Chitpavan Brahmins

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 the Karnataka-Maharashtra region.

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, Chitpavans were one of the Hindu communities to flock to western education in the Bombay Province of British India.

Etymology and origin

The Chitpavans are also known as Kokanastha Brahmins.

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 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 fisherman families were purified and Sanskritized to Brahminhood.