Anavil Brahmin

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Anavil Brahmins
ReligionsHinduism
LanguagesGujarati
CountryIndia
Populated statesGujarat
RegionWest India
EthnicityIndian

Anavil Brahmins are a community of Brahmins who, despite not being numerically superior, are particularly dominant in the Surat and Bulsar districts of south Gujarat, India, where they have been significant land-owners and have an influential role in politics.[1][2]

The Anavil are among the lay Brahmins communities who are not allowed to perform a priestly function. They comprise two sub-groups, called the Desai and the Bhathela, though both use the surname Desai.[3] The former acted as tax farmers during the era of the Mughal Empire, and developed into one of the dominant land-owning groups in South Gujarat.[2] They eventually underwent a process of sanskritisation that saw them conform more closely to the classical Brahmin practices, such as dowry marriage, while the Bhathela continued to follow the brideprice system for marriage.[1] The Desai are fewer in number but superior in traditional status.

According to Shah, most other Brahmins in the region do not consider the Anavils to be Brahmins due to the fact they are not priests or connected to Sanskritic learning.[4]

They did not practice female infanticide.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Goody, Jack (1990). The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive: Systems of Marriage and the Family in the Pre-Industrial Societies of Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-52136-761-5.
  2. ^ a b Streefkerk, Hein (1985). Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat. Popular Prakashan. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-86132-067-7.
  3. ^ Streefkerk, Hein (1985). Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat. Popular Prakashan. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-86132-067-7.
  4. ^ Shah, A.M. (1982). "Division and hierarchy: an overview of caste in Gujarat". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 16: 9.
  5. ^ Shah, A. M.; Baviskar, Baburao Shravan; Ramaswamy, E. A.; Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar (1996). Social Structure and Change: Women in Indian society. SAGE Publications. p. 197.

Further reading[]

  • Jan Breman (2007). The Poverty Regime in Village India: Half a Century of Work and Life at the Bottom of the Rural Economy in South Gujarat. Oxford University Press.
  • Klaas W. van der Veen (1972). I Give Thee My Daughter: A Study of Marriage and Hierarchy Among the Anavil Brahmans of South Gujarat. Van Gorcum.
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