Origins of Caste Identity Among the Maithil Brahmins of North Bihar
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Recasting the Brahmin in Medieval Mithila: Origins of Caste Identity among the Maithil Brahmins of North Bihar by Anshuman Pandey A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee Emeritus Professor Thomas R. Trautmann, Chair Professor Madhav Deshpande Professor Judith T. Irvine Professor Mrinalini Sinha Professor Ronald G. Suny © 2014 Anshuman Pandey All rights reserved Dedication To my mother and father Krishna and Satya Sheel Pandey for making me who I am and to my grandfather Ramroop Pandey for teaching me about who I am ii Acknowledgments This dissertation seeks to satisfy the many curiosities that motivated my study of the history of India over two decades ago. It all started with the The Wonder That Was India by A. L. Basham. My father found that book for me on one of our many Saturday afternoon trips to the public library. The more I read Basham, the more questions I had about India. My father patiently explained whatever he could and my grandfather would address the finer details. My interest in India was further peaked at University of Washington where I learned Indian history and culture from Professor Frank Conlon. In Seattle, my eyes were further opened to the culture of India when I studied Hindi with Professor Michael Shapiro, Sanskrit with Professor Richard Salomon, medieval Hindi with Professor Heidi Pauwels, and Urdu with Dr. Naseem Hines. At that time I wondered whether the intensive course in Bengali that I studied with the late Professor Carol Salomon was worth the daily six hours during the summer, but little did I know how useful it would be when I stumbled across Maithili when I returned many years later as a graduate student at the Jackson School of International Studies. It was there that my focus on language and the politics of language in India took shape. Professor Reşat Kasaba from the Near and Middle East Studies program taught me research methodology in the social sciences and Professor K. Sivaramakrishnan provided a iii solid grounding in the field of modern South Asian studies. My efforts were further guided by Professor Anand Yang, Professor Paul Brass, and Professor Shapiro, all of whom advised me on my master’s thesis regarding the politics of the Maithili language. I had planned to return to my profession in information technology after my master’s program, but Professor Lisa Mitchell convinced me otherwise. She advised me to pursue my studies and suggested that the University of Michigan would be a good place to do so, and handed me a copy of Aryans and British India by Thomas R. Trautmann. That interaction changed the course of my interests in India. I did not realize the extent to which Professor Trautmann would reshape and expand my ideas about India and the topics I wanted to study. This dissertation unknowingly took shape as an essay written for a seminar on kinship taught by Professor Trautmann and Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik. I never would have imagined the lure of ‘kinship’. I went to Ann Arbor wanting to write about language, nationalism, and politics in the 20th century and somehow found myself writing about genealogy, kinship, and caste in the 14th century. But, I did manage to study nationalism with Professor Ronald Suny and linguistic anthropology with Professor Judith Irvine, both of whom showed me ways of expanding my interests in these fields beyond the boundaries of the present. I never imagined I would ever have to use the Sanskrit I learned years ago, so I am thankful to Professor Madhav Deshpande for kindly helping me to remember. Professor Mrinalini Sinha, who came to Ann Arbor right before I began my research, was a source of inspiration and a treasure trove of knowledge on Bihar, and encouraged my studies of Bihar beyond the scope of politics. iv My friends in India also opened my eyes to the depth of history and culture of Bi- har. Professor Hetukar Jha graciously spoke with me for hours about Mithila and provided me access to numerous invaluable sources and contacts. The staff at the Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation in Darbhanga eagerly opened their doors and cab- inets to me, as did the people at the Bihar State Archives in Patna. Gajendra Thakur of New Delhi provided me with digitized copies of the genealogical records of the Maithil Brahmins. My research in India would not have been as joyous or complete were it not for Tejakar Jha, who took me to Darbhanga and shared his personal knowledge and insights regarding Raj Darbhanga and all things Maithil. His own admiration for the history and culture of Mithila was itself an important primary source of motivation. This dissertation would not have been possible were it not for Professor Trautmann. When I arrived in Ann Arbor for a visit before beginning my graduate studies, he asked me how I became interested in the history of India. I told him that it was because of Basham. He replied that he studied with Basham in London. I then informed him that it was his own book on ‘Aryans’ that inspired me to pursue doctoral studies at Michigan. I am honored to have been taught, indirectly and directly, by scholars of this great parampara. But, I offer my apologies to them, for in every bushel there is certainly a bad apple. Over the years Professor Trautmann has patiently endured my intellectual and geographical wanderings and somehow maintained confidence in me despite my long gaps in communication. “Eyes on the prize!” he constantly advised. I may have blinked a few times along the way, but it’s now almost within reach. v Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgments iii List of Figures viii List of Tables ix Abstract x Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Rebirth of a Brahmin 24 1.1 Perceiving a Brahmin through the Senses . 25 1.2 Ideology of Genealogical Identity . 33 1.3 Genealogy and Marriage . 42 1.4 Genealogy and Personhood . 49 1.5 Genealogical Foundations of Jāti . 62 1.6 Conclusion . 66 Chapter 2 The Making of a Maithil 72 2.1 Crossing the Sadānīra . 73 2.2 Formation of a Territorial Community . 81 2.3 Ideology of the Territorial Lineage . 90 2.4 Lineage and Land . 96 2.5 Lineage and Exclusion . 108 2.6 Brahmins and the State . 113 2.7 Conclusion . 117 Chapter 3 The Best of Brahmins 124 3.1 Brahmins before Pañjī Prabandha . 125 3.2 Recognizing the Status of a Brahmin . 141 3.3 Status and Marriage . 151 3.4 Status and Personhood . 156 3.5 Origins of Lineage Rank . 163 vi 3.6 Conclusion . 166 Chapter 4 The Brahmin as King 169 4.1 The Start of Brahmin Rule . 171 4.2 The Nature of Brahmin Rulership . 177 4.3 The Second Phase of Brahminical Rule . 187 4.4 Brahmin Kings and Brahminical Society . 199 4.5 The End of Brahmin Rule . 200 Chapter 5 The ‘Conundrum’ of Brahmin Identity 207 5.1 The Tension Between King and Brahmin . 210 5.2 Tensions of Kingship and Kinship . 215 5.3 King’s Control of Lineage Rank . 220 5.4 King’s Control of Individual Rank . 223 5.5 The King and His Marriage . 226 5.6 Internalizing the Conundrum . 227 5.7 Sustaining the ‘Conundrum’ . 229 5.8 Conclusion . 231 Conclusion 239 Bibliography 244 vii List of Figures 1.1 The sixteen ancestors enumerated in the uteṛha pañjī . 70 1.2 Maithil Brahmin kinship categories . 71 4.1 The Oini lineage . 203 4.2 The Oinivara rulers of Tirhut . 204 4.3 The Oinivara rulers of Champaran . 205 4.4 The Khandavala rulers of Tirhut . 206 viii List of Tables 2.1 The śākhā, gotra, and pravara of the Maithil Brahmins. 122 2.2 Classification of active Maithil Brahmin mūla-s according to gotra. 123 3.1 Thirteen original Shrotriya mūla-s. 153 3.2 Established mūla-s of the Maithil Brahmins . 168 5.1 Shrotriya Shrenis with the Laukit and Mula-grama . 234 5.2 Yogya Shrenis with the Laukit and Mula-grama . 235 ix Abstract Recasting the Brahmin in Medieval Mithila: Origins of Caste Identity among the Maithil Brahmins of North Bihar by Anshuman Pandey Very little is known about the historical origins of Brahmin caste communities in India. The present study attempts to explain the origins of caste identity among the Maithil Brahmin community of north Bihar, taking advantage of exceptionally rich primary sources main- tained by the community over a period of six centuries. I examine the development of identity of the Maithil Brahmin community through the themes of genealogy, territory, and authority. I begin my analysis by investigating the creation of a corporate ‘Maithil’ identity that resulted from a census of Brahmins conducted by the king of Tirhut in the 14th cen- tury. This census formed the basis of a comprehensive genealogical record known as pañjī prabandha, which was used for determining community identity through the enforcement of rules of endogamy by which the purity of the Brahmin caste was maintained. Genealogy was linked to territory by identifying a limited number of Brahmin patrilineages (called mūla) descending from founding ancestors of particular villages. The territorial basis for Brahmin identity in Mithila was based upon the genealogical record. So also was the au- x thority of Brahmins within the Maithil community, whose patrilineages were differentiated into three ranked grades, which were based upon internal criteria for measuring the status of individuals. Genealogy, territory, and authority converged to produce the fourth as- pect of identity among the Maithil Brahmins: kingship.