Gaud Saraswat Brahmin
Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) (also Goud or Gawd), also known as Shenvis are a Hindu community of contested caste status and identity.
[12] From early twentieth century there have been many initiatives by the different sub-castes to form a unified Saraswat caste but according to Frank O'Conlon (writing in 1974) these attempts failed.
[13] In Kalhana's Rajatarangini (twelfth century CE), the Saraswats are mentioned as one of the five Pancha Gauda Brahmin communities residing to the north of the Vindhyas.
[15] The Shilahara kings seem to have invited supposedly pure Aryan Brahmins and Kshatriyas from the Indo-Gangetic plain to settle in Konkan.
[15][18] Historian Farias states that the Gaud Saraswats supposedly intermarried with women from other castes after their arrival in Goa.
[4] Harald Tambs-Lyche notes that trading communities such as the GSB, when dominating the merchants of Cochin, received exterritorial rights granted by the Dutch.
In the sixteenth century, the increase and export of rice production here was brought about by the GSB, the Bunts and Billava coconut growers.
The Gaud Saraswat Brahmin – which Marine Carrin and Lidia Guzy describe as a "Konkani speaking community of traders [who were] already established along the coast" now became the major rice exporters.
[21] In the eighteenth century during the Maratha empire era, the Shinde and the Holkar rulers of Ujjain and Indore recruited Saraswats to fill their administrative positions.
[22][23][24] A sample study in the 1970s in Kota, Karnataka found that the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins owned most of the grocery and general merchandise stores.
As if to rectify his mistake, Parashuram brought ten sages from North India, specifically, Trihotra (Trihut, Bihar) and set them up in Goa for performing ancestral rites, fire sacrifice and dinner offerings.
Wagle makes no judgement on the validity of the claim of Northern origin and writes: The claim of the Gauḍa Sārasvata brahmanas (= GSB), whether real or imagined, of a north Indian origin is not an obscure historical problem; it is a relevant problem which has been of constant interest to the GSB.
In the late 19th century the GSB spokesmen wrote books and articles, gave public speeches, cited documentary evidence in the native Indian as well as English court of law to prove that they belonged to the Northern stock of brahmanas.
As an example, Madhav Deshpande cites the 4th verse from chapter-I which when translated is:The Trihotras, the Āgnivaiśyas, the Kānyakubjas, the Kanojis, and the Maitrāyaṇas, these five are said to be the five Gauḍas.
[32][a][need quotation to verify] Later in the 17th century, Shivaji (1630-1680) had asked Gaga Bhatt, a Benares based Deshastha Brahmin pandit, to resolve the issue regarding the Shenavis' ritual status when they met before his coronation.
[34] A late 20th century study showed that Konkani communities - Shenvis, Sastikars, Bardeshkars, Bhalvalikars, Rajpurkars and Pednekars currently have trikarmi status only.
Kantak, while discussing the contributions of castes during Shivaji's rule in the 17th century, says that their education made the Saraswats and Prabhus proficient in account keeping as well as clerical posts in the administration as against the Brahmins who studied Sanskrit for religious literature also.
[36] During the census of 1846 carried out by the british colonial authorities in Bombay presidency, the ongoing feud between the Chitpavans and the Shenvis led to the latter being classified separately from the "Brahmans".
[37] Madhav Deshpande writes: The Deshastha, Chitpavan and Karhade were united in their rejection of the brahminhood for the Gauḍa Saraswats, and Wagle[b] himself provides evidence of this animosity.
University of Michigan scholar Madhav M. Deshpande cites R.V.Parulekar and states that " British administrative documents from the early nineteenth century Maharashtra always list brahmins and Shenvis as two separate castes".
[44][47] This caused GSB caste activists to claim the Brahmin status by using markers such as "gotra", "kuldeva", village, "allegiance to a lineage of spiritual descent" or "guru parampara" of preceptors (swamis).
[48] Sociologist Sharmila Rege also considers the Saraswats(Shenvis) as different from Brahmins while discussing matriculation from Elphistone after the fall of the Peshwa rule.
[51] According to sociologist Dabir, ritually higher non-Brahmin castes in Maharashtra, the Saraswats and CKP, have tried to follow Brahmin customs in the treatment of women.
