Origins of Brahminical Communities of Inda's Western Coast according to the Sahyādrikhaṇda of the Skandapurāṇa
Résumé
The Sahyādrikhaṇḍa, which was edited by the goanese polymath J. gerson da Cunha in Bombay in 1877, consists in a number of māhāt-mya and Purāṇa narratives supposed to complement the ancient Skandapurāṇa, by providing it with a “mythological, historical and geographical account of Western India” — as the subtitle of Gerson da Cunha’s edition reads. As the compilation, and quite plausibly the composition, of most of this material should be dated from around the 17th or 18th century, it offers extremely valuable information on the way the traditional history of the communities of the Western Coast of India from Konkan to Kerala was envisioned and presented at the heyday of maratha power in this region. In this paper, I will focus on and analyze select adhyāyas concerned with the origins of various Brahminical communities which were competing for prestige at the time of the Peshwas, the dynasty of Prime ministers of Konkanastha (aka Chitpavan) Brahmins who held power from Pune between 1713 and the British conquest in 1818.