Kulin Brahmin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kulin Brahmin is the highest strata of upper caste Brahmins in India's caste system. This term is more generally used to refer to upper caste "twice-born" Brahmins in nineteenth century Bengal considered themselves to be more knowledgeable as regards the scriptures as compared to other Brahmins.
To take a leaf from Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the habitus, it could be argued that Kulinity of the initiated caste-conscious Brahmins was (and to a large extent, continues to be) dictated by notions of caste purity and caste pollution and its shared caste memory.
It may not be out of place to mention here that filmmaker Goutam Ghose's Antarjali Yatra is based on the theme of Kulin Brahmin polygamy in nineteenth century Bengal.
[edit] References
- History of the Bengali-speaking People by Nitish Sengupta
- The Literature of Bengal: a Biographical and Critical History from the Earliest Times, Closing with a Review of Intellectual Progress under British Rule in India. (1877); Calcutta, T. Spink (1895); 3rd ed., Cultural Heritage of Bengal Calcutta, Punthi Pustak (1962).
- History of the Brahmo Samaj by Sivanath Sastri
