Audichya Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin sub-caste mainly from the Indian state of Gujarat. They are the most numerous Brahmin community in Gujarat. [1] [2] [3] A minority of them reside in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
According to tradition, the Audichya Brahmins descend from over a thousand North Indian Brahmin families who were invited by Solanki kings in the 10th century to Gujarat to serve as priests of the Rudra Mahālaya Temple. [4]
The caste is divided into two endogamous groups, the Sahasra and the Tolakia. In a census in 1883, the sahasra were numerically a much bigger community than the Tolakia. The sahasra are further subdivided into the Zalawadi, Sihora and Sidhpora groups. The community is at times also differentiated by their geographical location they came from, for example, Marwadi audichya, Kutch audichya or Wagadia audichya. Other differentiation is by the caste that retains them as purohit (family priest) for rituals, for example Darji-gor, Mochi-gor, Kanbi-gor, Koli-gor, Charan- gor, Raj-gor in Saurashtra and northern Gujarat. [5] [2] The Parajia sub-group of Audichya Brahmins worked as hereditory purohitas of Charanas around Junagarh. [6]
In the past, since the Sidhpora sub-caste was considered higher in social ranking, other audichya groups considered it a point of honor to offer their daughters in marriage to Sidhpora men. In the past this custom led to polygamy amongst the Sidhpora group. [7] During the British colonial rule, the caste was one of the first Gujarati community to take up western education. The community along with the Bhatia also were the first to form a caste association. The caste association's aim was mutual help and support for members in the cities and to promote education. [8]
Khatri is a caste originating from the Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations and some were scribes learned in Sanskrit or Persian.
Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.
Saraswat Brahmins are Hindu Brahmins, who are spread over widely separated regions spanning from Kashmir and Punjab in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara and Kerala in South India. The word Saraswat is derived from the Rigvedic Sarasvati River.
Kayastha or Kayasth denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally located—the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karanas of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.
Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentrated in the states of Telangana (which was earlier part of Hyderabad State and Berar Division), Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (Which was earlier part of Central Provinces and Berar) Historian Pran Nath Chopra and journalist Pritish Nandy say, "Most of the well-known saints from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were Deshastha Brahmins". The mother tongue of Deshastha Brahmins is either Marathi, Kannada or Telugu.
The Chitpavan Brahmin or the Konkanastha Brahmin is a Hindu Maharashtrian Brahmin community inhabiting Konkan, the coastal region of the state of Maharashtra. Initially working as messengers and spies in the late seventeenth century, the community came into prominence during the 18th century when the heirs of Peshwa from the Bhat family of Balaji Vishwanath became the de facto rulers of the Maratha empire. Until the 18th century, the Chitpavans were held in low esteem by the Deshastha, the older established Brahmin community of Karnataka-Maharashtra region.
Karhaḍe Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin sub-caste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra, but are also distributed in states of Goa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Patidar, formerly known as Kanbi, is an Indian land-owning and peasant caste and community native to Gujarat. The community comprises at multiple subcastes, most prominently the Levas and Kadvas. They form one of the dominant castes in Gujarat. The title of Patidar originally conferred to the land owning aristocratic class of Gujarati Kanbis; however, it was later applied en masse to the entirety of the Kanbi population who lay claim to a land owning identity, partly as a result of land reforms during the British Raj.
The Meghwal or Meghwar people live primarily in northwest India, with a small population in Pakistan. Their traditional occupation was agricultural farming, cattle-herding and weaving. Meghwals are known for their contribution to embroidery and the textile industry. Most are Hindu by religion, with Rishi Megh, Kabir, Ramdev Pir and Bankar Mataji as their chief gods.
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) or historically and commonly known as Chandraseniya Prabhu or just Prabhu is an ethnic group mainly found in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Historically, they made equally good warriors, statesmen as well as writers. They held the posts such as Deshpande and Gadkari according to the historian, B.R. Sunthankar, produced some of the best warriors in Maharashtrian history.
Paraiyar, or Parayar or Maraiyar, is a caste group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and in Sri Lanka.
Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) are a Hindu Brahmin community, who are part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community that migrated to Konkan from Gaud, as per the Skanda Purana in ancient India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmins group. They primarily speak Konkani and its various dialects as their mother tongue.
Nagar Brahmin is a Brahmin subcaste from the Indian state of Gujarat.
The Gujarati people, or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to a region of the Indian subcontinent primarily centered in the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While Gujaratis mainly inhabit Gujarat, they have a diaspora worldwide. Gujaratis in India and the diaspora are prominent entrepreneurs and industrialists and maintain high social capital. Many notable independence activists were Gujarati, including Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
Marathi Brahmins are communities native to the Indian state of Maharashtra. They are classified into mainly three sub-divisions based on their places of origin, "Desh", "Karad" and "Konkan". The Brahmin subcastes that come under Maharashtra Brahmins include Deshastha, Chitpavan (Konkanastha), Saraswat, Karhade, and Devrukhe.
The Koli is an Indian caste found in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir states in India. Koli is an agriculturist caste of Gujarat but in coastal areas they also work as fishermen along with agriculture. In the beginning of 20th century, the Koli caste was recognised as a denotified tribe under Criminal Tribes Act by the Indian Government because of their anti-social activities during World War I.
The Vishwakarma community are a social group of India, sometimes described as a caste. They prefer the alternate name, Vishwabrahmin, and claim themselves to be Brahmin or of high-status in the caste hierarchy, although these claims are not generally accepted outside the community. The community comprises five subgroups—carpenters, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, goldsmiths and stonemasons— claim to be descendants of Vishvakarma, the builder and architect of heavenly realm, a Hindu deity.
Bengali Kayastha, is a Bengali Hindu caste originated from the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent, and is one of the main subgroups of the Kayastha community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of scribes, administrators, ministers and record-keepers; the Kayasthas in Bengal, along with Brahmins and Baidyas, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society." During the British Raj, the Bhadraloks of Bengal were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.
The Gurav are an occupational community comprising several castes. They are among the traditional service providers found in villages, for whom they act in a priest role, and are found in several states of India.
Modern historians agree that Rajputs consisted of a mix of various different social groups and different varnas. Rajputisation explains the process by which such diverse communities coalesced into the Rajput community.