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The History
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Gaud Saraswat and Chitrapur
Saraswat Brahmins of India
The brahmin caste of India
consists of a number of regional castes which are spread out all over the
country. Ever since the times of the Puranas, the brahmin caste had been
divided into two groups based on the geographical origin of the people.
The brahmins that lived to the north of the Vindhyas were referred to as
the Gaud Brahmins, whereas the brahmins which lived to the south of the
Vindhyas were referred to as the Dravida Brahmins. These two Puranic divisions
of brahmins were then divided into five subdivisions. From the five subdivisions
of the Gaud Brahmins, the ones which lived to the west of the Saraswati
River were referred to as the Saraswat Brahmins. According to a brahminical
legend, the Saraswati river "flows underground, from where it loses itself
in the deserts north of Rajputana, till it joins the Ganges and Yamuna
at Prayag (Allahabad)". Throughout the course of history, the Gaud Saraswat
Brahmins have migrated to a variety of locations and are found today in
Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, and
Jammu and Kators migrated from Kashmir to Goa via Bengal.
The Chitrapur Saraswat
Brahmins represent a relatively small group of brahmins who firmly established
their identity as a unified group in the year 1708. The history of migration
of their ancestors from Kashmir to a variety of places all over the country
of India serves to demonstrate how their strong religious and cultural
beliefs developed into the present century. Today, the unique members of
this group are situated in a variety of places in India including Maharashtra,
Goa, and Karnataka, and Madras. By tracing their ancestral heritage, we
will see how the cultural history of this group came to define their remarkable
characteristics which have survived throughout the centuries.
By: Aarti Maskeri PA
USA
Source: NAKC 1996 Souvenir
(This original article from
Konkani Sammelan site has been
reformatted here for ease of reading)
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