Chettiar Explained

Chettiar (also spelt as Chetti and Chetty) is a title used by many traders, weaving, agricultural and land-owning castes in South India, especially in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Etymology

Chettiar/Chetty is derived from the Sanskrit word (Devanagari: श्रेष्ठ) or (Devanagari: श्रेष्ठीन्) meaning superior, Prakritised as (Devanagari: सेठी), and then (Devanagari: शेट) or (Devanagari: शेटी) in modern Indo-Aryan dialects.^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]}

See also

• Nagarathar
• Twenty four Manai Telugu Chettiars
• Vallanattu Chettiar
• Devanga Chettiar
• Pattanavar
• Chitty
• Kandangi sari
• Pattusali

Further reading

• Christine Dobson, Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities, Curzon Press UK, 1996. (A chapter in the book is devoted to the Chettiars who set up businesses in Burma.)
• Rajeswary Brown (1993) "Chettiar capital and Southeast Asian credit networks in the inter-war period". In G. Austin and K. Sugihara, eds. Local Suppliers of Credit in the Third World, 1750-1960. (New York: St. Martin's Press).
• Book: Kudaisya, Medha M. . Marwari and Chettiar Merchants. 1850s-1950s: Comparative Trajectories . Chinese and Indian Business: Historical Antecedents . Medha M. . Kudaisya . Chin-Keong . Ng . BRILL . Leiden . 2009 . 9789004172791 . https://books.google.com/books?id=eQJfjnWly5wC&pg=PA85.
• David Rudner (1989) Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India. Modern Asian Studies 23 (3), 417-458.
• Heiko Schrader (1996) Chettiar Finance in Colonial Asia. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 121, 101-126.

Notes and References

1. News: Chettiar Band, AVM To FM. Outlook . 2016-04-09.
2. News: Chettiars reign where wealth meets godliness . The Economic Times . 2016-04-09.
3. News: BBMP move shocking: Puttanna Chetty's grandson.
4. Book: Jalal, Ayesha . Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: A Comparative and Historical Perspective . 1995 . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-47862-5 . 204.
5. Book: Tapan . Raychaudhuri . Irfan . Habib . Irfan Habib . Dharma . Kumar . The Cambridge Economic History of India: c.1200–c.1750 . 1982 . Cambridge University Press Archive . 978-0-521-22692-9 . 27–28.
6. 1909. 12. The Dawn and Dawn Society's Magazine. Lall Mohan Mullick . Calcutta. 91.

   ”In all the early Indian literatures, the word is applied to a very wealthy class of merchants, who invariably belonged to the Vysya class”

7. Book: Belle, Carl Vadivella. 2017 . Thaipusam in Malaysia. Singapore. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. 9789814695756.

   ”Although the Chettiars were originally a Sudra caste, in more recent times they have made claim to be considered as Vaisyas.”

8. Book: Intirā Pārttacārati. Ramanujar: The Life and Ideas of Ramanuja. Oxford University Press. 2008. 978-0-19-569161-0. 98. The Chetti, Vaisya, or merchant caste.
9. Book: Population Review. 1975. Indian Institute for Population Studies. 26. en.