Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Chitpavan Brahmins" in English language version.
It may also be pointed out that marriages between the Deshastha and Kokanastha Brahmins have been very common
Upon the chitpavans who had come into prominence after the rise of the Peshwas they[deshasthas] looked down with scarcely veiled contempt as the parvenus, barely fit to associate on terms of equality with the noblest of the dvijas. A chitpavan who was invited to a deshasth home was a privileged individual, and even the Peshwa was denied the right to use the ghats reserved for deshasth priests at Nasik on the Godavari
They were not highly regarded by other Brahmans in ancient days and appeared to have been employed principally as spies and messengers
The extent of the real chitpavan influence in the socio-polity of Maharashtra, during this period, has been vastly exaggerated. Even under the most ambitious and effective peshwas, the established local power structure, from the major Maratha chieftains down to village headmen, did not trust Peshwas' political intentions and doubted their legitimacy. This was particularly true under Shivaji's feuding successors.
A very similar legend of a shipwreck is found among CHITPAVAN BRAHMANAS, indicating a possible connection between the two communities.
A history of the Bene Israelis, who settled in the Colaba district of Konkan claim Chitpavans as fellow Jews
B.J. Israel, a member of the community, in an essay privately published writes: The legend that their ancestors were the survivors of a shipwreck at the village of Nowgaon near the port of Cheul may be based on truth . On the other hand, it may have been adopted when our people came to learn that, according to one of the Hindu Puranas, fourteen corpses of foreigners from a shipwreck on the Konkan coast were miraculously brought back to life by Parshuram, an avtar of the Hindu god Vishnu, and given the status of Brahmins... The Puranic legend may have been appropriated by the Bene Israel with suitable modification to account for their presence on the coast.
These two cases, in one of which the Bene-Israel tried to imitate the way of life of the Agris, while in the other they showed an interest in being associated with the Chitpavans, whose position in the local hierarchy was very high, resemble the attempts of lower caste Hindus to raise their status along the lines of Sanskritisation.
The magas may not be the only brahmins of foreign origin. The chitpavan Brahmins of Maharashtra are sometimes believed to be in origin foreigners who turned into Brahmins. See Patterson 1968; Lele 2010.
The string of ports from Bombay south to Karwar has had in turn Roman, Greck, Arab, Abysinian, Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders, invaders, visitors, or settlers. is this stretch of coast, too, which has received at one time or another such immigrant groups as the Bene Israel, Parsis, Kudal deshkar Brahmans, Gaud Saraswat Brahmans, and Chitpavan Brahmans. It is not pertinent to the present discussion to go into the place of origin or reason for immigration of any of these groups. What is pertinent is that each of these groups has been an intrusive group, physically and culturally differentiated from the others as well as from the population into which they all came. One further point is that each of these groups appears to have settled in different sections of the coastal territory, adjoining rather than intermingling with the settlements of the others. In this way, the Bene Israel came to be associated with the northern part of Kolaba District; Chitpavans, with the southern section of Ratnagiri (including what was formerly the small Sawantwadi princely state); Gaud Saraswat Brahmans, with Goa and the adjacent coastal section of North Kanara District. Of all these groups, the Chitpavan Brahmans were apparently the last to arrive, and so they ended up with that section of the coast which is by and large the least fertile and which has the fewest good ports. It would seem that Ratnagiri District, being thus the least desirable, was easily available, in a frontier-like way, and that little competition and few obstacles faced the Chitpavans as they went about settling down.
chitpavans found employment easily under the Peshwas in diverse fields, from commanders in armies to clerks in the administration[...].A document of 1763-4 gives a list of 82 clerks of whom 55(67 percent) can be definitely identified as Chitpavans. In addition to their salaries, they were granted a substantial fringe benefit of being permitted to bring rice from Konkan to Poona free of Octroi duty.
The stigma of untouchability from which Mahars suffered was such that, in extreme cases, they were obliged to wear earthenware around their necks so that their spit did not defile the ground on which Brahmins walked. They also had to sweep the earth behind them to erase their footsteps or at least maintain a good distance from Brahmins to avoid contaminating them with their shadow. According to Pillai-Vetschera, these and other restrictions were imposed on Mahars during the Peshwa period.
Pune's Chitpawan Brahmins would not allow any Dalit and backward to join schools
Such resistance was to no avail, and the Brahmans' fears and troubles were realized in February 1948 when they were set upon by recently politicized communities - Marathas, as well as Jains and Lingayats - who unhesitatingly took advantage of the opportunity provided by assassin Godse's shots.[page 50]
Local non-Chitpavan Brahmans and non-Brahmans will tell you that Chitpavan Brahmans are notoriously frugal, even cheap. As one non-Brahman teacher described and other corroborated at a social function, it would be characteristic of a Chitpavan not to offer a visitor a glass of water after he/she walked across town to deliver a message when the temperature is 40 degrees C. In additional, Chitpavans are thought to be conspiratorial, untrustworthy, phlegmatic and inbred
Lokamanya Tilak, himself a Chitpavan once wrote that his community was known for their cleanliness, industry, enterprise and thrift but that they could learn the virtues of benevolence, generosity and munificence from the Deshasthas.
...its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified professionals such as doctors, engineers and lawyers, business entrepreneurs, teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists[etc]...The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpavans and the Ckps (Chandrasenya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite...But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school
Between Brahmins and these non-Brahmins there was a long history of rancour which the nepotism of the Peshwas had only exacerbated.
(quote on page 1804):The Chitpavan are vegetarian and rice is their staple cereal. (quote on page 2079): Among them the Chitpavan, Desastha, Karhade and Devdny Brahman are pure vegetarian though nowadays, they occasionally take non-vegetarian food.
