Goud (also spelt as Gaud or Gawd) Saraswat Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin community in India and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community. They belong to the Pancha (five) Gauda Brahmana groups. They are popularly referred to by the acronym GSB. They primarily speak Konkani as their mother tongue.
Video Goud Saraswat Brahmin
History
Reference to Saraswat names are found in Shilaharas as well as Kadamba copper plate inscriptions.The inscriptions found in Goa bear testimony to the arrival of Brahmin families in the Konkan region.
The Shilaharas seem to have invited so-called pure Aryan Brahmins and Kshatriyas from some places in the north to settle in Konkan. These 'imported' Brahmins later on came to be called Gaud Saraswat Brahmins.
Sahyadrikhanda and Mangesh Mahatmya allude to migrations of Saraswat brahmins, constituting sixty-six families, who settled in eight villages of Goa. There were regional variations among the Saraswats, such as those among Bardeskars, Pednekars and Sastikars. The Konkana mahatmya, from the 17th century CE, deals with the internal rivalry of the Saraswats and strained relations between these groups. In Kalhana's Rajatarangini (12th century CE), the Saraswats are mentioned as one of the five Pancha Gauda Brahmin communities residing to the north of the Vindhyas.
The GSB ancestors identified themselves as of the Saraswat section of the northern Gaud division, in contrast to their Maharashtra and Karnataka Brahman neighbors of the southern division. Many Saraswats left Goa after the invasion of Malik Kafur to the neighbouring regions and during the period of religious persecution of the Portuguese also Saraswats migrated to Uttar Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and North Konkan. The Saraswat Brahmins particularly served as Administrators,village revenue collectors (Kulkarnis), financiers,landlords,Priests,Teachers and Merchants in the intra-Asian trade, and diplomats. Many sources of government income in Goa, Konkan and elsewhere, including taxes on commodities and customs duties, remained in their hands.
Maps Goud Saraswat Brahmin
People
See also
- List of Saraswats
- Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins
- Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin
References
Further reading
- Suryanath U Kamath (1992). The origin and spread of Gauda Saraswats.
- Venkataraya Narayan Kudva (1972). History of the Dakshinatya Saraswats. Samyukta Gauda Saraswata Sabha.
- Ramachandra Shyama Nayak. "Saraswath Sudha".
- Kawl, M. K. Kashmiri Pandits: Looking to the Future.
- Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513777-9.
- Hock, Hans (1999) "Through a Glass Darkly: Modern "Racial" Interpretations vs. Textual and General Prehistoric Evidence on Arya and Dasa/Dasyu in Vedic Indo-Aryan Society." in Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia, ed. Bronkhorst & Deshpande, Ann Arbor.
- Shaffer, Jim G. (1995). "Cultural tradition and Palaeoethnicity in South Asian Archaeology". In George Erdosy. Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. ISBN 3-11-014447-6.
- Conlon, Frank F. (1974). "Caste by Association: The Gauda Sarasvata Brahmana Unification Movement". The Journal of Asian Studies. 33 (3): 351-365. doi:10.2307/2052936. JSTOR 2052936. (Subscription required (help)).
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