Kerala Iyer

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Kerala Iyers, Pattars or Bhattars are Tamil Brahmins of the Indian state of Kerala; people who were residents in the Kerala region. The word "Pattar" originated from the Sanskrit word "Bhat", which is a common surname of Northern Brahmin Clans. The community consists of two groups: the Palakkad Iyers and the Iyers of the Cochin and Travancore regions. Kerala Iyers, like the Iyers of Tamil Nadu and the Nambudiris of Kerala, belonged to the Pancha-Dravida classification of India's Brahmin community. They mostly belonged to the Vadama and Brahacharanam sub-sects. However, Iyers (like other Tamil Brahmins) are not recruited as the priest (shanthi) in Kerala temples which followed Tantric rituals. So Iyers, being Vedic scholars, built their own temples in their Agraharams to conduct puja, since they followed different rituals and not the Tantric rituals of the Nambudiris.

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