Chettiar

Chettiar (also spelt as Chetti & Chetty) is a title used by many mercantile, weaving, agricultural and land owning castes in South India, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.[1][2]

"Chetty", "Chetti", and "Chetties" redirect here. For the Sri Lankan community, see Sri Lankan Chetties.
Kanadukathan Chettinadu Palace entrance. It is an example of Chettinadu architecture.

Etymology

The word Chettiar is used by many merchant and trading groups in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.[3] The word might be derived from the Tamil word Etti of Sangam era, a honorific title bestowed on the leading merchants by the Tamil monarchs.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Chettiar Band, AVM To FM". Outlook. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  2. "Chettiars reign where wealth meets godliness". The Economic Times. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  3. Population Review. Indian Institute for Population Studies. 1975. p. 26.
  4. West Rudner, David (1987). "Religious Gifting and Inland Commerce in Seventeenth-Century South India". The Journal of Asian Studies. 46 (2). p. 376. doi:10.2307/2056019. JSTOR 2056019.

Further reading
  • Christine Dobson, Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities, Curzon Press UK, 1996. (A chapter in the book is devoted to the Chettiars who set up businesses in Burma.)
  • Rajeswary Brown (1993) "Chettiar capital and Southeast Asian credit networks in the inter-war period". In G. Austin and K. Sugihara, eds. Local Suppliers of Credit in the Third World, 1750-1960. (New York: St. Martin's Press).
  • Kudaisya, Medha M. (2009). "Marwari and Chettiar Merchants. 1850s-1950s: Comparative Trajectories". In Kudaisya, Medha M.; Ng, Chin-Keong (eds.). Chinese and Indian Business: Historical Antecedents. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 9789004172791.
  • David Rudner (1989) Banker's Trust and the Culture of Banking among the Nattukottai Chettiars of Colonial South India. Modern Asian Studies 23 (3), 417-458.
  • Heiko Schrader (1996) Chettiar Finance in Colonial Asia. Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie 121, 101-126.
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