செட்டியார் பாரம்பரியம் - The Chettiar Heritage (Tamil)

காரைக்குடி என்றாலே அது நாட்டுக்கோட்டை செட்டியார், நகரத்தார்னுதான் நமக்கெல்லாம் ஞாபகம் வரும். அதுக்கு காரணம் அவர்களின் கட்டிடக்கலை, உணவு பாரம்பரியம் ஆகியவைதான் முக்கியமாக இடம்பிடித்திருக்கும்.செட்டியார் பாரம்பரியம் என்ற இந்த நூல் முக்கியமான ஆவணமாக இருக்கிறது. ஒரு லட்சம் ஜனத்தொகை கொண்ட நகரத்தார்கள் உலகம் முழுவதும்  பரவி இருக்கிறார்கள். அவர்களின் கலாச்சாரம், வாழ்க்கை முறை ஒன்பது கோயில்களை உள்ளடக்கி இருக்கிறது என்பது இளைய தலைமுறையினர் அறியாமல் உள்ளனர்.                       

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

S.MUTHIAH: - Muthiah, even though born in Pallathur, one of the Chettinadu villages in Tamil Nadu, Muthiah came from the Nagarathar Community in Chettinadu. He inherited the community's passion for publishing and history. He coauthored a coffee-table book The Chettiar Heritage with Meenakshi Meyyappan and Visalakshi Ramaswamy. Muthiah was educated in Sri Lanka, where his father worked. He also studied in India and the United States. After completing a B Sc Degree in engineering and an M.A in International affairs, Muthiah began his journalistic career with the Times of Ceylon and worked for the paper between 1951 and 1968. He was its Foreign News Editor and then Features Editor and was later in charge of its Sunday Times and magazines. From 1954 to 1968, he represented in Sri Lanka first News Chronicle of London and then Daily Mail. He also represented The Observer, London, and its Foreign News Service from 1959 to 1968, besides working for two other British features services.                     

After he returned to India in 1968, he joined the TTK group and was in charge of T.T.Maps in Madras, which published maps, atlases and tourist guide books. He was also an eminent cartographer.  He was a regular contributor on Chennai's history for The Hindu Metro Plus. His column Madras Miscellany was very popular, and revealed several unknown facets of the city that was once Madras, and its connections with other cities of the World. He was also the founder of the magazine Madras Musings and his book Madras Discovered was published in 1981. He was one of the personalities instrumental in organising Madras Week Celebrations every year. Mr.Muthiah has worked hard to save a number of heritage monuments in Chennai. He died on 20 April 2019.                                 

MEENAKSHI MEYYAPPAN: Meenakshi Meyyappan was born in Bangalore but moved with her family when very young to Colombo in colonial Ceylon. With the outbreak of World War II, she returned to India and continued her education in Bangalore and in Yercaud, going on to graduate from Queen Mary's College, Madras. The daughter of a hospitable family, whose table was renowned for its superb Chettinad fare, Meenakshi married into the MSMM family, which was equally renowned for its food. She then lived between Madras, Karaikudi and Malaysia. When The MSMM family opened The Bangala as Chettinad's first 'heritage hotel', it gave her the natural opportunity to hone and showcase her flair for hospitality and to present and serve the most fabulous food in Chettinad.                                           

VISALAKSHI RAMASWAMY: Visalakshi Ramaswamy, the founder of the M.Rm.Rm Cultural Foundation is an enthusiast of craft and culture and has been an active advocate of craft development for many years. She has documented the craft and heritage of the Chettiar community along with S. Muthiah and Meenakshi Meyyappan in the book ‘The Chettiar Heritage’. She realized that several old and traditional houses were coming down at a fast pace, and several craft and hobby crafts of the region were disappearing.

Documentation of all these craft was crucial because even though many of these crafts were not in practice today, people who worked on these crafts were still around, most of them being octogenarians. The need to document everything while there was still access to information seemed vital. The M.Rm.Rm Cultural Foundation was set up in 2000 with the primary objective of documenting, preserving and reviving the many crafts of the region. Project Kottan was one of the first initiatives of the Foundation, and this book is the culmination of many years of being involved in the collecting, researching, resurrecting and reinventing of the humble kottan.

Ms. Ramaswamy is an Executive Committee member of the Craft Council of India, and is very much involved in its projects. She also works with the World Crafts Council in projects to promote and encourage craft education in schools. She is a member of the All India Handicrafts Board of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, and on the advisory committee of DakshinaChitra, working with them on several of their initiatives.

Ms. Ramaswamy is passionate about the textile traditions of India and has been working for many years to revive the handloom weaving traditions of Tamil Nadu. Kandanghi is her line of traditional Chettinad silk and cotton sarees that have many admirers in India and abroad.

Ms. Ramaswamy has also curated a lifestyle exhibition of the Chettiar community at her home in Chettinad and is currently involved in setting up an in situ museum to recreate the actual experience of a traditional Chettiar home.

Ms. Ramaswamy’s zest, enthusiasm and deep passion has sustained her work in the craft sector. Her vision and forethought has helped her maintain a balance between the ideal and the practical, and this has been the key to the achievement of her goals.

Recently she authored a book ‘The Kottan – palmyra basket of Chettinad’ which was released by the Indian Finance Minister Mr P.Chidambaram in October at Chennai.