Kidambi

Kidambi is an Indian surname. The other variants are Cadambi or Kadambi. The most common of the variants is Kidambi – this is the closest Tamil word. All of them are Brahmins belonging to ‘Atreya Gotra’ and the Apastamba sutra, Taittiriya Shakha of the Krishna Yajurveda.

The modern common variant ‘Kidambi’ should have come from Keezh-Ambi (or Kilambi), a village that exists to this day between Kooram and Thiruputkuzhi in present-day Kanchipuram district. This village, adjacent to the Musaravakkam village, is dominated by Brahmins belonging to the Atreya Gotra and Apastamba Sutra. This village is proximate to the dhivya desam of Thiruputkuzhi. Considering the Kidambis were a migrant group among Srivaishnavites, the name 'Kilambi' could have morphed itself into its modern variant ‘Kidambi’ with the passage of time.

Another version of history attributes Kidambis to a group of Brahmins who performed services of carrying water from the Vegavathi River to the Tiruvekkaa temple regularly. This group earned the titled Ghatambi (Ghatam + Ambi), i.e. water suppliers. Ghatambi, eventually, due to linguistic evolution morphed into Kidambi, and when descendants of this family started migrating, Kidambi became Kadambi/Cadambi in Karnataka due to influence of Kannada, which refers to the pitcher as ‘koda’ or ‘cada’, and hence the ‘Ghatambis’ came to be called the Kadambis/Cadambis. In the Andhra Region, they could have come to be called as Kilambis. However, considering that 'Kadambi' is a derived name and not the original, this version does not appear all that plausible.

While the Srivaishnava traditional history and commentaries reveal several preceptors with the surname ‘Kidambi’, and the earliest among them being Kidambi Aacchan, very little is known about the background and history of this lineage of Brahmins. Of the little we know about them, it appears that the Kidambis hailed from a place near Kanchipuram, are closely associated with the people of Kooram, and have been, at some point of time, associated with the divya desam of Thirupputkuzhi. This group of people, to this day, continue to be predominantly associated with the Thenkalai sect of Srivaishnavism and are svayamacharya purushas. However, a section of the Kidambis today also represent the Vadakalai sect, owing affiliation to Ahobila Mutt among other institutions.

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