The question remains as to the origin of the Utkal Brahmans in Ráŕh. They live in large numbers in the south-west part of Ráŕh. Did lakhs of people, batch after batch, sail across the seven seas and thirteen rivers and settle down in Ráŕh? It is not possible. The fact is different. I have already mentioned that caste division was present in the Buddhist age. But it was not as strict as it had been in the pre-Buddhist age. Many elements were combined together in a confused way. So advocates of Paoráńika Dharma, and their Prayágiiya Bráhmańa Sabhá [Prayag Brahman Conference], accepted and thereafter formally recognized a conglomerate of five branches of North Indian Brahmans, and another conglomerate of South Indian Brahmans, all of them followers of Paoráńika Dharma, in the names Paiṋca Gaoŕii and Paiṋca Drávid́ii⁽¹⁾ respectively. As the Brahmans of Ráŕh represented a more developed culture, they found it hard to accept the dominance of Paoráńika Dharma (which teaches the supremacy of the Vedas, Brahmans, cows and kings). Besides that, there was an unwillingness to study the Vedas that was deep-rooted in their nature. For this reason they did not get the recognition of the Prayag conference. The Brahmans living in that part of Ráŕh which was under the rule of the king of Gaoŕa at that time accepted that non-recognition. But as a mark of their own speciality, they introduced a beautiful social system, the Dáyabhága system, and thus displayed an example of their own originality of thought. But the Brahmans living in those parts of Ráŕh which were not under the rule of the king of Gaoŕa began to call themselves Utkal [Orissa] or post-Utkal Brahmans with a view to getting recognition from the Prayágiiya system. They went on with the old Mitákśará system. So none of them came from outside. Their lifestyle, customs and physical structures – all bear the stamp of Ráŕh.

Does this mean that no Brahmans came from Utkal? No, a good many did come [later]. They were brought for their scholarly capacity. These invited Brahmans called themselves Dákśińátya Vaedika (Southern, or Deccan, Vedics). They follow the Dáyabhága system. Shibnath Shastri, M.N. Ray and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were all Deccan Vedic. (According to some, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was Western Vedic.) They live in the districts of Midnapore, Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly, 24 Parganas, Jessore, etc. Some of them use common surnames such as Chakravorty and Bhattacharya, but some of course use the old Utkal Brahman surnames such as Panigrahi, Panda, Sarangi, Patra, etc.

Footnotes

(1) Elsewhere the author has written: “Paiṋca Gaoŕii used to mean the Sárasvata Brahmans of Kashmir-Jammu-Punjab; the Gaoŕa Brahmans (they came from Gaoŕadesha, hence Gaoŕa Brahmans) of Rajasthan and Haryana; the Kanya Kubja or Kanaojii Brahmans of Uttar pradesh; the Nagar Brahmans of Gujarat; and the Maethilii Brahmans of Northern Bihar.… Paiṋca Drávid́ii would mean the Utkal Brahmans of Orissa; the Citpavan Brahmans of Maharashtra; the Traelung Brahmans of Andhra; the Karnat Brahmans of Karnataka; and the Tamil Brahmans of Tamil Nadu.” (Shabda Cayaniká Part 25, section on “Guńd́icá”)