Shrimali Brahmins

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Shrimali Brahamins are believed to have originated from Srimal nagar ( present Bhinmal) in Jalore district in Indian state of Rajasthan.There are 14 gotras .

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[edit] History

Shrimal a place in India's Rajasthan State . presently known as Bhinmal. Shrimal is a combination of " Shri " and " Mal " . " Shri " is popularly interpreted as Laksmi , the goddess of wealth . " Shri " also means beauty and brightness , "Mal" means place . Thus Shrimal about 800 years ago was a beautiful prosperous place where along with other castes , Goldsmiths too lived , created pieces of beauty out of gold and prospered with other communities.

Unfortunately with constant invasions by foreigners on the North-Western borders of India , Shrimal broke down and thereby received the name Bhinmal . In Sanskrit language , the word Bhinna means broken or separated and therefore Bhinmal means broken place . According to Shrimal Puran (part of Skanda Puran) due to curse of Rishi Gautam and Goddess Laksmi Shrimali Nagar decentralised and it's prosperity and population come down. Since Shrimal Nagar suffered a lot, the people living there were forced to migrate. Most of them started migrating towards Gujarat and Marwar (Rajasthan). Therefore most of the Shrimali Brahmins presently residing in these two states, although they had moved and established themselves all over the world, with their old traditions and modern profession.

[edit] Customs

As an assertion of their rights, it is the brides of the Shrimali Brahmins who ride the mare .Shrimalis have two other customs related to the marriage ceremony in which women play a role different from the normal Hindu practice. Just before the ceremony begins, the mothers of both the bride and the groom exchange garlands and take rounds of the holy fire. One special point of shrimali's marriage is that boy take girl in his hand and take four rounds of the holy fire and rest other four rounds in normal way.

[edit] Notable Shrimalis

  • Prerana Shrimali, a dancer [2]
  • Niranjan Trivedi, Hasya Lekhak, Gujarati Sahitya (Humor columnist) News Paper Divya Bhaskar & Sandesh. He won Sahitya Akadami Award and many other awards of Gujarati Sahitya.
  • Dr. Raghunandan Tripathi, retired Officer on Special Duty for Sanskrit Education, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Author, "A Cultural Study of Matsya Purān," doctoral dissertation submitted to Vikram University, Ujjain, 1968.

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