As per legend, 800 years ago, a Brahmin in the court of the Yadava kings of northern Deccan had a vision. He foresaw the Vedic ways would be replaced by the ways of the Yavanas. The Sanskrit Cosmopolis would be replaced by the Persian Cosmopolis.
The Brahmins would be stripped of their status and their sources of income and lands. They would be forced to work as accountants, bookkeepers, and clerks in the courts of foreign kings.
To prevent starvation of his community, this Brahmin invented a cursive script called the Modi script to simplify note taking for purpose of business and administration. He wrote an entire treatise related to bookkeeping, accountancy, and documentation. It is known as Lekhapaddhati or Lekha Kalpasutra or Mestaka. His name was Hemadri Pandit, shortened as Hemadpant.
Imminent Invasion
Hemadri Pandit served at least two Yadava kings of Deogiri (Daulatabad), Mahadeva and Ramadeva, in Deccan 800 years ago. He was a military commander in charge of elephants early in his career. Later, he became advisor to the king.
He wrote several Sanskrit works on astrology, astronomy, mathematics, statecraft, architecture, ayurveda and ritual. He is also linked to the building of a particular kind of temple that used interlocking stones instead of mortar.
Hemadri Pandit feared the imminent arrival of Islam in the Deccan region. They had, by his time, already controlled the rich Ganga river plains. To protect the threatened Brahmin culture Hemadpant wrote the “Chatur-varga-chintamani ” (popularly known as Hemadri-shastra) – which lists activities to be performed to live a fulfilled life.
Here every ‘varna’ is told to perform ‘vrata’ (rituals) and ‘dana’ (charity) and ‘tirtha’ (pilgrimage) in order to attain positive karma. The key element of all rituals and activities invlved giving respect and donations to the Brahmin community. Such documentation was key to ensure Brahmanical (brahmanatva) privilege from an imminent threat.
Hemadri Pandit was at odds with doctrines of bhakti saints like Chakradhar swami (Mahanubhav movement) who rejected caste ideology and who treated women as equal to men, similar to Basava in Karnataka, who lived a century earlier. While Chakradhar swami wrote in Marathi, the language of the people, Hemadri Pandit wrote in Sanskrit, the language of the elite.
As per one contested lore, Chakradhar swami was beheaded by Yadava soldiers for his radical practices but the saint restored his own head using yogic powers, and left the region, moved to the Himalayas, predicting the invasion of Mlecchas, barbarians.
Rival clerks
From the 13th century onwards, much of Deccan was under control of Deccan Sultanates. Within the Bahmani, Nizam Shahi, Bijapur, Ahmednagar, Golconda and the Bidar Sultanates, most bureaucrats were Brahmins. The senior positions were usually given to Muslims, especially those who had migrated from Persia and Central Asia. But the lower ranks were mostly Brahmins.
Brahmins faced fierce competition from Kayasthas and the Jains. These communities were the professional scribes and accountants in the Gangetic Plains and in the Western coastal regions. That is why in British times, when the British sought to organise all castes (jati) into four categories (varna), Brahmins argued that Kayasthas were all Shudras and so inferior. It was then that the British realised that Jains were a separate religion altogether.
The Brahmin clerk had to work very hard. He needed to carve a place for himself in the new ecosystem that followed the rise of Islamic kingdoms in India after 1200 AD. They managed village accounts and took a fee in all transactions known as the clerk’s fee (karkuni). This made them very rich and powerful.
It is from these bureaucrats that we find the stories of Akkanna and Madanna. They were the powerful courtiers of Qutub Shahi. They were known for their governance until their beheading at the hands of the Mughals. Jealousies, professional rivalries, hubris, and perhaps even communal politics promoted their demise.
Rival lords
There was much rivalry amongst various Brahmin communities too. The inland Brahmins (Deshastha) insisted that coastal Brahmins (Saraswat) who ate fish, were not Brahmins. In a Brahmin council in Kashi in the 16th century, based on Sahayadri Kanda of the Skanda Purana, it was declared that the coastal Brahmins had migrated from Bihar and so ate whatever diet their ancestors did, when the river Saraswati dried up.
It was also stated that Parashuram created local Brahmins by resurrecting those being cremated in the beaches. Such caste mythologies (jati puran) were thus used to establish who was Brahmin and what was the hierarchy between them. This mattered in Hindu courts, but not Muslim courts.
In Maharashtra, it is from this bureaucracy that the famous Peshwas rose, who were de facto rulers of India in the 18th century. Led by the Peshwa, the Marathas went on to control much of India from 1700 AD to 1800 AD. Now the rivals were not the Kayasthas. Now the rivals were the Maratha lords: the Shindes, the Holkars, the Bhosales, the Gaekwads.
In the 19th century, we see the famous Vedokta controversy involving the royal family of Kolhapur, where Brahmins argued the kings (Chatrapati) were not real Kshatriyas. They were Shudras and so had to chant inferior Puranic hymns not superior Vedic hymns. This controversy played a key role in the anti-Brahmin, anti-caste movement and the rise of reservation policies.
Moreover, it is from this Brahmin, clerical ecosystem that many of the earliest freedom fighters of India arose. Both the conservative and the forward-looking elements of the Indian National Movement can be traced to the Brahmins of Pune and Nagpur, the coastal and the hinterland members of the priestly communities.
The rivalry with Marathas and Kayasthas, and the rising voice of Dalit communities, continues. We can see it clearly in politics today. Those who write on Maratha history are torn if they should focus on religious (Hindu-Muslim) or caste (Brahmin-Maratha-Kayastha-Mahar-Mang) divides. It all depends on the myth i.e. cultural truth they believe in and wish to propagate.
