Letters home: Banaras pandits and the Maratha regions in early modern India

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 44, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 201-240

  O'Hanlon, Rosalind ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DISPUTE RESOLUTION; IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION; MIGRATION; RURAL SOCIETY; SOCIAL CHANGE;

INDIA;

EID: 77949874061     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X09990229     Document Type: Article

References (235)

1. For this theme, see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia', Modern Asian Studies, Vol.31, 3, 1997, pp. 735-762.
2. For Benaras, see A.S. Altekar, History of Banaras (Banaras: Culture Publication House, 1937);
3. Diana L. Eck, Banaras, Lity of Light (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983);
4. Eck, 'Kashi, city and symbol', in Purana, Vol.20, 2, 1978, pp. 169-92;
5. and Eck, 'A survey of the Sanskrit sources for the study of Banaras', Purana, Vol.22, 1, 1980, pp. 81-101.
6. See Richard M. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761: Eight Indian Lives (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,2005), pp. 59-128;
7. and Velcheru Narayana Rao, David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamilnadu (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1992).
8. Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India Before Europe (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 126-144
9. SheldonB.Pollock, 'New IntellectualsinSeventeenth Century India', inThe Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol.38 (1), 2001, pp. 3-31;
10. and Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture and Power in Premodern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006);
11. Yigal Bronner, 'What is New and What is Navya: Sanskrit Poetics on the Eve of Colonialism', in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol.30, 5, October 2002, pp. 441-62;
12. Lawrence McRea, 'Novelty of Form and Novelty of Substance in Seventeenth Century Mīmām. sā', in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol.30, 5, October 2002, pp. 481-494;
13. Johannes Bronkhorst, 'Bhattoji Dīks.ita on Spho.t a', in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol.33, 2005, pp. 3-41;
14. and Christopher Minkowski, 'Astronomers and their Reasons', in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol.30, 2002, pp. 495-514.
15. See, for example, the Sūdrakamalākara of Kamalakara Bhatta, and the slightly earlier Śūdrācāraśiromani of Sesa Krsna, both prominent 'southern' pandits. Ananya Vajpeyi, 'Excavating Identity through Tradition: Who was Sivaji?' in Satish Saberwal and Supriya Varma (eds.), Traditions in Motion: Religion and Society in History (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 257-258.
16. For these aspects ofmīmāmsa, see Sheldon S. Pollock, 'Mīmamsā and the Problem of History in Traditional India', in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.109, 4, 1989, pp. 603-610.
17. Christopher Minkowski, 'Nīlakant.ha Caturdhara's Mantrakāśikhanda', in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.122.2, 2002, pp. 329-344;
18. Jonathan Parry, Death in Banaras (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 26-32. Christopher Bayly has suggested that the easier conditions of travel under Mughal imperial rule, and the revenues it collected from taxes on pilgrims, boosted Banaras's importance as a pilgrim destination during the early modern period. C.A. Bayly
19. 'From ritual to ceremony: death ritual and society in Hindu north India since 1600', in Joachim Whaley (ed.), Mirrors of Mortality: studies in the social history of death, (London: Europa Press, 1981),pp. 154-186
20. M.H. Shastri, 'Dakshini Pandits at Benaras', in Indian Antiquary, Vol.XLI, January 1912, pp. 7-13.
21. For a description of Paithan in particular, this 'Kasi of the South', see R.S. Morwanchikar, The City of the Saints: Paithan Through the Ages (Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1985).
22. For other migrations following the fall of Vijayanagar, see Richard M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996), pp. 97-99.
23. For the Bhatta family, see James Benson, 'Samkarabhatta's Family Chronicle' in Axel Michaels (ed.), The Pandit: Traditional Scholarship in India (Delhi: Manohar, 2001), pp. 105-118.
24. The colonial historian of Maharashtra's Brahman communities, R.B.Gunjikar, identifies the Bhattas as Desasthas: R.B. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Mandala (Bombay: Nirnayasagar Press, 1884), p. 99.
25. For a history of the Deva family, see P.K. Gode, 'Āpadeva, the Author of the Mīmāmsa-Nyayaprakāśa and Mahāmahopādhyāya Āpadeva, the Author of the Adhikaranacandrikā - are they identical?' in Studies in Indian Literary History (Bombay: SinghiJain Sastra Siksapith, 1954), Vol.II, pp. 39-43.
26. For a history of the Caturdhara/Chaudhuri family, see P.K. Gode, 'Nīlakant.ha Caturdhara, The Commentator of the Mahabhārata - His Genealogy and Descendants' in Studies in Indian Literary History, Vol.II, pp. 475-498.
27. For references to the Punatambakar family, see Shastri, 'Dakshini Pandits';
28. B. Upadhyaya, Kāśīkīpā ndityaparamparā (Banaras: Visvavidyalaya Prakasana, 1983), pp. 30-31;
29. and Pollock, 'New Intellectuals', pp. 8-9.
30. For Mahadeva Punatambakar, see T. Aufrecht, Catalogus Catalogorum (Leipzig: FA Brockhaus, 1891), Vol.1, pp. 437a-b. (Hereafter CC.)
31. For a history of the Sesa family, see Ranganathasvami Aryavaraguru, 'On the Sheshas of Benaras', in Indian Antiquary, Vol.XLI, November 1912, pp. 245-253
32. For the Bharadavaja family, see Shastri, 'Dakshini Pandits', 1912, p. 13.
33. Madhav M. Deshpande, 'Localising the Universal Dharma: Puranas, Nibandhas, and Nirnayapatras in Medieval Maharashtra', unpublished mss. These and related issues have been the subject of an important new study in Gijs Kruijtzer, Xenophobia in Seventeenth Century India (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2009), which came to hand only after this paper had gone to press.
34. A note on sources is appended to this paper.
35. In particular the names attached to the praise addresses offered to the Banaras pandit Kavindracaraya, presented after he persuaded the emperor Shah Jehan to abolish the tax on pilgrims to Banaras, probably in the 1630s. Har Dutt Sharma and M.M. Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya (Pune: Oriental Book Agency, 1939).
36. Another collection of praise addresses, from the time of Akbar, is the Narasimhasarvasavakāvyam, in honour of the pandit Narasimhasrama: see Haraprasad Shastri, A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Government Collection under the Care of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1923), Vol.4, 'History and Geography', pp. 81-85 Unless otherwise stated, all identifications suggested below are consistent with what are here understood to be the best accepted chronological parameters for the life of each pandit.
37. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Mandala, pp. 179-180.
38. It is difficult to find evidence for widespread use of the term . Chitpavan' for Brahmans from Chiplun, before the seventeenth century. P.K. Gode, 'The origin and antiquity of the caste-name of the Karahātaka or Karhādā Brahmins', in Studies in Indian Cultural History (Pune: Prof. PK Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1 o 69), Vol.III, p. 7.
39. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Mandala, pp. 177-181 79.
40. For a Chitpavan attempt to reduce the ritual entitlements of Kiravants made in the northern Konkan in March 1757, see R.V. Oturkar, Pésvekālin sāmājik va arthik patravyavahāra (Pune: Indian Council for Historical Research, 1950), pp. 123-124.
41. I am extremely grateful to Sumit Guha for this reference. M.G. Sharma, Sārasvata Bhusana (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1950), pp. 70- 71
42. and P.K. Gode, 'Antiquity of the caste name 'Śenavi', in Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol.5, no.6, 1937, pp. 152-155.
43. Visnusastri Pandit, Devarukhyāmvī .sayīm Śāstrasammata Vicāra (Bombay: Indu Prakash Press, 1874), p. 39.
44. For these divisions, see Thomas Trautmann, Dravidian kinship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 239-245.
45. For these affiliations amongst Saraswats, for example, see Frank F. Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans 1700-1935 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 20-22.
46. An 1832 survey of 'Maharasthr' Brahmans in Banaras reveals these multiple affilations. It listed eleven categories, described as Dravir, Tylang, Chitpaur, Yujurbedi, Raghurbedi, Sanwai, Kan no, Prabhu, Kanhare, Karhare, and Abhir. Dravir (Dravida) Tylang (Telenga), Chitpaur (Chitpavan), Kan no (Kanoja), Kanhare (Kannada) and Karhare (Karhade) are local or regional affiliations. Sanwai is an occupational affiliation. Yujurvedi and Raghurbedi (Rgvedi) represent śākhās. 'Desastha' does not appear here as a significant designation. James Prinsep, 'Census of the Population of the City of Banaras', in Asiatic Researches, xvii, 1832, p. 491.
47. See also M.A. Sherring, Tribes and Castes as Represented in Banaras (London: Trubner and Co, 1872).
48. Notionally a part of the Skandapurāna, one of the 18 'great' puranas, the Sahyadrikhand.a is a heterogeneous collection of texts, written over a very long period. The only edition is J. Gerson da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhanda Skandapurāna (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1877). Da Cunha's edition is based on 14 manuscripts collected from different parts of India and collated to produce his edition. These contain references to the king Mayurasarma dating to 345-370 AD, to Madhavacarya of the 13th Century AD, while one of the manuscripts is dated 1700.
49. See also Stephan H. Levitt, 'The Sahyādrikhanda: some problems concerning a text-critical edition of a Puranic text', in Purana, Vol.9, 1, 1977, pp. 8-40;
50. and Levitt, 'Sahyādrikhanda: style and content and indices of authorship in the Pātityagrāmanirnaya', in Purana, Vol.24, 1, 1982, pp. 128-145.
51. Da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhanda, uttarāradha, adhyāya 1, vss. 2-4
52. and Madhav M. Deshpande, 'Pañca Gauda und Pañca Drāvida. Umstrittene Grenzen einer traditionellenKlassifikation' inM.Bergunder andR.P. Das, (eds), 'Arier'und'Draviden', Konstruktionen der Vergangenheit als Grundlagefur Selbst-undFremdwahrnehmungen Sudasiens (Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen zu Halle, 2002), pp. 57-78.
53. Da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhanda, uttarāradha, adhyāya1, 'Origins of the Chitpavans', vss. 39-45.
54. Sri Sahyādrikhanda Ibid., adhyāya 2, 'Origins of the Karastras', vss. 1-8, and 16-20, and adhyaya 20, vs. 24.
55. Stephan H. Levitt 'The Pātityagrāmanirnaya: A Puranic History of Degraded Brahman Villages', University of Pennsylvania Dissertation, 1974, pp. 175-289.
56. Deshpande, 'Pañca Gauda', pp. 74-75.
57. Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch. 'Portugese Orientalism and the making of the village communities of Goa' in Ethnohistory, Vol.45, 3, 1998, pp. 439-476;
58. and Axelrod and Fuerch, 'Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portugese Goa', in Modern Asian Studies, Vol.30, 2, 1996, pp. 387-421.
59. Hiroshi Fukazawa, 'The local administration of the Adilshahi Sultanate (1484-1686)' in Fukazawa, The Medieval Deccan: Peasants, Social Systems and States (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 1-48;
60. J.F. Richards, Mughal administration in Golconda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975);
61. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan; Andre Wink, Land and sovereignty in India: agrarian society and politics under the eighteenthcentury Maratha Svarajya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 296- 304;
62. Gijs Kruijtzer, 'Madanna, Akkanna and the Brahmin Revolution: A Study of Mentality, Group Behaviour and Personality in Seventeenth Century India', in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol.54, 2, 2002, pp. 231-267
63. For an indispensable account of the growth of Brahman power in the eighteenth century, see Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 64-96.
64. Frank Perlin, 'Of White Whale and Countrymen in the Eighteenth Century Maratha Deccan: Extended Class Relations, Rights and the problem of Rural Autonomy in the eighteenth Century Maratha Deccan', in Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol.5, 1978, pp. 172-237;
65. and Perlin, 'The Pre-Colonial Indian State in History and Epistemology: A Reconstruction of Societal Formation in the Western Deccan from the Fifteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century' in H.J.M. Claessen and P. Skalnik (eds), The Study of the State (The Hague: Mouton, 1981), pp. 275-302.
66. Perlin, 'Of White Whale and Countrymen', p. 198.
67. James Molesworth, Marathi-English Dictionary (Bombay: Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857), p. 216.
68. See Gode, 'The Origin and Antiquity', p. 9
69. for a document of 5 April 1676 referring to a Chitpavan khot. The family of the Chitpavan nationalist leader Tilak had for three centuries been khoti landlords in the Ratnagiri village of Chikhalgaon. D.V. Tahmankar, Lokamanya Tilak: Father of Indian Unrest and Maker of Modern India (London:J. Murray, 1956), p. 7.
70. See also A.R. Kulkarni, Medieval Maharashtra (New Delhi: Books and Books, 1996), pp. 162-172
71. In 1705, for example, the Dev family of Cincvad near Pune were supplying cash to the Maratha ruler Shahu, who was being held hostage at Aurangzeb's court. Laurence W. Preston, The Devs of Cincvad. A Lineage and the State in Maharashtra (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 51-52.
72. Tukaram Tatya Padaval, Samagra Tukārām Gāthā (Pune: Varada Press, 1996), Vol.II, nos. 6163-6166.
73. For other observations about Maratha Brahmans and service, see SurendraNath Sastri (ed.), Viśvagunadārsacampū of Venkatadhvari (Varanasi: Vidyabhavana Sanskrit Series, 1963), pp. 111-117.
74. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Mandala, pp. 82- 91;
75. Narayana Vitthal Vaidya, Abhiprāyavalī (Bombay: Nirnayasagar Press, 1885).
76. Gode, 'Origin and Antiquity', p. 13.
77. Sharma, Sārasvata Bhusana, p.189.
78. See Rosalind O'Hanlon and Christopher Minkowski, 'What makes people who they are? Pandit Networks and the Problem of Livelihoods in Early Modern Western India' in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol.45, 3, 2008, pp. 381-416.
79. SV Avalaskar, Konkanāca Itihāsacī Sadhanem (Pune: Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala Sviya Granthamāla, 1953), pp. 2-5.
80. N.K. Wagle, 'The History and Social Organisation of the Gauda Saraswata Brahmanas of the West Coast of India', in Journal of Indian History, Vol.48, 1, 1970, pp. 8-25, and Vol. 48, 2, 1970, pp. 295-333
81. and Deshpande, 'Pañca Gauda', p. 69.
82. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Mandala, p. 176.
83. Madhava, Śatapraśnakalpalatā, P.M. Joshi Collection, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, mss 19, ff. pp. 16-18.
84. V.K. Rajwade, 'Devarukyāci Mulotpatti' in Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala, 1914, reprinted in M.B. Saha, Itihāsacāraya VK Rājavāde Samagraha Sāhitya (Dhulia: Rajwade Samsodhana Mandala, 1998), Vol.7, pp. 186-194
85. Pandit, Devarukhyāmvī .sayī m Śā strasammata Vicāra, pp. 39-41.
86. Devarukhyāmvī .sayī m Śāstrasammata Vicāra, Ibid., p. 18.
87. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol.X, Ratnagiri and Savantvadi (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1880), p. 114.
88. I am very grateful to Sumit Guha for pointing out this link.
89. Da Cunha, Sri Sahyadrikhand.a, uttararadha, adhyaya 5, 'Consideration of Brahmans', pp. 6-12.
90. Prinsep's survey of 1832 does not mention 'Devarsis' or Devarukhes. Like Desasthas, they may have been represented under their śākhā affiliation, or they may by this period no longer have been a significant presence in Banaras. Prinsep, Census, p. 491.
91. For these assemblies, see Rosalind O'Hanlon, 'Narratives of Penance and Purification in Western India, c. 1650-1850' in The Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol.2, 2009, pp. 48-75.
92. For the correspondence of the Prabhu dhārmadhikārīs of Nasik, see D.V. Potdar and G.N. Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mand.ala Svīya Granthamala, No.33, Vol.2, (Pune: BISM, 1930), pp. 285-317;
93. and for the Gijare dharmādhikārīs of Karhad
94. see B.V. Bhat, 'Acāra, vyavahara, prāyascitta', in Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mand.ala Quarterly,Vol. XIII, 3, December 1932, pp. 91-105.
95. For other assemblies with judicial roles, the majlis, gotasabhā and jātisabhā
96. see V.T. Gune, The Judicial System of the Marathas (Pune: Sangam Press, 1953), pp. 65-66, 110.
97. Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Man. d.ala, pp. 104-106. Most of these Brahmans are likely to have been Desasthas.
98. Anne Feldhaus, 'Religious Geography and the Multiplicity of Regions in Maharashtra', in Rajendra Vorah and Anne Feldhaus, Region, Culture and Politics in India (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), pp. 194-195.
99. See also Feldhaus, Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage and Geographical Imagination in India (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
100. For Banaras itself as both a microcosm of the universe and a macrocosm of the human body, see Parry, Death in Banaras, pp. 30-31.
101. Deshpande, 'Pañca Gaud.a', p. 57.
102. Satischandra Vidyabhusana, A History of Indian Logic (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1971), pp. 521-527.
103. For the poetic style associated with the Gauda region, see Pollock, Language of the Gods, pp. 210-212 .
104. P.K. Gode, 'An Echo of the Seige of Jinji in a Sanskrit Grammatical Work (Between AD 1690 and 1710)' in Studies in Indian Literary History (Pune: Prof. PK Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1965), Vol.III, pp. 161-162.
105. The Gīrvanapadamañjarī of Dhundiraja was an imitation of an earlier work written in the first half of the seventeenth century by Varadaraja, pupil of Bhattoji Diksita. In this earlier work, the Brahman householder identifies himself as a Kanyakubja Brahman: P.K. Gode, 'Some Provincial Customs and Manners Mentioned as Duracaras by Varadarāja (A Pupil of Bhatt.oji Dīksita ca. 1600-1660)' in Studies in Indian Cultural History (Pune: Prof. PK Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1969), Vol.III, p. 74.
106. For a further discussion of regionalism in Sanskrit literary genres in this period, see Yigal Bronner and David Shulman, 'A Cloud Turned Goose: Sanskrit in the Vernacular Millenium', in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol.43, 1, 2006, pp. 1-30.
107. Pollock, 'New Intellectuals', p. 8.
108. Gode, 'Nīlakant.ha Caturdhara', pp. 480-485.
109. G.S. Sardesai (ed.), Paramanāndakāvya (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1952), pp. 13-14.
110. P.V. Kane, 'Kāśīksetrātīla akbarakālīna konkanastha gharāne', in Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala Quarterly, Vol.VII, nos. 11-4, 1926-1927, pp. 4-5.
111. See also David Pingree, Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970-1994), Vol.5, p. 374.
112. For another Chitpavan in Banaras who was careful to mention his family and subcaste, see P.K. Gode, 'Viśvanātha Mahādeva Rānade, A Cittapāvan Court-Poet of Raja Ramsing I of Jaipur And His Works - Between AD 1650 and 1700', in Studies in Indian Literary History, Vol.II, pp. 258-273.
113. G .S. Sardesai (ed.), Selectionsfrom thePeshwaDaftar (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1934), Vol.31, pp. 4-5.
114. Visiting Banaras in the 1660s, the traveller Bernier was told that students stayed with their teachers for ten to twelve years. Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1565-1668 (London: H. Milford, 1914), pp. 334-335.
115. This may equally reflect classical conventions about the period of Vedic studentship propertoyoung Brahmans: F.E. Keay, Indian Education in Ancient and Later Times (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 30.
116. This family was later to produce the eminent dharmasastri Kasinatha Upadhyaya, who completed his famous digest the Dharmasindhu in 1790, in which he stated clearly at the start of the work was aimed at a lay rather than a scholarly audience. Kasinatha Upadhyaya, Dharmasindhu (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1968), pp. 1-2;
117. P.V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra (Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Vol.1, pp. 463-465;
118. and Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol.2, pp. 333-353.
119. Richard Salomon, 'Biographical Data on Nārāyan.a Bhat.t.a of Benaras' in Samaresh Bandhopadhyay, Acarya-Vandana: D.R. Bhandarkar Birth Centenary Volume (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1982), pp. 326-336.
120. Benson, 'Sam. karabhat.t.a's Family Chronicle', p. 112.
121. Shastri, 'Dakshini Pandits', p. 10.
122. Salomon, 'Biographical Data', pp. 333-334.
123. R. Gokhale and H.N. Apte (eds), Nārāyanabhattaviracitah Tristhalīsetuh (Banaras: Anand Asram Press, 1915), p. 208.
124. See also Richard Salomon, The Bridge to the Three Holy Cities. The Samanya-praghattaka of Narayana Bhatta's Tristhalīsetu (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1985).
125. This question is discussed in Minkowski, 'Nīlakant.ha Caturdhara's Mantrakāśikhanda', pp. 336-337.
126. Kāsikhanda (Banaras: no press given, 1908), adhyaya 99, 'The mahatmya of the Visvesvaralinga'.
127. James Prinsep, Banaras Illustrated in a Series of Drawings (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1833), p. 68;
128. Altekar, History of Benaras, p. 51.
129. Kāśikhanda, adhyāya 79, vss. 54-74;
130. adhyāya 98, 'Celebration of the entry of Visvesvara into the Mukti mandapam'.
131. Nar̄ayanabhattaviracitah Tristhalīsetuh, p. 189;
132. Kāśikhanda, adhyāya 3, vs. 92.
133. Nārāyanabhattaviracitah Tristhalīsetuh, pp. 188-190.
134. These passages from the Tristhalīsetu are taken from Kāśikhand.a, adhyāya 79, vss 53-94. I am particularly grateful to Vincenzo Vergiani and Jim Benson for their assistance with these sections.
135. These Brahmans enjoyed specific local rights as village proprietors, in return for their services. G.N. Dash, 'The Evolution of Priestly Power: the Suryavamsa Period' in Anncharlott Eschmann et al. (eds), The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978), pp. 209-222;
136. G. Pfeffer, 'Puri's Vedic Brahmans: Continuity and Change in their Traditional Institutions', in Eschmann, Cult of Jagannath, pp.421-438;
137. and ChandrikaPanigrahi, 'Muktimandap SabhaofBrahmans, Puri' in Nirmal Kumar Bose, Data on Caste in Orissa (Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India, 1960), pp. 179-192.
138. Ramakrsna Sadasiva Pimputkar,Citalebhatta Prakarana(Bombay: Karnatak Press, 1926) 76-77.
139. An amatya is a minister or counsellor. 'Letter of release': the term used here is 'udvārapatra', implying release, from a debt, for example, a social boycott or a curse.
140. Kanhoji Raja presided over the 1600 judicial assembly that decided the dispute between the Padhye and Purohita families over rights to local priestly offices: see below, fn 92.
141. See Pandit, Devarukhyāmvī sayīm Śastrasammata Vicāra, pp. 35-38.
142. We are not able to identify this Kozhrekar. Abhyankar and Citale are both old Chitpavan family names: Gunjikar, SarasvatīMandala, p. 115.
143. Benson, 'Śamkarabhatt.a's family chronicle', p. 12.
144. Anantabhatta Citale of the Konkan is listed in V. Raghavan et al., New Catalogus Catalogorum (Madras: University of Madras, 1949-2000), Vol.1,p. 136. (Hereafter NCC.) No works have been traced.
145. S.S. Tripathi (ed.), Bhattavamśakāvyam (Allahabad: Bhartiya Manisha Sutram, 1983), p. 11. I am very grateful to James Benson for this reference.
146. P.K. Gode, 'The Chronology of Vijñānabhiksu and his Disciple Bhāvā Ganeśa, the Leader of the Citpavan Brahmins of Benares', in Adyar Library Bulletin, Vol. viii, Pt 1, 17 February 1944, pp. 20-28.
147. See also CC Vol. 1, p. 144.
148. Krsna Sesa: NCC, Vol.IV, pp. 364-366.
149. For Vidyanivasa Bhattacarya see also Upadhyaya, Kāśīki pānditya paramparā, p. 30
150. and Shastri, A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, Vol.6, Vyākarana', p. lxxxiii, and CC, Vol.1, p. 574a.
151. P.V. Kane and SG Patwardhan, Vyavahāramayūkha of Bhatta Nīlakantha (Pune: PV Kane, 1926), p. vii;
152. R.N. Dandekar (ed.) Sanskrit and Maharashtra (Pune: University of Pune, 1972), p. 31.
153. Aryavaraguru, 'On the Sheshas of Benaras', p. 247.
154. Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol.2, p. 341.
155. D.V. Apte, 'Sārasvatāce Brāhmanatva', Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala Quarterly, Vol.XV, no 4, March 1935, pp. 2-3.
156. A 'full' Brahman was asatkarmī, entitled to perform the six karmas of adhyāyana and adhyāpana, ie studying the Vedas for oneself and teaching them to others; yajana and yājana, ie conducting a sacrifice and procuring sacrifice through another; and dāna and pratigraha, ie giving gifts and accepting gifts. A trikarmī Brahman was entitled to do only the lesser three of these six, ie studying the Vedas for themselves, procuring sacrifice through others, and giving gifts. V.M. Apte, Social and Religious Life in the Grhya Sutra (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1931), p. 11.
157. There are small variations in the Sanskrit prefixes and suffixes attached to each signature as it appears on the documents in the printed versions examined for this paper: samatam; samati; patrārtha samata; samatārtha; asminartha samata; anumata. These translate variously as 'agreed', 'agreed to the letter', 'in favour' 'content in the matter', etc.
158. 'Bhatta' is both the family name of the Bhattas of Banaras, and an honorific title given to a learned Brahman, usually attached to the given name as a suffix. 'Diksita' may be an honorific, or description of a role, applied to a Brahman initiated as a sacrificer or other ritual role. The same is true of 'Pauranik', 'versed in the Puranas'
159. 'Jyotisi', 'astrologer', 'Agnihotri', 'keeper of the sacrificial fire' and so on. As the use of family names became common from the late seventeenth century, some pandits adopted these occupational titles as family names. Others derived family names from their places of origin, adding the distinctive Marathi suffix '-kar'. These overlaps frequently make certain identification difficult.
160. Aryavaraguru, 'On the Sheshas of Benaras', p. 251.
161. Cakrapani Sesa: NCC, Vol.VI, p. 283.
162. A Cakrapani Pandita also contributed to the Kavīndracandrodaya: p. 10.
163. Ayacita and Jade are Karhade names. Dharmadhikari and Dasaputra are Desastha names; Pauranik may be Chitpavan or Desastha.
164. Gunjikar, SarasvatīMandala, Appendix 2, pp. 22-24
165. Kamalakara Bhatta: NCC Vol. III, pp. 161-165.
166. See P.K. Gode, 'Some Karhāde Brahmin Families at Benares Between AD 1550 and AD 1660' in Studies in Indian Cultural History, Vol.III, pp. 33-6;
167. and Gode, 'Some Authors of the Arde Family and their Chronology between AD 1600 and 1825', in Journal of the Bombay University, September 1943, Vol.XII, Pt 2, pp. 63-69;
168. and S.L. Katre, 'Nārāyanabhatt.a Ārde, His Works and Date', in Bhāratīya Vidyā, March-April 1945, pp. 74-86.
169. Raghunatha Bhatta: CC Vol. 1, p. 484a. His dates are usually given as c. 1545- 1625, making this identification a possibility only.
170. Haridiksita: CC Vol. 1, pp. 756a-b.
171. Laksmana Bhatta: CC Vol. 1, p. 537a.
172. Gode, 'Some Karhade Brahmin Families'.
173. Dharmadhikari and Purandare here are Desastha names.
174. 1630 to 1632 were years of exceptionally severe famine in Maharashtra, which may account for shifts in the Maratha population of Banaras. See A.R. Kulkarni, Maharashtra in the Age of Shivaji (Pune: Deshmukh and Co., 196 - ), pp. 94-104.
175. Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol.2, pp. 354355.
176. Śivacaritra Sāhitya Ibid., pp. 357-358. A mazhar is a letter of decision from a majlis or assembly of senior officials convened to hear disputes: see fn. 55 above.
177. Pimputkar, Citalebhatta Prakarana, pp. 78-81.
178. The Kāśikhand.a describes the Manikarnika ghat as the place where Visnu performed the austeries that brought the universe into being at the beginning of time, and where Siva, trembling with delight at the sight, dropped his ear-ring, manikarnī, into Visnu's tank. Visnu asked for a boon: since Siva's earring was set with pearls, mukta, this sacred place should thenceforth confer mukti on souls. Parry, Death in Banaras, pp. 11-15.
179. The Vajāpeya is the most important of the public sacrifices in which soma juice and animals are offered as oblations to the gods. For sacrifice in the lives of Banaras pandits, see Jan E.M. Houben, 'The Brahman Intellectual: History, Ritual and "Time out of Time"', in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol.30, 5, October 2002, pp. 463-479.
180. But too young to have been the Laksmana Bhatta, brother of Kamalakara Bhatta, who may have signed the 1631 letter. His dates are usually given as 1585-1630.
181. Some names occur here as pairs, suggesting a family or tutelary relationship.
182. Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, pp. 24-25.
183. Nilakantha Bhatta: NCC Vol. 10, pp. 174-175.
184. Brahmanendrasarasavati: CC Vol. 1, p. 389a;
185. Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 29
186. and P.K. Gode, 'The Identification of Gosvāmi Nrsimhāś rama of Dārā Shukoh's Sanskrit Letter with Brahmendra Sarasvatī of the Kavīndracandrodaya', in Studies in Indian Literary History, Vol.II, pp. 447-451.
187. Anantadeva, fl. 1645-75: NCC Vol. 1, p. 127.
188. Gagabhatta: CC Vol. 1,pp. 587b-588a.
189. Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 9, identify this Bhayyabhatta as the son of Bhattaraka Bhatta and author of Dharmaratna: CC Vol. 1, p. 416b.
190. Appayadiksita III: NCC Vol. 1, p. 200.
191. P.K. Gode, 'Some New Evidence Regarding Devabhatt.a Mahāś abde, the father of Ratnākarabhatta, the Guru of SevaiJaising of Amber, (AD 1699-1743)', in Poona Orientalist, Vol.VIII, 3-4, 1943-1944, p. 132.
192. Poona Orientalist Ibid., p. 137.
193. Khandadeva: NCC Vol. V, 173-4;
194. Upadhyaya, Kāsī ki pānditya paramparā, pp. 31-35;
195. P.K. Gode, 'Chronology of the Works of Khandādeva', in Bimala Churn Law (ed.),D.R. BhandarkarFelicitation Volume (Calcutta: Indian Research Institute, 1940), pp. 10-16; McRea, 'Novelty of Form'.
196. The NCC lists several possible identifications: NCC Vol. 1, pp. 134-135.
197. For Tilbandesvara, see Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 29.
198. Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 6. NCC Vol. VII, pp. 188-190.
199. Shastri, 'Dakshini Pandits', p. 13.
200. Shukla, Dasaputra, Kavimandan, Pole, are Desastha names. Datar, Nagarkar, Khare, Patankar, Dabholkar, Bhave, Pole, are Chitpavan names. Kale can be Desastha, Chitpavan or Karhade. Pauranik can be Desastha or Karhade.
201. For a marriage between a Desastha and a Karhade in this period, see Gode, 'Identification of Raghunātha', pp. 414-415.
202. One of the most esteemed forms of marriage, according to Manu, was the 'daiva' form, in which a daughter is given to a priest who officiates at a sacrifice, during the course of its performance. Trautmann, Dravidian kinship, p. 289.
203. It may also be significant that many of the 'southern' pandits interested themselves in the theories governing the lineage affiliations of gotra and pravara. Within the Bhatta family alone, Narayana, Raghunatha, Kamalakara and Laksmana Bhatta all wrote independent treatises on the subject.
204. Bernier, Travels, p. 345;
205. PK Gode, 'Samudra-Sangama, a Philosophical Work by Dara Shukoh, Son of ShahJahan Composed in AD 1655',in Bhārata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala Quarterly,Vol. 94, October 1943, pp. 75-88.
206. Richard M. Eaton, 'Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States' in David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence (eds.) Beyond Turk and Hindu: rethinking religious identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), pp. 8-9, 254-260.
207. Eaton, 'Temple Desecration', 265-266.
208. This judgement is in the Śyenavījātidharmanirnaya, Bharata Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mandala Varsika Itivrtta (Pune: BISM, 1914), pp. 296-305.
209. See also O'Hanlon and Minkowski, 'What makes people who they are?', pp. 393-397.
210. Perhaps more exposed to the pressures of provincial opinion, the 1664 dharmasabhā took a much harder line on the rights of the Senavis: they were only trikarmī Brahmans, because they had spent so much time as traders and farmers that their dharmic entitlement had changed: see Śyenavījātidharmanirnaya, p. 300.
211. See V.S. Bendrey, Coronation of Sivaji the Great (Bombay: PPH Bookstall, 1960).
212. Pimputkar, Cita.lebha.t .ta Prakaran. a, pp. 82-84.
213. Gode cites Nilakantha's family genealogies, documentation of inam land awarded to the family and Aufrecht's identification of Govinda Diksita as belonging to the Caturdhara family. Gode, 'Nīlakantha Caturdhara', pp. 485-486. However, the identification remains very much to be confirmed.
214. Deshpande, 'Localising the Universal Dharma' (unpublished mss).
215. For Prabhune's letters describing his judicial role, see Sadisiva
216. For the peshwa regime's attempts to foster Brahman community, see O'Hanlon and Minkowski, 'What makes people who they are?', pp. 410-412
217. Stewart Gordon, The Marathas 1600-1818 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 146.
218. Pimputkar, Citalebhatta Prakarana, pp. 85-89.
219. O'Hanlon, 'Narratives of Penance and Purification', pp. 65-7;
220. Bhat, 'Acāra, vyavahāra, prayascitta', pp. 91-105.
221. V.S. Bendrey, Mahārāstretihāsaci Sādhanem (Bombay: Mumbai Marathi Granthasangrahalaya, 1966), Vol.II, p. 491.
222. For the processes of regionalization and vernacularisation in the Maratha regions, see Sumit Guha, 'Transitions and Translations: Regional Power and Vernacular identity in the Dakhan, c. 1500-1800', in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol.24, 2, 2004, pp. 23-31
223. and Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, pp. 41-54.
224. These documents have been reprinted in C.Y. Mule et al., (eds), Devarukhe (Bombay: Ramesh Visnu Nimbkar, 1973), pp. 87-107.
225. Madhav Bhole and Chandrakant Laksman Pimputkar, personal communication.
226. B.G. Tilak, Srimadbhagavadgita-Rahasya (Pune: Kesari Office, 1936), Vol.1, pp. 55-56.
227. Manduskar has described how he found these materials in the possession of two Devarukhe families, the Khapadekars and Karulkars, in the Konkan village of Dahivali. Manduskar, Devarūkhe dnyātiitihāsa samśodhan, mss, ff. 7v-8.
228. S.V. Ketkar,Mahārastriya Dnyānakośa (Pune: Mahārāst.riya Dnyānakośa Mandala, 1925),Vol. 15, p. 155.
229. V.K. Rajwade developed this theme in a separate Marathi article published in 1914, 'The origin of the Devarukhes', published in the annual special issue of the Bhrāta Itihāsa Samśodhaka Mand.ala Quarterly.
230. See Rajwade, 'Devarukyāci Mūlotpatti', pp. 186-194
231. Pandit Surya NarayanaSukla, Bhātta Cintāmani (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1933), pp. 1-2;
232. Cinnasvami Sastri,Mīmamsakaustubha (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1933), pp. 2-3;
233. Dineshchandra Bhattacharyya, 'Sanskrit Scholars of Akbar's Time', in Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol.XIII, 1937, p. 35.
234. But see Deshpande, 'Localising the Universal Dharma'
235. and Pollock, 'New Intellectuals', p. 20.