The Mulukanadu community is a sub-caste of Telugu speaking Vaidiki Smartha Brahmins. Variations of the name of the community include Muluknadu, Mulukanadu, Mulakanadu, Moolakanadu and Mulikinadu (not listed in any order).

Eminent members of the community have included the saint-composer Sri Thyagaraja, the statesman and scientist Sir M. Vishweshwaraiah, the author Devudu Narasimha Sastry and justice H V Nanjundaiah. Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha, Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham between 1957 and 1989, was also born into a Mulukanadu family. The Tamil film actor Gemini Ganesan, as also his daughter, the actress Rekha, belong to this community.

Provenance

Although the Telugu language is the mother-tongue of ALL members of this community, the Mulukanadu sub-caste is domiciled mainly in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Indeed, the community tends to define itself in terms of being expatriate from Andhra Pradesh. There is however a relatively large population of this community in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, but this may well be a function of the proximity of that region to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, rather than an indication of the community's origin. The author of this piece is informed that a certain region of the present-day state of Maharashtra was once

Language

Adherence to the Telugu language is still common in the community, which however has developed a distinct dialect of its own, one that features numerous loan-words from Tamil and Kannada, and a remarkable paucity, in comparison with standard Telugu, of loan words from Urdu. However, there are many differences between this dialect and standard Telugu that cannot be explained by the influence of other languages; one is led to speculate upon whether the community preserves features of a dialect of Telugu that was once common in some region of the Telugu country, and which is now forgotten in that area, while being preserved by the expatriate Mulukanadu community. The dialect spoken by the community is one of great anthropological significance, since it is a language defined by community rather than geography. This dialect has not received the attention it deserves from the scientific community; indeed, even the name "Mulukanadu Telugu" has not received recognition, although it differs significantly from standard Telugu.

Usage of the dialect is somewhat on the decline, since the community is of late required to speak not only the language of the area of residence (Tamil, Kannada) but also the English and Hindi languages; on the other hand, fluency in the

Recent decades have witnessed the gradual erosion of the hold of tradition across India. The incidence of wedding alliances being arranged, even in orthodox Smartha brahmin families, in defiance of traditional norms that precluded marriage outside the specific sub-caste, are on the rise. Such weddings all too often result in the abandonment of the Mulukanadu Telugu dialect in favour of the language of the spouse. The relatively small size of the Mulukanadu community; its tendency, given its expatriate background, of settling in urban areas; and the fact that it resides largely outside the Telugu-speaking country, have all united to render the Mulukanadu community perhaps more than ordinarily susceptible to this phenomenon. This is certainly another reason for decline in usage of the Mulukanadu Telugu dialect.

Culture

The Mulukanadu community has always placed a strong emphasis on education. It was among the communities that earliest embraced English education and graduated from traditional vocations to the modern professions. Consequently, it has always been strongly represented in administration, academia, the judiciary, the government services and in the modern professions, such as medicine and engineering. The same emphasis on education has contributed in recent years to a large scale emigration of well-educated youngsters to the west, where they have contributed richly to many nascent fields, such as computer engineering, information technology and specialized medicine. The community has tended to eschew commercial pursuits.

It is a fact little known outside the community that Sri Thyagaraja belonged to a Mulukanadu brahmin family. From Sri Thyagaraja to the litterateur Devudu Narasimha Sastry, the Mulukanadu community has regularly produced many eminent personages who may, without exaggeration, be termed cultural reference points.

The community's contribution to Carnatic music has been phenomenal. A body known as the Mulukanadu Sabha released a souvenir in 1947 to mark the centenary of the demise of Sri Thyagaraja. That publication listed some of the prominent Carnatic musicians who hailed from the Mulukanadu community. The list includes:

• Giriraja Kavi (the grandfather of sri Tyagaraja),
• Melattur Arunachalaiah,
• Karur Devudu Brothers,
• Sadhu Ganapathi Sastrulu,
• Pallavi Gopalayya,
• Pratapam Gopalakrishnan,
• Tanjore Govindaswami Bhagavatar,
• Paidala Gurumoorthy Sastry,
• CS Krishnaswamiah (Patnam's disciple),
• Guddi Krishnaiah,
• Tsallagalli Krishnaiah,
• Kavi Matrubhootayya,
• Sutram Nayarana Sastrulu,
• Swaragath Narayanaswamaiah,
• Kalidas Narayanaswamaiah,
• Tiruvayyaru Panchapakesaiah,
• Puducheri Rangaswamy Iyer,
• Moovanur Sabhapatayya,
• Pallavi Seshayya,
• KN Srikantaiah (Papa's father),
• Manambucchavadi Venkatasubbaiyya and
• Swarakadu Venkatasubbayyah.

If that was a list of past (in 1947) musical greats, the Who's Who of the souvenir goes on to cover musicians from this community then living. The list includes:

• Karur Chinnaswamiah,
• Pratapam Natesayyah,
• Papa Venkataramaiah,
• ,
• T. K. Jayarama Iyer,
• Sivasubramania Iyer and
• Madurai Subramanya Iyer.

This is the contribution of this "unsung" community to the world of Carnatic music. Its contribution to other fields of human excellence is no doubt on a similar scale.

References