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The Brahman-Hill or Khas Bahun is the colloquial Nepali term for a member of the hill or mountain Brahmin caste, the traditional caste of educators, scholars and priests in Hinduism. This ethnic group of Nepal makes up 12.5% of the country's population.
The Brahmins were a powerful group in medieval and modern Nepal and India until the 19th century. By tradition and even according to civil law until about 1960 it was the highest of four Hindu varna or castes. Nepal's present constitution rejects such hierarchical categorizations.
According to Nepal's foremost historian Baburam Acharya and Professor Suryamani Adhikary of Tribhuvan University almost all of the Bahuns are Khas descendents, i.e. a Nepalese Bahun's race is Khas, and caste is Brahmin, other castes of Khas people being Chhettri, Sanyasi and Dalit.
Exclusive of the indigenous janajati ethnic groups of Newar, Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Rai, Limbu and others in the Middle Hills, Bahuns comprise about 31% of the Hindu population. The Chhetri or Kshatriya and Thakuri castes comprise 42%. Service castes like blacksmiths, goldsmiths, tailors, musicians, tanners and cobblers and sweepers make up only 27%. This distribution is far more biased towards upper castes than with Hindu populations in Nepal's Terai and adjacent parts of].
The English word brahmin is an anglicised form of the Sanskrit word Brāhmaṇa, "having to do with Brahman (Sanskrit: ब्रह्म) or divine knowledge". Bahuns are also called Brahmins, Vipra "learned", or Dvija "twice-born".
In Buddhist sources written in Pali and Prakrit, including Ashokan inscriptions, they are also called Babhans, which is the Pali word for Bahuns.
The Brahman caste includes numerous family names such as:
- Awasthi, Acharya, Adhikari, Aryal/Arjyal/Arjel
- Bastakoti, Bhattarai, Bastola, Bhurtel, Bhandari, Bhatta, Baral, Basyal,
- Chalise, Chaulagain, Chapagain
- Dahal, Dhakal, Dhungel, Devkota, Dhungana, Dallakoti, Dumre
- Gajurel, Gautam, Gurangain, Ghimire
- Humagain
- Joshi
- Kafle, Kharel, Khatiwada, Koirala, Kandel, Kalakheti, Khanal, Kattuwal
- Lamsal, Lamichhane
- Mishra, Marasheni
- Nepal, Neupane, Nyaupane, Niraula
- Ojha, Oli
- Paudyal (पौड्याल), Pokhrel, Paudel, Pandit, Pandey, Phuyal, Pudasiani, Pyakurel, Pant, Pathak, Pageni
- Regmi
- Sharma, Subedi, Sapkota, Sangraula
- Tiwari, Timilsina, Tripathi
- Wagle
- Upadhyaya, Upreti, Uprety
External links
- The complete reference to Brahmins: Material from this site has been borrowed for this article with the permission form Dr. Vepachedu: Misplaced Pages:Successful requests for permission/The Vepachedu Educational Foundation
- A List of Brahmin Castes and Sub-castes
See also
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