early Indian literatures, the word is applied to a very wealthy class of merchants, who invariably belonged to the Vysya class”
  10. ^ Belle, Carl Vadivella (2017). Thaipusam in Malaysia. Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. ISBN 9789814695756.:”Although the Chettiars were originally a Sudra caste, in more recent times they have made claim to be considered as Vaisyas.”
  11. ^ Intirā Pārttacārati (2008). Ramanujar: The Life and Ideas of Ramanuja. Oxford University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-19-569161-0. The Chetti , Vaisya , or merchant caste
  12. ^ Population Review. Indian Institute for Population Studies. 1975. p. 26.

Further reading[]

  • Christine Dobson, Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities, Curzon Press UK, 1996. (A chapter in the book is devoted to the Chettiars who set up businesses in Burma.)
  • Rajeswary Brown (1993) "Chettiar capital and Southeast Asian credit networks in the inter-war period". In G. Austin and K. Sugihara, eds. Local Suppliers of Credit in the Third World, 1750-1960. (New York: St. Martin's Press).
  • Kudaisya, Medha M. (2009). "Marwari and Chettiar Merchants. 1850s-1950s: Comparative Trajectories". In Kudaisya, Medha M.; Ng, Chin-Keong (eds.). Chinese and Indian Business: Historical Antecedents. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 9789004172791.
  • David Rudner (1989) Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India. Modern Asian Studies 23 (3), 417-458.
  • Heiko Schrader (1996) Chettiar Finance in Colonial Asia. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 121, 101-126.
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