Atha- A Ravuther Kinship Term

The Ravuthers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to this day address their fathers as Atha.  'Ata' means 'father' in Turkish and other Turkic languages.  'Ataturk' in Turkish means 'Father of the Turks', the title given to Mustafa Kemal, the first President of Turkey. However, in modern Turkish it means 'ancestor/forefather'.Nowadays, the Persian loanword 'Baba' has replaced 'Ata'. What is more interesting is that the word in Turkic/Turkish is pronounced exactly the same way as pronounced by the Ravuthers.

The Codex Cumanicus, a 13th century, linguistic manual in used by Catholic missionaries to communicate with the Cumans, an ancient Turkic people mentions the use of the word 'Ata'. Cuman language is known to be the best known of early Turkic languages. The second part of the Codex comprises of word lists, grammatical paradigms and Cuman translation of texts for use in religious services. The Lord's Prayer in the Codex begins with the word 'Atamiz' which means 'Our Father'.

It is also said that the word 'Atha' used by Tamil Ravuther Muslims  originate from the Tamil word 'Attan'. However it is not used to address one's father in Tamil.

Although the claim that the Ravuthers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu claim descent from the Turks is disputed, what they do share in common is that their following the Hanafi Madhab and using the word 'Atha/Ata' to address their fathers.

Ponnani Style of Arabic Calligraphy and Arabi-Malayalam

The Muslims of Kerala have  made their contribution in the field of Arabic calligraphy, by developing a distinct style locally known as the 'Ponnani Style'. It is also known as 'Valiya Aksharam' or 'Big Letters'.

Ponnani, a city in the present day Malappuram district, was the highest seat of Islamic learning in Kerala. The 'Ponnani style' of calligraphy has been used to print copies of the Qur'aan and other publications in Arabi-Malayalam.

Fig. 1: A Page from Qur'aan Printed in Ponnani Script

Arabi-Malayalam is Malayalam written using the Arabic script. It is believed to have been developed as the result of the cultural synthesis between the Arabs and the Keralites. Arabi-Malayalam is written right-to-left and the early Muslims preferred this over writing left-to-right.

In addition to the twenty eight letters of the Arabic alphabet, this script uses some Persian letters (گ ,ژ ,چ ,پ) and special letters to denote Malayalam phonemes. This script is heavily influenced by the Perso-Arabic writing system.

In this style the horizontal and round strokes are much thicker than the vertical ones. The two dots above/below the letters such  ق  ,ت and ي  are replaced with a 'horizontal dash'. In those letters which have three dots above it, the two lower dots are replaced with a horizontal dash retaining the third dot over it. 

Textbooks printed in Arabi-Malayalam are followed by the students in madrassas across Kerala and Lakshadweep even today.