Ambattar (also known by many other names) is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

found in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

and northeastern part of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Their traditional occupations are

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

midwives A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; con ...

and

barbers A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

. Leslie in his comparative study of Asian medical systems explains that Vaidya title is adopted by members of Ambathans in Tamil Nadu, only some of them practice medicines and are more highly esteemed than the others who are barbers.

Etymology and synonyms

The name ''Ambattar'' is a Tamilised word originally from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word ''

Ambashtha Ambashtha or Ambastha is a caste or sub-caste or a community of Hindus in India. According to Hindu scriptures, the term Ambastha refers to the offspring of a Brahmin father and a Vaishya mother, whose traditional occupation was the practice of m ...

''. The word is derived from the two Sanskrit words ''amba'' meaning "near" and ''stha'' meaning "to stand" thus meaning "one who stands nearby" in reference to their occupation as barbers and physicians. They have also been referred to as ''Maruttuvar, Pariyari'' and ''Vaidiyar'', which are all synonyms for physicians. Other names are also synonymous with Ambattar, including ''Navidhar'', ''Nasuvan'', ''Chakkara Kathi'' and ''Kudimagan''. According to one member of the caste, the name used varies from one village to another.

History

Myth

According to ''

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ...

'', an ancient Hindu text, the Ambattar or

are the offspring of a

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

father and a

Vaishya Vaishya (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four Varna (Hinduism), varnas of the Hinduism, Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of caste hierarchy. The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly ...

mother.

Ancient India

Mukharji explains that the term was also used for identifying certain ethnic groups in ancient Indian history and protohistory. They find contemporary mention in Indian, Greek and Roman sources. An Ambashtha king named Narada has been mentioned in Aitreya Brahama in 500 BC. Greek and Roman sources also mention a republic kingdom of Ambashtha people in the Chenab region during the time of

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

's invasion. The epic Mahabharata mentions Ambashtha living in Punjab region and Brihaspati Artha Shashtra mentions their region between Kashmir and Sind. Later around 140 AD,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

mentions Ambashtha settlement in Mekala region, so does Markandeya Purana and Brihat Samhita. These sources support their chronological southward migration till Mekala. BP Sinha, an eminent archeologist, details the bifurcation in their migration from Mekala in present-day Madhya Pradesh. One eastward from Mekala and the other towards southward (called Ambattar). From Mekala the Ambashtha appear to migrate to Bihar and concentrated today in that region, mostly in central districts of Bihar. A community called Ambashtha exists as a sub-caste of

Kayastha Kayastha (also referred to as Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the C ...

in Bihar. Sinha further details that some migrated to Bengal also and a community called

Vaidya Vaidya (Sanskrit: ), or vaid is a Sanskrit word meaning "traditional practitioner of Ayurveda", an indigenous Indian system of alternative medicine. Senior practitioners or teachers were called ''Vaidyarāja'' ("physician-king") as a mark of resp ...

exists there which according to the code of Manu set for the profession of physicians. Thereby making the Ambattar distantly related to

Baidya Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...

of eastern India,

of central and northern India and

Khatri Khatri is a caste of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade, they were the d ...

of northern and northwestern India.

Migration

Sinha suggests that the Ambashtha who migrated southward initially carried out the profession of physicians but later took up other professions such as that of barbers. The social life of Tamil Ambashtha is regulated by Brahmanical code, who act as priest in their marriage ceremonies. Like the orthodox North-Indian upper castes, traditionally widow remarriage was not there and the dead are cremated. They perform as priests in marriage ceremonies of the Vellas of Salem district. They may be Shaiva or Vaishnava. The Vaishnava abstain from meat, fish and liquor. Their population is quite large in Salem district. Similar group is also found in South Travencore who work as physicians, midwives, barbers and priests. They have respectable social status. Ambashtha held high positions during

Chalukya The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynas ...

and Pandya kingdoms.

Early Tamil history

The

Siddhar The Siddhar (Tamil: சித்தர் ''cittar'', from Sanskrit: ''siddha'') in Tamils, Tamil tradition is a perfected individual, who has attained spiritual powers called ''siddhi''. Historically, Siddhar also refers to the people who we ...

s, the ancient Tamil physicians who claimed to have attained ''

siddhi In Indian religions, (Sanskrit: '; fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are the products of yogic advancement through sādhanās such as meditation ...

'', hailed mostly from the Ambattar community.

Sri Lanka

According to the folklore of the Ambattar of Sri Lanka, they arrived in the

Jaffna Kingdom The Jaffna Kingdom ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாண அரசு, si, යාපනය රාජධානිය; 1215–1624 CE), also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came i ...

as attendants of warriors. Since they came without their wives, they married

Sri Lankan Vellalar Lankan Vellalar () is a caste in Sri Lanka, predominantly found in the Jaffna peninsula and adjacent Vanni region, who comprise about half of the Sri Lankan Tamil population. They were traditionally involved in agriculture, but also included me ...

women.{{Cite book, title=The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia, last=David, first=Kenneth, date=2011-06-03, publisher=Walter de Gruyter, isbn=9783110807752, location=, pages=189, language=en

References

Social groups of Tamil Nadu Sri Lankan Tamil castes