The Saurashtra People, Silk-Weavers of the Tamil South

In the great temple city of Madurai and other towns of Tamil Nadu lives one of the most remarkable communities of India: the Saurashtra people, silk-weavers who speak an Indo-Aryan language deep in the Dravidian south, and who trace their origins to the far-off Saurashtra peninsula of Gujarat. Theirs is the story of a migrant people who carried their language and craft a thousand miles and preserved them for centuries.

Drawn southward over the medieval centuries by the patronage of the Tamil kingdoms, the Saurashtrians settled under the Nayaks of Madurai and rose to fame as the master silk-weavers of the south, all the while keeping their own tongue, their own script, and a distinct identity. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the extraordinary endurance of a community far from its ancestral shore.