Vatul is the name of my South Indian, Hindu Brahmin clan. Vatula Maharishi, or Great Sage Vatul, was the progenitor of my father’s line. The story goes that Vatula was a man prone to great distraction, ascribed to deep, consciousness-expanding meditation. A Sanskrit term, Vatul means enlightened, lashed by the wind to the point of losing one’s sanity, god’s madcap, detached from the world, and seeker of truth. This explains a lot about my family. Further, the terms Vatul and Baul are applied to mystics, originally Hindu and Sufi-Muslim respectively, who dedicated their lives to the quest for spiritual harmony and experience. Since Vatul in my case is solely a patrilineal designation and my mother married into the clan, the rest of this page hops between South Indian Hindu Brahmins in general and Vatul in particular.
For as long as we have been around, a verifiable little has been published in English about the people and practices of this society, i.e. Tamil Hindu Brahmin Iyers. As far as I know and am comfortable repeating, we are Vadama (or Northern) Brahmins who are said to have moved from North India to Tamil Nadu in the South around 1000-1100 CE, at the invitation of the Chola kings. From that point up until the early 20th century, both my mother’s and father’s families lived in Thanjavur district, primarily as agriculturists and doctors. Then began the outward migration to Chennai and The West.
Humans First
We are all the same. We aren’t all the same. As a geoscientist (long clock) who observes human peculiarities (much shorter time frame), I have to give a nod to the fact that we are, in the end, after all, Animalia Chordata Mammalia Primates Hominidae Homininae Homo sapiens sapiens. And then come more names.
Iyer
“Iyer is the name given to a community of Brahmins (members of the priestly class / caste) of India whose members migrated from the northern part of India to settle in Tamil Nadu. Iyers are therefore Tamil Brahmins. Though Iyer is used as a suffix to names, it does not strictly constitute a family name.” See here for the rest of this fairly accurate description of Iyer. Iyers are primarily Siva worshippers. Our counterparts who prefer Vishnu are referred to as Iyengar.
Vatul
Iyers and Iyengars are further subdivided into clans or gothra, which then serve as lines of descent. To discourage inbreeding, marriage between members of the same gothram is strictly forbidden. Vatul was a rishi (sage) who gave his name to one such gothram.
As Lakshmi Narasimhan Madhavan informs, “Vatula gothram is prevalent in both Iyers and Iyengars.” This is seen in the presence of Bhargava, a Vaishnava rishi in our abhivaadaye (formal introduction to elders and at temple). The three main rishis of Vatula gothram are Bhargava, Vaitahavya and Saavedasa. Mr. Madhavan continues, “Bhargava refers to the lineage of Bhrigu Maharishi, the foster father of Goddess Lakshmi worshipped as Bhargavi.” Still rather tenuous to me is the connection between Vatula and the three rishis.
