sudhaama, it pains me to see people fostering such parochial views EVEN in soemthign like classical music...anyway u, like anyone else is entitled to his/her own prejudices and beliefs...its after all a free and democratic country where in the name of history we could give anything and everything a go-by! being a tamilian myself, i do not dispute the greatness of the language in terms of its classsicism right from the time of the Sangam period, and that all south indian languages have been offshoots of it...but the region "Carnatic" is neither entirely in tamil nadu, nor is it present day Karnataka as some people wrongly think..it covers a vast area of southern india which spans all the 4 states(if u would remember the Carnatic wars that were fought here in the 18th century)...and carnatic music has emanated from this very region...so the culture is a composite one and to call something as the "ancestral property" of a particular clan smacks of nothing but regionalistic jingoism at its nadir! if u r carrying this debate just to score brownie points or ruffle feathers on this forum or worse for popularity, so be it...but dont paint things with a historical coat to buttress ur claims...good luck and God bless...