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Revision as of 18:38, 25 May 2005 by 149.123.136.119 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Kurmis are a caste of people, traditionally 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 is a Sanskrit word which literally means "I can" or "I am able" as in "Na kurmi sadresam priyam" which means "I am not able to give compensation for your service" (from the Ramayana). 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 in the form of the cow to make the earth fertile again. The Sanskrit word for "earth" is "Prithvi", for it is King Prithu who first cultivated the earth.
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