Maharashtrian Brahmin


Maharashtrian Brahmins are communities native to the Indian state of Maharashtra. They are classified into two sub-divisions based on their places of origin, "Desh" and "Konkan". The Deshastha speak Marathi and the Konkanastha towards Goa previously spoke Konkani but have learnt Marathi nowadays. Together, these divisions comprise members of various gotras, being the Deshastha, Kokanastha, Saraswat, Karhade, and Devrukhe.The Kokanastha are also known by the alternative name, Chitpavan.
The Deshastha Brahmins are considered the original Brahmins of Maharashtra, with communities such as the Chitpavan being thought of as migrants from other areas.

Geographical distribution

Maharashtrian Brahmins are native to the Indian state of Maharashtra. However, their training as priests, expertise in Hindu laws and scriptures, and administrative skills have historically led them to find employment in all corners of India. For example, in the 1700s, the court of Jaipur had Maharashtrian Brahmins recruited from Benares. This community had in turn migrated to Benares after the fall of Vijayanagar empire in southern India. The greatest movement of the community took place when the Maratha Empire expanded across India. Peshwa, Holkars, Scindia, and Gaekwad dynastic leaders took with them a considerable population of priests, clerks, and army men when they established new seats of power. Most of these migrants were from the literate classes such as various Brahmin sub-castes and CKP. These groups formed the backbone of administration in the new Maratha Empire states in many places such as Baroda, Indore, Gwalior, Bundelkhand, and Tanjore. The community in Tanjure in modern day Tamil Nadu state in southern india dates back to early 1700s. In modern times the Maharashtrian brahmin and CKP communities of Indore dominated the RSS and Bharatiya Janasangh.
In present-day Maharashtra, the community is now mostly urban based. Brahmins were landlords in many regions of Maharashtra,however, land reform measures undertaken after Indian independence drove them out of the villages.

Occupation

Historical

Unlike Brahmins elsewhere in India, who traditionally were mostly priests and scholars, those in Maharashtra have had a wider occupational basis, including as administrators, as warriors, as courtiers, in business and in politics. During the era of the Deccan sultanates, when few people in the region shared the Muslim faith of its rulers, Maharashtrian Brahmins were significant recruits to administrative roles and as tax collectors.
They were also administrators during the period of the Maratha Empire, spanning the 17th and 18th centuries, when some Chitpavans also emerged as peshwas and thus the de facto rulers. During the peshwa rule, Pune became the de facto financial capital of the empire with the bankers being mainly Maharashtrian brahmins. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many Marathi brahmins migrated north to places like Banaras.During this period Banaras had become an important center of learning. Many Marathi brahmin came to the city to live as pious scholars with patronage from wealthy benefactors. A number of Maharashtrian brahmins settled in the Kumaon and Garhwal region of present day Indian state of Uttarakhand in places such as Almora. These brahmins form part of the Kumaoni brahmin community.
During this era, Banaras also became a base from which scholars could go to regional courts and display their learning. The Bhatta family, for example, had branches in Banaras, Amer and Mathura.
John Roberts has argued that from the time of the Maratha Empire and into the period when the British East India Company was forming the administrative unit of the Bombay Presidency, they were mostly urban dwellers, along with other non-Brahmin clerical castes, and shunned trading roles. This view appears to be distinct to that of Edmund Leech and S. N. Mukherjee, who note the Chitpavan incomers to the region as being involved also in trade and cultivation.

Modern era

The British rulers of Maharashtra region during early years of colonial rule in the nineteenth century recruited for clerical and lower level administrative work mainly from castes such as brahmin and CKP whose traditional occupations involved scholarship, teaching, and record keeping. Incidentally, these castes had considerable experience in government administration during the Peshwa rule which preceded the British rule. Brahmins and CKP were also the first to take to western education. This was their gate way to rise to positions of dominance in many fields during the nineteenth century colonial era.These included positions in professions such as teaching, law, medicine, and engineering. Maharashtrian brahmins also dominated lower level jobs in the colonial government. The 19th century social reformer, Jyotirao Phule lamented the brahmin domination in education and government jobs. In the early 20th century, however, different governments in the region such as the Bombay Presidency or the princely state of Kolhapur started reservation policies in government jobs at lower levels that discriminated against the brahmins.
Being the first to receive western education, Maharashtrian brahmins such as Justice Ranade, or Gopal Hari Deshmukh were at the forefront of social reform, female education, and participation in political process at the local level. They were also equally opposed by more orthodox members' of their own communities such as Lokmanya Tilak for advocating reforms. In the twentieth century, Maharashtrian brahmins such as Savarkar formulated the Hindutva ideology, and Hedgewar, and his successor Golwalkar founded or led the Hindu nationalist organization, the RSS.
In the last one hundred years, many brahmin families such Kirloskar, Garware, Ogale, and Mhaiskar have been successful in creating large manufacturing, and construction businesses.

Society and Culture

Religious customs

The deshastha and the karhade historically allowed cross-cousin marriages but the chitpavan did not.
Although campaign to allow widow remarriage started in the 19th century in the Maharashtrian brahmin communities, it was not until the mid 20th century that it became acceptable. The practice used to cause immense distress widows, especially to the young ones, from these castes as opposed to widows from other marathi hindu castes.

Diet

Maharashtrian Brahmins, Deshasthas, Chitpavans and Karhades have historically been Lacto-vegetarians.
Brahmins of Pune passed caste specific laws for alcohol consumption.

Social issues

Sociologist Sharmila Rege writes that, as the demand of the British Raj for administrators increased and thus guided the direction of education policy, the "caste composition of the emerging intelligentsia" demonstrated how the upper castes were able to cement their socio-economic position by dominating recruitment to the available bureaucratic positions. They also dominated selection for the schools themselves, demanding that lower caste students be rejected. For example, from 1827 to 1848, in the Elphinstone institutes of Bombay, 25 of the 152 matriculants came from lower castes, while in 1886 one Pune school registered 911 Brahmins in its roll of 982 students.
Gail Omvedt concludes that during the British era, the overall literacy of Brahmins and CKPs was overwhelmingly high as opposed to the literacy of others such as the Kunbis and Marathas. Specifically, the top three literate castes were Deshasthas, Chitpavans and CKPs. Men were more literate than the women from any caste. Female literacy as well as English literacy showed the same pattern among castes.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak believed that the Deshastha, Chitpawan and Karhade should get united. He encouraged this by writing comprehensive discussions on the urgent need for these three sub-castes to intermarry and dine together.

Politics

Maharashtrian Brahmins have played a significant role in the Hindu nationalist movement. Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist, states that even in Indore, from 1950 to 1965, Maharashtrian Brahmins and CKP together accounted for two-third or three-fourth of the Hindu nationalist representation in the municipal councils.
Jaffrelot thinks that Brahmins are still resented by the Marathas and Dalits of Maharashtra despite no longer having much political power.

Anti-Brahmin violence

After Gandhi's murder by Nathuram Godse, himself a Brahmin, Brahmins in Maharashtra, in 1948, became targets of violence, mostly by some elements from the Maratha caste. V. M. Sirsikar, a political scientist at the University of Pune, noted that
Another political scientist, Donald B. Rosenthal, said that the motivation for the violence was the historical discrimination and humiliation faced by the Maratha community due to their caste status and "Even today, local Brahmins claim that the Marathas organized the riots to take political advantage of the situation".

Notable people