Namasudra

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Namasudra is the name of a caste who originally resided in certain regions of Bengal, India.

[edit] History and origin

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In the 11th Century Bengal was ruled by Ballal Sen, the third ruler of the Sen dynasty.

At that time the Brahmans were the second-most influential community after the king.

Ballal Sen tried to implement a set of rules in favor of the king. A majority of Brahmins were not ready to accept these new rules. Eventually, the Brahmans got divided into two groups. One favored the king, while the other group revolted against him. The second group fought a war against the king and lost.

Ballal Sen punished them by annulling their right to be considered Brahmans. Those were instead assigned the caste of ‘Sudra’. After the defeat this group of Brahmans left the realms of Ballal Sen and went to the south-east of Bengal. These people were considered as ‘Sudra’ (lowest of the four Hindu castes). But as they had originally been Brahmans, they were referred to with the prefix of ‘Namashya’ (Ben. = 'respectable').

The word “Namasudra” is a deformed version of ‘Namashya Sudra’.