The Sanadhya Brahman use Pandit as their title. The community has its origin from four villages of the district, viz., Anni, Dahni, Reunai and Parasrar of Badaun. They are principally found in Budaun, Bareilly, Agra, Etah, Aligarh, Etawah and Shahjahanpur districts. They live in the plains where climate is moderate and good for cultivation. The area is devoid of forest or has thin forest. There is generally medium rainfall.
The community members speak Hindi and use Devanagari script with kin group and also others in their day-to-day activity. They also have adequate knowledge of Sanskrit.
Somatometry on Sanadhya Brahman reveals tall stature (mean 1675 mm), dolichocephalic head (mean c.r. = 73.7) and mean general index on the higher side (167). Further, the somatoscopic observations reveal fair complexion.
In their food habits, the Sanadhya Brahman are pure vegetarian. They avoid onion, garlic, masur, carrot and tomato. Their staple food constitutes wheat and rice as cereals, and gram, urad, moong, arbar and peas as pulses. They take only non-alcoholic drinks, and supplement their diet by taking milk and milk products. Smoking and chewing of tobacco are occasional among the members. The fruits are consumed in moderate quantity. Their special food consists of kheer, poori, curd, sweets and milk, which are taken on festive occasions. In the changed aspects of food habits, the consumption of pulses, vegetables and fruits shows an increase. The younger generation has started consuming tamasic food, viz., onion and garlic, occasionally.
The Sanadhya Brahman are divided into two major groups, viz., Sadhe-teen-ghar and Das-ghar. In the Sadhe-teen-ghar-first ghar belongs to Sankhyadhar who have Agastya gotra; second ghar consists of Misra and Pathak who have Kashyapa gotra; third ghar, consisting of Pandey and Trigunayat belongs to Katiyawar Misra who have Parashari gotra, and Aadha-ghar and Chayvan dergar puria have Vatsya as their gotra.
The division of Sanadhya Brahman, includes Upadhyay, Dube, Chaube, Tiwari, Muzaffarpuria Sankhyadhar, Dikshit, Pandey, Pathak, Misra. They have gotras, namely, Vashist, Vishwamitra, Gautam, Kashyap and Atri, etc. These ghars have distinct origin from the villages of Budaun district. There is hypergamy in two divisions.
Misc info
Kavi Keshavadas Ji, a Sanadhya Brahman, took great pride in his caste & native home of Orchha. His family held the hereditary offices of Royal Mythographers & councilors in the court of the Bundela Kings of Orchha.
Owing to the fact that the Company Raj armies usually recruited from the Kanyakubja & Saryuparin divisions of Brahmins in the United Provinces, Sanadhyas in some instances enlisted as Kshatriyas, as for example, Totaram Sanadhya who began using the title Pundit again in Fiji.
- Records show that Totaram Sanadhya, though a Brahmin by caste, enlisted himself as a Kshatriya in his recruitment papers as it was well known that Brahmins would not be accepted for recruitment by the arkatis. He began to use Pundit (meaning priest) in Fiji. This was a title conferred on him by his own community for his knowledge of the scriptures, passages of which he would recite to those gathered around his “hut” in the evenings. Sanadhya had managed to secretly smuggle a copy of holy scriptures tran- scribed by his brother, and often sat in the evenings reciting passages after a day of labor. He soon had others joining him to listen to his recitations and later became a com- munity religious leader, which is why he is sometimes referred to as Pundit Totaram Sanadhya.
During the rule of Maharana Ari Singh II, Pradhan Amar Chand Badwa (a Sanadhya Brahman) who was previously relieved from his services was recalled in 1769, in anticipation of aggression from Mahadji Scindia.