Sourashtra or "Sourashtras" refers to a community of people who speak the Saurashtra language

Saurashtra language

Sourashtra or "Sourashtras" or ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬꢵ refers to a community of people who had their original homes in Gujarat and presently settled almost in all major Towns of Tamil Nadu and are concentrated more in Madurai which is considered as their cultural Headquarters.They have also settled in...

. They had their original homes in Gujarat and migrated to Madurai

Madurai

Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...

 and other places of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. The origin of the name date backs to the time when the ancestors of theses people inhabited the kingdom of Sourashtra in Gujarat State.
The Tamil name by which these people is known in Southern India is Patnūlkarar

Patnulkarar

Patnūlkaras are a Hindu community of weavers from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They are generally of Gujarati origin.- History :The word Patnūlkaran means "silk-thread people". These people are first mentioned as Pattavayaka, the Sanskrit equivalent of Patnulkaran in the Mandasor inscriptions of...

, that is silk-thread workers or weavers who speak "Pattunuli" or "Khatri", a dialect of Gujarati. The details about Sourashtra community is discussed by A.J. Saunders.The Bhagavata calls the Abhiras as Saurastra.The Bhagavata calls the Abhiras as saurastra and Avantyas rulers (saurastra-avantya-abhira) and the Vishnu treats the Abhiras as occupying the saurastra and Avantil provinces.

Geographical Distribution

The speakers of the Saurashtra language, known as Saurashtrians, maintain a predominant presence in Madurai

Madurai

Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...

, a city, also known as 'Temple City' in the southern part of Tamil Nadu. Though official figures are hard to come by, it is believed that the Saurashtra population is anywhere between one-fourth and one-fifth of the city's total population. They are also present in significant numbers in Dindigul, Periyakulam

Periyakulam

Periyakulam is a town and a Municipality in Theni district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Periyakulam is located at . It has an average elevation of 282 metres . It is located at the foothills of the Western Ghats bordering the neighbouring state of Kerala. It is one of...

, Paramakudi, Erode, Palani, kancheepuram, Rajapalayam, Nilakottai, Salem, Namakkal, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

, Trichy, Pudukkottai

Pudukkottai

Pudukkottai is a town and a municipality in Pudukkottai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Pudukkottai District was carved out of Tiruchirappalli and Thanjavur districts in January 1974.It is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai District....

, Kumbakonam

Kumbakonam

Kumbakonam , also spelt as Coombaconum in the records of British India , is a town and a special grade municipality in the Thanjavur district in the southeast Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located 40 kilometres from Thanjavur and 272 kilometres from Chennai, it is the headquarters of the Kumbakonam...

, Thiruvarur, Ayyampettai, Ammapettai,Dharasuram,Thirubhuvanam,Ammayappan, Walaja, Arni, Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai

Thiruvannamalai is a pilgrimage Temple city and special grade municipality in Thiruvannamalai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Thiruvannamalai district. Thiruvannamalai is home to the Annamalaiyar Temple located at the foot of the Annamalai hill and...

, Palayamkottai

Palayamkottai

Palayamkottai , known as the "Oxford of South India", is a town in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. It is part of the Tirunelveli city corporation. It is on the eastern bank of the Thamirabarani river, while its twin city Tirunelveli is on the western bank.-Etymology:The archaic word Palayam...

, Krishnapuram, Veeravanalur,Vellanguli Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...

,kanniya kumari and Kottar in Nagercoil

Nagercoil

Nagercoil is the 12th largest city in the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu and a municipality and administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District...

. Tirupati

Tirumala - Tirupati

Tirupati is a major pilgrimage city located in the Chittoor district and seventh biggest city of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located at the foothills of the Eastern Ghats at a distance of south of Hyderabad, the capital of the state, east of Bangalore, and north of Chennai.Tirupati is famous...

 in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

 is said to house several Saurashtrian families, known as Pattusali

Pattusali

Pattusali is a regional name referring Saurashtra, a Kannada and Telugu weavers social group found largely in the Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, particularly in Keralapura, Hassan, Mysore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Srikakulam, Vizag, Vijayanagaram, Godavari, Prakasam and Anantapur...

or Saurastrian Brahmins.

Saurashtras in Tamil Nadu

There are three group of migrants living Tamil Nadu. First migrants came to Salem  Second migrant group settled Tanjore and surrounding places and third later migrants settled Madurai

Madurai

Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...

 and surrounding places.

The noted Tamil

Tamil people

Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

 playback

Playback singer

A playback singer is a singer whose singing is prerecorded for use in movies. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras, while the actual singer does not appear on screen.-South Asia:...

 and devotional music singer, T.M. Soundararajan, cited his Saurashtrian roots and upbringing for his mellifluous enunciation and rendition of Tamil music on a Television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 interview in the 1990s.

Saurashtras in the U.S.A.

Most Saurashtras that live in the U.S.A. live in places with high India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n populations. There is a very small population for Saurashtra-Americans compared to the population for the rest of the Indian-Americans.