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Kurmis are a caste of people who also call themselves "Kurmi Kshatriyas", traditionally kings, farmers and land owners, in Nepal and India. They are classified as an Other Backward Class by the government of India.
The word Kurmi in Sanskrit dictionary – "Bhuhu Ashy Iti Kurmi" means whoever has the land is a Kurmi. "Kurmi" in Sanskrit literally translates as "I can" or "I am able" and is directly associated with the self, ability and action -- all traits ascribed to kshatriyas. Kurmis divide themselves into Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis with the Suryavanshis claiming to be from the same clan as the legendary King Rama of Ayodhya, the name of whose wife Sita literally means "furrow" or the line made by a plow. The Kurmis along with the Khatris, Yadavas and Kunbis are often considered to form the original Aryan Vedic kshatriyas who were later recorded as degraded kshatriyas or "shudra kings" by corrupt Brahmins who resented the rise of Buddhism amongst the major Aryan warrior tribes of the time.
The link between kshatriyas and agriculture has been justified on the grounds of linguistic affinities between the root *ar- ("bravery, heroism", found in English and Greek hero, Russian geroj, and Sanskrit ārya) and other words for cultivators, i.e. those who labour nobly (Russian oratel' or ploughman, Airga in the Zend-Avesta); as well as in the legend of King Prithu, who tamed the earth to make the earth fertile again. It is for this reason that the Sanskrit word for "earth" is "Prithvi", in honor of King Prithu who first cultivated it.
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