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Kamrupi Brahmins


Kamrupi Brahmins also Kamarupi Brahmana or Kamrupi Bamun; (Kāmarūpī Brāhmaṇa)  Brahmana, Brahma and Brahmin. Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self. Brahmin or Brahmana refers to an individual, while the word Brahmarefers to the creative aspect of the universal consciousness. is a name used to designate a member of one of the four varnas in the traditional Hindu society. The English word brahmin is an anglicised form of the Sanskrit word Brāhmana. In the Smriti view there are four "varnas", or classes: the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and Shudras.
Brahmins living in once undivided Kamrup or sometimes Lower Assam are known as Kamrupi Brahmins. They generally occupies places like Guwahati,NalbariBarpeta and have surnames like Sarma/Sharma, Bhagawati, Bhattacharya, Chakraborty etc.
Kamrupi Brahmins were prosperous during the Varman dynasty's reign of Kamarupa. Kamrupi king Bhaskar Varman regularly gives land grants to Kamrupi Brahmins. Copper plates are also used to be issued for the same.
Portion of the copper-plate grant of Bhaskar Varman states Rigvedic, Samavedic and Yajurvedic Brahmins lived in Kamarupa before the time of Bhaskar Varman. Of these three classes of Brahmins the followers of the Bahvrichya branch of the Rigveda were divided into the gotras of Kasyapa, Kausika, Gautama, Parasarya, Bharadvaja, Varaha, Vatsya, Varhaspatya and Saunaka ; those following the Chhandoga branch of the Samaveda belonged to the gotras of Paskalya ; the followers of the Taittiriya branch of the Yajurveda belonged to the gotra of Kasyapa and those of the Charaka branch to the gotra of Katyayana ; the followers of the Vajasaneya branch belonged to the gotras of Angirasa, Alambayana, Gargya, Gautama, Bharadvaja, Yaska, Sakatayana, and Salankayana besides the six gotras mentioned before.
In all these three groups of Brahmanas living in Kamarupa had 26 gotras, but in after ages no traces could be found of the Samavedic and Rigvedic Brahmanas. Most probably they had changed their residence or their lines came to an end. The following lines occur in Raja Harendra Narayan's Raja vansabali —
"The Brahmanas living on the northern bank of the Lauhitya were all followers of the Yajurveda. They were all saddcharis and ritvijas (Vedic sacrificers)". The Kamrupi Brahmins are Shakta as well as Vaishnava.