Chaturvedi

The Chaturvedi Brahmins, or sometimes just Chaturvedi are an endogamous Brahmin community found mainly in western Uttar Pradesh. A Brahmin family name indicating that the title bearer's forefathers were proficient in all of the four Vedas (including the Vedic branch one is born into).

Distribution

The origin of Chaturvedis goes back to Mathura (a holy land of Lord Krishna). The Land/Bhumi Of Chaturvedis and have their majority amongst Chaturvedis. Chaturvedi families were residing near Cities like Mathura,Agra and Mainpuri and nearby villages like Chanderpur, Bateshwar, Pinhat, Holipura, Tarsokhar, Kamtari, Sikandarpur etc. In 17th century when Aurangzeb attacked these Chaturvedi families it also resulted in division of Mathur chaturvedies into two categories, Meethey and Kaduwe.

Mithe choubey belong to the group of people who negotiated peace with the Muslim invaders and Kadwe choubeys belong to the group who did not negotiate with the Muslim rulers and choose to fight for their home land by engaging in guerrilla warfare with the invaders and therefore called Kadwe (bitter).

Other than these two major categories, there are other surnames of Chaturvedi's also which include Badaluwe, Paimanga, etc. Kuleen is also nothing but name of Kaduwe chaturvedies

A Brahmin family name indicating that the title bearer's forefathers were proficient in all of the four Vedas (including the vedic branch one is born into). This was considered a significant achievement and an elevated social status. Legend has it that it takes 16 human lives for one to master the four vedas, the holy books of unlimited knowledge. If one were to master all the vedas in one human life, that was indeed a super human achievement and therefore the title Chaturvedi.

Chaturvedies are visible in Mathura territory for thousands of years, they are evident in Vishnu Puran, Varahpuran sort of holy vedic books. they were there in Mathura when Buddha has visited the city. They were there when Sikandar attacked India. Their origin is said to be derived from Brahma.

Chaturvedies dharma was "Smriti" and they were so efficient in transferring the knowledge of vedas from one peedhi to another.

Chaturvedies are very fond of eating and they eat a lot whether it is sweet or sour.

Mathur Chaturvedis still have their roots in Mathura and they are all bound together by the Mathur Chaturvedi Mahasabha and usually they have get-togethers that consist of Chaturvedis living in a particular city. Chaturvedi Sabhas ( meetings) of Kanpur and other cities of UP are famous for the large number of gatherings. Annual Mathur Chaturvedi Mahasbaha ( a very large gathering ) is held every year in Delhi and prominent Chaturvedis from all over India and other personalities are invited to the meetings.

Language

Like other people of the region (Mathura, Agra, etc.), their dialect of Hindi is best described as Braj, and the area termed BrajBhumi. This group of people who are descendants of a priestly class have also been some times called 'Mathura ke Pande'.The language which they speak is called "Brijbhasha".

Practices

Purity of blood through specific diet and respective "In-chaturvedi" marriages only saved Mathur Chaturvedi culture around Mathura and Being Brahmin, they are strict Vegetarians and usually neither smoke nor drink. Chaturvedis are known for their unique traditions ( marriage in own community only, etc.). The strict followers of Chaturvedi traditions do not eat garlic or onions.

By far, among the best known early personalities hailing to this group, must be the Birbal the wisest ever known personality from Akbar regime, Hindi poet Bihari Lalgovind btrijanand chaturvedi.

Sir Laxmi Pati Misra, who served at high levels with the federal government during the British rule was a graduate of the famous Engineering Institute based at Roorkee. His grandson, Gaurav Misra, a Tennis player, represented India (junior Tennis) bringing winning glory, along with the Amritraj brothers (Vijay and Anand) at the Asian Games in Bangkok 1966.

Also, a great persona Makhanlal Chaturvedi who gave writing a new dimension was amongst the great Chaturvedis.

Kanhaiya Lal (originally from Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh) was a talented and well regarded character actor in the Hindi movies during 1940-1960's. Unfortunately, he was typecast for certain roles, thereby limiting his work.

Ashwini Chaturvedi (Holipura/Kanpur) played a key role in the development of Cricket in the state of U.P. in 1960s as one of its most successful player (batting), at a time when the talent pool in this game was dominated by players from other regions of the country.One of the recent stars of the chaturvedi community is Juhi Chaturvedi the story writer of the Hindi film "Vicky Donor",which was a mega hit and the film received three national awards and she also received the filmafare award for the best story in 2012. rajasthan