The non-Brahmin priests of Hinduism
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Devdutt Pattanaik challenges the colonial myth that only upper-caste Brahmins are legitimate Hindu priests. He documents diverse non-Brahmin priestly traditions across India: Bhopas from Bhil communities who perform Pabu-ji tales in Rajasthan, Guravs managing shrines in Maharashtra and Karnataka, Jogammas and Jogappas carrying Yellamma images, hereditary pujaris and gurs serving mountain devatas in Himachal, and Potraj or Pota-raju heralds of goddesses in Maharashtra and Telangana. British rule entrenched the notion that legitimate priests must be Sanskrit-knowing Brahmins, marginalizing these local traditions.
The article focuses on Potraj traditions, presenting multiple origin narratives: one involves an upper-caste woman killing her family after discovering her husband’s deception, transforming into a fierce goddess requiring cross-dressing male devotees and buffalo sacrifice; another tells of inter-caste lovers whose tragedy created goddess worship. Pattanaik notes efforts to homogenize and sanitize Hinduism increasingly sideline these practices involving animal sacrifice and cross-dressing rituals. He argues these non-Brahmin priests remain excluded from representing Hinduism even after independence—a colonial hangover—because their stories “upset the apple cart of purity that drives Brahminism.”
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Colonial Myth of Brahmin Monopoly
British rule established the false notion that only upper-caste Sanskrit-knowing Brahmins can legitimately serve as Hindu priests.
Diverse Priestly Traditions Exist
Different castes and tribes maintain distinct priestly roles—Bhopas, Guravs, Jogammas, pujaris, gurs, and Potraj—serving various regional deities across India.
Potraj Ritual Complexity
Cross-dressing male devotees smeared with turmeric serve goddesses through self-flagellation, drumming, and buffalo sacrifice in Deccan region traditions.
Competing Origin Narratives
Different versions frame inter-caste marriage as either crime angering goddesses or true love evoking them—raising questions about which gets promoted as authentic.
Ongoing Marginalization
Post-independence homogenization efforts continue sidelining non-Brahmin priests, viewing them as “low caste” and excluding them as Hindu spokespersons.
Sanitization Versus Authenticity
Attempts to sanitize Hinduism deny cross-dressing rituals and animal sacrifices that existed outside Brahminical traditions, revealing tensions over purity ideals.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Colonial Legacy Erasing Diversity
The article’s central argument is that British colonialism created and institutionalized a false narrative of Brahmin-only priestly legitimacy, erasing diverse caste and tribal religious traditions that continue to be marginalized in post-independence India. This matters because homogenization efforts sanitize Hinduism by excluding practices like animal sacrifice and cross-dressing rituals that challenge Brahminical purity ideals. Pattanaik reveals how questions of authenticity become political—which origin stories get promoted reflects power dynamics rather than historical accuracy.
Purpose
Challenging Monolithic Narratives
Pattanaik aims to document suppressed religious diversity, critique ongoing marginalization of non-Brahmin traditions, expose how colonial frameworks persist in post-independence India, and challenge readers to question whose version of Hinduism gets deemed authentic. By presenting multiple Potraj origin narratives without declaring one “true,” he demonstrates how religious authenticity claims serve power interests. The piece functions as cultural anthropology with political implications about representation and religious authority.
Structure
Thesis → Examples → Deep Dive → Critique
The essay opens with a direct challenge to Brahmin priest monopoly, catalogs diverse non-Brahmin traditions across Indian regions, focuses deeply on Potraj practices through multiple origin narratives, presents competing versions to expose authenticity questions, and concludes by critiquing sanitization efforts that deny these traditions legitimacy. The structure moves from breadth (many examples) to depth (Potraj detail) to reflection (what gets erased and why), building a case that marginaliza tion continues post-independence as a colonial hangover.
Tone
Assertive, Descriptive & Provocative
Pattanaik adopts an assertive declarative tone when stating the Brahmin monopoly is “absolutely not true,” becomes ethnographically descriptive when documenting specific priestly traditions and rituals, shifts to provocatively rhetorical when asking “Which is the true version? Which is likely to be promoted as authentic?” and maintains critical edge when discussing how these traditions “upset the apple cart of purity.” The tone conveys authority through detailed cultural knowledge while challenging readers to recognize how power shapes religious authenticity claims.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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To call upon a deity, spirit, or supernatural power through prayer or ritual; to summon or bring forth a presence.
“Bhopas from Bhil communities are priest-performers who sing the tale of Pabu-ji and invoke his presence in the deserts of Rajasthan.”
Appropriate or suitable for; proper to or worthy of a particular status, occasion, or person.
“A man from the village would be chosen to dress in bright, colourful garments befitting the goddess.”
Made lawful, acceptable, or justifiable; validated or given official sanction or approval.
“Here we see how buffalo sacrifice is legitimised as cattle sacrifice is banned.”
Illnesses or diseases, typically minor or chronic; physical or mental disorders causing discomfort.
“All who came to this shrine had their wishes fulfilled, while those who failed to show respect suffered from ailments and diseases.”
Causing someone to experience something unpleasant; imposing or dealing out pain, punishment, or suffering.
“He moves through villages beating rattle drums and kettle drums, inflicting brutal wounds upon himself with a whip.”
The neem tree (Azadirachta indica), valued in Indian tradition for its medicinal properties and used in religious rituals.
“Women carry pots filled with water, margosa leaves, and various other offerings to the goddess’s shrine.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, non-Brahmin priests gained greater recognition and authority after Indian independence.
2Why does Pattanaik present multiple origin stories for the Potraj tradition?
3Which sentence best captures why non-Brahmin priests are marginalized?
4Evaluate the following statements about Potraj rituals:
Male devotees in the Potraj tradition dress in brightly colored women’s clothing and smear their bodies with turmeric and vermilion.
The goddess worshipped in Potraj traditions is believed to cause epidemics like smallpox and cholera when displeased.
Buffalo sacrifice in Potraj rituals is permitted only because it is considered identical to cow sacrifice in Brahminical tradition.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about Pattanaik’s view on attempts to “sanitise” Hinduism?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Pattanaik documents several non-Brahmin priestly roles: Bhopas from Bhil communities who sing Pabu-ji tales in Rajasthan’s deserts; Guravs who traditionally manage shrines in Maharashtra and Karnataka temples; Jogammas and Jogappas who carry Yellamma images in the Maharashtra-Karnataka borderlands; hereditary pujaris and gurs serving mountain devatas across Himachal who don’t belong to Brahmin caste; and Potraj or Pota-raju who serve as heralds of goddesses in Maharashtra and Telangana. These diverse roles demonstrate that different castes and tribes maintain their own religious specialists serving distinct regional deities.
Buffalo sacrifice in Potraj traditions exists in complex relationship with cow protection ideology. Pattanaik notes that ‘buffalo sacrifice is legitimised as cattle sacrifice is banned,’ creating a symbolic system where ‘The goddess is a cow; her husband is a bull. The buffalo is sacrificed.’ This arrangement allows India’s beef/buffalo industry to thrive while maintaining cow protection—the buffalo becomes the acceptable sacrificial animal precisely because it’s distinguished from sacred cattle. The practice reveals tensions between ritual needs, economic realities, and purity ideologies, demonstrating how non-Brahminical traditions navigate restrictions while maintaining their sacrificial practices.
Pattanaik uses “colonial hangover” to describe how British-era frameworks continue shaping post-independence India. Under British rule, the notion took hold that only upper-caste Sanskrit-knowing Brahmins are legitimate priests—a view that served colonial administrative convenience by creating a standardized, textual Hinduism. Despite India achieving political independence in 1947, this colonial construction persists: traditional priests remain excluded from representing Hinduism, their traditions viewed as “low caste” or impure. The term “hangover” suggests these are residual effects of colonialism—beliefs and structures that outlive formal colonial rule, demonstrating how deeply colonial epistemologies can embed themselves in postcolonial societies.
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This article is rated as Intermediate level. It requires understanding of Indian caste system and colonialism’s impact on religious institutions, ability to track multiple examples of non-Brahmin priestly roles across different regions, recognizing how Pattanaik uses competing narratives to raise authenticity questions, and appreciating tensions between standardization and diversity in religious practice. Readers should follow the argument about power dynamics shaping which traditions get legitimacy and grasp concepts like homogenization, sanitization, and colonial hangover. The piece demands cultural literacy about Hindu traditions while making its critical stance clear through concrete examples and rhetorical questions.
This metaphorical phrase means to disrupt or overthrow an established system—in this case, Brahminical ideology centered on ritual purity. Non-Brahmin priests “upset the apple cart” because they preserve traditions involving animal sacrifice, cross-dressing rituals, and narratives about inter-caste relationships that contradict Brahminical purity codes. Their stories reveal that Hinduism is “much wider than the Vedic way of elites,” challenging the notion that only Sanskrit-based, sacrifice-free, caste-hierarchy-maintaining Brahminism represents authentic Hinduism. The phrase suggests these traditions are threatening precisely because they expose the contingency and incompleteness of Brahminical claims to represent all of Hinduism.
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