Origins of Caste Identity among the Maithil Brahmins of North Bihar

266 Pages·2014·0.86 MB·English

Recasting the Brahmin in Medieval Mithila:
Origins of Caste Identity among the Maithil Brahmins of North Bihar
by
AnshumanPandey
Adissertationsubmittedinpartialfulfillment
oftherequirementsforthedegreeof
DoctorofPhilosophy
(History)
intheUniversityofMichigan
2014
DoctoralCommittee
EmeritusProfessorThomasR.Trautmann,Chair
ProfessorMadhavDeshpande
ProfessorJudithT.Irvine
ProfessorMrinaliniSinha
ProfessorRonaldG.Suny
©2014AnshumanPandey
Allrightsreserved
Dedication
Tomymotherandfather
KrishnaandSatyaSheelPandey
formakingmewhoIam
andtomygrandfather
RamroopPandey
forteachingmeaboutwhoIam
ii
Acknowledgments
Thisdissertationseekstosatisfythemanycuriositiesthatmotivatedmystudyofthehistory
of India over two decades ago. It all started with the The Wonder That Was India by A. L.
Basham. MyfatherfoundthatbookformeononeofourmanySaturdayafternoontripsto
thepubliclibrary. ThemoreIreadBasham,themorequestionsIhadaboutIndia. Myfather
patiently explained whatever he could and my grandfather would address the finer details.
MyinterestinIndiawasfurtherpeakedatUniversityofWashingtonwhereIlearnedIndian
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,butlittledidIknowhowusefulitwouldbewhenIstumbledacrossMaithiliwhen
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
researchmethodologyinthesocialsciencesandProfessorK.Sivaramakrishnanprovideda
iii
solidgroundinginthefieldofmodernSouthAsianstudies. Myeffortswerefurtherguided
byProfessorAnandYang,ProfessorPaulBrass,andProfessorShapiro,allofwhomadvised
meonmymaster’sthesisregardingthepoliticsoftheMaithililanguage.
I had planned to return to my profession in information technology after my master’s
program,butProfessorLisaMitchellconvincedmeotherwise. Sheadvisedmetopursuemy
studiesandsuggestedthattheUniversity ofMichiganwouldbea goodplacetodoso, 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
TrautmannwouldreshapeandexpandmyideasaboutIndiaandthetopicsIwantedtostudy.
Thisdissertationunknowinglytookshapeasanessaywrittenforaseminaronkinshiptaught
byProfessorTrautmannandProfessorGillianFeeley-Harnik. Ineverwouldhaveimagined
thelureof‘kinship’. IwenttoAnnArborwantingtowriteaboutlanguage,nationalism,and
politics in the 20th century and somehow found myself writing about genealogy, kinship,
andcasteinthe14thcentury. But,IdidmanagetostudynationalismwithProfessorRonald
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,whocametoAnnArborrightbeforeIbeganmyresearch,wasasourceofinspiration
and a treasure trove of knowledge on Bihar, and encouraged my studies of Bihar beyond
thescopeofpolitics.
iv
My friends in India also opened my eyes to the depth of history and culture of Bi-
har. ProfessorHetukarJhagraciouslyspokewithmeforhoursaboutMithilaandprovided
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. MyresearchinIndiawouldnothavebeenasjoyousorcompletewereitnotfor
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
cultureofMithilawasitselfanimportantprimarysourceofmotivation.
This dissertation would not have been possible were it not for Professor Trautmann.
WhenIarrivedinAnnArborforavisitbeforebeginningmygraduatestudies,heaskedme
how I became interested in the history of India. I told him that it was because of Basham.
HerepliedthathestudiedwithBashaminLondon. Itheninformedhimthatitwashisown
bookon‘Aryans’thatinspiredmetopursuedoctoralstudiesatMichigan. Iamhonoredto
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
andsomehowmaintainedconfidenceinmedespitemylonggapsincommunication. “Eyes
on the prize!” he constantly advised. I may have blinked a few times along the way, but
it’snowalmostwithinreach.
v
Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
ListofFigures viii
ListofTables ix
Abstract x
Introduction 1
Chapter1 TheRebirthofaBrahmin 24
1.1 PerceivingaBrahminthroughtheSenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.2 IdeologyofGenealogicalIdentity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1.3 GenealogyandMarriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
1.4 GenealogyandPersonhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
1.5 GenealogicalFoundationsofJāti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
1.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter2 TheMakingofaMaithil 72
2.1 CrossingtheSadānīra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.2 FormationofaTerritorialCommunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.3 IdeologyoftheTerritorialLineage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
2.4 LineageandLand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
2.5 LineageandExclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
2.6 BrahminsandtheState . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
2.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter3 TheBestofBrahmins 124
3.1 BrahminsbeforePañjīPrabandha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
3.2 RecognizingtheStatusofaBrahmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
3.3 StatusandMarriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
3.4 StatusandPersonhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
3.5 OriginsofLineageRank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
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3.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter4 TheBrahminasKing 169
4.1 TheStartofBrahminRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
4.2 TheNatureofBrahminRulership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
4.3 TheSecondPhaseofBrahminicalRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
4.4 BrahminKingsandBrahminicalSociety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
4.5 TheEndofBrahminRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter5 The‘Conundrum’ofBrahminIdentity 207
5.1 TheTensionBetweenKingandBrahmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.2 TensionsofKingshipandKinship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.3 King’sControlofLineageRank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
5.4 King’sControlofIndividualRank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
5.5 TheKingandHisMarriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
5.6 InternalizingtheConundrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
5.7 Sustainingthe‘Conundrum’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Conclusion 239
Bibliography 244
vii
List of Figures
1.1 Thesixteenancestorsenumeratedintheuteṛhapañjī . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
1.2 MaithilBrahminkinshipcategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1 TheOinilineage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
4.2 TheOinivararulersofTirhut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
4.3 TheOinivararulersofChamparan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
4.4 TheKhandavalarulersofTirhut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
viii
List of Tables
2.1 Theśākhā,gotra,and pravaraoftheMaithilBrahmins. . . . . . . . . . . . 122
2.2 ClassificationofactiveMaithilBrahminmūla-saccordingtogotra. . . . . . 123
3.1 ThirteenoriginalShrotriyamūla-s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
3.2 Establishedmūla-softheMaithilBrahmins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
5.1 ShrotriyaShreniswiththeLaukitandMula-grama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
5.2 YogyaShreniswiththeLaukitandMula-grama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
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