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It is beyond a doubt that each human group is biologically
distinct and culturally unique, and we Havyakas are no exception
to this rule. But our uniqueness lies in our historical and
cultural distinctiveness from the other Brahmin sects of Karnataka.
Fortunately for us, it has not entered the glass cases of
museums, and even to this date we still carry that cultural
legacy with us and feel that difference from the others. However,
what most of us are not aware of is the root of this sect
from our branching point. Of course, who is not interested
in knowing one's origin? But facts about our origin are hard
to come by since there have been no serious efforts to think
about it, let alone mine the treasure and wealth of information.
This article is an effort to re-establish what we are and
bring those little known facts about our roots to the readers.
Because of the paucity of time and the unreachable distance
for reference materials, we are only trying to recollect our
earlier readings to make a short article on our unique sect,
which for obvious reasons make the facts and figures reach
only near the first approximation. However, if your short
journey through this article carries you through that intangible
pleasure of knowing one's roots, which we ourselves have experienced,
then we think our article will have served its purpose.
As Dr. K. S. Singh puts it, every community in India recalls
its migration in its history and folklore and thus an Indian
is a migrant par excellence. Historically, we Havyakas are
the first of the Brahmin kind to descend to the present day
Karnataka around 3rd century A.D., followed by other sects
like Shivalli, Smarthas etc., who arrived much later, around
7th century A.D. However, the scientific school of thought
places the date of our immigration back to about 1300 years
ago. The Brahmin king Raja Mayooravarma was instrumental in
bringing the first 30 or so families. It is believed that
the Kadamba kingdom had many Kshatriyas and we were brought
in to perform the royal rituals and the related functions
of the empirical government. Thus the first few families were
settled in Banavasi, the beautiful capital of the Kadambas
and the place so adored by Pampa. Since the very purpose of
bringing these Brahmin families was to perform Havana (Havya)
and Homa (Gavya), they were aptly named as Havyaga or Haveega,
which has transcended to the present day "Havika"
or "Havyaka." In fact, the name "Haiga"
persists in our lexicon. This functionality of naming even
extended to the specific role played by families in the whole
gamut of rituals. Thus originated the seven family names given
to us by Raja Mayooravarma. The Havyakas are the only Brahmins
who derive their surnames from the job they perform rather
than by their origin (e.g., Kota, Shivalli) or by the preacher
(e.g., Madhva) or by God worship (e.g., Shivite, Vaishnavite).
Thus came the names "Hegade (Hegde)" for the head
of the village who sponsors the ritualistic activities, "Dixit"
for one who is the head of the Yajna, "Bhat", who
actually performs the rituals and so on (please refer to the
book Havyakara Ithihasa for a detailed account). Raja Mayooravarma's
act of bringing us into Banavasi has been inscribed on a stone
stab (one of the so called "Shilashasanas") from
the period of the Kadambas, which now lies near the village
of Varadahalli in Sagar Taluk of Shimoga district.
It might be purely coincidental that the first Havyaka migrants
were asked to settle in the beautiful habitat of woods, hills
and rivers of the Malnad valleys. But we cannot resist the
thought that this first encounter of the early settlers with
the beautiful and enchanting nature pervaded into their culture
and transmitted to all their future generations. One can find
the evidence for this if one tries to look at their current
geographical distribution in the districts of Chikkamagalur,
Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga and Uttara Kannada. It is therefore
no wonder that, in general, we are so hospitable, friendly
and soft-spoken. Nature surrounding us has molded much of
our behavior, but unfortunately, most of us are unaware of
this priceless and invaluable gift. Beyond all this, there
are some unique features that we have as Brahmins. We are
the only sect that worships all gods and goddesses irrespective
of the individual family deity, while many Brahmin sects have
limitations about whom they worship (e.g., Shivites, Vaishnavites).
We are the only ones (at least most of us) who plough the
land and cultivate crops by ourselves, and we do not have
subordinates do it for us (like landlords). We are also the
only Brahmins who derive our names from the jobs that we perform
(see above).
Since the beginning of civilized human society, people have
learned and benefited much from historical mistakes. History
says that the so-called "Aryan race" invaded the
Northern part of India before the Christian era. But lately
reasonable doubts have been expressed by many Indian historians
about the Aryan invasion theory, as this story originated
with European authors without any tangible evidence. However,
the truth remains that the Northern and the Southern parts
of India were inhabited by people of different skin color,
which is evident even to this date, and that the Dravidians
existed before a foreign invasion. To quote an American historian,
"this is the only country in the world where one can
still see the history alive and vivid, and cultures and customs
practiced more than 2000 years ago are still intact in everyday
life." Therefore we find it reasonable to accept the
fact that at least two major human groups inhabited the Indian
subcontinent, and further that we are probably the descendants
of the group of lighter skin color from the Northern part
of the country, if what is written in the following paragraph
is true.
While the inscription near Varadahalli is a definite proof
that we were brought in from a place by name "Ahichchathra,"
it is a controversy as to where this place is. The author
of Havyakara Ithihasa places it at three points: (1) at Gokarna
in Kumta taluk of Uttara Kannada district, (2) in Godavari
district of Andhra Pradesh, and (3) in Bareilly district of
Uttara Pradesh. Incidentally, all these points have or had
a place by the name of Ahichchathra. The author feels that
it is probably the third by a process of elimination rather
than by facts, which have not been discovered. Thus, the argument
goes that Gokarna came to existence after Banavasi and the
district of Godavari did not have any Brahmins living in its
bounds today. Thus it is deduced that we came from some place
in the state of Uttara Pradesh. It is, however, interesting
to note here that some sects of people in Uttara Pradesh do
have certain cultural similarities to those of Havyakas including
tilling and cultivating the land by themselves. Whether this
is a coincidental residue of some original race (Aryan?) or
a related fact is controversial and remains to be uncovered.
Therefore it is only an educated guess that we are rooted
in Uttara Pradesh. We would like to state here that some people
also think that our ancestors came from somewhere in Kashmir.
There is no doubt that our sect is a small, unique, endogamous
group. We also seem to have a high average intelligence. Of
course, there are many such groups in India with high intelligence
quotient, but we feel that our sect is rationally different
in many worldly affairs. We are not bound to ritualistic fanaticism,
but we respect all communities including those of lower castes.
Likewise, Brahmins were not supposed to till the land, but
we took a more practical approach and outlook towards life
and indulged in cultivation. These and many other things clearly
point to the critical rational thinking of our forbearers.
Howard Gardner lists seven forms of intelligence: spatial,
musical, logical, mathematical, linguistic etc. This classification
has been widely accepted since the first edition (1983) of
his book and is slowly replacing the earlier verbal and pencil-paper
mathematical intelligence, which is still practiced throughout
the world. Though any of the aspects relating to our sect
have not been quantified, just a casual observation shows
that we excelled in verbal and mathematical logic as seen
in our educational excellence. We also excelled in musical
and bodily kinesthetic intelligence (dance or Yakshagana).
More prominently, we are extremely good at personal intelligence
(interpersonal relationship is a part of this), which probably
made us so hospitable and tolerant. This gift cannot be explained
fully by good sets of genes of our ancestors, as majority
of genetics experiments show that, on an average, inheritance
of intelligence is only around 30%. Therefore, just imagine
the influence of the environment, both physical and cultural,
on this sect. We are not glorifying one sect over another
here, but simply wonder about the evolutionary secret behind
our success from our roots. If we got so much from that place,
people and culture, maybe it is our moral duty to respect
our genealogy in some way or another.
In conclusion to this short article, everything seems to
point to the fact that we migrated to our present day habitat
from somewhere else. The multi-series volume on the People
of India was dedicated to the scientific community and for
people who are interested, it might even be available somewhere
on CD-ROMs of FTP sites (the information generated has been
stored in 128 diskettes). While the current population of
our community is believed to stand at around 100,000 individuals,
there is a clear dearth of comprehensive anthropological study
about the origin and the subsequent migration of Havyakas.
Since all the facts are neither known nor available to us
here, we have written this article from a skeptical point
of view. It is therefore imminent that such a study is very
much warranted, by someone among us or somebody else. If someone
earnestly wants to do this, the Havyaka community should come
forward to sponsor him/her for scientific and anthropological
cause. Searching our roots is really a field worth studying,
not only for our sake, but also for the sake of the scientific
community. In the age when atoms and molecules and chips and
computers are ruling the world, such studies will also be
monumental!
Acknowledgments
Much of our thoughts in this article was shaped by our readings
of the book, Havyakara Ithihasa written by someone from the
Sagar taluk of Shimoga district. We suggest interested readers
go through this and the references thereof, as well as the
following reference sources for more details about our heritage.
References
- Havyakara Ithihasa, 1992. This book has been
aptly named for its content. The book has several facts
about social, economical, religious and other lifestyles
of Havyakas. The author has made an attempt to dig out our
roots, complete with some references.
- TSS (Totigara Sahakari Sangha or Totagar's Society, Sirsi,
Uttara Kannada) Silver/Golden jubilee publication.
- People of India: An Introduction, 1992. This
is a 120-volume series by the Anthropological Survey of
India, published by Seagull Books, Calcutta. This work delves
deeply into the ethnographic bio-diversity and anthropological
profile of 2753 communities of India and entwines 776 characters
(like customs, occupation, language etc.) on each sect.
The project was a brainchild of Dr. K. S. Singh, Director-General
of the Anthropological Society of India, New Delhi. For
more details on this publication, see Current Science 64(1):
3-10, 10th January 1993. The series was incomplete until
1995 and only the first few volumes had come out at that
time.
- Mountain, Gadgil, Bhattacharya and others. "Demographic
history of India and mtDNA sequence diversity," American
Journal of Human Genetics, April 1995. This article compares
the mitochondrial DNA of Havyakas of Uttara Kannada with
those of Mukris (Scheduled Caste) and Kadars (a tribe).
- Gadgil and Prasad, 1993/1994. "Peopling of India."
Paper presented at History conference, Mysore. In this,
the authors speculate about the origin of Havyakas.
- Howard Gardner, 1993. Frames of mind: Theory of multiple
intelligence.
For further comments and/or discussions, please contact the
authors of this article (originally published in July1995
in the book entitled Havyaka Association of the Americas)
below by e-mail:
Subraya G. Hegde
1000 Pine Avenue, #252
Redlands, CA 92373
E-mail: subray@ucracl.ucr.edu
Nagendra R. Hegde
3405 Holdrege, #101
Lincoln, NE 68503-1471
E-mail: nhegde@crcvms.unl.edu
Contents copyrighted © 2002 by Narayan S. Hosmane
and Northern Illinois University. All rights reserved. Any
questions or comments? Please contact Narayan
Hosmane.
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