Kidambi family history

All credit to the original writer:
http://nahusha.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/01/history-of-the-kidambi-kadambi-cadambi-kilambi.htm


Is your family name Cadambi / Kadambi / Kilambi / Kidambi? Wondering why such different names are one and the same family? Are you interested in finding out more about the family? Spare a few minutes for this article.

I, Malolan R Cadambi, have been tracing my family history and history of the surname, for quite a while. Thanks to a lot of leads and research,  I decided to write about my family history, to the best of my abilities.

The most common of the above four variants is ‘Kidambi’ – this is the closet Tamil word. As a general rule of thumb, all of the variants belong to the ‘Athreya Gothra’, i.e have a direct lineal descent from Atri Rishi. An analogy might be how Jews these days trace their surname to one of the Jewish tribes of yore. For example, a jew with the name David Cohen, is a descendant of the Cohen / Kohen / Kohn family. The variants are due to linguistic influences with Kohn and Kohen popular in Germany and Cohen in the English speaking world.

The point is quite simple, our example, David Cohen, by virtue of the fact that he is a descendant of the Cohen family, carries a unique DNA signature, identified as the ‘Cohen modal haplotype’.

Historically, due to strict rules of intermarriage, the Y-Chromosome, which usually identifies male lineal descent, has some allusions to our ‘gothra’ system. Using the jewish family of Cohen as an example, the history of the Kidambi family could be understood.

In Brahmanic traditions, the lineage carries more weight when passed on from father to son. As a result of general population growth, the gothra pravarthaka, i.e the originator of the gothra, Atri Rishi (1800 BCE), originated the Atri Gothra, to which some Shakas (branches) of the Rig Veda were assigned to.

With the passage of time, and due to migrations, a group of Vaidika Brahmanas (Vedic Brahmins), settled down around the Yathotakaari temple near Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. The sthala purana (history of the temple), alludes to a group of Brahmans, who performed services of carrying water (ambu – in ancient tamil) in ghatams (pitchers) from the Vegavathi River to the temple regularly. This group earned the titled Ghatambi (Ghatam + Ambi), i.e water suppliers.

Ghatambi, eventually, due to lingustics evolution morphed into Kidambi, and when descendants of this family started migrating, Kidambi, became Kadambi / Cadambi in Karnataka due to influence of Kannada, which refers to the pitcher as ‘koda’ or ‘cada’, and hence the ‘Ghatambis’ came to be called the Kadambis / Cadambis. In the Andhra Region, the came to be called as Kilambis.

One may ask a legitimate question – how is the above analysis true? Well, for starters, we all have the same gothra and most of us are found in a specific region, i.e South India, and religiously we all belong to the same sect, Sri Vaishnavism. Connecting such dots, allows us to paint a composite picture of facts.

The Kidambis start interacting with Sri Vaishnavism around the 11th century CE onwards. Ramanuja’s (1017 CE – 1137 CE), included, Kidambi Achchan – one of his foremost disciples and on whom Ramanuja placed his (Ramanuja’s feet) during the last moments of his life. Kidambi Achchan, was also the personal cook of Ramanuja, who was, due to his service to Ramanuja, called Madapalli Achchan.

Kidambi Appullar, the maternal uncle of Vedanta Desika (1268 CE – 1369 CE), plays a crucial role in the tutelage of Vedanta Desika. Kidambi Appullar’s sister, Totramba was the mother of Vedanta Desika.

Since Vedanta Desika’s father was of the Vishwamitra Gothra, Vedanta Desika becomes a descendant of Viswamitra Rishi, not of Atri Rishi.

Kidambi Appullar, which Sri Vaishnava chronicles, place around 1221 CE – 1290 CE, is acknowledge in the Vadakalai Saarumarai, of belonging to the vamsam of Atreya Ramanuja and Atreya Padmanabha. The Saarumarai, which concentrates on the magnificence of Vedanta Desika, is rich in tribute to the vamsa (family), especially to the Kidambis.

Lets fast forward to the 14th century CE. As the Vijayanagar Empire was being established by the Sangama dynasty, one of the key regents of the Vijayanagar empire, King Mukundadevaraya, was mentored by Kidambi Srinivasacharya (1379 CE – 1458 CE), also known as Adivan SathakOpa Yati, the first Jeeyar (pontiff) of the Ahobila Matham (est 1398 CE).

Kidambi Srinivasacharya was to play the same role as Swami Vidyaranya Tirtha of the Sringeri Matha did, much earlier, to Harihara and Bukkaraya.

Inscriptions about the ‘Van SathakOpa Matha’ are found primarily in the Tirumala / Tirupati temples. Annamacharya, the famous Telugu carnatic musician, was a direct disciple of Kidambi Srinivasacharya

Ahobila Matham, thence, becomes one of the pre-eminent Mathas of Sri Vaishnavism, influencing the Saluva and Tuluva dynasties to such an extent that Sri Vaishnavism was the official religion of the state, with Emperor Krishnadevaraya formally embracing Sri Vaishnavism under the feet of Pachamatha Bhanjanam Tathacharya – the Srikaaryam (secretary) to Shastha Parankusa Muni (the 6th pointiff of the Matham).

King Krishnadevaraya pens his thoughts on Sri Vaishnavism, particularly, about the Bhakti of Andal and Periyalawar in his magnum opus, Amuktamalyada – which was one of the pioneering Telugu novels. The king also alludes to the Kaisika Puranam, which is enacted in Tirukkurungudi, a divya desam around the Tirunelveli region.

We move forward now to the 15th century, during the twilight of the Vijayanagar Empire, where we have Athreya Venkatadhwari – a famous poet / philosopher / novelist – who pens, what was India’s earliest social criticism in ‘Viswagunadarsa Champu’. In that novel, he provides a bird’s eye view of the Vijayanagar Empire, at times, even being concerned about the excessive temple based culture, instead of intellectual advancement. Some of his works include, ‘Lakshmi Sahasram’ – a thousand hymns on Goddess Mahalakshmi.

Interestingly, he was also a grammatist / linguist par excellence. Some of his works included, ‘Mahabhashya Spoorti’ – a commentary on Patanjali’s ‘Mahabhashya’.

But perhaps, a feat, that none could have matched, was his literary genius. In his ‘Raghava Yadaveeyam’, a unique style is pioneered for the first time. When read in the normal order that we read usually, we get the idea that the tome portrays the deeds of Rama. Interestingly, when the same tome is read in a reverse manner, it portrays the deeds of Krishna! This composition was perhaps the only one of its kind in the history of Sanskrit ever!

Coming down to the 20th century, as the economy and sociology of India changed; the Kidambis branched out into other professions. One of them was my great grandfather, who migrated to Bangalore from the Anbil region near Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu. He was one of the first graduates of CentralCollege (now BangaloreUniversity), and during the prime of his career, was the secretary to Sir Mirza Ismail and Sir M Visveswaryya – both dewans (Prime Ministers) of the MysoreKingdom. His son, C S Krishnan, retired as the Deputy Accountant General of Karnataka and is my grandfather.

We have many Kidambis who have enriched every field of India and richly contributed to the well being of not only the Sri Vaishnava community, but to the nation, and these days, to the globe as a whole.

I hope this made interesting reading – I hope all of you Cadambis / Kadambis / Kilambis / Kidambis could appreciate the interesting history of our family, and hopefully, it should be an inspirational one for all of you to scale new heights. Sometimes, in the words of the famous historian, Romila Thapar, if you sufficiently know the history of a subject, you would be enriched by being able to control it and hence develop a better normative understanding of your present world.