Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Saraswat Brahmin" in English language version.
The Saraswats are largely a vegetarian community, whose coconut- based cuisine is famed for its variety.
Saraswat claim to Brahminhood is still strongly under dispute, particularly in the coastal districts of Karnataka.
As a result of this, the Saraswats living in the south of the Gangavali in North Kanara separated into what is known as the Gowda Saraswat community consisting mostly of Vaishnavas and Chitrapur Saraswats, mostly of Smarthas.
The Gauda Saraswats are the Madhva Vaishnavite Saraswat Brahmins, while the Saraswats [Chitrapur] have continued to be Smarthas.
The majority of the Saraswats, including those in Goa, are now Vaishnavas
The majority of the Saraswats, including those in Goa, are now Vaishnavas. Nearly the whole of the prosperous trading community on the West Coast are now Madhvas.
Remembering that some of his predecessors like Sureshvaracharya (the famous Mandana Misra, the successor of Sankaracharya on the Sringeri Sharada Pitha) were Kashmiri Saraswats, the Jagadguru readily gave them a letter in which ...
An important and relatively little-known example of a sort of 'merchant republic' form, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries can be found at Basrur, on the Kanara coast south of Goa. The dominant trading community here were Saraswats , a caste of open status , which at times claimed Brahminhood but more usually was identified with mercantile activity ( the Portuguese usually term them chatins , from chetti )
When the Dutch established a factory in the port of Wingurla , they dealt with a number of Hindu merchant suppliers of the neighbourhood . Hindu merchants , Konkanis and Saraswats , were located southwards in the Kanarese ports and Goa . They traded in the Bijapur ports of Wingurla and Raybag , being the major suppliers there of pepper and rice which they brought from Kanara . A prominent merchant of the 1670s with extensive dealings with the Nayak was Polpot Nayak.
The Saraswat Brahmin communities and the fishermen have traditionally been heavily involved in trade and seafaring, for this was a poor land: the soil was threatened by salinization, the harvest by the erratic rains.
Shennoy Goembab, the great Konkani writer and scholar, himself a Saraswat Brahmin by caste ,
Deshpande a college graduate from a progressive Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community..
the period from 1500 to 1650 , one finds certain communities which appear to dominate external commerce : Mappilas and a heterogenous group of Middle Eastern Muslims in Malabar , Saraswats and Navayat Muslims in the Kanara region
Saraswatis claim that they come from the Brahmin caste – hence their name - but others believe that they are usurpers using some fake brahmin ancestry to maintain their superiority.
In fact, marriages between Saraswat and non-Saraswat Brahmins are on the increase though they were unheard of before, mainly because the Saraswats eat fish and occasionally meat, while all other Brahmins are vegetarians.
There are even reports of certain Brahmin (Bengali Brahmins, Oriya Brahmins, Brahmins of certain parts of Bihar, Saraswat Brahmins of northern India, and Kashmiri Pandits) eating fish.
Saraswats are mainly vegetarians but are permitted to eat fish.
In Maharashtra among most Brahmin castes non-vegetarian food is taboo but the Saraswat Brahmins eat fish.
Rajapura Saraswat ( Rajapuri ) are loosely referred to as Nayaka ... The Rajapura Saraswat are mostly vegetarian , rice being their chief food , but some use fish , and rear fowls..
