Hebbar Iyengars are followers of Ramanuja's philosophy preaching Vishishtadvaita. They are mainly from Mysore, Bangalore and the surrounding places in southern Karnataka. The etymology of Hebbar, in Kannada, resolves to "hebbu/hiridhu" (meaning big) + "haruva" (meaning brahmin). They speak a charecteristic dialect called "Hebbar Tamil" influenced by Tamil and Kannada. Iyengar (or Aiyangar) is the name of a high class community of Tamil Brahmins of South India whose members profess the Visishtadvaita philosophy codified by Ramanuja. ... Sri Ramanuja Acharya (1017 - 1137 AD) was an Indian philosopher and is recognized as the most important saint of Sri Vaishnavism. ... Vishisthadvaita is a qualified monism in which God alone exists but admits plurality. ... Mysore is the second largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. ... Bangalore (Kannada: ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) (pronounced // in Kannada and // in English) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. ... Karnataka (ಕನಾ೯ಟಕ in Kannada) is one of the four southern states of India. ... Kannada - aptly described as sirigannada (known to few as Kanarese) is one of the oldest Dravidian languages and is spoken in its various dialects by roughly 45 million people. ... Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. ... Kannada - aptly described as sirigannada (known to few as Kanarese) is one of the oldest Dravidian languages and is spoken in its various dialects by roughly 45 million people. ...

The lack of any written historical records hampers the search for the origin of the Hebbars. This sub-community, based in the border areas of Mysore with Tamilnadu, speaks a mixture of Kannada and archaic Tamil, with a sprinkling of Sanskrit words thrown in. One theory is that the Hebbar Iyengars of today are descended from the Jains who were converted from Jainism to Vishisht Advaita along with their monarch, Bittideva, the Hoysala king, circa 1180 AD, by Ramanujacharya, who resided at Melkote (near Mysore) at that time. (Bittideva then termed himself Vishnu Vardhana, and is renowned under that name for building a myriad Vaishnavite temples, including the exquisite Chenna Kesava Temple at Belur). These Jains were immigrants to Mysore from undetermined regions in North India, probably fleeing from the recurrent depradations of the Muslim invaders. This would explain their physical similarities to the more Aryanic North Indians (fair skins, with some startling light eyes) than their Iyengar brethren in South India. Another peculiarity, supporting this theory of late conversion, is the fact that Hebbars are not permitted to perform their own religious ceremonies (marriages, funerals), but rely on a community of co-located pure-Tamil speaking Iyengars termed Swayam Achars for these services. The Swayam Achars are supposedly the original Tamil Iyengar followers of Ramanuja, who initiated the Hebbar converts into the Vaishnavite rituals of worship.

An excellent analysis on Hebbar Tamil dialect has been done here

The sect has good number of contributors to various fields including Literature, Carnatic music, Science and Technology.

Tauluva Hebbars

There are some other Hebbars who originally dwelled in Puttur, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka. They are called as Shivalli Brahmins which resolves to 'Shivana + Halli' in Kannada which means Shiva's village. Their mother tongue is Tulu, which is one of the 5 Dravidian Languages of India. Tulu is one of the minor languages of India with under 2,000,000 speakers. ...

These Hebbars have been working as 'Patels' (village officers) and many of them worship in the temples of Kerala and Karnataka. Some of them are engaged in the Agricultural Industry, 'Visha vaidya' - Treatment for Snake bites. Some families are engaged in practicing Ayurveda medicine. Some of them were engaged in Nrittam - a kind of dance performed in temples where the deity is placed on the head of the dancer. Ayurveda (आयुर्वेद Sanskrit: ayu—life; veda—knowledge of) or ayurvedic medicine is a comprehensive system of medicine, more than 5,000 years old and based on a holistic approach rooted in Vedic culture. ...

These Hebbars belong to Saamaveda and recite Saamaveda.