Iyengar Tamil

Iyengar Tamil are dialects of the Tamil language spoken mostly in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu andthe adjoining areas in South India.Iyengars are followers of the Visishtadvaita philosophy propounded byRamanuja.An Universal History, Pg 109The Sri Vaishnava Paribhashai uses many archaic words from the early religioustexts like Nalayira Divya Prabandham.

There are three distinct Iyengar dialect forms today.The Hebbar and Mandyam dialects spoken mostly in Karnataka, India.The dialect of other Iyengars have become closer to that of Iyers of Tamil Nadu.

Mandyam Tamil

Mandyam Tamil is an Iyengar Tamil dialect spoken in Karnataka, India.There is a city and district in Karnataka called Mandya.

Some Iyengars followed Ramanuja from Tamil Nadu and lower Andhra Pradesh(near the Tirupati region, which had a very large Tamil-speaking population)to regions near Mandya and settled there. One hypothesis is that these Iyengars are calledMandyam Iyengars because of Mandya, but Mandyam Iyengars also claim there was a villagenear Tirupati which sounded similar to "Mandyam" where the people originally came from.The Mandyam Iyengars have always been one of the smallest Brahmin social groups,and recently their local population is dwindling due to increasing amounts of inter-cultural marriages and emigration.

Hebbar Tamil

Melanadu (, , or upper country) Sri Vaishnava Tamil is peculiar in that it contains many archaic Tamil...
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