[Advaita-l] Grand Soma Yaga Athiratram in Bhadrachalam AP from 21 April to 02 May 2012

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> the puja that day. Later, upon my asking he said he hailed from Kerala
> (Iyer) and that he had learned the Veda at Ernakulam. When I questioned
> him as to how his chanting was so 'normal' while the Nambudiri style is
> what he aught to have imbibed being in Kerala, he said that in Kerala too
> there are veda pAThashalas where the 'normal' style is taught and that
> Nambudiris had their own private style.

Tamil speakers who have settled in Kerala over a few centuries maintain 
their ways of learning to chant the veda-s and stay distinct from the Kerala
nambUdiri families in all possible ways. The nambUdiri veda pAThaSAla-s
do not take in non-nambUdiri students, I think, so the two traditions have
been maintained separately in Kerala.
 
I find a similar situation happening in Maharashtra now. Tamil speakers
from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, who have migrated to Mumbai, Pune and
other places tend to maintain their distinct identity and therefore the
transmission of the veda in their circles remains separate from the styles
adopted by Marathi speaking Rgvedins and  Yajurvedins. In a way, this
conservatism within each group has what has helped preserve the veda
transmission(s) through the centuries. 
 
Vidyasankar