Āśān is a Malayalam and Tamil surname and title that means teacher or guide. [1]
Āśān is a Malayalam and Tamil surname and title that means teacher or guide. [1]
Aasaan is a simplification of the Sanskrit term "Acharya" to denote "teacher/guru".[ citation needed ]
They acted as the media for Sanskritisation and literacy to Non-Brahmins. [2] Ezhuthuassan was another name in which they were known at certain regions of Kerala. Till the second half of twentieth century the AsanKalari or Ezhuthu Kalari or Ezhuthu palli (village schools) were common in each village as it was conducted in many families of Ganaka in Travancore. [3] [4]
The female members of Ganaka were generally addressed as Asatti or Asaatti, because they too had engaged in teaching 3Rs to pupil. [5] [6]
For the last two centuries, it has not been uncommon to adopt this title by many learned people from other castes (Nair, Ezhava, Thiyya, Christian Nadar) as well. Eventually, the common usage of the term Asan gradually lost its original meaning as a venerated symbolic representation for teachers, as it is found used in every parlance without any significance to its meaning.
Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala and Puducherry (Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep and is spoken by 34 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to the large populations of Malayali expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. Malayalam is closely related to the Tamil language.
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Kalaripayattu is an Indian martial art that originated in Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast of India. Kalaripayattu is known for its long-standing history within Indian martial arts, and is the oldest surviving martial art in the world.
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Vellalar is a group of castes in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and northeastern parts of Sri Lanka. The Vellalar are members of several endogamous castes such as the numerically strong Arunattu Vellalar, Chozhia Vellalar, Karkarthar Vellalar, Kongu Vellalar, Thuluva Vellalar and Sri Lankan Vellalar.
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Pallikoodam or Ezhuthupally Pally is a word in Malayalam and Tamil that denotes a school. These were mostly village schools run by individual teachers and were distinct from Kalaris that taught martial arts.
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