Kanadukathan Chettinadu Palace entrance - chettinadu architecture

Chettiar (also spelt as Chetti and Chetty)is a title used by many traders,

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

, agricultural and land-owning castes in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

, especially in the states of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. 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 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 (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

: श्रेष्ठ) or (

: श्रेष्ठीन्) meaning superior,

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

ised as (

: सेठी), and then (

: शेट) or (

: शेटी) in modern Indo-Aryan dialects.

References

* 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). *{{cite book , chapter=Marwari and Chettiar Merchants. 1850s-1950s: Comparative Trajectories , first=Medha M. , last=Kudaisya , title=Chinese and Indian Business: Historical Antecedents , editor1-first=Medha M. , editor1-last=Kudaisya , editor2-first=Chin-Keong , editor2-last=Ng , publisher=BRILL , location=Leiden , year=2009 , isbn=9789004172791 , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQJfjnWly5wC&pg=PA85 * 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. Social groups of Kerala Indian surnames Sri Lankan Tamil society Social groups of Tamil Nadu Indian castes Merchant castes Agricultural castes Bania communities

Etymology

See also

References

Further reading