Note 1 — Brāhman, Khedāwāl

Brāhman, Mahārāshtra, Marātha.—The Marātha Brāhmans, or those of the Bombay country, are numerous and important in the Central Provinces. The northern Districts were for a period governed by Marātha Brāhmans on behalf of the Peshwa of Poona, and under the Bhonsla dynasty of Nāgpur in the south they took a large part in the administration. The Marātha Brāhmans have three main subcastes, the Deshasth, Konkonasth and Karhāda. The Deshasth Brāhmans belong to the country of Poona above the Western Ghats, which is known as the desh or home country. They are numerous in Berār and Nāgpur. The Konkonasth are so called because they reside in the Konkan country along the Bombay coast. They have noticeably fair complexions, good features and often grey eyes. According to a legend they were sprung from the corpses of a party of shipwrecked foreigners, who were raised to life by Parasurāma.1 This story and their fine appearance have given rise to the hypothesis that their ancestors were shipwrecked sailors from some European country, or from Arabia or Persia. They are also known as Chitpāvan, which is said to mean the pure in heart, but a derivation suggested in the Bombay Gazetteer is from Chiplun or Chitāpolan, a place in the Konkan which was their headquarters. The Peshwa of Poona was a Konkonasth Brāhman, and there are a number of them in Saugor. The Karhāda Brāhmans take their name from the town of Karhād in the Satāra District. They show little difference from the Deshasths in customs and appearance.