View source for Chitpavan Brahmins

{{Short description|Indian Brahmin sub-caste inhabiting the Konkan region}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox caste
| caste_name       = Chitpavan/Kokanastha Brahmins
| populated_states = [[Konkan]] (Coastal [[Maharashtra]], [[Goa]], [[Karnataka]], some parts of [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Gujarat]])
| languages        = [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Chitpavani Konkani]].
| religions        = [[Hinduism]]
| population       = 
}}
[[File:बोडण.jpg|thumb|Chitpavan Brahmins practising [[#Bodan|''Bodan'']], a rite performed on important occasions like birth or marriage]]
The '''Chitpavan Brahmin''' or the '''Kokanastha Brahmin''' is a Hindu [[Maharashtrian Brahmin]] community inhabiting [[Konkan]], the coastal region of the state of [[Maharashtra]]. Initially working as messengers and spies in the late seventeenth century, the community came into prominence during the 18th century when the heirs of [[Peshwa]] from the [[Bhat family]] of [[Balaji Vishwanath]] became the de facto rulers of the [[Maratha empire]]. Until the 18th century, the Chitpavans were held in low esteem by the [[Deshastha]], the older established Brahmin community of Karnataka-Maharashtra region.<ref name="Kumar2013"/><ref>{{cite book|title=India, the Rebel Continent |author=Guy Delury|page=183|quote=The name Chitpavan had been given to them by the other local jatis of Brahmins a little mockingly, since they tended to look down on the Chitpavans}}</ref><ref name="Griffiths2019"/>

As per Jayant Lele, the influence of the Chitpavans in the Peshwa era as well as the British era has been greatly exaggerated because even during the time of the most prominent Peshwas, their political legitimacy and their intentions were not trusted by all levels of the administration, not even by [[Shivaji]]'s successors. He adds that after the defeat of Peshwas in the [[Anglo-Maratha Wars (disambiguation)|Anglo-Maratha wars]], Chitpavans were one of the Hindu communities to flock to western education in the [[Bombay Province]] of [[British India]].<ref name="singh">{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=R. |last2=Lele |first2=J.K. |title= Language and society: steps towards an integrated theory |year=1989 |publisher=E.J. Brill |location=Leiden |isbn= 978-9-00408-789-7 |page=34 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1PLiAlGzLFQC|quote=The extent of the real chitpavan influence in the socio-polity of Maharashtra, during this period, has been vastly exaggerated. Even under the most ambitious and effective peshwas, the established local power structure, from the major Maratha chieftains down to village headmen, did not trust Peshwas' political intentions and doubted their legitimacy. This was particularly true under Shivaji's feuding successors.}}</ref>

==Etymology and origin==
The Chitpavans are also known as Kokanastha Brahmins.<ref>{{cite book |title=State Intervention and Popular Response: Western India in the Nineteenth Century |editor1-first=Mariam |editor1-last=Dossal |editor2-first=Ruby |editor2-last=Maloni |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1999 |isbn=978-8-17154-855-2 |page=163 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7f0JEWk6HMC&pg=PA163 |first=Frank F. |last=Conlon |chapter=Vishnubawa Brahmachari: A Champion of Hinduism in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Contradictions and Conflict: A Dialectical Political Anthropology of a University in Western India |first=Donald V. |last=Kurtz |publisher=BRILL |year=1993 |isbn=978-9-00409-828-2 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0X5DquN8LkIC&pg=PA62}}</ref> 

The etymology of their name is given in a legendary myth of the chapter ''citpāvanabrāhmaṇotpattiḥ'' i.e. “Origin of the Citpāvan brahmins” in the Hindu Sanskrit scripture [[Sahyadrikhanda]]{{efn|The book is less than 400 years old per Alexander Kyd Nairne, a British colonial era author.<ref>Nairne, Alexander Kyd. History of the Konkan. Vol. 1. Asian Educational Services, 1988.[https://books.google.com/books?id=nzPCcILP-XwC&pg=PR15]</ref>}} of the [[Skanda Purana]]. According to this chapter, [[Parashurama]], the sixth incarnation of God [[Vishnu]], who could not find any Brahmins in Konkan to perform rituals for him, found sixty fishermen who had gathered near a funeral pyre near the ocean shore. These sixty fishermen families were purified and Sanskritized to Brahminhood. Since the funeral pyre is called ''Chita'' and pure as ''pavana'', the community was henceforth known by the name ''Chitapavan '' or "purified at the location of a funeral pyre". However, 'Chita' also means 'mind' in Sanskrit and the Chitapavans prefer "pure of mind" instead of "pure from the pyre". One scholar suggests that the author of the current version was a [[Deshastha Brahmin]] and there were earlier suggestions of similarity with the ''Sadbodhacintāmaṇi'' published by the community of goldsmiths from Bombay. Madhav Deshpande(2010) rejects these suggestions because it is inconceivable that a Deshastha brahmin would write a "pro-Saraswat" text as there was dislike of the Gaud Saraswats of the west coast of India by the Deshasthas as well as the fact that the [[Deshastha]], Chitpavans and [[Karhade Brahmin]] unanimously rejected the Brahmin status claim of the [[Gaud Saraswat Brahmin#Varna disputes|Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (Shenvi)]] of the western coast of Maharashtra. The [[Kulavruttanta]] of the Khare (Chitpavan) family prefers a modified version of the scripture. They state that fourteen dead-bodies were purified by Parshurama. Since "Chiplun pleased Paraśurāma's heart", the Brahmins of that place received the name ''cittapāvana''.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Deshpande, M.M. |year=2010 |title=Pañca Gauḍa and Pañca Drāviḍa: Contested borders of a traditional classification |journal=Studia Orientalia |issue=108 |page=37,39 |quote=The first chapter of the Sahyādrikhaṇḍa is titled citpāvanabrāhmaṇotpattiḥ “Origin of the Citpāvan brahmins”. In the newly recovered land of Konkan, there are no traditional brahmins, either of the Gauḍa or Draviḍa persuasion, to be found. Paraśurāma invites all the brahmins for carrying out ancestral offerings (śrāddha-pakṣa), and yet no one showed up (Chapter 1, verse 31). The angry brahmin Paraśurāma decided to produce new brahmins (brāhmaṇā nūtanāḥ kāryāḥ, Chapter 1, verse 33). As he was wandering along the bank of the ocean, he saw some men gathered around a funeral pyre and asked them about their caste and dharma. These were fishermen, and Paraśurāma purified their sixty families and offered them brahminhood (brāhmaṇyaṁ ca tato dattvā, Chapter 1, verse 37). Since these fishermen were purified at the location of a funeral pyre (citā), they received the designation of citapāvana (ibid.)}}</ref><ref name="Wolpert2021">{{cite book | author = Stanley Wolpert | date = 8 January 2021 | title = Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India | publisher = Univ of California Press | pages = 3– | isbn = 978-0-520-32340-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Wq_oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3}}</ref>

The Chitpavan story of shipwrecked people is similar to the legendary arrival of [[Bene Israel]] Jews in the [[Raigad district]].<ref>{{cite book | author = Joan G. Roland | date = 16 January 2018 | title = Jewish Communities of India: Identity in a Colonial Era | publisher = Routledge | pages = 462| isbn = 978-1-351-30982-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gCNHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT462}}</ref><ref name="Egorova2008">{{cite book | author = Yulia Egorova | date = 22 February 2008 | title = Jews and India: Perceptions and Image | publisher = Routledge | pages = 137| isbn = 978-1-134-14654-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9sB9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT137}}</ref><ref name="Patai2015">{{cite book | author = Raphael Patai | date = 26 March 2015 | title = Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions | publisher = Routledge | pages = 256– | isbn = 978-1-317-47171-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=m3qsBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA256}}</ref><ref name="Blady2000">{{cite book | author = Ken Blady | date = 1 March 2000 | title = Jewish Communities in Exotic Places | publisher = Jason Aronson, Incorporated | pages = 216– | isbn = 978-1-4616-2908-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=T0g2RsZI1yMC&pg=PA216}}</ref><ref name="Dalal2014" /> According to the historian [[Roshen Dalal]], similarities between the legends may be due to a connection between the Chitpavans and the Bene Israel communities.<ref name="Dalal2014">{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=The Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87k0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT262|date=18 April 2014|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-81-8475-396-7|pages=262–|quote=A very similar legend of a shipwreck is found among CHITPAVAN BRAHMANAS, indicating a possible connection between the two communities.}}</ref> The Bene Israel, who also settled in Konkan, claim that the Chitpavans are also of Jewish origin. According to their version, these Jews later adopted Hinduism and later were called Chitpavans by the people in the area.<ref name="Gangadharan1970">{{cite book|author=K.K.Gangadharan|pages=105|title=Sociology of Revivalism: A Study of Indianization, Sanskritization, and Golwalkarism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHidF79eqycC|year=1970|publisher=Kalamkar Prakashan|quote=A history of the Bene Israelis, who settled in the Colaba district of Konkan claim Chitpavans as fellow Jews}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Jews and India: Perceptions and Image |first=Yulia |last=Egorova |year=2006 |page=85 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-96123-0|quote=The Bene-Israel had their own version of this legend, according to which both groups had a common origin. Their tradition states that after the famous shipwreck, the seven men and seven women who are considered to be the ancestors of the Bene-Israel community were washed ashore together with some other compatriots of theirs. The latter were discovered by the local inhabitants, who decided that they were dead and attempted to cremate them; however, when the bodies were put on the burning pile they regained consciousness. Subsequently they were converted to Hinduism and eventually became known among the local population as Chitpavan Brahmans.}}</ref> A member of the community, B.J Israel, noted that there might be truth in his community's claim that they and Chitpavans belong to the same stock but there is also a possibility that the Puranic legend of Chitpavan origin had been appropriated by his community to account for their presence on the coast.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Bene Israel of Bombay: A Study of a Jewish Community |first=Schifra |last=Strizower |year=1971 |page=16|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frRtAAAAMAAJ |quote=B.J. Israel, a member of the community, in an essay privately published writes: The legend that their ancestors were the survivors of a shipwreck at the village of Nowgaon near the port of Cheul may be based on truth . On the other hand, it may have been adopted when our people came to learn that, according to one of the Hindu Puranas, fourteen corpses of foreigners from a shipwreck on the Konkan coast were miraculously brought back to life by Parshuram, an avtar of the Hindu god Vishnu, and given the status of Brahmins... The Puranic legend may have been appropriated by the Bene Israel with suitable modification to account for their presence on the coast.|isbn=978-0-8052-3405-3}}</ref> Yulia Egorova notes that the attempts of Bene-Israel, whose lifestyle was closer to [[Agris]]s, but "showed an interest in being associated with" Chitpavan Brahmins who were high locally is similar to the concept of [[Sanskritisation]] in which low caste Hindus try to elevate their status.<ref>{{cite book | author = Yulia Egorova | date = 22 February 2008 | title = Jews and India: Perceptions and Image | publisher = Routledge | pages = 85| isbn = 978-1-134-14654-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9sB9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT137|quote=These two cases, in one of which the Bene-Israel tried to imitate the way of life of the Agris, while in the other they showed an interest in being associated with the Chitpavans, whose position in the local hierarchy was very high, resemble the attempts of lower caste Hindus to raise their status along the lines of Sanskritisation.}}</ref> Oroon.K.Ghosh believes that the Chitpavans themselves were Sanskritized into Brahminhood under the rule of the [[Satavahana dynasty]].<ref>{{cite book|author= Ghosh, Oroon K| title = The Changing Indian Civilization: A Perspective on India, Volume 1| year=1976|page = 282| quote=Obviously the impure region has to be sanskritized, to use Professor M.N.Srinivas' term. The satavahanas were great sanskritizers. It is possible that at this time the new group of Chitpavan Brahmans as formed. The sahyadrikhanda of the skanda purana describes how Parshurama, not finding any Brahmans....}}</ref>

Historian [[Jadunath Sarkar]] opines that the Chitpavans had a non-Indian origin and bases his views on traditions and inscriptions.<ref name="Sarkar1993">{{cite book | author = Sarkar | date = 1993 | title = India Through the Ages | publisher = Orient Blackswan | pages = 5– | isbn = 9788125015765 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Nq1K_47I2e4C&pg=PA5}}</ref> Indologist [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] writes that there is a belief that Chitpavans are sometimes considered to be people of non-Indian origin who later became Brahmins.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bronkhorst|first=Johannes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=muAzDwAAQBAJ|title=How the Brahmins won : from Alexander to the Guptas|date=2016|isbn=978-90-04-31551-8|publisher=Brill|page=121|quote=The magas may not be the only brahmins of foreign origin. The chitpavan Brahmins of Maharashtra are sometimes believed to be in origin foreigners who turned into Brahmins. See Patterson 1968; Lele 2010.}}</ref> Historian O'Hanlon states that there are allegations that Chitpavan are progeny of Arab sailors, and their historic practice of taking bride price was at odds with the standard practice of [[Kanyadana]], or giving a daughter away.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= O’Hanlon|first1= Rosalind|date=2013 |title=Performance in a World of Paper: Puranic Histories and Social Communication in Early Modern India*|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtt004|journal=Past & Present|issue=219 |pages=100–101|doi= 10.1093/pastj/gtt004|access-date=8 April 2024|publisher=Oxford Academic|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Maureen L. P. Patterson writes that the Konkan region witnessed the immigration of groups, such as the [[Bene Israel]], [[Parsis]], [[Kudaldeshkar Gaud Brahmin]]s, [[Gaud Saraswat Brahmin]]s, and Chitpavan Brahmins. Each of these arrived at different time, they settled in different parts of the region and there was little mingling between them. The Chitpavans were apparently the last major community to arrive there and consequently the area in which they settled, around Ratnagiri, was the least fertile and had few good ports for trading.<ref name="cohn_singer">{{cite book|title=Structure and Change in Indian Society|editor-first1=Bernard S|editor-last1=Cohn |editor-first2=Milton |editor-last2=Singer|publisher=AldineTransaction (Transaction Publishers)|pages=399–400|isbn =978-0-202-36138-3|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_g-_r-9Oa_sC&q=patterson+chitpavan&pg=PA397|quote=The string of ports from Bombay south to Karwar has had in turn Roman, Greck, Arab, Abysinian, Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders, invaders, visitors, or settlers. is this stretch of coast, too, which has received at one time or another such immigrant groups as the Bene Israel, Parsis, Kudal deshkar Brahmans, Gaud Saraswat Brahmans, and Chitpavan Brahmans. It is not pertinent to the present discussion to go into the place of origin or reason for immigration of any of these groups. What is pertinent is that each of these groups has been an intrusive group, physically and culturally differentiated from the others as well as from the population into which they all came. One further point is that each of these groups appears to have settled in different sections of the coastal territory, adjoining rather than intermingling with the settlements of the others. In this way, the Bene Israel came to be associated with the northern part of Kolaba District; Chitpavans, with the southern section of Ratnagiri (including what was formerly the small Sawantwadi princely state); Gaud Saraswat Brahmans, with Goa and the adjacent coastal section of North Kanara District. Of all these groups, the Chitpavan Brahmans were apparently the last to arrive, and so they ended up with that section of the coast which is by and large the least fertile and which has the fewest good ports. It would seem that Ratnagiri District, being thus the least desirable, was easily available, in a frontier-like way, and that little competition and few obstacles faced the Chitpavans as they went about settling down.}}</ref>

In ancient times, the Chitpavans were employed as messengers and spies. Later, with the rise of the Chitpavan Peshwa in the 18th century they began migrating to Pune and found employment as military men, diplomats and clerks in the Peshwa administration. A 1763–64 document shows that at least 67% of the clerks at the time were Chitpavans.<ref name="GJ">{{cite book|title=elites in south asia|author=Gordon Johnson|editor1=Edmund Leach|editor2=S.N.Mukherjee|publisher=Cambridge University Press|quote=Chitpavan Brahmins became powerful in western India with the rise of the Mahratta empire. In the late seventeenth century, Chitpavans were employed as messengers and spies by the Mahratta chiefs|page=100|year=1970}}</ref><ref name="Griffiths2019">{{cite book|author=Percival Griffiths|title=The British Impact on India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqqbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT329|date=23 April 2019|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-429-61424-8|pages=329–| quote=They were not highly regarded by other Brahmans in ancient days and appeared to have been employed principally as spies and messengers}}</ref><ref name="Gokhale1988">{{cite book|author=[[Balkrishna Govind Gokhale]]|title=Poona in the Eighteenth Century: An Urban History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9QcAAAAMAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=110|isbn=9780195621372|quote= chitpavans found employment easily under the Peshwas in diverse fields, from commanders in armies to clerks in the administration[...].A document of 1763-4 gives a list of 82 clerks of whom 55(67 percent) can be definitely identified as Chitpavans. In addition to their salaries, they were granted a substantial fringe benefit of being permitted to bring rice from Konkan to Poona free of Octroi duty.}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Rise during the Maratha rule ===
[[File:Madhav Rao Narayan, the Maratha Peshwa with Nana Fadnavis and Attendants.jpg|Peshwa [[Madhavrao II]] with [[Nana Fadnavis]] and attendants, at Pune in 1792|thumb|right]]
{{Main|Maratha Empire|Peshwa}}
Very little is known of the Chitpavans before 1707&nbsp;CE<ref name="cohn_singer"/> [[Balaji Vishwanath|Balaji Vishwanth Bhat]], a Chitpavan arrived from [[Ratnagiri]] to the [[Pune]]-[[Satara district|Satara]] area. He was brought there on the basis of his reputation of being an efficient administrator. He quickly gained the attention of [[Chhatrapati Shahu]]. Balaji's work so pleased the Chhatrapati that he was appointed the Peshwa or Prime Minister in 1713. He ran a well-organised administration and, by the time of his death in 1720, he had laid the groundwork for the expansion of the Maratha Empire. Since this time until the fall of the Maratha Empire, the seat of the Peshwa would be held by the members of the [[Bhat family]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Stewart Gordon |title=The Marathas 1600–1818 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA109 |date=16 September 1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-26883-7 |page=109 }}</ref><ref>Gokhale, B.G., 1985. The religious complex in eighteenth-century Poona. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 105(4), pp.719-724.</ref>

With the ascension of [[Balaji Baji Rao]] and his family to the supreme authority of the [[Maratha Empire]], Chitpavan immigrants began arriving ''en masse'' from the Konkan to Pune<ref>{{cite book|author=Sandhya Gokhale|title=The Chitpavans: social ascendancy of a creative minority in Maharashtra, 1818–1918|page=113|isbn=978-81-8290-132-2|year=2008|publisher=Shubhi Publications }}</ref><ref name="eaton"/> where the Peshwa offered all important offices to his fellow caste members.<ref name="cohn_singer"/> The Chitpavan kin were rewarded with tax relief and grants of land.<ref name="leach_mukherjee">{{cite book|title = Elites in South Asia|author=Edmund Leach, S. N. Mukherjee|pages=101, 104, 105|isbn=978-0-521-10765-5|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1970}}</ref> In 1762-63, [[Azad Bilgrami]] wrote:

{{blockquote|The Marathas in general, but the Deccani Brahmans in particular, have the desire to deprive all people of their means of livelihood and appropriate it for themselves. They do not spare the zamindārs of rājas, nor even the zamindāri of small people like headmen and village accountants. Uprooting most cruelly the heirs of ancient lineages, they establish their own possession and desire that the Konkani Brahmans should become the proprietors (''mālik'') of the whole world.<ref>{{cite book|author=J.S. Grewal |year=2005 |title=The State and Society in Medieval India  |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKkBJyKdoZ8C&q=Proprietors |isbn=0195667204}}</ref>}}

On the other hand,  [[Mahar]]s were subjected to degradation during the rule of the [[Peshwa]]s, who treated them as untouchables.<ref name="Jaffrelot2006">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Dr Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEWTSAe-KkQC&pg=PA21|year=2006|publisher=Permanent Black|isbn=978-81-7824-156-2|pages=21–|quote=The stigma of untouchability from which Mahars suffered was such that, in extreme cases, they were obliged to wear earthenware around their necks so that their spit did not defile the ground on which Brahmins walked. They also had to sweep the earth behind them to erase their footsteps or at least maintain a good distance from Brahmins to avoid contaminating them with their shadow. According to Pillai-Vetschera, these and other restrictions were imposed on Mahars during the Peshwa period.}}</ref> Historians cite nepotism<ref name=sejavalkar>{{cite book|title=Panipat: 1761|author=Tryambaka Śaṅkara Śejavalakara|pages=24, 25|year=1946}}</ref><ref name="seal">{{cite book|title=The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century (Political change in modern South Asia)|author= Anil Seal|pages= 74, 78|isbn =978-0-521-09652-2|date= 2 September 1971|publisher= CUP Archive}}</ref><ref>Shejwalkar, T.S. (1947) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5sM8AAAAMAAJ&q=nepotism ''The Surat Episode of 1759''] Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, Vol. 8; page 182.</ref><ref name="sardesai">{{cite book|title=New history of the Marathas: Sunset over Maharashtra (1772–1848)|author= Govind Sakharam Sardesai|year=1986|orig-year=1946|page=254|publisher=Phoenix Publications}}</ref><ref name="shinde">{{cite book|page =16|author=J. R. Śinde|title=Dynamics of cultural revolution: 19th century Maharashtra|year=1985}}</ref><ref name="michael">{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=S. M. |title=Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values |date=3 May 2007 |publisher=SAGE Publishing India |isbn=978-93-5280-287-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ss9jDwAAQBAJ |language=en |page=95}}</ref> and corruption<ref name="sardesai"/><ref name="michael"/> as causes of the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818. Richard Maxwell Eaton states that this rise of the Chitpavans is a classic example of social rank rising with political fortune.<ref name="eaton">{{cite book|author=Richard Maxwell Eaton|title=A social history of the Deccan, 1300–1761: eight Indian lives, Volume 1|page=192}}</ref>

=== British Era ===
[[File:Bal G. Tilak.jpg|[[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]]|thumb|right]]
After the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, the Chitpavans lost their political dominance to the British. The British would not subsidise the Chitpavans on the same scale that their caste-fellow, the Peshwas, had done in the past. Pay and power was now significantly reduced. Poorer Chitpavan students adapted and started learning English because of better opportunities in the British administration.<ref name="leach_mukherjee"/> 
As per the 1901 census, about 5% of the Pune population was Brahmin and about 27% of them were Chitpavans.<ref name="cashman75">{{cite book|last=Cashman|first=Richard I|year=1975|title=The myth of the Lokamanya: Tilak and mass politics in Maharashtra|publisher=University of California|page=[https://archive.org/details/mythoflokamanya00rich/page/19 19], 20,21|isbn=978-0-520-02407-6|access-date=2 April 2018|url=https://archive.org/details/mythoflokamanya00rich|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Some of the prominent figures in the [[Hindu reform movements]] of the 19th and 20th centuries came from the Chitpavan Brahmin community. These included [[Dhondo Keshav Karve]],<ref name="University of California Press">{{cite book |last1=Karve|first1=Dinakar D. |title=The New Brahmans: Five Maharashtrian Families |date=1963 |publisher= University of California Press |location= Berkeley, CA |page=13 |edition= 1st |url= |isbn=|via=}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> Justice [[Mahadev Govind Ranade]],<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book |last1=Wolpert |first1=Stanley A. |title= Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India |date= April 1991 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn=978-0195623925 |page=32}}</ref> [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]],<ref name="heidelberg-papers1">{{cite web |last1=Wolf |first1= Siegfried O. |title= Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Public Enemy or national Hero?|url= http://www.heidelberg-papers.net/uploads/media/41_-_Wolf__Siegfried_-_Vinayak_Damodar_Savarkar.pdf |access-date=3 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Wolf |editor-first1= Siegfried  |title= Heidelberg Student papers, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Public Enemy or national Hero |date=2009 |publisher= Heidelberg University |location= Dresden |isbn=978-3-86801-076-3 |page=10 |url= http://www.heidelberg-papers.net/uploads/media/41_-_Wolf__Siegfried_-_Vinayak_Damodar_Savarkar.pdf}}</ref> [[Gopal Ganesh Agarkar]],<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last1=Wolpert |first1=Stanley A. |title= Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India |date=April 1991 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn= 978-0195623925 |page=19}}</ref> [[Vinoba Bhave]].<ref>{{cite book |editor= Mariam Dossal and Ruby Maloni |title= State intervention and popular response : western India in the nineteenth century |date=1999 |publisher= Popular Prakashan |location= Mumbai |isbn= 978-81715-4855-2 |page=87 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1= Wolpert |first1=Stanley A. |title= Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India |date=April 1991 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn=978-0195623925 |page=32}}</ref>

Some of the strongest resistance to change came from the very same community. The vanguard and the old guard clashed many times. D. K. Karve was ostracised. Even Tilak offered penance for breaking caste or religious rules. One was for taking tea at Poona Christian mission in 1892 and the second was going to England in 1919.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cashman|first1=Richard I.|title=The myth of the Lokamanya : Tilak and mass politics in Maharashtra|date=1975|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520024076|page=[https://archive.org/details/mythoflokamanya00rich/page/54 54]|url=https://archive.org/details/mythoflokamanya00rich|url-access=registration}}</ref>

When the social reformer Jyotirao Phule was trying to get the backward castes educated,  historian Umesh Chattopadhyaya says that "Pune's Chitpavans would not allow any [[Dalit]] and backward to join schools". This opposition from them resulted in Phule establishing schools in and around Pune.<ref name="Rüsen2013">{{cite book | editor= Jörn Rüsen | date = 19 June 2013 | title = Approaching Humankind: Towards an Intercultural Humanism | publisher = Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht | pages = 157– | isbn = 978-3-8470-0058-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aRxcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|quote=Pune's Chitpawan Brahmins would not allow any Dalit and backward to join schools}}</ref>

The Chitpavan community includes two major politicians in the [[Gandhism|Gandhian tradition]]: [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale]], whom Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged as a preceptor, and Vinoba Bhave, one of his outstanding disciples. Gandhi describes Bhave as the "jewel of his disciples", and recognised Gokhale as his political guru. However, strong opposition to Gandhi came from the Chitpavan community. [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]], the founder of the Hindu nationalist political ideology [[Hindutva]], was a Chitpavan Brahmin and several other Chitpavans were among the first to embrace it because they thought it was a logical extension of the legacy of the Peshwas and caste-fellow Tilak.<ref name="das_kop">{{Cite journal|access-date=29 June 2010|url=http://www.india-today.com/itoday/03081998/cover.html|title=Godse on Trial|author=Swapan Dasgupta, Smruti Koppikar|date=3 August 1998|journal=India Today|pages=24–26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071207123214/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/03081998/cover.html|archive-date=7 December 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> These Chitpavans felt out of place with the Indian social reform movement of Phule and the mass politics of Gandhi. Large numbers of the community looked to Savarkar, the [[Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha|Hindu Mahasabha]] and finally the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh|RSS]], drew their inspiration from fringe groups.<ref name="gol_seg">{{cite book|author=Arnold P. Goldstein, Marshall H. Segall|title=Aggression in global perspective|page=245|year=1983}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=March 2018}}

===Anti-Brahmin violence in the 20th century===
{{Main|Marathi_Brahmin#Anti-Brahmin_violence}}

After [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s assassination by [[Nathuram Godse]], a Chitpavan, Brahmins in Maharashtra, became targets of violence, mostly by members from the [[Maratha (caste)|Maratha]] caste.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-y3iNt0djbQC&pg=PA31|date=18 November 2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-08840-3|pages=28–35}}</ref><ref name="malon"/><ref>{{cite book|title=The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4LZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT39|page=39|author= Ullekh N P|publisher=Random House India|year=2018|isbn=9789385990816}}</ref>
V. M. Sirsikar, a political scientist at the [[University of Pune]], noted that {{blockquote|It will be too much to believe that the riots took place because of the intense love of Gandhiji on the part of the Marathas. Godse became a very convenient hate symbol to damn the Brahmins and burn their properties.<ref name="malon">{{cite book|title=State Intervention and Popular Response: Western India in the Nineteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7f0JEWk6HMC&pg=PA11|editor1=Mariam Dossal|editor2=Ruby Malon|author=V.M.Sirsikar|page=11|isbn=9788171548552|year=1999| publisher=Popular Prakashan }}</ref>}}
The violence after the assassination affected Chitpavan [[Patwardhan]] family ruled princely states such as [[Sangli]], where the Marathas were joined by the [[Jains]] and the [[Lingayats]] in the attacks against the Brahmins. Here, specifically, the loss was about Rs.16 million. This event led to the hasty integration of the Patwardhan states into the [[Bombay state|Bombay Province]] by March 1948 – a move that was opposed by other Brahmins as they feared the Maratha predominance in the integrated province.<ref name="AttwoodIsrael1988-Patterson">{{cite book |author=Maureen Patterson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mm5uAAAAMAAJ |title=City, countryside and society in Maharashtra |date=October 1988 |publisher=University of Toronto, Centre for South Asian Studies |isbn=978-0-9692907-2-8 |editor1=Donald W. Attwood |pages=35–58 |quote=Such resistance was to no avail, and the Brahmans' fears and troubles were realized in February 1948 when they were set upon by recently politicized communities - Marathas, as well as Jains and Lingayats - who unhesitatingly took advantage of the opportunity provided by assassin Godse's shots.[page 50] |editor2=Milton Israel |editor3=Narendra K. Wagle}}</ref>

== Military ==
The Chitpavans have considered themselves to be both warriors and priests.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths |first=Chetan |last=Bhatt |publisher=Berg |year=2001 |isbn=9781859733486 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet/page/32 32] |url=https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet|url-access=registration }}</ref> Their involvement in military affairs began with the rise of the Peshwas<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez4wAQAAIAAJ|title=The Chitpavans: social ascendancy of a creative minority in Maharashtra, 1818–1918 |publisher=Shubhi |year=2008 |isbn=978-81-8290-132-2 |page=82 |author=Sandhya Gokhale}}</ref> and their willingness to enter military and other services earned them high status and power in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]].<ref name="hansen">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-y3iNt0djbQC&pg=PA29 |title=Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay |first=Thomas Blom |last=Hansen |year=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-69108-840-2 |page=29}}</ref>

== Culture ==
In their original home of Konkan, their primary occupation was farming, while some earned money by performing rituals among their own caste members.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of world cultures: South Asia – Volume 2|page=69|quote= The occupation of the Chitpavans in their original territory of the Konkan was farming, with some income from performing rituals among their own caste.|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|editor=Paul Hockings|year=1992}}</ref>

Anthropologist Donald Kurtz writes that the late 20th century opinions about the culture of the Chitpavans was that they were frugal to the point of appearing cheap, impassive, not trustworthy and also conspiratorial.<ref name="Kurtz1993">{{cite book|author=Donald V. Kurtz|title=Contradictions and Conflict: A Dialectical Political Anthropology of a University in Western India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0X5DquN8LkIC|date=31 December 1993|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-09828-3|page=64-|quote=Local non-Chitpavan Brahmans and non-Brahmans will tell you that Chitpavan Brahmans are notoriously frugal, even cheap. As one non-Brahman teacher described and other corroborated at a social function, it would be characteristic of a Chitpavan not to offer a visitor a glass of water after he/she walked across town to deliver a message when the temperature is 40 degrees C. In additional, Chitpavans are thought to be conspiratorial, untrustworthy, phlegmatic and inbred}}</ref> According to Tilak, a Chitpavan himself, his community was known for cleanliness and being industrious but he suggested they should learn virtues such as benevolence and generosity from the Deshasthas.<ref name="Kamath1991">{{cite book|author=M. V. Kamath|page=8|title=The Makings of a Millionaire: A Tribute to a Living Legend, Raosaheb B.M. Gogte, Industrialist, Philanthropist & Educationist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L7QgAAAAIAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Jaico Publishing House|quote=Lokamanya Tilak, himself a Chitpavan once wrote that his community was known for their cleanliness, industry, enterprise and thrift but that they could learn the virtues of benevolence, generosity and munificence from the Deshasthas.}}</ref>  During the heyday of the [[Maratha Empire]], the city of Pune became the financial metropolis of the empire with 150 big and petty moneylenders. Most of these were Chitpavan or Deshastha Brahmins.<ref name="Damodaran2008">{{cite book|author=H. Damodaran|title=India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WJp_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA50|date=25 June 2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-59412-8|pages=50–51}}</ref>

D.L.Sheth, the former director of the [[Centre for the Study of Developing Societies|Center for the Study of Developing Societies in India (CSDS)]], lists Indian communities that were traditionally "[[Urban area|urban]] and [[professional]]" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) immediately after Independence in 1947. This list included Chitpavans and CKPs([[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]]s) from Maharashtra; the South Indian Brahmins; the [[Nagar Brahmins]] from Gujarat; the [[Khatri|Punjabi Khatris]], [[Kashmiri Pandits]] and [[Kayastha]]s from northern India; the Probasi and the [[Bhadralok]] [[Bengalis]]; the [[Parsis]] and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. According to P.K.Verma, "Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all male  members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Indian Middle class|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbgMy8KfD74C&pg=PA28|author=Pavan K. Varma|publisher=Penguin Books|quote=...its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified '''professionals''' such as doctors, engineers and lawyers, business entrepreneurs, teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists[etc]...The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpavans and the Ckps (Chandrasenya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite...But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school|isbn=9780143103257|year=2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Searching for identity among Dalit middle class in Maharashtra |journal=Social Action |volume=50 |publisher=Indian Social Institute |year=2000 |page=72}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.csds.in/d_l_sheth|title=D.L. Sheth |website=www.csds.in}}</ref>

=== Language ===
Chitpavan Brahmins in Maharashtra speak [[Marathi language|Marathi]] as their language. The Marathi spoken by Chitpavans in Pune is the standard form of language used all over Maharashtra today.<ref name="singh" /> This form has many words derived from [[Sanskrit]] and retains the Sanskrit pronunciation of many, misconstrued by non-standard speakers as "nasalised pronunciation".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1lTnv6o-d_oC&pg=PA207|title=Handbook of twentieth century literatures of India|last1=Deo|first1=Shripad D.|editor=Nalini Natarajan|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-31328-778-7|location=Westport|page=212}}</ref>

=== Social status ===
Earlier, the [[Deshastha Brahmin]]s openly disparaged the Chitpavans as [[parvenu]]s (a relative newcomer to a socio-economic class), and in Kumar's words "barely fit to associate on terms of equality with the noblest of the [[Dvija]]s". The [[Deshastha Brahmin]]s were also joined by the [[Karhade Brahmin]]s who also showed disdain for the Chitpawans and both these castes even declined to eat food together with them. Thus, they did not treat them as social equals. Even the Peshwas themselves were not given access to the [[ghat]]s reserved for Deshastha priests at [[Nashik]] on the Godavari river.<ref name="Kumar2013">{{cite book|author=Ravinder Kumar|title=Western India in the Nineteenth Century: A study in the social history of Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbrWAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT41|date=28 October 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-03145-9|quote=Upon the chitpavans who had come into prominence after the rise of the Peshwas they[deshasthas] looked down with scarcely veiled contempt as the parvenus, barely fit to associate on terms of equality with the noblest of the dvijas. A chitpavan who was invited to a deshasth home was a privileged individual, and even the Peshwa was denied the right to use the ghats reserved for deshasth priests at Nasik on the Godavari|pages=41–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Rajarshi Shahu Chhatrapati Papers: 1900–1905 A.D.: Vedokta controversy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laBHAAAAMAAJ|author1=Shahu Chhatrapati (Maharaja of Kolhapur)|author2=Vilas Adinath Sangave|author3=B. D. Khane|publisher=Shahu Research Institute|year=1985|page=4}}</ref>{{qn|date=April 2025}}

After the appointment of [[Balaji Vishwanath Bhat]] as [[Peshwa dynasty|Peshwa]], Kokanastha Brahmin migrants began arriving en masse from the Konkan to Pune,<ref name="eaton"/>{{sfn|Gokhale|2008|p=113}} where the Peshwa offered some important offices to the Kokanastha Brahmin caste.{{sfn|Patterson|2007|p=398}} The Kokanastha Brahmin kin were rewarded with tax relief and grants of land.{{sfn|Leach|Mukherjee|1970|pp=101, 104–5}} Historians point out nepotism{{sfn|Śejavalakara|1946|pp=24–5}}{{sfn|Seal|1971 |pp=74, 78}}{{sfn|Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute|1947|p=182}}{{sfn|Śinde|1985|p=16}}{{sfn|Michael|2007|p=95}}<ref>{{cite book|title=The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century|author=Anil Seal|publisher=CUP Archive|year=1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xV84AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78|page=78|quote=Between Brahmins and these non-Brahmins there was a long history of rancour which the nepotism of the Peshwas had only exacerbated.|isbn=9780521096522}}</ref> and corruption during this time.

The rise in prominence of the Chitpavans compared to the Deshastha Brahmins resulted in intense rivalry between the two communities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA109|title=The Marathas 1600–1818|last=Gordon|first=Stewart|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=16 September 1993|isbn=978-0-521-26883-7|pages=132–134}}</ref> 19th century records also mention ''[[Gramanya]]s'' or village-level debates between the [[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]]s and the Chitpavans, [[Saraswat]] Brahmins and the Chitpavans, [[Pathare Prabhu]]s and the Chitpavans and Shukla Yajurvedi [[Deshastha Brahmin]]s and the Chitpavans. These disputes pertaining to the so-called violation of "Brahmanical ritual code of behavior" were quite common in Maharashtra during that period.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Chitpwans |last=Gokhale|first=Sandhya|publisher=Shubhi Publications|date=2008|page=204|quote=The jati disputes were not a rare occurrence in Maharashtra. There are recorded instances of disputes between jatis such as Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus and the Chitpavans, Pathare Prabhus and the Chitpavans, Saraswat brahmin and the Chitpavans and Shukla Yajurvedi and the Chitpavans. The intra-caste dispute involving the supposed violation of the Brahmanical ritual code of behavior was called Gramanya in marathi.}}</ref>

[[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]] believed that the [[Deshastha]]s, Chitpavans and [[Karhade]]s should get united. As early as 1881, he encouraged this by writing comprehensive discussions on the urgent need for these three Maharashtrian Brahmin sub-castes to give up caste exclusiveness by intermarrying and dining together.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Chitpavans: social ascendancy of a creative minority|author=Sandhya Gokhale|year=2008|page=147|quote=As early as 1881, in a few articles Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the resolute thinker and the enfant terrible of Indian politics, wrote comprehensive discourses on the need for united front by the Chitpavans, Deshasthas and the Karhades. Invoking the urgent necessity of this remarkable Brahmans combination, Tilak urged sincerely that these three groups of Brahmans should give up caste exclusiveness by encouraging inter sub-caste marriages and community dining."}}</ref>

Starting in the 20th century, the relations between the Deshastha Brahmins and the Chitpavan Brahmins have improved by the large-scale mixing of both communities on social, financial and educational fields, as well as with intermarriages.<ref>{{cite book|title=Caste, Prejudice, and the Individual|url=https://archive.org/details/casteprejudicein0000para|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/casteprejudicein0000para/page/117 117]|author=A. C. Paranjpe|publisher=Lalvani Publishing House|year=1970|quote=It may also be pointed out that marriages between the Deshastha and Kokanastha Brahmins have been very common}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7KjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|title=Tamil Brahmans: The Making of a Middle-Class Caste|author1=C. J. Fuller|author2=Haripriya Narasimhan|publisher=University of Chicago Press|access-date=11 November 2014|page=62|isbn=9780226152882|date=11 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2u88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA105|title=Elites in South Asia|editor1=Edmund leach|editor2=S. N. Mukherjee| author= Gordon Johnson|year=1970 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=105}}</ref>

===Diet===
Traditionally, Chitpavan Brahmins are [[vegetarian]]. [[Rice]] is their staple food.<ref>{{cite book|title=India's Communities, Volume 5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9MVAQAAMAAJ|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|page=1804,2079|quote=(quote on page 1804):The Chitpavan are vegetarian and rice is their staple cereal. (quote on page 2079): Among them the Chitpavan, Desastha, Karhade and Devdny Brahman are pure vegetarian though nowadays, they occasionally take non-vegetarian food.|isbn=9780195633542}}</ref>

===''Bodan''===
A.J.Agarkar describes ''Bodan'' as follows and adds that some kind of dancing is also involved:
{{blockquote|In certain Chitpavan families, it is obligatory to perform bodan, after a birth or a marriage has taken place in the family. Four married women and an unmarried girl are invited to meals. A metal idol of the [[Annapurna (goddess)|Goddess Annapurna]] is placed in a plate containing all the items of the meals in small quantities. All the contents of the plate along with the idol are mixed together by the invited women and if any of them is in the habit of getting possessed on such occasions, or if anyone gets possessed for the first time, ghee, milk, honey, etc. are added to the mixture according to her instructions. The idol is afterwards removed and the mixture is fed to a cow.<ref name="Agarkar1950">{{cite book|author=A. J. Agarkar|title=Folk-dance of Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gw87AAAAMAAJ|year=1950|publisher=R. Joshi| pages=41,159}}</ref>}}Vandana Bhave has published the only dedicated book on Bodan Vidhi (Bodan method) named Merutantrokta Bodan Vidhi.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 March 2024 |title=Bodan Vidhi (बोडण विधी)- Book |url=https://thechitpavana.org/2024/03/12/bodan-vidhi-%e0%a4%ac%e0%a5%8b%e0%a4%a1%e0%a4%a3-%e0%a4%b5%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%a7%e0%a5%80-book/ |access-date=12 March 2024 |website=thechitpavana.org |language=en}}</ref>

Bodan finds mention in the [[:mr:अक्षीचा शिलालेख|Akshi Shilalekh]] (Pillar Inscription),  dated to 1012 CE (sake 934) by Dr. S. G. Tulpule, and by Dikshit to 1209-1210 CE (Sake 1132). V. V. Mirashi agrees with Sake 1132 as the right date. Tulpule reads the content as donation of 9 kuvalis of grain towards Goddess Mahalakshmi for Bodan, whereas Dikshit interprets it as digging a well to honor Mahalaskhmi.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mirashi |first=Vasudev Vishnu |title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Vol VI Inscriptions of Silaharas |publisher=Archeological Survey of India |year=1977 |location=Calcutta |pages=167–168 |language=English}}</ref>

=== Genealogy ===
The community has published several family history and genealogy almanacs called ''[[Kulavruttanta]]s''. These books usually document various aspects of a clan's history, name etymology, ancestral land holdings, migration maps, religious traditions, genealogical charts, biographies, and records of births, deaths and marriages within the clan.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Chitpavan Brahmins, a history|journal=JSPUI|publisher=[[Pune University]]|pages=14, 15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/155122029|title=Structure and change in Indian society|date=2007|publisher=AldineTransaction |editor1=Milton B. Singer |editor2=Bernard S. Cohn|isbn=978-0-202-36138-3|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|oclc=155122029}}</ref>

== Notable people ==
{{Main|List of Chitpavan Brahmins}}

== See also ==
* [[Deshastha Brahmin]]
* [[Karhade Brahmin]]
* [[Limaye]]
* [[Maharashtrian Brahmin]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book | title=By Ways of Bombay |chapter=Chapter XIV – A Konkan Legend | author=[[S. M. Edwardes]] | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vw32HknckP0C | access-date = 3 July 2010 | isbn=978-1-4068-5154-0 | date=31 July 2009|publisher=Echo Library }}
* {{Cite book|title=Western India in the Nineteenth Century|author=Ravinder Kumar|year=1968|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul}}
*Chitpavans under the [[British Raj]]-{{cite book|last1=Singh|first1=R.|last2=Lele|first2=J.K.|title=Language and society : steps towards an integrated theory|date=1989|publisher=E.J. Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=9789004087897|pages=32–42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PLiAlGzLFQC&q=chitpavan}}
* {{citation| title=Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth-Century Western India|last=O'Hanlon|first=Rosalind|isbn=978-0-521-52308-0|series=Cambridge South Asian Studies|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
* {{citation|pages=78–105|title=Battles of the honourable East India Company: making of the Raj|isbn=978-81-313-0034-3|publisher=APH Publishing|year=2006|first=M.S|last=Naravane|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bxsa3jtHoCEC&q=9788131300343}}
* {{Citation|last= Śinde|first=J. R|title=Dynamics of cultural revolution: 19th century Maharashtra|year=1985|isbn=9780836415247|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TtsiAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Citation|title=Panipat: 1761, Volume 1 of Deccan College monograph series, Poona Deccan College of Post-graduate and Research Institute (India) Volume 1 of Deccan College dissertation series|last=Śejavalakara|first=Tryambaka Śaṅkara
|year=1946|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-A9AAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Citation|title=The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century (Political change in modern South Asia)|first=Anil|last=Seal|isbn=978-0-521-09652-2|year=1971 |publisher=CUP Archive |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xV84AAAAIAAJ
}}
* {{Citation|title=Structure and Change in Indian Society|editor=Bernard S. Cohn, Milton Singer|first=Maureen|last=Patterson|isbn=978-0-202-36138-3|year=2007|publisher=AldineTransaction }}
* {{Citation|title=Elites in South Asia|first1=Edmund|last1=Leach|first2=S. N|last2=Mukherjee|isbn=978-0-521-10765-5|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gt6pPwAACAAJ}}
* {{Citation|last=Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute|journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute|volume=8|title=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute|year=1947|publisher=Dr. A. M. Ghatage, director, Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5sM8AAAAMAAJ|lccn=47021378}}

{{Ethnic and social groups of Goa and the Konkan}}

[[Category:Brahmin communities of Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Konkani people]]
[[Category:Brahmin communities of Goa]]
[[Category:Social groups of Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Marathi people]]
[[Category:Vegetarian communities]]