Have you heard about Tamil Iyers and Iyengars? Who are they? If you are not a Tamil belonging to one of the other, you may not even realize that they have been an important part of Indian history and culture.



The first step to discovering them is to find out about the Tamils first. Tamils are Dravidian-speaking people mostly from the southern part of India. Most Tamils inhabit the state of Tamil Nadu. There are however, many Tamil communities in other areas of India and even in Sri Lanka. At one point, the Tamils of southern India sought political independence from India.



Some groups still continue to do so. A couple of others however are at ease with the level of independence that the Tamils enjoy.The Iyers and Iyengars are intimately connected to the history of the Tamil people. The Iyers and Iyengars are actually Hindu Brahmins who are said to have had the same origins. Many Iyers and Iyengars are Tamils or speak the Tamil language. There are however some Iyers who speak Telugu and who come from Kerala, Karnataka, Pradesh or Andrha. Some Iyengars also speak Telugu or Kannada and are also found in places other than Tamil Nadu. Any academic source about Tamil Iyers and Iyengars will tell you that both the Iyers and Iyengars subscribe to various major tenets of Hinduism. There are however some philosophical differences between the two Brahmin groups. The Iyers subscribe to the philosophy of Adi Shankara which is known as Advaita. Iyengars on the other hand believe in the philosophy supported at a later time by Ramanuja known as Visishtadvaita. In some sources, Iyengars are stated to have broken away from the Iyers which accounts for their establishment at a later period.



In the Advaita belief of the Iyers, Brahman is considered reality. A