Sunday, January 11, 2015

Marathi Brahmins And 60% Being Not Majority

The other day I met a doctor who had colored eyes and whose name tag showed that her name was Gokhale. I happened to ask her whether she was Konkanastha (Brahmin) - she replied "No, she wasn't Konkani, but Marathi". I said I meant whether she was Konkanastha, I enunciated the word slowly and she seemed surprised when she replied "Yes".

Few decades back, a Marathi friend had told me that Marathis were classified as Deshastha, Konkanastha and Karade. That Konkanastha Marathis were from the Konkan coast. And I, of course, had earlier come to realize that Konkanastha people, being from the western part of the state, are more likely to have colored eyes than other Maharashtrians. 

Then I started thinking about the Brahmin surnames among Maharashtrians. Of course, I know of Gokhale, Deshmukh, Joshi etc. But I wanted to know more..


And I came across this wiki: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshastha_Brahmin and this sentence from that page - "asasa" "Brahmins constitute four percent of Maharahstra's population, and 60 percent of them are Deshastha Brahmins. The second largest Maharashtrian Brahmin community"

If 60% of all Maharashtrian Brahmins are Deshastha, how come they are the 2nd largest Maharashtrian Brahmin community? Hmm, maybe their total percentage comes to 150 or 200.


List of Maharashtrian (incl Brahmin) surnames: 




The list of Deshastha Brahmin surnames: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deshastha_Brahmin_surnames.

Konkanastha surnames (not sure if they are Brahmin ones): 

http://www.kokanastha.com/htm/adnave.htm

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Annual Performance Review

  A Better Way to Evaluate Employees