{{short description|Hindu caste}} {{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox caste | caste_name = Bengali Brahmins | image = Bengali Brahmin.jpg | caption = A Bengali Brahmin priest | languages = Bengali | religions = Hinduism | population = | region1 = | populated_states = West Bengal, Assam, Tripura | publisher = | date = | accessdate = | related = Maithil Brahmin, Utkala Brahmin, Kanyakubja Brahmin }} '''Bengali Brahmins''' are the community of Hindu Brahmins, who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising the Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh.
The Bengali Brahmins, along with Baidyas and Kayasthas, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes of Bengal.<ref name="CasteCulture&Hegemony">{{cite book |first=Sekhar |last=Bandyopadhyay |title=Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPqHAwAAQBAJ&q=kayastha |year=2004 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=81-7829-316-1 |page=20}}</ref> In the colonial era the Bhadraloks of Bengal were primarily, not exclusively, drawn from these three castes.<ref name="Sekhar2004">{{cite book |first=Sekhar |last=Bandyopadhyay |title=Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2SVIflbyHQC&pg=PA25 |year=2004 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=978-0-761-99849-5 |page=25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chakrabarti |first=Sumit |date=2017 |title=Space of Deprivation: The 19th Century Bengali Kerani in the Bhadrolok Milieu of Calcutta |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44508277 |journal=Asian Journal of Social Science |volume=45 |issue=1/2 |pages=56 |doi=10.1163/15685314-04501003 |jstor=44508277 |issn=1568-4849|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Parimal |title=What Happened to the Bhadralok? |publisher=Primus Books |year=2016 |isbn=9789384082994 |location=Delhi}}</ref>
==History== For a long period, Bengal was not part of Vedic culture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDaniel |first=June |url= |title=Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal |date=2004-08-05 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-534713-5 |pages=20 |language=en}}</ref> However, North Bengal was a part of the Aryan acculturation during the Mauryan era, as depicted in the Mahasthan inscription.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Niyogi |first=Puspa |url= |title=Brahmanic Settlements in Different Subdivisions of Ancient Bengal |date=1967 |publisher=Indian Studies: Past & Present |pages=19, 37–38 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=SIRCAR |first=D. C. |url= |title=STUDIES IN THE SOCIETY AND ADMINISTRATION OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL INDIA VOL. 1 |date=1959 |publisher=FIRMA K. L. MUKHOPADHYAY, CALCUTTA |pages=1–4, 18–19}}</ref> By the end of the 3rd century C.E., the region came under the rule of the Magadha Empire under Samudragupta and remained within this empire until the mid-6th century C.E. According to contemporary historians, Brahmanism was found to have gained prominence in Bengal as early as the fourth century C.E. The later Gupta kings of Magadha promoted the growth of Brahmanism in the region while also showing support for Jainism and Buddhism.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Sarma |first=Jyotirmoyee |url= |title=Caste Dynamics Among the Bengali Hindus |date=1980 |publisher=Firma KLM |isbn=978-0-8364-0633-7 |pages=6–11 |language=en}}</ref> Multiple land-grants to Brahmins have been observed since the Gupta Era.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Griffiths |first=Arlo |date=2018 |title=Four More Gupta-period Copperplate Grants from Bengal |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01954015 |journal=Pratna Samiksha: A Journal of Archaeology |volume=New Series |issue=9 |pages=15–57}}</ref> The Dhanaidaha copper-plate inscription, dated to 433 C.E., is the earliest of them and records a grantee Brahmin named Varahasvamin <ref name=":0" /> The Vaigram edict (447–48) mentions land grants to Brahmans in the Pundravardhana region. The Damodarpur copper inscriptions, discovered in the Dinajpur area of Bengal's Rajshahi division, describe a century of the Gupta period, from 443–44 C.E. to 533–34 C.E., also revealing the presence of the Brahmanical group in Bengal; Sircar, however, finds this interpretation doubtful.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Niharranjan |url= |title=History of the Bengali People: Ancient Period |date=1994 |publisher=Orient Longman |isbn=978-0-86311-378-9 |pages=170–172, 191 |language=en}}</ref> During the Gupta period, many Brahmins arrived in Bengal from various parts of India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghosh |first=Suniti Kumar |url= |title=The Tragic Partition of Bengal |date=2002 |publisher=Indian Academy of Social Sciences |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref> Archaeologists found three copper plate grants in the district of Faridpur in East Bengal, with the first two attributed to Dharmaditya and the last to Gopacandra. Among the recipients of these grants were Brahmins, implying the existence of Brahmins at that time.<ref name=":1" /> The 7th-century Nidhanpur copperplate inscription mentions that a marshy land tract adjacent to an existing settlement was given to more than 208 Vaidika Brahmins (Brahmins versed in the Vedas) belonging to 56 gotras and different Vedic schools.<ref>Shin, Jae-Eun (1 January 2018). Region Formed and Imagined: Reconsidering Temporal, Spatial and Social Context of Kāmarūpa, in Lipokmar Dzuvichu and Manjeet Baruah (eds), Modern Practices in North East India: History, Culture, Representation, London and New York: Routledge, 2018, pp. 23–55.</ref> After the Hun invasion in the fifth century, Bengal had been ruled by several independent rulers. Most of these independent kings between the middle of the sixth and seventh centuries were Hindu Brahmanists. Shashanka, a king of Gauda at the beginning of the seventh century, notably stood out as being opposed to Buddhism. Evidence indicates Brahmanism's continuous growth in Bengal during the reign of these autonomous kings.<ref name=":5" /> During Harshavardhan's reign, Huyen-tsang visited Bengal. His records suggest that certain Bengali Brahmins had become monarchs. The ruler of Samatata, whose reign covered the first part of the 7th century C.E., was a Brahmin.<ref name=":4" /> Several Brahmins gradually came from central India beginning in the eighth century, and epigraphs of the time provide numerous examples of Brahmin families coming from various parts of India to settle in Bengal. According to Roy, the migrant Brahmins might mingle with the existing Brahmins of Bengal. The epigraphic evidence indicates that although the Palas were a great patron of Buddhism, they supported and endowed Brahmins too. The land grants made by Palas to Brahmins were carried out with orthodox Hindu rituals as described in the inscriptions of Palas. This evidence shows that even in the period of the Pala dynasty, Brahminic practices prevailed.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" /> The Varman kings were the rulers of eastern Bengal from 1050 to 1150 C.E., while the Sena kings gained influence in Gauda. Eventually, the Senas became the rulers of all of Bengal. The Sena and Varman kings were followers of Brahmanism and were considered orthodox in their beliefs. Historians believe that these rulers introduced certain aspects of Brahmanism to Bengal, which had a more adaptable society compared to the southern and western parts of India where Brahmanism was more strict.<ref name=":5" />
It is traditionally believed that much later, in the 11th century CE, after the decline of the Pala dynasty, a Hindu king, Adisura brought in five Brahmins from Kanauj, his purpose being to provide education for the Brahmins already in the area whom he thought to be ignorant, and revive traditional orthodox Brahminical Hinduism. As per tradition, these five immigrant Brahmins and their descendants went on to become the Kulin Brahmins.<ref name=Hopkins1989pp35-36>{{cite book |title=Krishna consciousness in the West |editor1-first=David G. |editor1-last=Bromley |editor2-first=Larry D. |editor2-last=Shinn |first=Thomas J. |last=Hopkins |chapter=The Social and Religious Background for Transmission of Gaudiya Vaisnavism to the West |publisher=Bucknell University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8387-5144-2 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-EuD3M2QYoC&pg=PA35 |pages=35–36 |access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref> According to Sengupta, multiple accounts of this legend exist, and historians generally consider this to be nothing more than myth or folklore lacking historical authenticity.<ref name=NKSenguptap25>{{cite book |last=Sengupta |first=Nitish K. |title=History of the Bengali-Speaking People |publisher=UBS Publishers' Distributors |year=2001 |isbn=81-7476-355-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6eYsAAAAMAAJ |page=25}}</ref> Identical stories of migration of Orissan Brahmins exist under the legendary king of Yayati Kesari.{{sfn|Witzel|1993|p=267}} According to Sayantani Pal, D.C Sircar opines that, the desideration of Bengali Brahmins to gain more prestige by connecting themselves with the Brahmins from the west, 'could have contributed' to the establishment of the system of 'kulinism'.<ref>{{Citation|last=Pal|first=Sayantani|title=Sena Empire|date=2016|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe043|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Empire|pages=1–2|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe043|isbn=978-1-118-45507-4|access-date=5 February 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Referring to the linkages between class and caste in Bengal, Bandyopadhyay mentions that the Brahmins, along with the other two upper castes, refrained from physical labour but controlled land, and as such represented "the three traditional higher castes of Bengal".<ref name="CasteCulture&Hegemony" />
==Clans== Apart from the common classification as Kulina, Srotriya and Vangaja, Bengali Brahmins are divided into the following clans or divisions:<ref name="Saha1998">{{cite book |first=Sanghamitra |last=Saha |title=A Handbook of West Bengal, Volume 1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=92EwAQAAIAAJ |year=1998 |publisher=International School of Dravidian Linguistics |isbn=81-8569-224-6 |pages=53–54}}</ref><ref name="Kundu1963">{{cite thesis|title=Caste and class in pre-Muslim Bengal|last=Narottam|first=Kundu|date=1963|institution=University of London|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33939/1/11015672.pdf}}</ref> * Radhi * Varendra * Vaidika * Saptasati * Madhyasreni * Sakadwipi
===Kulin Brahmin=== '''Kulin Brahmins''' trace their ancestry to five families of Kanyakubja Brahmins who migrated to Bengal.<ref name=NKSenguptap25/><ref>{{cite book |last=Khandawalla|first=Pradip N|title=Creative Society: Prospects for India |publisher=Wide Canvas |year=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gv33DwAAQBAJ&dq=kulin+bengal+kanyakubja+brahmins&pg=PA117 |page=117|isbn=9789325976689 }}</ref> In the 11th century CE, after the decline of the Pala dynasty, a Hindu king, Adi Sura, brought in five Brahmins and their five attendants from Kannauj, his purpose being to provide education for the Brahmins already in the area, whom he thought to be ignorant, and to revive traditional orthodox Brahminical Hinduism.<ref name=NKSenguptap25/> These Vedic Brahmins were supposed to have nine ''gunas'' (favoured attributes), among which was insistence on same-rank marriages.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cwds.ac.in/ocpaper/reflectionsonkulinpolygamy.pdf |title=Reflections on Kulin Polygamy, p2 |access-date=29 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910041843/http://www.cwds.ac.in/ocpaper/reflectionsonkulinpolygamy.pdf |archive-date=10 September 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Multiple accounts of this legend exist; historians generally consider it to be nothing more than myth or folklore, lacking historical authenticity.<ref name=NKSenguptap25 /> The tradition continues by saying that these incomers settled and each became the founder of a clan.<ref name="Bromley">{{cite book |title=Krishna consciousness in the West |editor1-first=David G. |editor1-last=Bromley |editor2-first=Larry D. |editor2-last=Shinn |first=Thomas J. |last=Hopkins |chapter=The Social and Religious Background for Transmission of Gaudiya Vaisnavism to the West |publisher=Bucknell University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8387-5144-2 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-EuD3M2QYoC&pg=PA35 |pages=35–36 |accessdate=31 October 2011 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719221253/https://books.google.com/books?id=F-EuD3M2QYoC&pg=PA35 |url-status=live }}</ref>
These Brahmins were designated as ''Kulina'' ("superior") in order to differentiate them from the more established local Brahmins.<ref name="Bromley"/> The surnames commonly used by the Kulin Brahmins are Mukherjee, Banerjee, Chatterjee, Ganguly, and Bhattacharjee.<ref name="SocialMobility">{{cite book |title=Social Mobility in Developing Countries: Concepts, Methods, and Determinants: Studies in development economics |editor1-first=Vegard|editor1-last=Iversen| editor2-first= Anirudh|editor2-last=Krishna| editor3-first= Kunal|editor3-last=Sen| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=2022 |isbn=978-0-1928-9685-8 |page=289|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1lVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA289}}</ref> According to Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, there were fifty-six Kulin Brahmin surnames, out of which eight were popular, including Ghosal, Putitunda, Kanjilal and Kundagrami.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vidyasagar|first=Ishvarchandra|title=Against High-Caste Polygamy: An Annotated Translation |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SynFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |page=59|isbn=9780197675908}}</ref>
==Post Partition of India== When the British left India in 1947, carving out separate nations, many Brahmins, whose original homes were in the newly created Islamic Republic of Pakistan, migrated en masse to be within the borders of the newly defined Republic of India, and continued to migrate for several decades thereafter to escape Islamist persecution.<ref>"Pakistan: The Ravaging of Golden Bengal". Time. 2 August 1971.</ref><ref>Das, S. (1990). Communal Violence in Twentieth Century Colonial Bengal: An Analytical Framework. Social Scientist, 18(6/7), 21. doi:10.2307/3517477</ref>
== Notable people == <!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia ♦♦♦---> <!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦---> * Bhavashankari, Queen of Bhurishrestha<ref name="ReferenceA"/> * Mamata Banerjee (1955–present), 8th and present Chief Minister of West Bengal * Surendranath Banerjee (1848–1925), founder of the Indian National Association, first Indian to pass the Indian civil service examination<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dutt |first1=Ajanta |title=Book review 'A Nation in Making': Banerjea's nation-A man and his history |url=https://www.asianage.com/books/book-review-nation-making-banerjea-s-nation-man-and-his-history-005 |access-date=12 September 2020 |work=The Asian Age |date=6 July 2016}}</ref> * Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894), Indian Bengali novelist, poet and journalist <ref>{{cite news |last1=Khan |first1=Fatima |title=Bankim Chandra — the man who wrote Vande Mataram, capturing colonial India's imagination |url=https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/bankim-chandra-the-man-who-wrote-vande-mataram-capturing-colonial-indias-imagination/217506/ |access-date=13 January 2021 |work=The Print |date=8 April 2019}}</ref> * Raja Ganesha, founder of the Ganesha dynasty of Bengal * Ashok Kumar (Ganguly) (1911–2001), Indian film actor<ref name=":3" /> * Kishore Kumar (Ganguly) (1929–1987), Indian playback singer, actor, music director, lyricist, writer, director, producer and screenwriter<ref name=":3">{{cite news |title=Kishore Kumar birthday: His favourite songs |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/kishore-kumar-songs-138753-2011-08-04 |access-date=25 February 2020 |work=India Today |date=4 August 2011 |language=en}}</ref> * Pranab Mukherjee (1935–2020), 13th President of India and a veteran leader of the Indian National Congress<ref>{{cite news |date=11 October 2011 |title=Protocol to keep President Pranab off Puja customs |work=Hindustan Times |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/protocol-to-keep-president-pranab-off-puja-customs/article1-943150.aspx |access-date=12 July 2012 |archive-date=31 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831133141/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/protocol-to-keep-president-pranab-off-puja-customs/story-85VNL9oUY0er5Vj1TxLPyH.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> * Raja Krishnachandra Roy, Raja of Nadia Raj * Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), Indian social reformer * Rudranarayan, Maharaja of Bhurishrestha<ref name="ReferenceA">Bhattacharya, "Raybaghini o Bhurishrestha Rajkahini"</ref> * Dwarkanath Tagore (1794–1846), one of the first Indian industrialists to form an enterprise with British partners<ref>{{cite book |last1=Littrup |first1=Lisbeth |title=Identity In Asian Literature |date=28 October 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-10426-8 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I94rBgAAQBAJ&dq=Dwarkanath+Tagore+brahmin&pg=PA94 |language=en}}</ref> <!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia ♦♦♦---> <!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
==See also== * Kulin Kayastha
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * An Introduction to the Study of Indian History, by Damodar Dharmanand Kosāmbi, Popular Prakasan,35c Tadeo Road, Popular Press Building, Bombay-400034, First Edition: 1956, Revised Second Edition: 1975. * Atul Sur, Banglar Samajik Itihas (Bengali), Calcutta, 1976 * NN Bhattacharyya, Bharatiya Jati Varna Pratha (Bengali), Calcutta, 1987 * RC Majumdar, Vangiya Kulashastra (Bengali), 2nd ed, Calcutta, 1989. * Bhattacharya, Jogendra Nath (1896). Hindu Castes and Sects: An Exposition of the Origin of the Hindu Caste System and the Bearing of the Sects toward Each Other and toward Other Religious Systems. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink. p. iii. * {{Citation |surname1 = Dutta |given1 = K |surname2 = Robinson |given2 = A |year = 1995 |title = Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man |publisher = St. Martin's Press |isbn = 0-312-14030-4 |url-access = registration |url = https://archive.org/details/rabindranathtago00dutt_0 }} * {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nAUBCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |title=Epigraphy and Islamic Culture: Inscriptions of the Early Muslim Rulers of Bengal (1205–1494) |last=Siddiq |first=Mohammad Yusuf |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317587460}} * {{cite journal |last=Witzel |first=Michael |title=Toward a History of the Brahmins |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=113 |year=1993 |issue=2 |pages=264–268 |doi=10.2307/603031 |jstor=603031 |issn=0003-0279}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Chaudhuri |first1=Hemotpaul |title=Journey Of The Dutta - Kannauj to Bengal |date=5 June 2022 |url=https://archive.org/details/journey-of-the-dutta/page/2/mode/2up}}
{{Bengali Hindu people}}
Category:Bengali Brahmins Category:Bengali Hindu castes Category:Social groups of West Bengal Category:Brahmin communities by language