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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2009

ROSALIND O'HANLON
ROSALIND O'HANLON*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2LE, UK Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Maratha Brahman families migrated to Banaras in increasing numbers from the early sixteenth century. They dominated the intellectual life of the city and established an important presence at the Mughal and other north Indian courts. They retained close links with Brahmans back in the Maratha regions, where pressures of social change and competition for rural resources led to acrimonious disputes concerning ritual entitlement and precedence in the rural social order. Parties on either side appealed to Banaras for resolution of the disputes, raising serious questions about the nature of Brahman community and identity. Banaras pandit communities struggled to contain these disputes, even as the symbols of their own authority came under attack from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. By the early eighteenth century, the emergence of the Maratha state created new models of Brahman authority and community, and new patterns for the resolution of such disputes.

Type
Forum: Knowledges in circulation in early modern India
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 201 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

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18 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. Sharma, Har Dutt and Patkar, M.M., Kavīndracandrodaya (Pune: Oriental Book Agency, 1939)Google Scholar. Another collection of praise addresses, from the time of Akbar, is the Naṛasiṃhasarvasavakāvyam, in honour of the pandit Narasimhasrama: see Shastri, Haraprasad, 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. 81–5Google Scholar. 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.

19 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, pp. 179–180. It is difficult to find evidence for widespread use of the term ‘Chitpavan’ for Brahmans from Chiplun, before the seventeenth century. Gode, P.K., ‘The origin and antiquity of the caste-name of the Karahāṭaka or Karhāḍā Brahmins’, in Studies in Indian Cultural History (Pune: Prof. PK Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1969), Vol. III, p. 7Google Scholar.

20 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, pp. 177–179. For a Chitpavan attempt to reduce the ritual entitlements of Kiravants made in the northern Konkan in March 1757, see Oturkar, R.V., Peśvekālin sāmājik va arthik patravyavahāra (Pune: Indian Council for Historical Research, 1950), pp. 123–124Google Scholar. I am extremely grateful to Sumit Guha for this reference.

21 Sharma, M.G., Sārasvata Bhuṣaṇa (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1950), pp. 70–71Google Scholar, and Gode, P.K., ‘Antiquity of the caste name ‘Śeṇavi’, in Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. 5, no. 6, 1937, pp. 152–155Google Scholar.

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25 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. Prinsep, James, ‘Census of the Population of the City of Banaras’, in Asiatic Researches, xvii, 1832, p. 491Google Scholar. See also Sherring, M.A., Tribes and Castes as Represented in Banaras (London: Trubner and Co, 1872)Google Scholar.

26 Notionally a part of the Skandapurāṇa, one of the 18 ‘great’ puranas, the Sahyādrikhaṇḍa is a heterogeneous collection of texts, written over a very long period. The only edition is da Cunha, J. Gerson, Sri Sahyādrikhaṇḍa Skandapurāṇa (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar Press, 1877)Google Scholar. 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. See also Levitt, Stephan H., ‘The Sahyādrikhaṇḍa: some problems concerning a text-critical edition of a Puranic text’, in Purana, Vol. 9, 1, 1977, pp. 8–40Google Scholar; and Levitt, ‘Sahyādrikhaṇḍa: style and content and indices of authorship in the Pātityagrāmanirṇaya’, in Purana, Vol. 24, 1, 1982, pp. 128–145.

27 Da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhaṇḍa, uttarāradha, adhyāya 1, vss. 2–4 and Madhav M. Deshpande, ‘Pañca Gauḍa und Pañca Drāviḍa. Umstrittene Grenzen einer traditionellen Klassifikation’ in Bergunder, M. and Das, R.P., (eds), ‘Arier’ und ‘Draviden’, Konstruktionen der Vergangenheit als Grundlage fur Selbst-und Fremdwahrnehmungen Sudasiens (Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen zu Halle, 2002), pp. 57–78Google Scholar.

28 Da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhaṇḍa, uttarāradha, adhyāya 1, ‘Origins of the Chitpavans’, vss. 39–45.

29 Ibid., adhyāya 2, ‘Origins of the Karastras’, vss. 1–8, and 16–20, and adhyāya 20, vs. 24.

30 Stephan H. Levitt ‘The Pātityagrāmanirṇaya: A Puranic History of Degraded Brahman Villages’, University of Pennsylvania Dissertation, 1974, pp. 175–289.

31 Deshpande, ‘Pañca Gauḍa’, pp. 74–75.

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33 Fukazawa, Hiroshi, ‘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. 1–48Google Scholar; Richards, J.F., Mughal administration in Golconda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan; Wink, Andre, Land and sovereignty in India: agrarian society and politics under the eighteenth-century Maratha Svarajya (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 296–304Google Scholar; Kruijtzer, Gijs, ‘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. 231–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an indispensable account of the growth of Brahman power in the eighteenth century, see Bayly, Susan, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 64–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Perlin, Frank, ‘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. 172–237CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 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 Claessen, H.J.M. and Skalnik, P. (eds), The Study of the State (The Hague: Mouton, 1981), pp. 275–302Google Scholar.

35 Perlin, ‘Of White Whale and Countrymen’, p. 198.

36 Molesworth, James, Marathi-English Dictionary (Bombay: Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857), p. 216Google Scholar. See Gode, ‘The Origin and Antiquity’, p. 9, 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. Tahmankar, D.V., Lokamanya Tilak: Father of Indian Unrest and Maker of Modern India (London: J. Murray, 1956), p. 7Google Scholar. See also Kulkarni, A.R., Medieval Maharashtra (New Delhi: Books and Books, 1996), pp. 162–72Google Scholar.

37 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. Preston, Laurence W., The Devs of Cincvad. A Lineage and the State in Maharashtra (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 51–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Padaval, Tukaram Tatya, Samagra Tukārām Gāthā (Pune: Varada Press, 1996), Vol. II, nos. 6163–6166Google Scholar. For other observations about Maratha Brahmans and service, see Sastri, Surendra Nath (ed.), Viśvaguṇādarśacampū of Venkatadhvari (Varanasi: Vidyabhavana Sanskrit Series, 1963), pp. 111–117Google Scholar.

39 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, pp. 82–91; Vaidya, Narayana Vitthal, Abhiprāyāvaḷī (Bombay: Nirnayasagar Press, 1885)Google Scholar.

40 Gode, ‘Origin and Antiquity’, p. 13.

41 Sharma, Sārasvata Bhuṣaṇa, p.189.

42 See O'Hanlon, Rosalind and Minkowski, Christopher, ‘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. 381–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Avalaskar, SV, Konkanāca Itihāsācī Sādhaneṃ (Pune: Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Sviya Granthamāla, 1953), pp. 2–5Google Scholar.

44 Wagle, N.K., ‘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. 8–25Google Scholar, and Vol. 48, 2, 1970, pp. 295–333, and Deshpande, ‘Pañca Gauḍa’, p. 69.

45 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, p. 176.

46 Madhava, Śatapraśnakalpalatā, P.M. Joshi Collection, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, mss 19, ff. pp. 16–18.

47 V.K. Rajwade, ‘Devarukyāci Mūlotpatti’ in Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala, 1914, reprinted in Saha, M.B., Itihāsacāraya VK Rājavāḍe Samagraha Sāhitya (Dhulia: Rajwade Samsodhana Mandala, 1998), Vol. 7, pp. 186–94Google Scholar.

48 Pandit, Devarukhyāṃvīṣayīṃ Śāstrasaṃmata Vicāra, pp. 39–41.

49 Ibid., p. 18.

50 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. X, Ratnagiri and Savantvadi (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1880), p. 114.

51 I am very grateful to Sumit Guha for pointing out this link.

52 Da Cunha, Sri Sahyādrikhaṇḍa, uttarāradha, adhyāya 5, ‘Consideration of Brahmans’, pp. 6–12.

53 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.

54 For these assemblies, see O'Hanlon, Rosalind, ‘Narratives of Penance and Purification in Western India, c. 1650–1850’ in The Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 2, 2009, pp. 48–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the correspondence of the Prabhu dharmādhikārīs of Nasik, see Potdar, D.V. and Muzumdar, G.N., Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Svīya Granthamālā, No. 33, Vol. 2, (Pune: BISM, 1930), pp. 285–317Google Scholar; and for the Gijare dharmādhikārīs of Karhad, see Bhat, B.V., ‘Acāra, vyavahāra, prāyascitta’, in Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Quarterly, Vol. XIII, 3, December 1932, pp. 91–105Google Scholar.

55 For other assemblies with judicial roles, the majlis, gotasabhā and jātisabhā, see Gune, V.T., The Judicial System of the Marathas (Pune: Sangam Press, 1953), pp. 65–66Google Scholar, 110.

56 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, pp. 104–106. Most of these Brahmans are likely to have been Desasthas.

57 Anne Feldhaus, ‘Religious Geography and the Multiplicity of Regions in Maharashtra’, in Vorah, Rajendra and Feldhaus, Anne, Region, Culture and Politics in India (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), pp. 194–195Google Scholar. See also Feldhaus, , Connected Places: Region, Pilgrimage and Geographical Imagination in India (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 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.

58 Deshpande, ‘Pañca Gauḍa’, p. 57.

59 Vidyabhusana, Satischandra, A History of Indian Logic (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1971), pp. 521–527Google Scholar. For the poetic style associated with the Gauda region, see Pollock, Language of the Gods, pp. 210–212.

60 Gode, P.K., ‘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. 161–162Google Scholar. The Gīrvāṇapadamañjārī 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: Gode, P.K., ‘Some Provincial Customs and Manners Mentioned as Duracārās by Varadarāja (A Pupil of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita ca. 1600–1660)’ in Studies in Indian Cultural History (Pune: Prof. PK Gode Collected Works Publication Committee, 1969), Vol. III, p. 74Google Scholar. For a further discussion of regionalism in Sanskrit literary genres in this period, see Bronner, Yigal and Shulman, David, ‘A Cloud Turned Goose: Sanskrit in the Vernacular Millenium’, in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 43, 1, 2006, pp. 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Pollock, ‘New Intellectuals’, p. 8.

62 Gode, ‘Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara’, pp. 480–485.

63 Sardesai, G.S. (ed.), Paramānandakāvya (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1952), pp. 13–14Google Scholar.

64 P.V. Kane, ‘Kāśīkṣetrātīla akbarakālīna konkaṇastha gharāṇe’, in Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Quarterly, Vol. VII, nos. 11–4, 1926–7, pp. 4–5. See also Pingree, David, Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970–1994), Vol. 5, p. 374Google Scholar.

65 For another Chitpavan in Banaras who was careful to mention his family and subcaste, see Gode, P.K., ‘Viśvanātha Mahādeva Rānaḍe, 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. 258–273Google Scholar.

66 Sardesai, G.S. (ed.), Selections from the Peshwa Daftar (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1934), Vol. 31, pp. 4–5Google Scholar.

67 Visiting Banaras in the 1660s, the traveller Bernier was told that students stayed with their teachers for ten to twelve years. Bernier, Francois, Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1565–1668 (London: H. Milford, 1914), pp. 334–335Google Scholar. This may equally reflect classical conventions about the period of Vedic studentship proper to young Brahmans:Keay, F.E., Indian Education in Ancient and Later Times (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938), p. 30Google Scholar.

68 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. Upadhyaya, Kasinatha, Dharmasindhu (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1968), pp. 1–2Google Scholar; Kane, P.V., History of Dharmaśāstra (Pune: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Vol. 1, pp. 463–465Google Scholar; and Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol. 2, pp. 333–353.

69 Richard Salomon, ‘Biographical Data on Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa of Benaras’ in Bandhopadhyay, Samaresh, Acarya-Vandana: D.R. Bhandarkar Birth Centenary Volume (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1982), pp. 326–336Google Scholar.

70 Benson, ‘Śaṃkarabhaṭṭa's Family Chronicle’, p. 112.

71 Shastri, ‘Dakshini Pandits’, p. 10.

72 Salomon, ‘Biographical Data’, pp. 333–334.

73 Gokhale, R. and Apte, H.N. (eds), Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭaviracitaḥ Tristhalīsetuḥ (Banaras: Anand Asram Press, 1915), p. 208Google Scholar. See also Salomon, Richard, The Bridge to the Three Holy Cities. The Samanya-praghattaka of Narayana Bhatta's Tristhalīsetu (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1985)Google Scholar.

74 This question is discussed in Minkowski, ‘Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara's Mantrakāśikhaṇḍa’, pp. 336–337.

75 Kāśikhaṇḍa (Banaras: no press given, 1908), adhyāya 99, ‘The mahatmya of the Visvesvaralinga’.

76 Prinsep, James, Banaras Illustrated in a Series of Drawings (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1833), p. 68Google Scholar; Altekar, History of Benaras, p. 51.

77 Kāśikhaṇḍa, adhyāya 79, vss. 54–74; adhyāya 98, ‘Celebration of the entry of Visvesvara into the Mukti mandapam’.

78 Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭaviracitaḥ Tristhalīsetuḥ, p. 189; Kāśikhaṇḍa, adhyāya 3, vs. 92.

79 Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭaviracitaḥ Tristhalīsetuḥ, pp. 188–190. These passages from the Tristhalīsetu are taken from Kāśikhaṇḍa, adhyāya 79, vss 53–94. I am particularly grateful to Vincenzo Vergiani and Jim Benson for their assistance with these sections.

80 These Brahmans enjoyed specific local rights as village proprietors, in return for their services. Dash, G.N., ‘The Evolution of Priestly Power: the Suryavamsa Period’ in Eschmann, Anncharlott et al. (eds), The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa (New Delhi: Manohar, 1978), pp. 209–222Google Scholar; G. Pfeffer, ‘Puri's Vedic Brahmans: Continuity and Change in their Traditional Institutions’, in Eschmann, Cult of Jagannath, pp. 421–438; and Panigrahi, Chandrika, ‘Muktimandap Sabha of Brahmans, Puri’ in Bose, Nirmal Kumar, Data on Caste in Orissa (Calcutta: Anthropological Survey of India, 1960), pp. 179–192Google Scholar.

81 Pimputkar, Ramakrsna Sadasiva, Citaḷebhaṭṭa Prakaraṇa (Bombay: Karnatak Press, 1926), pp. 76–77Google Scholar.

82 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.

83 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.

84 See Pandit, Devarukhyāṃvīṣayīṃ Śāstrasaṃmata Vicāra, pp. 35–38. We are not able to identify this Kozhrekar. Abhyankar and Citale are both old Chitpavan family names: Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, p. 115.

85 Benson, ‘Śaṃkarabhaṭṭa's family chronicle’, p. 12. Anantabhatta Citale of the Konkan is listed in Raghavan, V. et al. , New Catalogus Catalogorum (Madras: University of Madras, 1949–2000), Vol. 1, p. 136Google Scholar. (Hereafter NCC.) No works have been traced.

86 Tripathi, S.S. (ed.), Bhaṭṭavaṃśakāvyam (Allahabad: Bhartiya Manisha Sutram, 1983), p. 11Google Scholar. I am very grateful to James Benson for this reference.

87 Gode, P.K., ‘The Chronology of Vijñānabhikṣu and his Disciple Bhāvā Gaṇeśa, the Leader of the Citpāvan Brahmins of Benares’, in Adyar Library Bulletin, Vol. viii, Pt 1, 17 February 1944, pp. 20–28Google Scholar. See also CC Vol. 1, p. 144.

88 Krsna Sesa: NCC, Vol. IV, pp. 364–366.

89 For Vidyanivasa Bhattacarya see also Upadhyaya, Kāśī ki pānditya paramparā, p. 30, and Shastri, A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, Vol. 6, ‘Vyākaraṇa’, p. lxxxiii, and CC, Vol. 1, p. 574a.

90 Kane, P.V. and Patwardhan, SG, Vyavahāramayūkha of Bhaṭṭa Nīlakaṇṭha (Pune: PV Kane, 1926), p. viiGoogle Scholar; Dandekar, R.N. (ed.) Sanskrit and Maharashtra (Pune: University of Pune, 1972), p. 31Google Scholar.

91 Aryavaraguru, ‘On the Sheshas of Benaras’, p. 247.

92 Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol. 2, p. 341.

93 Apte, D.V., ‘Sārasvatāce Brāhmanatva’, Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Quarterly, Vol. XV, no 4, March 1935, pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

94 A ‘full’ Brahman was a ṣaṭkarmī, 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. Apte, V.M., Social and Religious Life in the Grhya Sutra (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1931), p. 11Google Scholar.

95 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.

96 ‘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’, ‘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.

97 Aryavaraguru, ‘On the Sheshas of Benaras’, p. 251.

98 Cakrapani Sesa: NCC, Vol. VI, p. 283. A Cakrapani Pandita also contributed to the Kavīndracandrodaya: p. 10.

99 Ayacita and Jade are Karhade names. Dharmadhikari and Dasaputra are Desastha names; Pauranik may be Chitpavan or Desastha.

100 Gunjikar, Sarasvatī Maṇḍala, Appendix 2, pp. 22–24.

101 Kamalakara Bhatta: NCC Vol. III, pp. 161–165.

102 See Gode, P.K., ‘Some Karhāḍe Brahmin Families at Benares Between AD 1550 and AD 1660’ in Studies in Indian Cultural History, Vol. III, pp. 33–6Google Scholar; and Gode, ‘Some Authors of the Ārḍe Family and their Chronology between AD 1600 and 1825’, in Journal of the Bombay University, September 1943, Vol. XII, Pt 2, pp. 63–69; and S.L. Katre, ‘Nārāyanabhaṭṭa Ārḍe, His Works and Date’, in Bhāratīya Vidyā, March-April 1945, pp. 74–86.

103 Raghunatha Bhatta: CC Vol. 1, p. 484a. His dates are usually given as c. 1545–1625, making this identification a possibility only.

104 Haridiksita: CC Vol. 1, pp. 756a-b.

105 Laksmana Bhatta: CC Vol. 1, p. 537a.

106 Gode, ‘Some Karhāḍe Brahmin Families’.

107 Dharmadhikari and Purandare here are Desastha names.

108 1630 to 1632 were years of exceptionally severe famine in Maharashtra, which may account for shifts in the Maratha population of Banaras. See Kulkarni, A.R., Maharashtra in the Age of Shivaji (Pune: Deshmukh and Co., 1969), pp. 94–104Google Scholar.

109 Potdar and Muzumdar, Śivacaritra Sāhitya, Vol. 2, pp. 354–355.

110 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.

111 Pimputkar, Citaḷebhaṭṭa Prakaraṇa, pp. 78–81.

112 The Kāśikhaṇḍa 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, maṇikarṇī, 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.

113 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 Houben, Jan E.M., ‘The Brahman Intellectual: History, Ritual and “Time out of Time”’, in Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 30, 5, October 2002, pp. 463–479CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

114 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.

115 Some names occur here as pairs, suggesting a family or tutelary relationship.

116 Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, pp. 24–25.

117 Nilakantha Bhatta: NCC Vol. 10, pp. 174–175.

118 Brahmanendrasarasavati: CC Vol. 1, p. 389a; Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 29, and Gode, P.K., ‘The Identification of Gosvāmi Nṛsimhāśrama of Dārā Shukoh's Sanskrit Letter with Brahmendra Sarasvatī of the Kavīndracandrodaya’, in Studies in Indian Literary History, Vol. II, pp. 447–451Google Scholar.

119 Anantadeva, fl. 1645–75: NCC Vol. 1, p. 127.

120 Gagabhatta: CC Vol. 1, pp. 587b–588a.

121 Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 9, identify this Bhayyabhatta as the son of Bhattaraka Bhatta and author of Dharmaratna: CC Vol. 1, p. 416b.

122 Appayadiksita III: NCC Vol. 1, p. 200.

123 Gode, P.K., ‘Some New Evidence Regarding Devabhaṭṭa Mahāśabde, the father of Ratnākarabhaṭṭa, the Guru of Sevai Jaising of Amber, (AD 1699–1743)’, in Poona Orientalist, Vol. VIII, 3–4, 1943–1944, p. 132Google Scholar.

124 Ibid., p. 137.

125 Khandadeva: NCC Vol. V, 173–4; Upadhyaya, Kāśī ki pānditya paramparā, pp. 31–35; Gode, P.K., ‘Chronology of the Works of Khanḍādeva’, in Law, Bimala Churn (ed.), D.R. Bhandarkar Felicitation Volume (Calcutta: Indian Research Institute, 1940), pp. 10–16Google Scholar; McRea, ‘Novelty of Form’.

126 The NCC lists several possible identifications: NCC Vol. 1, pp. 134–135.

127 For Tilbandesvara, see Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 29.

128 Sharma and Patkar, Kavīndracandrodaya, p. 6. NCC Vol. VII, pp. 188–190.

129 Shastri, ‘Dakshini Pandits’, p. 13.

130 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.

131 For a marriage between a Desastha and a Karhade in this period, see Gode, ‘Identification of Raghunātha’, pp. 414–415.

132 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.

133 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.

134 Bernier, Travels, p. 345; Gode, PK, ‘Samudra-Sangama, a Philosophical Work by Dara Shukoh, Son of Shah Jahan Composed in AD 1655’, in Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Quarterly, Vol. 94, October 1943, pp. 75–88Google Scholar.

135 Eaton, Richard M., ‘Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States’ in Gilmartin, David and Lawrence, Bruce B. (eds.) Beyond Turk and Hindu: rethinking religious identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), pp. 8–9, 254–260Google Scholar.

136 Eaton, ‘Temple Desecration’, 265–266.

137 This judgement is in the Śyenavījātidharmanirṇaya, Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Varsika Itivrtta (Pune: BISM, 1914), pp. 296–305. See also O'Hanlon and Minkowski, ‘What makes people who they are?’, pp. 393–397.

138 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 Śyenavījātidharmanirṇaya, p. 300.

139 See Bendrey, V.S., Coronation of Sivaji the Great (Bombay: PPH Bookstall, 1960)Google Scholar.

140 Pimputkar, Citaḷebhaṭṭa Prakaraṇa, pp. 82–84.

141 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, ‘Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara’, pp. 485–486. However, the identification remains very much to be confirmed.

142 Deshpande, ‘Localising the Universal Dharma’ (unpublished mss).

143 For Prabhune's letters describing his judicial role, see Athavale, Sadisiva, Rāmaśāstri Prabhuṇe, (Pune: Srividya Prakasana, 1988)Google Scholar. For the peshwa regime's attempts to foster Brahman community, see O'Hanlon and Minkowski, ‘What makes people who they are?’, pp. 410–12.

144 Gordon, Stewart, The Marathas 1600–1818 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 146CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

145 Pimputkar, Citaḷebhaṭṭa Prakaraṇa, pp. 85–89.

146 O'Hanlon, ‘Narratives of Penance and Purification’, pp. 65–7; Bhat, ‘Acāra, vyavahāra, prāyascitta’, pp. 91–105.

147 Bendrey, V.S., Mahārāṣṭretihāsaci Sādhaneṃ (Bombay: Mumbai Marathi Granthasangrahalaya, 1966), Vol. II, p. 491Google Scholar.

148 For the processes of regionalization and vernacularisation in the Maratha regions, see Guha, Sumit, ‘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. 23–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, pp. 41–54.

149 These documents have been reprinted in Mule, C.Y. et al. , (eds), Devarūkhe (Bombay: Ramesh Visnu Nimbkar, 1973), pp. 87–107Google Scholar.

150 Madhav Bhole and Chandrakant Laksman Pimputkar, personal communication.

151 Tilak, B.G., Srimadbhagavadgita-Rahasya (Pune: Kesari Office, 1936), Vol. 1, pp. 55–56Google Scholar.

152 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 dnyāti itihāsa saṃśodhan, mss, ff. 7v-8.

153 Ketkar, S.V., Mahārāṣṭriya Dnyānakośa (Pune: Mahārāṣṭriya Dnyānakośa Mandala, 1925), Vol. 15, p. 155Google Scholar.

154 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 Bhārata Itihāsa Saṃśodhaka Maṇḍala Quarterly. See Rajwade, ‘Devarukyāci Mūlotpatti’, pp. 186–94.

155 Sukla, Pandit Surya Narayana, Bhāṭṭa Cintāmaṇi (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1933), pp. 1–2Google Scholar; Sastri, Cinnasvami, Mīmāṃsākaustubha (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1933), pp. 2–3Google Scholar; Bhattacharyya, Dineshchandra, ‘Sanskrit Scholars of Akbar's Time’, in Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIII, 1937, p. 35Google Scholar.

156 But see Deshpande, ‘Localising the Universal Dharma’, and Pollock, ‘New Intellectuals’, p. 20.