Brāhman, Nāgar
Brāhman, Nāgar.—A class of Gujarāti Brāhmans found in the Nimār District. The name is said to be derived from the town of Vadnagar of Gujarāt, now in Baroda State. According to one account they accepted grants of land from a Rājpūt king, and hence were put out of caste by their fellows. Another story is that the Nāgar Brāhman women were renowned for their personal beauty and also for their skill in music. The emperor Jahāngir, hearing of their fame, wished to see them and sent for them, but they refused to go. The emperor then ordered that all the men should be killed and the women be taken to his Court. A terrible struggle ensued, and many women threw themselves into tanks and rivers and were drowned, rather than lose their modesty by appearing before the emperor. A body of Brāhmans numbering 7450 (or 74½ hundred) threw away their sacred threads and became Sūdras in order to save their lives. Since this occurrence the figure 74½ is considered very unlucky. Banias write 74½ in the beginning of their account-books, by which they are held to take a vow that if they make a false entry in the book they will be guilty of the sin of having killed this number of Brāhmans. The same figure is also written on letters, so that none but the person to whom they are addressed may dare to open them.[1]
The above stories seem to show that the Nāgar Brāhmans are partly of impure descent. In Gujarāt it is said that one section of them called Bārud are the descendants of Nāgar Brāhman fathers who were unable to get wives in their own caste and took them from others. The Bārud section also formerly permitted the remarriage of widows.[2] This seems a further indication of mixed descent. The Nāgars settled in the Central Provinces have for a long time ceased to marry with those of Gujarāt owing to difficulties in communication. But now that the railway has been opened they have petitioned the Rao of Bhaunagar, who is the head of the caste, and a Nāgar Brāhman, to introduce intermarriage again between the two sections of the caste. Many Nāgar Brāhmans have taken to secular occupations and are land-agents and cultivators.
Formerly the Nāgar Brāhmans observed very strict rules about defilement when in the state called Nuven, that is, having bathed and purified themselves prior to taking food. A Brāhman in this condition was defiled if he touched an earthen vessel unless it was quite new and had never held water. If he sat down on a piece of cotton cloth or a scrap of leather or paper he became impure unless Hindu letters had been written on the paper; these, as being the goddess Sāraswati, would preserve it from defilement. But cloth or leather could not be purified through being written on. Thus if the Brāhman wished to read any book before or at his meal it had to be bound with silk and not with cotton; leather could not be used, and instead of paste of flour and water the binder had to employ paste of pounded tamarind seed. A printed book could not be read, because printing-ink contained impure matter. Raw cotton did not render the Brāhman impure, but if it had been twisted into the wick of a lamp by any one not in a state of purity he became impure. Bones defiled, but women’s ivory armlets did not, except in those parts of the country where they were not usually worn, and then they did. The touch of a child of the same caste who had not learned to eat grain did not defile, but if the child ate grain it did. The touch of a donkey, a dog or a pig defiled; some said that the touch of a cat also defiled, but others were inclined to think it did not, because in truth it was not easy to keep the cat out.[3]
If a Brāhman was defiled and rendered impure by any of the above means he could not proceed with his meal.
Group of Nāramdeo Brāhman women.
[1] From Mr. Gopal Datta Joshi’s paper.
[2] Rāsmāla, ii. p. 233.
[3] Rāsmāla, ii. p. 259.