Thread: Brahmin by Birth?

Originally Posted by ArulPillai

What is required to be a Brahmin by birth? Two Brahmin parents? What if the parents are from different areas and/or ethnic groups? If one parent is enough, must the father be the Brahmin or does that not matter?

I don't understand Tamil anymore (I forgot every word), so please don't branch into it in your answers.

AP

Sri Arul Pillai,

your question implies that you want explanation for brahmin as a caste.

For the answer, we have to go to legal explanation as per Indian Laws since only Indian Government accepts the caste system.

As per Indian Government laws, the child inherits the caste of the father by virtue of birth. Irrespective of the caste of the mother, if father's caste is brahmin, the child is considered as a brahmin. There is no differentiation based on language.

But each and every caste in India has its own practices of considering whether the children of inter-caste married couple belong to their own caste or not. There is no hard and fast rule on that. It is purely a personal practice of individual castes and nobody can give clear cut explanations. Normally a child is considered belonging its own caste if both the parents belong to the same caste. If not, there is no clear answer.

Hope I have clarified your doubt to the best of my ability.

All the best

Thank you very much for your answer.

arul,

welcome to the forum. hope to see more of you. where are you from?

Nowadays it is getting fashion among many of our society people settling abroad or even here itself simply saying that we forget Tamil... A really bad situation. Am sorry AP sir, am not blaming, am just telling the exact situation to alert.

Pranams

durga,

i have met people of indian heritage and tamil heritage, with tamil names like dayalan who have been removed from india for over a hundred years.

time, communications, culture, society, oceans, generations all have been factors in distancing them from india.

so, it might not be fair to say that it is a 'fashion'.

now a days, there is a chance, with opened up communications, for those of indian ancestrage, who are abroad, and who are interested, to get in touch with their roots. but till the advent of the internet, it was not so.

re indians, who don't speak the language, while living in india, again, it is upto them, isn't it? they know not what they have lost?

thank you.

I agree with Sri.Durga Dasan. Sri.Kunjuppu Sir, Sri.DD does not high light the point of not able to learn Tamil at all; it is the situation of 'forgetting Tamil' after learning it at sometime in the past. It is a bit hard to 'forget' Tamil after learning it. One may loose the fluency in the language; understandably, one may not like to use the language without the proper fluency to avoid embarressing situations.

Cheers!

When the persons are settling abroad, it does not mean that they should slowly giveup their originality. It is the situation to slowly learn other (that particular region's) customs and language. In today's hi-tech society, man is learning so many things, cant he learn two languages (of which one is ofcourse his own native language)? As Raghy uncle said, the problem is not learning, it is with forgetting. Since a father migrant lost or hided his fluency of his own language in his home, the next generation itself turned to lack of the language. Be it be whole business in outside. Atleast in their home, they can speak in their language na??? This is a very pathetic situation even in India, even Tamilnadu itself. Parents will be more happy when their children call them "Mom" "momma" "dad" and they correct their children if they call them simply as "amma and appa". This is a serious growing concern whereby a life of language itself stands as a questionpoint before us...

Pranams

I totally agree with Sri DDJi. Here in London I observe Sri Lankan Tamils and how they inculcate their culture, language, reading and writing Tamil to their children. They are so unbelievably proud of their Tamil culture and heritage and when I compare them to some TB families I know here (admittedly not many), I must say the TB families are relaxed with their kids in learning Tamil and speak more in English etc. This is possibly because of social class. I'm not sure.

Nevertheless it warms my heart to see the SL Tamils. They appreciate all things Tamil probably because their very existence is a threat in their homeland. We don't generally appreciate things we take for granted till we've nearly lost them.

raghy, amala,

if you read my note carefully, i was indeed in agreement with durga regarding current migrants from india.

i do not know about you, but i have met people with tamil names from south africa, fiji, trinidad, jamaica, zimbabwe, guyana and mauritius. these people's ancestors left over 100 years ago from india.

they were cut off from india. they do not know tamil. their names are also quaint from our viewpoint, because we do not name our chldren sarojini or pakkirisami any more.

it is amazing that they still follow hinduism, without the benefit of brahmin priests and are more a hindu than many TBs coming from india, who just bring their prejudices bag and baggage, and remain aloof from the rest of the tamil or hindu communities.

also, these folks' kids, most of them do not know tamil. some get fanatic about carnatic music, but again, it is from an elitist viewpoint. that is our community abroad to you.