Indian roots and shoots: Five Brahmins and a migration myth
The migration of groups and communities within the Indian subcontinent down the ages is a fascinating story of social mobility, often revealing negotiable spaces within India’s caste-ridden hierarchies. If such histories were to be put together, the tale of Bengali brahmins would form an important chapter.
Brahmins, along with kayasthas and vaidyas, were the traditional elites of Bengal society in the medieval period. From these castes emerged the class of so-called bhadralok during British rule who redefined the notions of culture and refinement for the rest of colonial India.
Yet, for all their contributions towards the making of a new Bengal, genealogical records of the community and some historical evidence suggest that these brahmins were a rather late entrant in Bengal society, having migrated probably from what’s now Uttar Pradesh.
This is how the story goes in the community’s genealogical chronicles called kulajis and kulapanjikas. There was a king, Adisura of Bengal, who requested the king of Kanauj (Kolancha in the texts) to send him five learned brahmins who had knowledge of the Vedas as well as rituals. The request was turned down.
Drawing from these texts, Swati Dutta writes in her book, Migrant Brahmanas in Northern India, Their Settlements and General Impact, “When the king of Kanauj refused, Adisura sent against him 700 Brahmanas of Bengal, seated on bulls, as he knew that his adversary would not take up arms against Brahmanas riding on bulls. As expected, the king desisted from war and sent five Brahmanas as requested by Adisura. In Bengal, these five Brahmanas performed a sacrifice and returned to Kanauj.”
The tale continues. Upon their return, these brahmins were shunned by their relatives and asked to perform penances. In desperation, they left for Bengal with their families and servants, and were granted five villages to live in by Adisura. Each had a different gotra and all present day Rarhi and Varendra Brahmins are described to be the descendents of these five families (Rarh and Varendra are geographical descriptions located in present day West Bengal and Bangladesh, respectively). They called themselves kulin brahmins, signifying a noble origin. The 700 bull-riding brahmin warriors came to be known as Saptasati.
However, most scholars doubt the authenticity of the Adisura story. Puspa Niyogi, in her 1967 book, Brahmanic Settlements in Different Subdivisions of Ancient Bengal, says historical evidence does not bear out the tale. Other experts point out that there’s no record in Bengal of a king called Adisura, although there existed a Sura dynasty in west Bengal in the 11th century. Different genealogies have been attributed to Adisura, with one version describing him as a petty chief of north Bihar. His capital is located by some in Gauda and by others in Vikrampur. Different dates, ranging from 654 AD to 1060 AD, have been ascribed to the coming of the five Brahmins in various texts and interpretations.
Historian R C Majumdar points out that the traditional texts also aren’t unanimous about whether the Brahmins came from Kannauj or Kashi. He gives three sets of names for the five Brahmins. The compilers of the Rarhi kulajis name them as Bhatta Narayana, Daksha, Chhandada, Harsha and Vedagarbha while in the Varendra texts they are Narayana, Susena, Dharadhara, Gautama and Parasara. Well known kulacharyas such as Edu Mishra and Hari Mishra give another set of names.
What then is one to make of the accounts in these genealogical texts? Says historian Kunal Chakrabarti of Jawaharlal Nehru University, “The story of the five Brahmins probably has no basis in history. But it obviously is part of the historical memory of the community. These texts were written from the early 15th century onwards. From then till the 19th century, many texts consistently mention the story.”
Chakrabarti says the repeated references to the tale in various texts indicate that the memory of a migration from the west was strongly etched in the community. The myth extends to the kayasthas as well, five of whom were supposed to accompanied the Brahmins. While the details may be contested, it is known that brahmins did come to Bengal from the central Ganga valley (loosely, the region that’s now UP) from time to time in the early medieval period.
“One of the reasons for these migrations was that the resident brahmins in Bengal, who themselves had migrated to this region in earlier periods, seemed to have lost the knowledge of Vedas and rituals because they weren’t called upon to perform these duties,” says Chakrabarti.
But why were these texts written a few centuries after the likely migrations? Chakrabarti says the kulaji and kulapanjika texts served a contemporary purpose.
“By the beginning of the 15th century, brahmins felt that the hierarchies within the community had become lax and needed to be laid down more rigidly. These genealogical records set the kulins apart from the rest,” says the professor, whose book, Religious Process: The Puranas and the Making of a Regional Tradition (2001), in part deals with the subject.
By the 18th and 19th century, the wheel had come a full circle when brahmins such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar fought against the oppressive fallouts of kulinism.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/tracking-indian-communities/indian-roots-and-shoots-five-brahmins-and-a-migration-myth/
