The story of Brahmin migrations into Tamil country is one that hasn't had much academic attention

A poorly understood topic

Hence was stunned to see an absolutely brilliant paper on this topic by TP Mahadevan of Howard University (reference from @_HorseLord)

Thread on the same

The link to the paper is here -

It is an astonishingly detailed work that is very ambitious in its scope

…https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/327/322

What the paper does is attempt to give a grand historical overview of the migration patterns of South Indian brahmins of the Tamil and Chera country

And also understand it better using the evolution of the Southern recensions of Mahabharata, which form a curious pattern

The broad narrative of the paper is this -

1. You broadly have two waves of large scale brahmin migration to the South

a. The Purvaśikhā brahmins who presently form a small section of Chozhiar brahmins in Tamil Nadu + Kerala Namboothiris (these migrations pre-date Sangam age)

b. Aparaśikhā brahmins who constitute the vast bulk of brahmins in Tamil country today...who settled for the most part during the mature Pallava / Chola period (5th to 10th century)

Note : Purvashika means tuft pointing to the front
Aparashikha means tuft hanging to the back

The migrations of 1a (Purvashika) lacks proper documentation

And is best understood through the existence of a pared down Southern Recension in Kerala today - that bears strong resemblance to the early Northern recension in Sharada script

This recension was likely brought down south by the Purvashika migrants 2000 years ago

And it corresponds to an early stage of the Mahabharata's evolution. It lacks the ornate character of later southern recensions

The Purvashikha brahmins made their way into Kerala during the Kalabhra period (2nd - 4th cen CE)

Some of them remained in Tamil Nad as Chozhiars, playing a major role in development of early Tamil Vaishnavism

All the brahmin Alvars (Perialwar, Vipra Narayana) were Purvashikhas

The Aparashikha brahmins constitute the bulk of the brahmin population in Tamil country today

The settlement of these people is extremely well documented through the land grants in copper plates (during Pallava and Chola rule)

Here's TP Mahadevan commenting on the settlement of this group in Tamil country -

"Their arrival in the Tamil country is one of the best documented instances of large scale migrations of people
anywhere in pre-modern history"

This group was also central in bringing down south a more ornate, evolved version of the Mahabharata which later developed into the major Southern recensions

A sharp contrast to the earlier Purvashikha text that bears a stronger connect with the Kashmiri Sharada version

The copper plate epigraphy detailing the settlement of the Aparashikha settlers is very detailed!

Every land grant mentions the following details -

1. Immigrant's name
2. Land size granted to him
3. His Veda shakha, his sutra and gotra
4. His Vedic titles of learning if any (e.g. Chaturvedi)
5. His place of domicile before his arrival in Tamil country (not mentioned in every grant)

What these grants suggest is that all of these people moved in during 6th to 11th cen

In most cases their place of domicile immediately preceding their arrival was somewhere in Andhra Pradesh

In many cases, place of origin is cited as "Dasapuriyan" (Malwa city of Dasapuri)

But ultimately an analysis of their Vedic affiliations (especially the heavy concentration of Apastamba sutra) suggests that these people had their origins in the Mathura region of Ganga-Jamuna Doab

Likely started moving down south in the wake of the Huna invasions in the North

Here's a distribution of the Vedic titles of these Aparashikha brahmins as per the Pallava Land grants

Chaturvedi appears to be the most common title, though there is a decent representation of Trivedis, Somayajis

An example of an Aparashikha brahmin of the Chola era is Ramanuja himself

Whose family likely moved to Tamil country a few centuries prior to him

His family's Vedic title was "Somayaji"

The Shrauta sutra distribution among the 467 families of Pallava period (for whom we have land grant data) suggests a dominance of Apastamba sutra (which has been localized by Witzel and co in the Mathura region)

There is more information in the excellent paper

But this is astoundingly detailed information

Very often the migrations of these groups to the South is viewed as vague legend

But what is revealed here is historical record

On how the patterns can be revealed in full by studying the diversity of Mahabharata recensions + studying the land grants in the Pallava / Chola period

The paper an important contribution to Indian history