Roman Catholic Brahmin

Roman Catholic Brahmin or Christian Brahmin (IAST Bamonns in Romi Konkani and Kupari in Bombay East Indian dialects) is a Christianised caste among the Goan, Bombay East Indian and Mangalorean Catholics, who are patrilineal descendants of Brahmin and Prabhu converts to the Latin Church. This occurred in parts of the Konkan region that were annexed into the Portuguese East Indies, with the capital (metropole) at Velha Goa, and Bombay (Bom Bahia) was the largest territory (province) of Portuguese India. They retain some of the ethno-social values and customs of their ancestors and most of them exhibit a noticeable hybrid Latino-Concanic culture.

Origins

In Goa, the Brahmins were engaged in the priestly occupation, but had also taken up various occupations like agriculture, trade, goldsmithing, etc. The origins of this particular caste can be traced back to the Christianisation of the Velhas Conquistas (Template:Langx) that was undertaken by the Portuguese, during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was during this period that, the Jesuit, Franciscan and Dominican missionaries converted many Brahmins to Christianity. The first mass conversions took place among the Brahmins of Divar and the Kshatriyas of Carambolim (Karmali).

All converts from Brahmin sub-castes (Chitpavan Brahmins, Deshastha Brahmins, Karhada Brahmins, Saraswat Brahmins etc) and Prabhus were unified into a single Christian caste of Bamonn. Since the conversions of Brahmins of a particular area, were instrumental in the conversions of members of other castes, due to the resulting loss of priests, such converts were highly valued by the church and Portuguese rulers alike.

The Christian Brahmins were even allowed to wear the Yajnopavita (sacred threads) and other caste markings by a special dispensation of Pope Gregory XV in 1623; on the condition that these were to be blessed by a Catholic priest.

The Bamonns in general consider their Indian caste system, to be a class form of social categorisation. Since their concept is divorced from the religious elements associated to it, by their Hindu counterparts, they tend to justify their maintenance of caste as a form of social stratification, similar to the Western class concept. They are an endogamous group and have generally refrained from inter-marriage with Catholic Christians of other castes. However, while the Bamonns never inter-married or mingled with the lower castes, the statutes or norms of the Roman Catholic Church restrained them from practising Hindu caste based discrimination against the latter.

Although most now carry Portuguese surnames, some have retained the knowledge of their ancestral pre-conversion surnames; such as Bhat, Kamat, Nayak, Pai, Prabhu, Shenoy, Shett and others. The konkanised variants of these surnames are Bhôtt, Kāmot, Nāik, Poi, Porbų (Probų), Šeņai, Šet etc. However, only Pundit, Bhatta, Shenoy (Shenvi) and Joshi suggest Brahminical roles; such as priesthood, astrology, etc. The meanings of the other surnames are as follows: Kamath (cultivator or landholder), Nayak (military leader), Dessai (headman), Pai/ Prabhu (lord), Baaliga (soldier) and so on. The Gaud Saraswat Brahmin subcaste was created by Shenoi Goembab in the 19th century, Shenoi found the supporting genealogy of GSBs in the writings of the Christian Brahmin Jose Gerson da Cunha, during this time the Brahminhood of Saraswats was denied by Hindu Marathi Brahmins and Jose was labeled a "defiled Christian" by a Mahratti-speaking Saraswat Brahmin.

Mudartha is a unique surname to be found among some Bamonn families that hail from Udipi district in Karnataka. Some Mangalorean Catholic Bamonn families trace their patrilineal descent to Konkani Saraswat Brahmins. There was one instance in the Mangalorean Catholic community, wherein some Protestant Anglo-Indians were admitted into the Bamonn fold, by Catholic priests at the time of their conversion to Catholic Christianity, their descendants are known as Pulputhru Bamonns (Pulpit Brahmins).

In 1976, a genetic testing study conducted on three groups of Goan Saraswat Brahmins and one group of Goan Catholic Bamonns in Western India; confirmed the historical and ethnological evidence of a relationship between, Goan Catholic Bamonns and Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins. The study further revealed that intergroup differences between the subject groups suggested a genetic closeness, with genetic distance ranging from 0.8 to 1.5.

Some Christian Brahmins such as the Pinto brothers Jose Antonio and Fransisco from the famous Goan noble family joined the army of Baji Rao II in Poona (Pune), after trying to overthrow Portuguese rule in the Conspiracy of the Pintos.

In popular culture

• In her poem entitled de Souza Prabhu, the Goan poet Eunice de Souza muses about her Bamonn heritage: Template:Poemquote
• The main protagonist of Mangalorean writer Richard Crasta's erotic novel The Revised Kamasutra is Vijay Prabhu, a small-town, middle-class Bamonn youth living in Mangalore during the 1970s. Filled with erotic longing and a deep desire to flee staunchly conservative Mangalore, he embarks on a sexual and spiritual odyssey that eventually lands him in the relatively liberal United States.
• The protagonists of Konkani novelist V. J. P. Saldanha's novels such as Balthazar from the novel Belthangaddicho Balthazar (Balthazar of Belthangadi), Sardar Simaon and Sardar Anthon from Devache Kurpen (By the Grace of God), Salu and Dumga Peenth from Sordarachim Sinol (The sign of the Knights) are Bamonns. A few characters such as Jaculo Pai and Monna Kamath from Sordarachim Sinol, Sardar Simaon Pedru Prabhu, Sardar Anthon Paul Shet and Raphael Minguel Kamath from Devache Kurpen have evidently Brahmin surnames.
• Antonio Gomes' debut novel The Sting of Peppercorns (2010) focuses on the trials and tribulations faced by the de Albuquerques, a Bamonn family from Loutolim in Salcette. The family is headed by its patriarch Afonso de Albuquerque, a namesake of the conqueror of Goa to whom the family is linked through legend. Apart from him, it consists of his wife Dona Isabella, their two sons Paulo and Roberto, their daughter Amanda, an aunt Rosita noted for her cooking skills, ayah Carmina, and several servants who live on the de Albuquerque estate.
• Shakuntala Bharvani's novel Lost Directions (1996) features a minor Goan Bamonn character, Donna Bolvanta-Bragança. She is a fervent Catholic who takes pride in her Brahmin heritage, scornfully reprimanding the protagonist Sangeeta Chainani for mistaking her to be an Anglo-Indian. When Chainani innocently inquires as to how she can call herself a Brahmin while adhering to Roman Catholicism, her inquiry is contemptuously dismissed by the character.

Notable persons

• Joseph da Cunha
• Gerson da Cunha
• Rodolf Dalgado

Footnotes

1. ^{^} In his A Konkani grammar published in Mangalore by the Basel Printing Press in 1882, Italian Jesuit and Konkani philologist Angelus Francis Xavier Maffei stated that Mangalorean Catholic Bamonn families then were still referred to by their paik surnames. In the book, Maffei also gives a Konkani language grammar exercise: Template:Quote

See also

• Christianisation of Goa
• Christianity in India
• Christianity in Goa
• Christianity in Karnataka
• Christianity in Maharashtra
• Christianity in Gujarat
• Forward caste
• Caste system among Indian Christians
• Latin Church in India
• Christianity in Pakistan
• Padval
• Konkani people
• Koli Christian
• Gauda and Kunbi
• Roman Catholic Kshatriya

References

• Bharvani, Shakuntala (1996). Lost Directions. Orient Blackswan. ISBN 9788125006893. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
• Bhatia, H. M.; Shanbhag, S. R.; Baxi, A. J.; Bapat, J.; Sathe, M. S.; Sharma, R. S.; Kabeer, H.; Bharucha, Z. S.; Surlacar, L. (1976). "Genetic studies among endogamous groups of Saraswats in Western India". Hum Hered. 26 (6): 458–467. doi:10.1159/000152841. PMID 827488.
• Boxer, Charles Ralph (1969). The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415–1825. A. A. Knopf..
• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France); Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses (2001). Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France); Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses (eds.). Lusophonies asiatiques, Asiatiques en lusophonies. KARTHALA Editions. ISBN 978-2-84586-146-6. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
• Crasta, Richard (1992). The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel of Colonialism and Desire. Invisible Man Books. ISBN 978-81-87185-07-9..
• D'Souza, Eugene (5 September 2009), Prof Wilfred D'Souza — Third Generation Teacher Who Achieved Greater Heights, Daijiworld Media, archived from the original on 5 April 2012, retrieved 20 November 2011
• D'Souza, Wilfred R. D'Souza (1996). History of the Mudarthas. Mangalore: Codialbail Press..
• de Mendonça, Délio (2002). Conversions and citizenry: Goa under Portugal 1510–1610. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-7022-960-5. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
• D'Souza, Edwin J. F. (2004). V.J.P. Saldanha (Makers of Indian literature). Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-2028-7. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
• Fernandes, Praxy (1969). "Storm over Seringapatam: the Incredible Story of Hyder Ali & Tippu Sultan". Bombay: Thacker. OCLC 89143. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Gomes, Antonio, My Books (Official website of Antonio Gomes), janthonygomes.com, archived from the original on 4 November 2014, retrieved 25 February 2012
• Gomes, Olivinho (2004). "Goa". Village Book Trust. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Gomes, Olivinho (1987). "Village Goa: a study of Goan social structure and change". S. Chand. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Gune, Vithal Trimbak; Goa, Daman and Diu (India). Gazetteer Dept (1979). "Gazetteer of the Union Territory Goa, Daman and Diu: district gazetteer, Volume 1". Gazetteer Dept., Govt. of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Maffei, Angelus Francis Xavier (1882). A Konkani grammar. Mangalore: Basel Mission & Tract Depository. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
• Manrique, Angel; Collis, Maurice (1995). Manrique, Angel; Collis, Maurice (eds.). Land of the Great Image. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 978-81-206-1023-1. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
• Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna (1992). The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian poets. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-562867-8..
• Pinto, Pius Fidelis (1999). "History of Christians in coastal Karnataka, 1500–1763 A.D.". Mangalore: Samanvaya Prakashan. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Prabhu, Alan Machado (1999). Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians. I.J.A. Publications. ISBN 978-81-86778-25-8..
• Rao, R. P. (1963). Portuguese Rule in Goa 1510–1961. Asia Publishing House..
• Risley, Herbert Hope; Crooke, William (1915). The people of India. Thacker & Co. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
• Shashi, S.S. (1996). "Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Volume 100". Anmol Publications. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).
• Silva, Severine; Fuchs, Stephan (1965), "The Marriage Customs of the Christians in South Canara, India" (PDF, 2.48 MB), Asian Ethnology, 2, 24, Nanzan, Japan: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University: 1–52
• D'sa, Victor (1965), "The Marriage Customs of the Christians in South Canara (India)", Asian Ethnology, 2, 24, Nanzan, Japan: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University: 71–87
• Sinha, Arun (2002). Goa Indica: a critical portrait of postcolonial Goa. Bibliophile South Asia. ISBN 978-81-85002-31-6..
• Westin, Charles; Bastos, José; Dahinden, Janine; Góis, Pedro (2010). Westin, Charles; Bastos, José; Dahinden, Janine; et al. (eds.). Identity Processes and Dynamics in Multi-Ethnic Europe. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-8964-046-8. Retrieved 1 January 2011.

Further reading

• de Sousa, Bernardo Elvino (2011). The Last Prabhu: A Hunt for Roots, DNA, Ancient Documents and Migration in Goa. Goa, 1556. ISBN 978-93-8073-915-1..
• Sahni, Kalpana (2011), "Teri Mary Maa", Multi-stories: Cross-cultural Encounters, Routledge, pp. 102–104, ISBN 9781136704635

External links

• Ashley D'Mello (16 May 2010), "Only in India: A Brahmin groom for a Catholic bride", The Times of India, Mumbai
• Kalpana Sahni (9 September 2006), "FOREIGN EXCHANGE: Teri Mary maa", Daily Times, archived from the original on 16 October 2012
• Ines G. Županov (2006), Goan Brahmans in the Land of Promise: Missionaries, Spies and Gentiles in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Sri Lanka] (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 4 April 2018