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The Vishwakarma (or Viśvákarma) community, known within the group as the Viswabrahmin, is a group that is sometimes referred to as a caste and which comprises five sub-groups: carpenters, blacksmiths, bell metalworkers, goldsmiths and stonemasons who describe themselves as descendants of the Hindu god Vishwakarma. They worship various forms of this deity and follow five Vedas: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, and Pranava Veda.
Name
The communal name of Vishwakarma is of fairly recent usage. The British Raj misunderstood the Indian caste system as being an inflexible concept based on varna, ignoring all evidence of caste creation and disintegration caused by processes of social fission and fusion. This flawed interpretation, formed in part by heeding the work of Brahmin scholars, resulted in many communities aspiring to official recognition of a higher social status than was traditional, based on claims of descent from elite groups such as the Brahmins or Kshatriyas. Among the changes that occurred during this period, the census administrator J. E. Hutton recorded in 1931 a caste called the Vishwakarma, which was an administrative creation defined as a community of artisans who were geographically disparate but shared fairly similar occupations. Like the similarly-created Yadavs, who were an administrative grouping of grazers, herders and dairymen, the Vishwakarma comprised numerous previously diverse castes.
The community prefer the new name, which has evidential support in 12th-century inscriptions that refer to smiths and sculptors belonging to the Vishwakarma kula, although Vijaya Ramaswamy notes that "... the Vishwakarma community is obviously cutting across caste lines" and "... comprises five socially and economically differentiated jatis". Prior to the Raj period, these communities were referred to names such as Kammalar in present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Panchalar in Karnataka and Panchanamuvaru in Andhra Pradesh, while there are also medieval inscriptions that refer to them as the Rathakarar and Kammala-Rathakarar.
Origin
The god Vishwakarma is considered by followers of the Hindu faith to be the divine architect or engineer of the universe. He had five children - Manu, Maya, Tvastar, Shilpi and Visvajna - and these are believed by the Vishwakarma community to have been the forebears of their five sub-groups, being respectively the gotras (clans) of blacksmiths, carpenters, bell metalworkers (metal casters), stonemasons and goldsmiths. It is not known whether these five subgroups historically practiced endogamy, which is a frequently-found feature of the Indian caste system.
History
While many sources refer to the five sub-groups of the Viskwakarma as artisans, Ramaswamy believes that the Vishwakarma of the medieval period should be distinguished as craftsmen, arguing that "... while every craftsman was an artisan, every artisan was not a craftsman". Ramaswamy notes that the socio-economic and geographic stability of a medieval village-based maker of ploughs differed considerably from that of the various people who banded together as Vishwakarma and lived a relatively itinerant lifestyle that was dependent on the "temple economy" that waxed and waned as dynasties such as the Vijayanagar empire were formed and disintegrated. The latter group, who did work in proximity to each other while constructing and embellishing temples, had opportunities for socio-economic advancement but also bore the risks of withdrawal of patronage and changes in religious focus.
Position in society
They have claimed a status as Brahmins or some equivalent for many years and believe that the trades which they traditionally follow are superior to the work of a manual labourer because they require artistic and scientific skills as well as those of the hand. According to George Varghese, their claim to high status is "one of the mainstays of Viskwakarma identity" in what is otherwise a fragmented, incoherent community that has often suffered from internal differences of opinion.
Their claim has been voiced by Edava Somanathan, a member of the community and its only historian in the written word. Somanathan's works, according to Varghese, "... are written from a pro-community perspective. Therefore, there are a lot of exaggerations and anti-brahmin tirades in them". Somanathan argues that the artisanal groups were a part of the Indus Valley Civilisation, pre-dating the arrival of Brahmins and their caste-based division of society. He claims remarkable achievements are evidenced in both the arts and sciences during that egalitarian pre-Brahmin era, including the construction of aeroplanes.
Distribution
The Vishwakarma are largely found in the South of India: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Konkan. In Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. Other Indian Vishwakarma populations are in: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, and Orissa.
Kerala
Vishwakarmas of Kerala are also known as Achary or Viswa Brahmanar. They exist in Kerala in two communities: one Tamil, one Malayali.
Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, Tamil Achari or Asari are known as Tamil Kammalars. They are goldsmiths and landlords.
Karnataka
The Vishwakarma caste of south Karnataka, is composed of several sub-castes: Kulachar, Shiv Achar, Uttaradi (goldsmiths), Matachar (founders), Muddekammaras, and Chikkamanes. Most of these sub-castes do not intermarry and have a hierarchy among themselves. These subcastes are varied according to various regions of Karnataka, but all worship the goddess Kali.
Diet
Vishwakarmas in North and South India follow a vegetarian diet and abstain from liquor.
Notes
References
- "The Panchals are the followers of the five Vedas, the fifth being Pranava Veda."Karnataka (India) (1987). Karnataka State Gazetteer: Belgaum. Printed by the Director of Print, Stationery and Publications at the Govt. Press.
- ^ Varghese K., George (8–14 November 2003). "Globalisation Traumas and New Social Imaginary: Visvakarma Community of Kerala". Economic and Political Weekly. 38 (45): 4794–4802. JSTOR 4414253.
- Bhagat, Ram B. (April — June 2006). "Census and caste enumeration: British legacy and contemporary practice in India". Genus. 62 (2): 119–134. JSTOR 29789312.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) (subscription required) - ^ Ramaswamy, Vijaya (2004). "Vishwakarma Craftsmen in Early Medieval Peninsular India". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 47 (4): 548–582. JSTOR 25165073. (subscription required)
- Singh, Kumar Suresh. Rajasthan,. Vol. Volume 2. Dipak Kumar Samanta, Sushil Kumar Mandal, N. N. Vyas,. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 201.
{{cite book}}:|volume=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - Thurston, Edgar. Castes and tribes of Southern India,. Vol. Volume 3. pp. 126–129.
{{cite book}}:|volume=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Iyer, L. A. Krishna (1968). Social history of Kerala. Book Centre. p. 6. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
The Kammalars are divided into two classes, the Tamil Kammalar and the Malayali Kammalar.
- Ramaswamy, Vijaya (2007). Historical dictionary of the Tamils. Scarecrow Press. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0-8108-5379-9. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
- ^ Heesterman, J. C. "Goldsmiths of Karnataka". Ritual, state, and history in South Asia: essays in honour of J.C. Heesterman. M. S. Oort. pp. 442–455.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Meera Mukherjee (1978). Metalcraftsmen of India. Anthropological Survey of India, Government of India. pp. 60, 62, 124. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- Aashi Manohar; Shampa Shah (1996). Tribal arts and crafts of Madhya Pradesh. Mapin Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-944142-71-4. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
Further reading
- John Duncan Martin Derrett (1976). Essays in Classical and Modern Hindu Law: Dharmaśāstra and related ideas. Brill. pp. 45–46. ISBN 978-90-04-04475-3.