Jujhautiya Brahmin

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The Jujhautiya Brahmin sometimes spelt as Jijhotia are an endogamous Brahmin community found the Chambal and Yamuna river valleys in the north, and the Narbada valley in the south. Chhatarpur District in Madhya Pradesh is the centra and cultural focus of this community. They are a sub-group of the Kanyakubja Brahmins. They are one of the more important communities in Bundelkhand.[1]

Origin

"Kanyakubj Vanshavali" mentions five branches of Kanyakubja Brahmins as Saryupareen, Sanadhya, Bhumihar, Jujhautiya and Prakrit Kanaujia:

Saryupari Sanadhyashcha Bhumiharo Jijhoutayah

Prakritashcha Iti Panchabhedastasya Prakartitah[2]

In the 19th (held at Prayag) and 20th (held at Lucknow) national convention of Kanyakubja Brahmins by Kanyakubja Mahati Sabha, in 1926 and 1927 respectively, it appealed for unity among Kanyakubja Brahmins whose different branches included Sanadhya, Pahadi, Jujhoutia, Saryupareen, Chattisgarhi, Bhumihar Brahmins and different Bengali Brahmins.[3] On the Jijhoutia clan of Bhumihar Brahmins, William Crooke writes, "A branch of the Kanaujia Brahmins (Kanyakubja Brahmins) who take their name from the country of Jajakshuku, which is mentioned in the Madanpur inscription.[4]

According to the community's traditions, they acquired the name Jujhautiya, when a group of Kanyakubja Brahmins performed a yajna for Jujhar Singh, the Bundela Rajah. Other traditions point to the fact that Bundelkhand was known as Jujhauti, and Jujhautia simply means the Brahmins of Jujhauti in Sanskrit.[5] In Uttar Pradesh, they are found mainly in the districts Hamirpur, Jhansi and Banda[1] and Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Gorakhpur and in some places in Bihar where Jujhoutia Brahmins had migrated long ago and became as one of the clans of land-owning Bhumihar Brahmins.[6] The great nationalist and peasant leader Swami Sahajanand Saraswati is an example.

Social organization

The practice endogamy and clan exogamy, like most Brahmin castes. Their clans are known as pata, are placed into two groupings, Teen Ghars, consisting of the Tiwari, Chanke and Pande, and the Tera Ghar consisting of the Rawat, Richhariya, Misra, Pathak, Patairiya, Bhandairiya, Vajpai, Chaube, Nayak, Arjariya, Sullere, Dikhsit and the Tiwari of Aijhi.

The Jujhautiya were at one time substantial landowners, and zamindars of the estates of Gawrihar, Paldes, Navagaon, Bhesaunda, and Chaubepur Pahra.

List of famous Jujhoutia Brahmins

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part Two edited by A Hasan & J C Das pages 658 to 665 Manohar Publications
  2. ↑ Saraswati, Swami Sahajanand (2003). Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Rachnawali in Six volumes (in Volume 1 at p. 518, Parishist by Acharya Tarineesh Jha, 515-519). Prakashan Sansthan. ISBN 81-7714-097-3. 
  3. ↑ Saraswati, Swami Sahajanand (2003). Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Rachnawali in Six volumes (in Volume 1). Delhi: Prakashan Sansthan. pp. 519 (at p 68–69) (Volume 1). ISBN 81-7714-097-3. 
  4. ↑ Crooke, William (1999). The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh 4. 6A, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi-110049, India: Asian Educational Services. ISBN 81-206-1210-8. 
  5. ↑ The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India (1916) editted by Russell, Robert Vane, 1873-1915; Lal, Hira, Rai Bahadur, 1867
  6. ↑ Saraswati, Swami Sahajanand (2003). Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Rachnawali in Six volumes (in Volume 1). Delhi: Prakashan Sansthan. pp. 519 (Volume 1). ISBN 81-7714-097-3. 
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