Sanadhya Brahmin
Encyclopedia
Sanadya Brahmin are a community of Brahmins, living prominently in Western Uttar Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh
area of India. In the 19th and 20th national convention of Kanyakubja Brahmins by Kanyakubja Mahati Sabha, in 1926 and 1927 respectively, Kanyakubja Brahmins whose different branches included Sanadhya, Pahadi, Jujhoutia, Saryupareen Brahmins, Chattisgadhi, Bhumihar Brahmins
and different Bengali Brahmins.
he gave villages to 750 of them, who came to be called Sanadhya. They were engaged in tapa, thus came to be called Sanadhya:
सच्छब्देन तपो ग्राह्यं तेनाध्या ये द्विजोत्तमाः||
An alternative theory is that since they worship Lord Sun (or 'Surya
') (Skt san), they are called Sanadhya. Sikh Guru Gobind Singh
has mentioned that his ancestors once lived in the Sanadh region, this may have been the region from where the Sanadhya originated.
There have been genuine attempts to show the unity of Brahmins, but it was always to show that all the Brahmins were migrated and bifurcated from a "particular Brahmin". The point is missed that Brahmins as such were one original class which moved towards the East. It was a strict practice to safeguard the purity of the blood of the East-advancing front of Brahmins by taking girls from the west so that the East advancing front does not mingle up with the Nagas and other races which were pushed further east. Brahmins remember this practice even today to marry their daughters to the east and take girls from the west, and by doing so they preserved the purity throughout the Indo-Gangetic plains also called Gaudadesh. Later, when advancement to the east eventually completed, sticking up with locality was forced to check the continuous flux of Brahmins from the west. This was a wise step to control possibility of over-populating the firtile lands of the Ganges eastward.But, sadly, it resulted in a rigid and foolhardy localisation and division of the great width of Brahmins. They became almost myopic and lost their strength.
Sanadhya word carries two very ancient Sanskrit roots, in fact, of vedic antiquity. Sanah for a specific 'sacrifice
'(Sanatana from the same root ~synonym) and aadhiyah or aarurha means 'incessantly engaged in', and also 'full of opulence' or 'rich in' or 'firmly walking (or mounted) foremost and ahead' on the path of penance. Hence those who possess opulence of Sanah sacrifice, or 'ahead in austerities'or 'mounted firmly, foremost and ahead of all, on the Tapascharya' were called sanadhyas in comparison to the Purohitas and Priest who lived in cities or villages.The term is non-local, and independent of region. It is associated with the Aaranyaka brahmins, the forest dwellers, and therefore the much later classification into regional subclass into Panch Gauda and Panch Dravid does not include the forest dwellers. It is true that every brahmin, wherever he may belong to,the glorious Saraswat of Kashmir, the matchless and graceful Kanyakubja, the pious and proud Sarayuparain, the brilliant and mystic Maithil, the holy and lofty Gauda or the one from great descent of panch Dravidas, has been a descendent of the original clans of Forest dwellers/or those engaged in austerities and penance.
The first story cited from the so called Sanadhya Samhita does not seem to be consistent. The composition of the Samhita does not seem to have any remote date in the history.During Rama's time, by any rate going prior to 600 BC, the time when division into subclasses as we presently know them, had not taken place. No question, then, arises for calling them to be a group of Adi gauda's participated in the yajna.However, the ground reality is that they remain non-distinct from Adi Gauda and do consider themselves the ascetic branch of Adi Gauda. In Rama's time there were only three occupations of Brahmins priests, Purohitas and Aranyaka brahmins,some of them elevated to the level of Rishi. The Samahita seems to be quite recent or post-classification era, far down in time from the Valmiki Ramayana. Rama did meet Aranyaka brahmins in the Valmiki Ramayana, and he did call them to be always engaged in Tapa and therefore were the brahmins worthy of 'high reverence'. That is all.
The second hypothesis related to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib's ancestral village Sanadh, it again does not prove to be native place for sanadhyas and the name sanadhyas to be after this village.The opposite may be a possibility that the place came to be called Sanadh after the Sanadhyas.
Sanadhyas are a dominant section of north Indian brahmins, most numerous in Gangetic 'Doaba
' region and they touch the Kanaujias on the north west extending over central Rohilkhand, and the part of the upper central duab from Pilibhit to Gwalior. The boundary line runs from the northwest angle of Rampur through Richa, Jahanabad, Nawabganj, Barielly, Faridpur to the Ramganga, thence through Samilpur and the borders of Mehrabad, thence down the Ganges to the borders of Kanauj, thence up the Kali nadi to the western border of Alipurpatti, through Bhavgaon, Sij, Bibamau and down the Janumna to the junction of Chambel.[4]
Sanadhya Brahmins make a triumvarate along with kanyakubj brahmins and Bengali brahimns in practicing the doctroine of nobility ; like biswa system of kanyakubj brahmins and kuleen system of Bengali brahmins, the sanadhyas rigourusly practice the 'allh
' system to jeaously safeguard the purity of their blood.
They are branch of Adi Gauda brahmins, Rtviz of ashwmegh yajna performed by Lord Sri Rama and have matrimonial relations in their own fold and Adi Gauda brahmins.[5] They have matrimonial relations with kanyakubj brahmins as well.[6][7]
Migration and infiltration of Sanadhya brahmins into central India from the north took place after the fall of Marathas. In the beginning of the 19th century by 1820 AD families of Sanadhyas started to migrate to the Narmada valley extending from Mandla to Hoshangabad and so also into the Malwa from Vidisha to Ujjain and Indore. This migration was mostly from Bhind-Gwalior-Murena-Agra region where extensive Gully-Ravines were forming and penetrating into agriculture lands and converting these lands of Chambal-Yamuna belt into so called Badland Topography. The north-western MP i.e. Ratlam and Mansaur regions were infiltrated from southern Rajasthan. This migration may be corelateable with the deterioration of lands and family partitions. Those who opted to move to the fertile lands of MP were sufferers of family division and got ravenous part of the parental land on property divisions. The mass migration was accompanied by other people also belonging to Rajputs ( Chouhans and Sisodias), Kauravas, Jats, Gujjars, yadavas etc. Narsinghpur district. of Narmada valley has a good population of this assembly which is a facsimile representative of the Vraja-mandala includung part of Dhaulpur-Bharatpur and Gwalior region, wherefrom the migration had triggered. Remarkably, the Narmada valley was freed from Pindaries'Pindari
' by 1820 by the Narmada Protection Force and from Thugs by 1842 by the great British officer Col. Sleeman. Thus Narmada valley became a safe and favourite place for settlement with its fertile soils. Apart from the Narmada region, migration took place from Gwalior-Jhansi-Urai area to the Sagar region of MP.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
and Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
area of India. In the 19th and 20th national convention of Kanyakubja Brahmins by Kanyakubja Mahati Sabha, in 1926 and 1927 respectively, Kanyakubja Brahmins whose different branches included Sanadhya, Pahadi, Jujhoutia, Saryupareen Brahmins, Chattisgadhi, Bhumihar Brahmins
Bhumihar
Bhumihar or Babhan or Bhuin-har is a Brahmin Hindu community mainly found in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh.- Varna status :...
and different Bengali Brahmins.
History and origin
Sanadhya Samhita gives an account of the origin of the Sanadhya community. Lord Ramachandra of Ayodhya invited some Adi Gauda brahmins to conduct a yajna. As dakshinaDakshina
Dakshina in the historical Vedic religion is the term for the recompense paid by the sacrificer for the services of a priest, originally consisting of a cow...
he gave villages to 750 of them, who came to be called Sanadhya. They were engaged in tapa, thus came to be called Sanadhya:
सच्छब्देन तपो ग्राह्यं तेनाध्या ये द्विजोत्तमाः||
An alternative theory is that since they worship Lord Sun (or 'Surya
Surya
Surya Suraya or Phra Athit is the chief solar deity in Hinduism, one of the Adityas, son of Kasyapa and one of his wives, Aditi; of Indra; or of Dyaus Pitar . The term Surya also refers to the Sun, in general. Surya has hair and arms of gold...
') (Skt san), they are called Sanadhya. Sikh Guru Gobind Singh
Gobind Singh
Gobind Singh VC was an Indian soldier, and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest Commonwealth award for gallantry "in the face of the enemy", during the First World War....
has mentioned that his ancestors once lived in the Sanadh region, this may have been the region from where the Sanadhya originated.
There have been genuine attempts to show the unity of Brahmins, but it was always to show that all the Brahmins were migrated and bifurcated from a "particular Brahmin". The point is missed that Brahmins as such were one original class which moved towards the East. It was a strict practice to safeguard the purity of the blood of the East-advancing front of Brahmins by taking girls from the west so that the East advancing front does not mingle up with the Nagas and other races which were pushed further east. Brahmins remember this practice even today to marry their daughters to the east and take girls from the west, and by doing so they preserved the purity throughout the Indo-Gangetic plains also called Gaudadesh. Later, when advancement to the east eventually completed, sticking up with locality was forced to check the continuous flux of Brahmins from the west. This was a wise step to control possibility of over-populating the firtile lands of the Ganges eastward.But, sadly, it resulted in a rigid and foolhardy localisation and division of the great width of Brahmins. They became almost myopic and lost their strength.
Sanadhya word carries two very ancient Sanskrit roots, in fact, of vedic antiquity. Sanah for a specific 'sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
'(Sanatana from the same root ~synonym) and aadhiyah or aarurha means 'incessantly engaged in', and also 'full of opulence' or 'rich in' or 'firmly walking (or mounted) foremost and ahead' on the path of penance. Hence those who possess opulence of Sanah sacrifice, or 'ahead in austerities'or 'mounted firmly, foremost and ahead of all, on the Tapascharya' were called sanadhyas in comparison to the Purohitas and Priest who lived in cities or villages.The term is non-local, and independent of region. It is associated with the Aaranyaka brahmins, the forest dwellers, and therefore the much later classification into regional subclass into Panch Gauda and Panch Dravid does not include the forest dwellers. It is true that every brahmin, wherever he may belong to,the glorious Saraswat of Kashmir, the matchless and graceful Kanyakubja, the pious and proud Sarayuparain, the brilliant and mystic Maithil, the holy and lofty Gauda or the one from great descent of panch Dravidas, has been a descendent of the original clans of Forest dwellers/or those engaged in austerities and penance.
The first story cited from the so called Sanadhya Samhita does not seem to be consistent. The composition of the Samhita does not seem to have any remote date in the history.During Rama's time, by any rate going prior to 600 BC, the time when division into subclasses as we presently know them, had not taken place. No question, then, arises for calling them to be a group of Adi gauda's participated in the yajna.However, the ground reality is that they remain non-distinct from Adi Gauda and do consider themselves the ascetic branch of Adi Gauda. In Rama's time there were only three occupations of Brahmins priests, Purohitas and Aranyaka brahmins,some of them elevated to the level of Rishi. The Samahita seems to be quite recent or post-classification era, far down in time from the Valmiki Ramayana. Rama did meet Aranyaka brahmins in the Valmiki Ramayana, and he did call them to be always engaged in Tapa and therefore were the brahmins worthy of 'high reverence'. That is all.
The second hypothesis related to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib's ancestral village Sanadh, it again does not prove to be native place for sanadhyas and the name sanadhyas to be after this village.The opposite may be a possibility that the place came to be called Sanadh after the Sanadhyas.
Sanadhyas are a dominant section of north Indian brahmins, most numerous in Gangetic 'Doaba
Doaba
Doaba is the region of Indian Punjab surrounded by the rivers Beas and Sutlej. The name "Doaba" literally translates to "land of two rivers" . It is one of the most fertile regions of the world, and was the centre of the Green Revolution in India.Scheduled castes form more than 35% of the...
' region and they touch the Kanaujias on the north west extending over central Rohilkhand, and the part of the upper central duab from Pilibhit to Gwalior. The boundary line runs from the northwest angle of Rampur through Richa, Jahanabad, Nawabganj, Barielly, Faridpur to the Ramganga, thence through Samilpur and the borders of Mehrabad, thence down the Ganges to the borders of Kanauj, thence up the Kali nadi to the western border of Alipurpatti, through Bhavgaon, Sij, Bibamau and down the Janumna to the junction of Chambel.[4]
Sanadhya Brahmins make a triumvarate along with kanyakubj brahmins and Bengali brahimns in practicing the doctroine of nobility ; like biswa system of kanyakubj brahmins and kuleen system of Bengali brahmins, the sanadhyas rigourusly practice the 'allh
Allh
The Alla or śāsana system has been used extensively by the Pancha-Gauda Brahmin communities in north India. It refers to a further classification within the gotra and gives information about the lineage or place of origin of a Brahmin family...
' system to jeaously safeguard the purity of their blood.
They are branch of Adi Gauda brahmins, Rtviz of ashwmegh yajna performed by Lord Sri Rama and have matrimonial relations in their own fold and Adi Gauda brahmins.[5] They have matrimonial relations with kanyakubj brahmins as well.[6][7]
Migration and infiltration of Sanadhya brahmins into central India from the north took place after the fall of Marathas. In the beginning of the 19th century by 1820 AD families of Sanadhyas started to migrate to the Narmada valley extending from Mandla to Hoshangabad and so also into the Malwa from Vidisha to Ujjain and Indore. This migration was mostly from Bhind-Gwalior-Murena-Agra region where extensive Gully-Ravines were forming and penetrating into agriculture lands and converting these lands of Chambal-Yamuna belt into so called Badland Topography. The north-western MP i.e. Ratlam and Mansaur regions were infiltrated from southern Rajasthan. This migration may be corelateable with the deterioration of lands and family partitions. Those who opted to move to the fertile lands of MP were sufferers of family division and got ravenous part of the parental land on property divisions. The mass migration was accompanied by other people also belonging to Rajputs ( Chouhans and Sisodias), Kauravas, Jats, Gujjars, yadavas etc. Narsinghpur district. of Narmada valley has a good population of this assembly which is a facsimile representative of the Vraja-mandala includung part of Dhaulpur-Bharatpur and Gwalior region, wherefrom the migration had triggered. Remarkably, the Narmada valley was freed from Pindaries'Pindari
Pindari
The Pendharis or Free Companions were dispersed throughout the Maratha states and were countenanced and protected by the Maratha chiefs to whom they acted as agents for supplying all the commissariat required by their armies. They were composed of different tribes who congregated together solely...
' by 1820 by the Narmada Protection Force and from Thugs by 1842 by the great British officer Col. Sleeman. Thus Narmada valley became a safe and favourite place for settlement with its fertile soils. Apart from the Narmada region, migration took place from Gwalior-Jhansi-Urai area to the Sagar region of MP.
Famous Sanadhyas
- KeshavdasKeshavdasKeshavdas was a Sanskrit scholar and Hindi poet, best known for his Rasik Priya, a pioneering work of the riti kaal of Hindi literature.-Life:...
(1555–1617), author of Rasikpriya etc. of OrchhaOrchhaOrchha is a town in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. The town was established by Maharaja Rudra Pratap Singh in 1501, as the seat of an eponymous former princely state of central India, in the Bundelkhand region. Orchha lies on the Betwa River , 80 km from Tikamgarh &...
, classical Hindi poet - Pandit Totaram SanadhyaTotaram SanadhyaTotaram Sanadhya was deceitfully recruited as an indentured labourer from India and brought to Fiji in 1893. He spent five years working as a bonded labourer but was never afraid to fight for his rights...
who lived in Fiji - Hon'ble Shankar Dayal SharmaShankar Dayal SharmaShankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of India serving from 1992 to 1997. Prior to his presidency, Dr Sharma had been the eighth Vice President of India, serving under President Ramaswamy Venkataraman...
,former President of India - Mahrashi Sandeepan, Guru of Lord Srikrishana
- Ved-Vyas, author of Mahabharat
- Pandit Gopal Swarup Pathak former Vice President of India
- Pandit Ayodhya Singh Upadhyaya "Hariodh", Famous Hindi Poet
- Shri J.P.Sharma, Industralist, Chairman of JP Group of Industries
- Govardhan Lal Ojha. former Supreme Court Judge
- Indian environmentalist R K Pachauri, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) headed by him was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Director of Himalayan Institute, USA, Author of several books on Tantra, meditation and other spiritual disciplines.
- Swami Haridas: Musician, Poet and saint of Vrindavana, Teacher of Famous Tansen and Baiju.
- Deepak Sanadhya, Manager Global Business Alliances at Infogain Corp.
- Dilip Sharma
- Ram Kishan Sharma
- Ram K. Sharma