Saraswat Brahmin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Saraswat Brahmins are

West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. The word Saraswat is derived from the Rigvedic Sarasvati River.[1][2][3]

Classification

Saraswats Brahmins are classified under the

Pancha Gauda Brahmin classification of the Brahmin community in India.[2]

In Western and South India, along with the

Konkani Brahmins, which denotes those Brahmin sub-castes of the Konkan coast which have a regional significance in Maharashtra and Goa.[4]

Based on Veda and Vedanta

In

Vaishnavas".[8][9][10]

Origin

The Saraswat Brahmins are said to have originated from the Sarasvati River region, which was part of the ancient Vedic civilization in India. The Sarasvati River, mentioned in Vedic texts, is believed to have dried up around 1900 BCE, leading to the migration of Brahmins from that region towards other parts of India.[11] The southward migration of Saraswat Brahmins is explained in the SkandaPurana. The Sayhadrikhand of Skandapurana narrates the

founding myths of various Brahmin communities.In the text, Shiva narrates the following founding myths to Skanda:[12]
Parshurama brought Sarasvatas from
Tirhut to Konkan, settling them in the villages of Kelosi and Kusasthal. These settlers were "attractive, well-behaved, and skilled in every rite". The deities Shantadurga, Mangesh, Mhalsa, Nagesh and Mahalakshmi accompanied them to Konkan.[13]

Scholarly interpretation

According to Rosalind O'Hanlon, the core of the text was likely written "before or around the end of the first millennium": it contains stories about Brahmin village settlements that have fallen from virtue. The remaining text appears to have been written later, as it describes the

Pancha Dravida classification of Brahmins, which became popular during the 13th-14th centuries.[14]

History

Migration

Saraswats were spread over a wide area in northern part of the Indian subcontinent. One group lived in coastal

western coast of India.[3][15]

The Saraswat Brahmins originating in Balochistan were called sindhur and were considered a low caste. They have a legend of origin related to Lord Ramachandra (not the same as Parashurama), who could not find a priest in Balochistan and applied a Tilaka on the head of some Mleccha. Jürgen Schaflechner cites the historian Rowe who states that such "low ranking Brahmins" formed a symbiotic relationship with Vaishya castes such as Khatris, Lohanas, etc. who were trying to raise their varna status - which in turn would benefit the Saraswats as well. For this purpose, certain religious texts were written during the British Raj era.[16]

Philosophy and literature

Saraswats have contributed to the fields of Sanskrit, Konkani, Marathi and Kannada literature and philosophy. All the mathadhipathis of

Kavale Math and Chitrapur Math without a single exception are from the Saraswat Brahmin community.[17][18][need quotation to verify] The 17th-century Madhva Saraswat scholar, Sagara Ramacharya, authored the Konkanabhyudhaya.[19]

Advaita saints such as Gaudapada[verification needed], grand-teacher of the philosopher Shankaracharya;[20] Narayana Tirtha,[21] the first peetadhipathi of Gokarna Math and Yadavendra Tirtha,[21] the first peetadhipathi of Kashi Math, are some of the prominent saints from the Saraswat Brahmin community.[21]

Society and culture

Northern India

Kashmir

In

Vindhyas.[2]

According to M. K. Kaw (2001),

Mandana Mishra, were Kashmiri Saraswat Brahmins.[20] and Parijnanashram I, was the first peetadhipathi of Chitrapur Math
.

Punjab

Saraswat Brahmins from the Punjab region, who are sometimes referred to as 'Warrior Brahmins'.[25][26] Mohyal Brahmins stopped practising priestly duties.[27][verification needed
]

A small minority of Mohyals also have an association with

Shia Muslims because they helped Imam Hussain in the Battle of Karbala, these Mohyal Brahmnins are called Hussaini Brahmins.[28][29][30]

Eastern India

In Gangetic belt mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Saraswat Brahmins were landlords and priests. They follow Shakta tradition, Vaishnavism and Shaivism.[31]

Western and Southern India

Here the Saraswat Brahmins are divided into three sub-groups, they are,

Kavale Math and Chitrapur Math.[32]

Western India

The majority of Saraswats speak

Maharashtrian Konkani and Canarese Konkani
.

Parashurama with Saraswat Brahmin, commanding Varuna to make the seas recede in order to create the Konkan Region[1]

Historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam states that Saraswats at "Basrur on the Kanara coast south of Goa" were a "caste of open status", which sometimes claimed to be Brahmins although they were associated with mercantile activity and called as "Chatins" from Chetti by the Portuguese. Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta had also visited Basrur, which was considered "the great center of Saraswat trade", two centuries earlier than the Portuguese, but it did not interest him as much as it did the Portuguese.[33]Chatins de Barcelor was the term used for the Saraswat community of merchants at Basrur in the time of Diogo do Couto, but the term Chatin acquired a pejorative meaning later. It is likely derived from the Tamil 'Chati', which is a suffix for many trading castes that were present on the southern side of the Godavari river.[34]

The Saraswats and Gujarati Vanias in Goa, were involved not only in trade but also in tax related income. After the 1540s discrimination against non-Christians in Goa increased and there were mass conversions to Christianity. Despite this, between 1600 and 1670, about 80% of the tax farms or rendas were held by the Hindus, especially Saraswats. The prominent Saraswat merchants mentioned at this time i.e. early 1600s are Govinda, Pondya as well as the Kini and Nayaks. The rendas were on various items such as spices(pepper), cotton and silk cloths, food shops and duties on gold. Michael Pearson has given an example of members and relatives of a Saraswat Naik family to show that when a person successfully did a bidding for a renda from the government, he had to name some guarantors - who were usually his relatives or caste members.[35][36]

The Saraswats also traded at the Vengurla and Raybag ports and acted as suppliers of rice and pepper that they imported from Kanara. In this context, they also dealt with the Dutch who has established a factory in the port of Vengurla. Scholars mention a certain P. Nayak who was a notable merchant in the 1670s.[37]

Saraswat merchant families during the Portuguese rule of Goa also were involved in trade with Portuguese colonies around the globe including in the African slave trade.[38][39] In the 19th century also, French slave merchants came to Goa and contacted the Portuguese and Saraswat Brahmins who sold them African slaves.[40]

In Konkan, the Saraswat as well as the fishermen communities were traditionally traders as well as sailors. The reason for seafaring was that the land of Konkan suffered due to salinisation and unpredictable rains. This caused the Saraswats to look for livelihood outside of Konkan and they would often use the Arabian Sea for travelling for trade. Dabhol was the main Konkan port in 1600 to Hormutz and the traders traded with Socotra and Yemen but by 1700 Dabhol was ruined due to silting and sandbanks. Moreover, the cities with which the trading occurred had also declined.[41]

During Shivaji's coronation, the ritual status of the Saraswats to be Brahmins was supported by

Benares.[42]

Historically, in Maharashtra, Saraswats had served as low and medium level administrators under the

Peshwas in the 18th century, Saraswat Brahmins was one of the communities against whom the Chitpavans conducted a social war which led to Gramanya (inter-caste dispute).[44]

After the liberation of Goa from the Portuguese colonial rule in 1961, many Goan Saraswats opposed merger of Goa into Maharashtra.[45]

The 19th century Konkani scholar Shenoi Goembab,and the 20th century multi-faceted Marathi scholar Purushottam Laxman Deshpande are some of the prominent scholars from the Saraswat Brahmin community.[46][47]

Southern India

According to Nagendra Rao, the trading communities of Saraswats, Jews, Arabs, Komatis, Nawayath, etc. were active in south Kanara when the Portuguese arrived for trading in the 1500s. The items of trade were rice, pepper, ginger, etc. International trade already existed at the time in South Kanara and business existed with Malabar, Maldives, ports of the Red Sea.[48] In Mangalore, Saraswats were part of the trading community when the Portuguese arrived to import saltpetre. The items from Mangalore were exported to Malabar, Goa, Surat, Bengal, Malacca, Maldives, Mecca, Aden, Congo, Hormuz and Ceylon.[49]

Studies show that between 1500 and 1650, in Kanara, Saraswats and Nawayath were dominant in commerce with ports outside India but it was Mappila Muslims and Middle Eastern Muslims who dominated in Malabar.[50]

The rulers in India encouraged

Cochin for tobacco cultivation. Here, the Saraswat Brahmin merchants such as Nayak, Kamat, etc. took up tobacco farming in the latter half of the seventeenth century and this resulted in major income for the King of Cochin.[51]

According to some socialists due to the pescatarian diet of saraswats the claim of satkarmi brahminhood of saraswats was contested by local Brahmins but majority of saraswat Brahmins were Vegetarians, this was discussed during the coronation of shivaji where Gagabhatt gave verdict in favour of saraswat Brahmins,further during British era this matter reached court which resulted in court declaring saraswat Brahmins as Satkarmi Brahmins[9][7][52] Sociologist and researcher Ramesh Bairy writes that "Saraswat claim to Brahminhood is still strongly under dispute, particularly in the coastal districts of Karnataka".[53]

According to the

Belgaum, Karnataka,[54] "marriages between Saraswat and non-Saraswat Brahmins are on the increase though they were unheard of before, mainly because the Saraswats eat fish and occasionally meat, while all other Brahmins are vegetarians".[55] According to sociologist Ramesh Bairy, even in 2010, in Karnataka, "at the level of the community as a whole, Brahmins may not be incensed at the Saraswat claim to Brahminhood. But a non-Saraswat Brahmin will not be keen on proposing marriage with a Saraswat family".[56]

Marriages

The Saraswat Brahmins are divided into various territorial endogamous groups, who did not intermarry.[57]

Diet

Main article: Saraswat cuisine

Kashmir valley

shastras of not eating the meat of forbidden animals.[23] Professor Frederick J. Simoons says according to some reports, Saraswat Brahmins from northern India also consume fish as part of their diet.[58][59][60]

Punjab and Jammu

In

Jammu region
, Saraswat Brahmins have been traditionally vegetarian.

Maharashtra and Goa

In

vegetarians and pescetarians among them,[61][62][63] while in Maharashtra they are pescetarians.[64]

Gujarat

In

Khichdi (a mixture of rice and pulse) in the Dinner.[65]

Southern India

In

vegetarians, but there are also pescetarians among them.[66][67]

Notable people

Main article: List of Saraswat Brahmins

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Shree Scanda Puran (Sayadri Khandha) -Ed. Dr. Jarson D. Kunha, Marathi version Ed. By Gajanan shastri Gaytonde, published by Shree Katyani Publication, Mumbai
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-81-317-5439-9
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8239-3180-4
    .
  4. ISBN 978-81-210-0266-0
    .
  5. ISBN 978-81-86791-50-9
    . As a result of this, the Saraswats living in the south of the Gangavali in North Kanara separated into what is known as the Gowda Saraswat community consisting mostly of Vaishnavas and Chitrapur Saraswats, mostly of Smarthas.
  6. ^ Karnataka State Gazetteer: South Kanara. Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press. 1973. p. 111. The Gauda Saraswats are the Madhva Vaishnavite Saraswat Brahmins, while the Saraswats [Chitrapur] have continued to be Smarthas.
  7. ^ a b c S. Anees Siraj (2012). Karnataka State: Udupi District. Government of Karnataka, Karnataka Gazetteer Department. p. 189.
  8. ^ Chandrakant Keni (1998). Saraswats in Goa and Beyond. Murgaon Mutt Sankul Samiti. p. 62. The majority of the Saraswats, including those in Goa, are now Vaishnavas
  9. ^ a b c The Illustrated Weekly of India, Volume 91, Part 2. Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited, at the Times of India Press. 1970. p. 63. The Saraswats are largely a vegetarian community, whose coconut- based cuisine is famed for its variety.
  10. ^ Venkataraya Narayan Kudva (1972). History of the Dakshinatya Saraswats. Samyukta Gowda Saraswata Sabha. p. 154. The majority of the Saraswats, including those in Goa, are now Vaishnavas. Nearly the whole of the prosperous trading community on the West Coast are now Madhvas.
  11. JSTOR 45101301
    .
  12. ^ Rosalind O'Hanlon 2013, pp. 104–106.
  13. ^ Rosalind O'Hanlon 2013, p. 105.
  14. ^ Rosalind O'Hanlon 2013, p. 103.
  15. ^ Dakshinatya Sarasvats: Tale of an Enterprising Community, page 6
  16. ISBN 978-0-19-085052-4
    .
  17. ^ Sharma 2000, p. 474.
  18. ^ Sharma 2000, p. 577.
  19. ^ Sharma 2000, p. 580.
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-81-86791-50-9
    . Remembering that some of his predecessors like Sureshvaracharya (the famous Mandana Misra, the successor of Sankaracharya on the Sringeri Sharada Pitha) were Kashmiri Saraswats, the Jagadguru readily gave them a letter in which ...
  21. ^ a b c Sharma 2000, p. 578.
  22. ISBN 978-81-7648-236-3
    .
  23. ^ a b c Michael Witzel (September 1991). "THE BRAHMINS OF KASHMIR" (PDF). Michael Witzel. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  24. S2CID 54701622
    . Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  25. ISBN 978-0-19-508137-4
    .
  26. OCLC 19125681
    .
  27. ^ "Country Advice: India" (PDF). Refugee Review Tribunal. 31 January 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  28. ISBN 978-0-19-908961-1
    .
  29. ^ Datta, Nonica (30 September 2019). "The Forgotten History of Hussaini Brahmins and Muharram in Amritsar". The Wire. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  30. ^ Sheikh, Majid (31 December 2017). "Spiritual connect of two villages on both sides of the divide". Dawn. Archived from the original on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  31. ISBN 81-8205-063-4
    .
  32. ^ Saraswats in Goa and Beyond. Murgaon Mutt Sankul Samiti. 1998. p. 10.
  33. ISBN 978-0-521-64629-1
    . An important and relatively little-known example of a sort of 'merchant republic' form, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries can be found at Basrur, on the Kanara coast south of Goa. The dominant trading community here were Saraswats , a caste of open status , which at times claimed Brahminhood but more usually was identified with mercantile activity ( the Portuguese usually term them chatins , from chetti )
  34. ISBN 978-1-351-93068-0
    .
  35. ISBN 978-1-118-27402-6
    .
  36. ISBN 978-81-7022-160-9
    .
  37. ISBN 978-0-19-566428-7
    . When the Dutch established a factory in the port of Wingurla , they dealt with a number of Hindu merchant suppliers of the neighbourhood . Hindu merchants , Konkanis and Saraswats , were located southwards in the Kanarese ports and Goa . They traded in the Bijapur ports of Wingurla and Raybag , being the major suppliers there of pepper and rice which they brought from Kanara . A prominent merchant of the 1670s with extensive dealings with the Nayak was Polpot Nayak.
  38. ^ de Souza, Teotonio R. "MHAMAI HOUSE RECORDS INDIGENOUS SOURCES FOR 'INDO'-PORTUGUESE HISTORIOGRAPHY." Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 41, 1980, pp. 435–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44141866. Accessed 2 September 2022.
  39. ^ RUSSELL-WOOD, A. J. R. "An Asian Presence in the Atlantic Bullion Carrying Trade, 1710-50." Portuguese Studies, vol. 17, 2001, pp. 148–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41105165. Accessed 2 September 2022.
  40. ISBN 978-1-107-07026-4
    .
  41. ISBN 978-1-317-45835-7
    . The Saraswat Brahmin communities and the fishermen have traditionally been heavily involved in trade and seafaring, for this was a poor land: the soil was threatened by salinization, the harvest by the erratic rains.
  42. ISBN 978-93-86228-73-4
    .
  43. ISBN 978-0-521-03316-9
    .
  44. ^ Gokhale, Sandhya (2008). The Chitpwans. Shubhi Publications. p. 204. The jati disputes were not a rare occurrence in Maharashtra. There are recorded instances of disputes between jatis such as Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus and the Chitpawans, Pathare Prabhus and the Chitpawans, Saraswats and the Chitpawans and Shukla Yajurvedi and the Chitpawans. These intra-caste dispute involving the supposed violation of the Brahmanical ritual code of behavior was called Gramanya in marathi.
  45. ISBN 81-85002-31-2
    . Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  46. ISBN 978-81-237-4139-0
    . Shennoy Goembab, the great Konkani writer and scholar, himself a Saraswat Brahmin by caste ,
  47. ^ "Economic and Political Weekly". Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 14. Sameeksha Trust. 1979. p. 1519. Deshpande a college graduate from a progressive Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community..
  48. ^ Nagendra Rao (2001). Pius Malekandathil; T. Jamal Mohammed (eds.). The Portuguese, Indian Ocean, and European Bridgeheads, 1500-1800. Institute for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities of MESHAR. p. 305. The Portuguese were first European traders to arrive at the ports of South Kanara. On the eve of the arrival of the Portuguese, South Kanara comprised of large number of major and minor ports. There existed trade with Malabar, Maldives and ports of the Red Sea. There also existed the trading communities like the Arabs, Jews, Saraswats, Telugu Komatis, Navayats and others. International trade was not new to the traders of South Kanara. The traders dealt with commodities like rice, pepper, ginger and other spices. The arrival of Portuguese helped in enhancing the volume of trade in the ports of South Kanara.
  49. ^ Nagendra Rao (2001). Pius Malekandathil; T. Jamal Mohammed (eds.). The Portuguese, Indian Ocean, and European Bridgeheads, 1500-1800. Institute for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities of MESHAR. p. 310. In 1632, the agent of the Portuguese sent their men to Mangalore to procure saltpetre from Mangalore. The trading community of Mangalore consisted of Muslims, Saraswats, Komatis, Virashaiva traders of Karnataka,Christians, Gujaratis, traders from Kerala and foreign traders belonging to Red Sea ports. According to the Livro do Cartazes,during the period from 1705 to 1724 about 8600 khandis were exported to different markets. The destinations of Mangalore trade were Malabar, Goa, Surat, Bengal, Malacca, Maldives,Mecca, Aden, Congo, Hormuz and Ceylon
  50. ISBN 978-0-521-89226-1
    . the period from 1500 to 1650 , one finds certain communities which appear to dominate external commerce : Mappilas and a heterogenous group of Middle Eastern Muslims in Malabar , Saraswats and Navayat Muslims in the Kanara region
  51. ISBN 978-1-351-99746-1
    .
  52. ISBN 978-1-85359-673-5
    . Saraswatis claim that they come from the Brahmin caste – hence their name - but others believe that they are usurpers using some fake brahmin ancestry to maintain their superiority.
  53. ISBN 978-1-136-19820-5
    . Saraswat claim to Brahminhood is still strongly under dispute, particularly in the coastal districts of Karnataka.
  54. ^ "Department Of Sociology:Dr. Gopa Sabharwal". Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  55. ISBN 978-0-19-567830-7
    . In fact, marriages between Saraswat and non-Saraswat Brahmins are on the increase though they were unheard of before, mainly because the Saraswats eat fish and occasionally meat, while all other Brahmins are vegetarians.
  56. ISBN 978-1-136-19819-9
    . Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  57. ^ Kumar Suresh Singh (1998). India's Communities, Volume 6. Oxford University Press. p. 3175. The Saraswat Brahman are an ancient and a dynamic community of India, spread from Kashmir to Konkan. They are divided into various territorial endogamous groups, who at one time did not intermarry.
  58. ISBN 978-0-299-14250-6
    . There are even reports of certain Brahmin (Bengali Brahmins, Oriya Brahmins, Brahmins of certain parts of Bihar, Saraswat Brahmins of northern India, and Kashmiri Pandits) eating fish.
  59. ISBN 978-81-7648-236-3
    . Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  60. ^ "Forward castes must think forward as well". Hindustan Times. 23 November 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  61. ISBN 978-0-14-303343-1
    .
  62. ISBN 978-1-349-15392-3
    . Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  63. ^ Anant Kakba Priolkar (1967). Goa Re-discovered. Bhatkal Books International. p. 53. Saraswats are mainly vegetarians but are permitted to eat fish.
  64. ^ G. C. Hallen (1988). Indian Journal of Social Research, Volume 29. p. 4. In Maharashtra among most Brahmin castes non-vegetarian food is taboo but the Saraswat Brahmins eat fish.
  65. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2
    .
  66. ^ J. Rajathi (1976). Survey of Konkani in Kerala. Language Division, Office of the Registrar General. pp. 7–8.
  67. ISBN 978-81-8220-167-5
    . Rajapura Saraswat ( Rajapuri ) are loosely referred to as Nayaka ... The Rajapura Saraswat are mostly vegetarian , rice being their chief food , but some use fish , and rear fowls..

Bibliography
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