BRAHMINS WHO REFUSED TO BEG: BRIEF HISTORY OF BHUMIHARS, “AYACHAK” BRAHMINS OF EAST INDIA)
Anurag Sharma
Nov 2022 · Notion Press
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About this ebook
Bhumihars are a prominent ‘Ayachak’ brahmin community of East India. Ayachak brahmins gave up priestly duties and took up agriculture for subsistence and bore arms to protect the motherland. Ayachaks have coexisted alongside the traditional priestly Yachak class, within the Brahminical fold across India since time immemorial. Bhumihar brahmin community, though small, has a rich history of both valour and scholarship. Even as the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, were ravaging the north-western flanks of India, a Chanakya was plotting a quiet pushback. When the successors of King Ashoka, smitten by the non-violent ways of Buddhism, were dilly dallying against the imminent threat of a Greek resurgence, a Pushyamitra Shunga rose to shake the warriors out of their stupor of non-violence and pushed back the Greeks beyond the borders of Bharat forever. When forced to use a rifle cartridge laden with beef starch, against their Hindu beliefs, a Mangal Pandey became the first one to rise in protest and soon a nation followed. The indomitable spirit of the community has inspired and dazzled with their scholarship as well. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s pen, drenched in the patriotic fervour of ‘Veer Rasa’, inspired many mutinies against the British. From the venerable Shri Babu, the first chief minister of Bihar in independent India, to Raj Narain, the giant killer who defeated Indira Gandhi, the community has shone in the field of politics and leadership. The community has not shied away from raising its voice against injustice and led reform movements like abolition of Zamindari and the temple entry movement. They may have lost their traditional tools of subsistence, but they still carry the twin endowments of bravery and intellect in their genes. Bhumihar ‘Ayachak’ brahmins are truly the brahmins who refused to beg.
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keshav kumar
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November 19, 2022
please write in hindi also
About the author
Anurag Sharma, a Petroleum Engineering graduate from IIT-ISM Dhanbad, is an Oil & Gas professional who has worked in various Oil companies, both in India and abroad. A native of Jihuli village in East Champaran, he has keen interest in digging deeper about his roots. That quest led him to do research on Bhumihar brahmins of East India. As the information docket swelled, he felt an urge to share the brief history of his community in a book form with others. This book is the fruit of his research to rediscover his community roots.
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