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Jats Ahirs Sainis Meos Aggarwals Gujars War heroes |
The Brahmins of Haryana are divided into four main groups: Gaurs, Saraswats, Khandelwals and Dhima. The Gaurs claim that they come originally from Bengal. But is is believed they came as Purohitas of the various immigrant farming tribes. The Saraswats are original settlers of this region, taking their name from the Saraswati river. The Khandelwals and Dhima came into this region later, most probably from neighboring Rajasthan. The Brahmins themselves had a ranking system between them with the Gaurs being on the top followed by the Saraswats, the Khandelwals and the Dhima. The Gaurs used to consider themselves to be superior to the other Brahmins and neither ate, drank nor intermarried with them.
The Brahmins have lived in every village and town of Haryana. In earlier times most of them were working as Purohitas (priests), though some of them were also engaged in agriculture. The Brahmins were held in high esteem by the people due to their high socio-religious status. In the pre-partition pre-independence days they formed about 8% of the total population of the region. |