Brāhman, Sanādhya
Brāhman, Sanādhya, Sanaurhia.—The Sanādhyas are considered in the Central Provinces to be a branch of the Kanaujia division. Their home is in the Ganges-Jumna Doāb and Rohilkhand, between the Gaur Brāhmans to the north-west and the Kanaujias to the east. Mr. Crooke states that in some localities the Sanādhyas intermarry with both the Kanaujia and Gaur divisions. But formerly both Kanaujias and Gaurs practised hypergamy with the Sanādhyas, taking daughters from them in marriage but not giving their daughters to them.[1] This fact indicates the inferiority of the Sanādhya group, but marriage is now becoming reciprocal. In Bengal the Sanādhyas account for their inferiority to the other Kanaujias by saying that their ancestors on one occasion at the bidding of a Rāja partook of a sacrificial feast with all their clothes on, instead of only their loin-cloths according to the rule among Brāhmans, and were hence degraded. The Sanādhyas themselves have two divisions, the Sārhe-tīn ghar and Dasghar, or Three-and-a-half houses and Ten houses, of whom the former are superior, and practise hypergamy with the latter. Further, it is said that the Three-and-a-half group were once made to intermarry with the degraded Kataha or Mahā-Brāhmans, who are funeral priests.[2] This further indicates the inferior status of the Sanādhyas. The Sanaurhia criminal caste of pickpockets are supposed to be made up of a nucleus of Sanādhya Brāhmans with recruits from all other castes, but this is not certain. In the Central Provinces a number of Sanādhyas took to carrying grain and merchandise on pack-bullocks, and are hence known as Belwār. They form a separate subcaste, ranking below the other Sanādhyas and marrying among themselves. Mr. Crooke notes that at their weddings the Sanādhyas worship a potter’s wheel. Some make an image of it on the wall of the house, while others go to the potter’s house and worship his wheel there. In the Central Provinces after the wedding they get a bed newly made with newār tape and seat the bride and bridegroom on it, and put a large plate at their feet, in which presents are placed. The Sanādhyas differ from the Kanaujias in that they smoke tobacco but do not eat meat, while the Kanaujias eat meat but do not smoke. They greet each other with the word Dandāwat, adding Mahārāj to an equal or superior.
Group of Nāramdeo Brāhman men.
[1] Tribes and Castes, art. Sanādhya.
[2] Crooke, ibidem, paras. 3 and 6.