Saraswat

Traditional Indian society was modeled
as a collection of endogamous, or
intermarried, subgroups known as jatis
(“birth”). Jatis were organized (and their
social status determined) by the group’s
hereditary occupation, over which each
group has a monopoly. This sort of differentiation applied even to brahmins,
whose role has been to serve as priests,
scholars, and teachers. The Saraswats
are a brahmin jati counted as one of the
five northern Indian brahmin communities (Pancha Gauda); the other four
are the Gaudas, the Kanaujias, the
Maithilas, and the Utkalas. Unlike most
other brahmin communities, which had
a well-defined core region, the Saraswats
are found in several widely separated
locations. One group lived in the
coastal region of Sindh in modern
Pakistan, although after Partition in
1947 most of the group migrated to
Bombay. Another group was located in
prepartition Punjab, although here too
they have tended to migrate away from
the part of Punjab in modern Pakistan.
A third branch, known as the Gauda
Saraswats, is found on a narrow strip of
coastline in the southern Indian state
of Karnataka. The Saraswat community takes its name from Saraswati,
patron goddess of speech and learning,
and, as a group, is famous for its erudition and piety.
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Saraswat