SAURASHTRA TAMILS: FROM SALEM TO SOMNATH

A millennium-old connection was revived recently when Saurashtra Tamils visited the old homeland they had migrated from centuries ago, and took in its wonders. Kicked off in mid-April by defence minister Rajnath Singh in the temple town of Somnath, some 5,000 visitors, who still hold on to their customs and even speak a version of Gujarati called Saurashtri, visited the state as part of the Saurashtra-Tamil Sangamam, a quasi-political programme organised by the Gujarat government, between April 17-27.

- Jumana Shah

The genesis of the 'sangamam' event is an important slice of forgotten history. Between 1000 and 1024 AD, Turkish invader Mahmud of Ghazni plundered the temple town Somnath 17 times. To escape the violence, several local communities migrated from Prabhas-Patan in the coastal peninsula of Saurashtra, which comprises 13 districts.  These communities, mainly from the silk-weaving communities, travelled south from Surat to Devagiri in present-day Daulatabad in Maharashtra which was then under the Yadava kings. They lived there for two centuries, but had to move again after another invader, Alauddin Khilji, laid waste to that northern Deccan kingdom in 1296. They next moved to the Vijayanagara empire in the south. On the invitation of the Nayak rulers (1529-1736), some members of the community moved further south to Madurai in modern-day Tamil Nadu. Some families also settled in Salem, Tanjore and Paramakkudi. In Karnataka, they first settled in Srirangapattinam on the invitation of Mysore's ruler Hyder Ali. These families are now settled in Bengaluru. In Andhra Pradesh, a section of the community is settled in Tirupati and have possibly spread to neighbouring towns and cities. Because they were involved in the business of weaving silk, making garments and the silk trade, they were largely engaged with the royal kingdoms of the time. After the fall of these royal dynasties, they spread out to various trades and businesses and now form a successful and influential section of society. Over the centuries, these