_Brahman, Nagar._--A class of Gujarati Brahmans found in the Nimar
District. The name is said to be derived from the town of Vadnagar of
Gujarat, now in Baroda State. According to one account they accepted
grants of land from a Rajput king, and hence were put out of caste
by their fellows. Another story is that the Nagar Brahman women
were renowned for their personal beauty and also for their skill in
music. The emperor Jahangir, hearing of their fame, wished to see
them and sent for them, but they refused to go. The emperor then
ordered that all the men should be killed and the women be taken to
his Court. A terrible struggle ensued, and many women threw themselves
into tanks and rivers and were drowned, rather than lose their modesty
by appearing before the emperor. A body of Brahmans numbering 7450
(or 74 1/2 hundred) threw away their sacred threads and became Sudras
in order to save their lives. Since this occurrence the figure 74
1/2 is considered very unlucky. Banias write 74 1/2 in the beginning
of their account-books, by which they are held to take a vow that if
they make a false entry in the book they will be guilty of the sin
of having killed this number of Brahmans. The same figure is also
written on letters, so that none but the person to whom they are
addressed may dare to open them. [431]
The above stories seem to show that the Nagar Brahmans are partly of
impure descent. In Gujarat it is said that one section of them called
Barud are the descendants of Nagar Brahman fathers who were unable
to get wives in their own caste and took them from others. The Barud
section also formerly permitted the remarriage of widows. [432] This
seems a further indication of mixed descent. The Nagars settled in
the Central Provinces have for a long time ceased to marry with those
of Gujarat owing to difficulties in communication. But now that the
railway has been opened they have petitioned the Rao of Bhaunagar,
who is the head of the caste, and a Nagar Brahman, to introduce
intermarriage again between the two sections of the caste. Many Nagar
Brahmans have taken to secular occupations and are land-agents and
cultivators.
Formerly the Nagar Brahmans observed very strict rules about defilement
when in the state called _Nuven_, that is, having bathed and purified
themselves prior to taking food. A Brahman in this condition was
defiled if he touched an earthen vessel unless it was quite new and
had never held water. If he sat down on a piece of cotton cloth or a
scrap of leather or paper he became impure unless Hindu letters had
been written on the paper; these, as being the goddess Saraswati, would
preserve it from defilement. But cloth or leather could not be purified
through being written on. Thus if the Brahman wished to read any book
before or at his meal it had to be bound with silk and not with cotton;
leather could not be used, and instead of paste of flour and water the
binder had to employ paste of pounded tamarind seed. A printed book
could not be read, because printing-ink contained impure matter. Raw
cotton did not render the Brahman impure, but if it had been twisted
into the wick of a lamp by any one not in a state of purity he became
impure. Bones defiled, but women's ivory armlets did not, except in
those parts of the country where they were not usually worn, and then
they did. The touch of a child of the same caste who had not learned
to eat grain did not defile, but if the child ate grain it did. The
touch of a donkey, a dog or a pig defiled; some said that the touch
of a cat also defiled, but others were inclined to think it did not,
because in truth it was not easy to keep the cat out. [433]
If a Brahman was defiled and rendered impure by any of the above
means he could not proceed with his meal.