Anavil Brahmin

2021-09-14T23:50:22Z

173.75.44.32:

{{infobox caste
| caste_name = Anavil Brahmins
| image =
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| religions = [[Hinduism]]
| languages = [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
| country = India
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| populated_states = [[Gujarat]]
| region = [[West India]]
| ethnicity = [[South Asian ethnic groups|Indian]]
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'''Anavil Brahmins''' are a community of [[Brahmin|Brahmins]] who, despite not being numerically superior, are particularly dominant in the [[Surat district|Surat]] and [[Bulsar district]]s of south [[Gujarat]], India, where they have been significant land-owners and have an influential role in politics.<ref name="goody">{{cite book |title=The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive: Systems of Marriage and the Family in the Pre-Industrial Societies of Eurasia |first=Jack |last=Goody |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-52136-761-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdgos7fWazIC&pg=PA187 |page=187}}</ref><ref name="Streefkerk">{{cite book |title=Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat |first=Hein |last=Streefkerk |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-86132-067-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_L3edKpCmm4C&pg=PA131 |page=131}}</ref>

The Anavil are among the lay Brahmins communities who are not allowed to perform a priestly function. They comprise two sub-groups, called the Desai and the Bhathela, though both use the surname Desai.<ref name="Streefkerk 2">{{cite book |title=Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat |first=Hein |last=Streefkerk |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-86132-067-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_L3edKpCmm4C&lpg=PA131&pg=PA184#v=onepage&q&f=false |page=184}}</ref> The former acted as [[tax farmer]]s during the era of the [[Mughal Empire]], and developed into one of the dominant land-owning groups in [[South Gujarat]].<ref name="Streefkerk" /> They eventually underwent a process of [[sanskritisation]] that saw them conform more closely to the classical Brahmin practices, such as [[dowry]] marriage, while the Bhathela continued to follow the [[brideprice]] system for marriage.<ref name="goody" /> The Desai are fewer in number but superior in traditional status.

It includes castes like Desai,Naik,Vashi,Mehta.

They did not practice female infanticide.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shah|first=A. M.|title=Social Structure and Change: Women in Indian society|last2=Baviskar|first2=Baburao Shravan|last3=Ramaswamy|first3=E. A.|last4=Srinivas|first4=Mysore Narasimhachar|publisher=SAGE Publications|year=1996|pages=197}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |author=Jan Breman |title=The Poverty Regime in Village India: Half a Century of Work and Life at the Bottom of the Rural Economy in South Gujarat |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 }}
*{{cite book |author=Klaas W. van der Veen |title=I Give Thee My Daughter: A Study of Marriage and Hierarchy Among the Anavil Brahmans of South Gujarat |publisher=Van Gorcum |year=1972 }}

{{Social groups of Gujarat}}

[[Category:Brahmin communities of Gujarat]]

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Anavil Brahmin