Nattukottai Nagarathar
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| Regions with significant populations | |
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India: Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia |
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| Tamil | |
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Sanatana Dharma (Shaivam, Shaiva Siddhanta) |
The Nattukottai Nagarathars (also known as Nattukottai Chettiar) is a community within the Chettiar caste whose members trace their lineage to the village of Kaveripoompattinam, which was established under the Chola kingdom of India. They are a prominent mercantile (Vaishya) caste in Tamil Nadu, South India. They have a rich cultural heritage and are known for their philanthropy and for building and maintaining temples and schools.
The traditional base of the Nattukottai Nagarathars is the Chettinad region of the present-day state of Tamil Nadu. It comprises a triangular area around north-east Sivagangai, north-west Ramnad and south Pudukkottai. There are various claims regarding how they arrived in that area.
It is possible that the community had been involved in trade since the 8th century CE and certainly by the early 17th century they were established salt merchants. Later, in the 19th century, their trading activities had expanded into southeast Asia.
Inscriptions within the Karpaka Vinayakar Temple at Pillayarpatti dating between 1091 and 1238 indicate that the Pillayarpatti Nagarathar became the custodians of the temple during the 13th century, in its second growth phase.
It is found that Kannagi and Kovalan, the prime personalities of the epic Silappatikaram were born in Nagarathar community. The religious figures Karaikkal Ammaiyar and Pattinathar were also from the community.
The king of Pandiya gave the Nagarathar community nine villages around Pudukottai to settle. They built a Shiva temple in each of them and created the "9 temple" or "9 koil" division of the community. Initially, the Nagarathars lived in 96 villages surrounding the temple, but as of 2007, they have reduced their size to 74 villages. The koil is used as a primary classification for the community. Members of each temple society treat each other as brothers and sisters or "pangalis" and thus marriage is not allowed amongst members of the same temple. Men and women of different temples marry, and the bride automatically becomes a member of the groom's temple.
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