Lucknow: Termed “privileged untouchables” by some experts, ‘Mahabrahmanas’ claim to account for about 3 percent of the Brahmin population in Uttar Pradesh, which has traditionally voted for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But the Rashtriya Karyarat Party (RKP), an outfit that claims to represent this subsect of the Brahmin community, has now joined hands with the Samajwadi Party (SP) with an eye on the Lok Sabha polls.
Though registered as a political party only in 2020, the Rashtriya Karyarat Party has thrown its weight behind all three major players in UP over the past two decades: it supported the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from 2007-2014 and the BJP from 2017 till 2022.
Now, it plans to organise a ‘Mahabrahmana Mahapanchayat’ on 1 February with former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav as ‘chief guest’ — similar to the ‘Mahapanchayat’ organised in Lucknow on 24 December during which the SP chief shared a stage with RKP’s Tuntun Pandey.
कृष्ण सुदामा की जोड़ी महाब्राह्मण महापंचायत के द्वारा बीजेपी को वैकुंठ में पहुंचाने का संकल्प ले लिया है। महाब्राह्मण की राजनीतिक हक खाने वाले का डब्बा गोल होने वाला है – टुनटुन पाण्डेय@yadavakhilesh @samajwadiparty @ABPNews @aajtak @Republic_Bharat @ZeeNews @bstvlive @BBCHindi pic.twitter.com/QraHhAHCNS
— Tuntun Pandey (@tuntunpandeyRKP) December 25, 2023
Shashikant Pandey, head of department of political science at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University told ThePrint that the ‘Mahabrahmanas’ have historically been treated like “privileged untouchables”.
“They have been treated like second fiddle among the Brahmins. Since they are called at the time of death, in many villages, they are served food outside the house. The other Brahmins don’t like to marry among them. However, their bargaining power remains to be tested as it depends on organisational strength and electoral funding,” he said.
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Who are the ‘Mahabrahmana’?
According to Tuntun Pandey, the term “Mahabrahmana” finds mention in the Samaveda — a compilation of variations of various ritualistic verses and chants mentioned in the Rigveda.
The ‘Mahabrahmana’ is among the eight types of brahmanas or ancillary texts related to the Samaveda, he adds.
This, he says, is further explained in the Hindu religious text Ved Kathank which lists the eight types of brahmanas: praudh or tandaya brahmana, shadhvinsh brahmana, samvidhan brahmana, arsheya brahmana, devtadhayaya brahmana, chhandogyopanishad brahmana, sanhitopanishad brahmana and vansh brahmana.
According to the Ved Kathank, “being the largest of the Brahmins, the tandaya brahmana is also called Mahabrahmana.”
However, the term gradually came to be associated with Brahmins who performed rituals in the first 11 days after the death of an individual.
In his 1994 book Death In Banaras, Jon Parry writes that the ‘Mahabrahmana’ or funeral priest “presides over the rituals addressed to the ghost (of the deceased) during the first 11 days after death, and accepts on behalf of the ghosts the gifts intended to it”.
Parry, who is professor of modern British history at the University of Cambridge, adds: “Mahabrahmana means the ‘great Brahmin’. The caste is alternatively known as Mahapatra, ‘great vessels’. An actor is a patra, a vessel for the qualities of the character he plays.”
“Worshipped as the deceased he is dressed in dead man’s clothes, is made to wear his spectacles or clutch his walking stick and is fed his favourite foods,” he writes.
According to Parry, the community faces discrimination to the extent that its members are treated like “untouchables”.
He goes on to write: “No fastidious person or clean caste will dine with them. In theory, they should live outside the village and to the south of it (that is in the direction of death)..…The Mahabrahmana’s relative degradation is rather a consequence of the fact that they participate in the death pollution which afflicts their patrons…
“Not only impure, the Mahabrahmana is also highly inauspicious….at any time, it is inauspicious to set eyes on a Mahabrahmana and if you chance to see one first thing in the morning then somebody in your house may die.”
However, according to a former Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer who has authored a book on the subject, members of the ‘Mahabrahmana’ community are ‘considered very pure and puritan’.
“They are supposed to be more austere and more learned, as on the basis of their penance, they can send the deceased individual’s ghost to his/her ancestors. They are to be given more daan dakshina (donation) as they are committed to one single work — performing rituals post death. The remaining rituals are given to other brahmans,” he told ThePrint.
“Their population is less and fewer people opted for this job because of the piety it demands. These rituals performed on the 10th or 11th day have been discussed in detail in the Vishnu Purana which mentions their qualification, learning, austerity, how to invite them and send them off, money to be given to them,” he said.
He added that ancient texts do not differentiate between Brahmins and ‘Mahabrahmanas’ and the two were segregated solely on the basis of tasks undertaken by them.
“Mostly, community-wise polarisation started at the time when foreign aggressors came to India and different communities started fortifying themselves. There are around 300-400 subcastes in Brahmins at present; several of them had started fortifying themselves during that time.
“Even the Saryupareen Brahmins started fortifying themselves and didn’t marry into other castes. Several of these castes don’t inter-marry and some of these subcastes consider themselves superior than others and those indulging in priesthood have a tussle over donation etc,” he said.
‘Some think we bring bad luck’
Claiming that ‘Mahabrahmanas’ account for half of Uttar Pradesh’s Brahmin population, RKP chief Tuntun Pandey said the community continues to face silent discrimination and that members of the community do not talk about it in public fearing disrepute.
“We are considered achhut (untouchables) socially. In districts like Ballia, Mahabrahmanas are found in almost all villages. Their houses have traditionally been in the southern part of the village. They cannot perform rituals considered auspicious like weddings, ceremonies related to childbirth and are restricted to post death rituals. Some people think that we bring bad luck and if we enter someone’s house, harm may befall them.”
Rajendra Tripathi, president of the Akhil Bhartiya Brahmin Mahasabha, however, refuted the claim made by Tuntun Pandey that ‘Mahabrahmanas’ account for half of UP’s Brahmin population. Brahmins, said Tripathi, make up 12 percent of the state’s population.
“They (Mahabrahmanas) constitute about 2.5-3 per cent of the total Brahmin population,” says the Mahasabha’s general secretary Chandrabhan Tiwari while also admitting that the community has and continues to face discrimination at the hands of other Brahmins.
“It is true that they are segregated, other Brahmins do not marry in families of Mahabrahmanas and adopt a big-brotherly attitude towards them. Many don’t want them to enter their houses for fear that their presence may bring death to the family,” Chandrabhan Tiwari told ThePrint.
‘Just like Sudama met Krishna’
Asked about his party’s decision to extend support to the Samajwadi Party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Tuntun Pandey said the community huddled behind various political parties in the past but failed to secure representation for its people.
“We have no political representation in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad. When we supported BJP in 2017, the then UP BJP state president Keshav Maurya had promised to think about our community if BJP returned to power in the state. Our people voted for the BJP. However, we got no space even after BJP stormed to power at the Centre in 2019,” he said.
Tuntun Pandey added that after the 2022 assembly polls, the RKP wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding “respect” for the community after which Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Nityanand Rai met with representatives of the community and assured them that the state BJP president would reach out to them. “However, when nobody spoke to us for a year-and-a-half, we got forced to approach the SP,” he said.
On the ‘Mahabrahmana Mahapanchayat’ planned for 1 February and RKP’s tie-up with the Samajwadi Party, he added: “Just like Sudama met Krishna, we met Akhilesh Yadav who has promised to fight for us.”
Unchahar MLA Manoj Pandey, who was among the speakers at the ‘Mahapanchayat’ organised in December, said the event was part of SP’s “prabuddh sammelans” — outreach programme for various communities.
“The (Mahabrahmana) community had expressed its desire to support the SP which the national president (Akhilesh Yadav) heartily accepted. Poverty is prevalent across caste lines and there are people among Brahmins too who are MGNREGA workers,” said Manoj Pandey, who is also the SP’s chief whip in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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