Mangalsinhbabhan
Bhumihar or Babhan
editBhumihar(भूमिहार) or Babhan (बाभन) is a land holding caste found mainly in eastern UP, Bihar and Jharkhand. Bhumihar literally means possessor of land or land holder (bhoomi + haar ) i.e one who wears garland of land. Bhoomi word was used in the past feudal system to denote grant of land for secular services. The holder of such bhoomi was a bhumihar. This word is hindustani(indian) equivalent to the persian word zamindar or jagirdar. If a Brahmin had land grant for secular services was called Bhumihar Brahmin . If a rajput had such grant was called Bhumihar Rajput [1]. These bhumihars generally used Rai, Sinh, Shahi, Thakur or Chaudhury as their surnames to denote their power and authority with land. Bhumihar was not any caste specific word in earlier times just like zamindar or jagirdar or Thakur or chaudhury. It has become a caste specific word only after it’s popularization by kashi naresh and bhumihar brahmin sabha for a land owning babhan community. Babhan was the earlier name of community who owned large chunk of land in Bihar (including Jharkhand ) and Kashi during british period so were called bhumihar (possessor of land). Rajputs were also land possessor but they were more commonly known as Thakur. Bhumihar or babhan community of today were enumerated as babhan only in earlier british census Records under military and aristocratic class (census 1891 and census of bengal 1872). There were some myths fabricated by alms taking brahmins(yachak brahmin) regarding babhan caste as fallen brahmin just like rout means fallen rajput. These fabricated stories were given link with Jarasandh(Ruler of Magadh during lord Krishna period) and ancient indian epic character to prove babhan word means sham or fallen brahmin. This kind of insinuation and false propaganda by some communities led Kashi naresh and other landlord babhans to establish a caste sabha in 1885 which was later called as Bhumihar Brahmin Sabha. Bhumihar Brahmin sabha filed numerous representations with E. A. Gait, the director of census operations for Bengal and Bihar, which argued that, for the purposes of the census, the term "Babhan" should not be used to describe them and instead they should be classified as Bhumihar or landed brahmans[2]. In this way after 1911 census survey babhans were enumerated as babhan ( bhumihar brahmin). Now a day the same bhumihar term is used as shortened version of bhumihar brahmin. The actual babhan name has become just part of history and confined to villages of Magadh (south Bihar) where still Babhan is more frequently used over Bhumihar term in local conversation. Collages and Schools were opened with name Bhumihar Brahmin collage (presently langat singh collage ) and Bhumihar collegiate schools to popularize this Bhumihar term over old Babhan term. Babhan is a word found in ashokan edicts in reference to Brahmins of magadh. This led many scholars associate babhans with buddhism but there is not any substantial evidence of such association. The most probable explanation of this community is given in book [Indo-Aryan races: a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions : Chanda, Ramaprasad : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive][3]. This clearly tells bhumihar Brahmin or Babhan to be brahmins of ancient Magadh who were speaking a dialect of 3rd century BC in which Brahmins were known to be Babhans or Bambhans. They have been deprived of priestly function by sanskrit speaking Brahmins from midland(central & north India).
[1] Hindu Castes and Sects: An Exposition of the Origin of the Hindu Caste by Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya Hindu Castes and Sects: An Exposition of the Origin of the Hindu Caste ... : Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hinducastesands00bhatgoog/page/n132)
[2]Peasants and Monks in British India by William R. Pinch Peasants and Monks in British India (https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft22900465&chunk.id=s1.3.13&toc.id=ch3&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress&anchor.id=d0e4900#X)
[3] Indo-Aryan races: a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions : Chanda, Ramaprasad Indo-Aryan races: a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions : Chanda, Ramaprasad : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/Indo-aryanRacesAStudyOfTheOriginOfIndo-aryanPeopleAndInstitutions/page/n173)
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