User:Mr Yadavraj Empire

Mr Yadavraj Empire 2001 This article is about modern communities claiming descent from Yadu. For the ancient people, see Yadava. For other uses, see Yadav (disambiguation).

A group of Aheers, a major constituent of the Yadav group, from around Delhi, 1868 Yadav refers to a grouping of traditionally mainly non-elite,[1][2][3][4] peasant-pastoral communities or castes in India and Nepal that since the 19th and 20th centuries[5][6] have claimed descent from the mythological king Yadu as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence.[7]

The term Yadav now covers many traditional peasant-pastoral castes such as Ahirs of the Hindi belt and the Gavli of Maharashtra.[1][8]

Traditionally, Yadav groups were linked to cattle raising and as such, were outside the formal caste system.[6] Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Yadav movement has worked to improve the social standing of its constituents,[9] through Sanskritisation,[10] active participation in the Indian and British armed forces,[5] expansion of economic opportunities to include other, more prestigious business fields, and active participation in politics.[9] Yadav leaders and intellectuals have often focused on their claimed descent from Yadu, and from Krishna,[11] which they argue confers kshatriya status upon them,[12] and effort has been invested in recasting the group narrative to emphasise kshatriya-like valour,[13] however, the overall tenor of their movement has not been overtly egalitarian in the context of the larger Indian caste system.[14]

Origins In mythology

Krishna with cow-herding Gopis in an eighteenth-century painting. The term Yadav (or sometimes Yadava) has been interpreted to mean a descendant of Yadu, who is a mythological king.[15]

Using "very broad generalisations", Jayant Gadkari says that it is "almost certain" from analysis of the Puranas that Andhaka, Vrishni, Satvata and Abhira were collectively known as Yadavas and worshipped Krishna. Gadkari further notes of these ancient works that "It is beyond dispute that each of the Puranas consists of legends and myths ... but what is important is that, within that framework [a] certain value system is propounded".[16]

Lucia Michelutti notes that At the core of the Yadav community lies a specific folk theory of descent, according to which all Indian pastoral castes are said to descend from the Yadu dynasty (hence the label Yadav) to which Krishna (a cowherder, and supposedly a Kshatriya) belonged. ... [there is] a strong belief amongst them that all Yadavs belong to Krishna's line of descent, the Yadav subdivisions of today being the outcome of a fission of an original and undifferentiated group.[17]

Historians such as P. M. Chandorkar have used epigraphical and similar evidence to argue that Ahirs and Gavlis are representative of the ancient Yadavas and Abhiras mentioned in Sanskrit works.[18]

In practice There are several communities that coalesce to form the Yadavs. Christophe Jaffrelot has remarked that The term 'Yadav' covers many castes which initially had different names: Ahir in the Hindi belt, Punjab and Gujarat, Gavli in Maharashtra, Gola in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka etc. Their traditional common function, all over India, was that of herdsmen, cowherds and milksellers.[8]

However, Jaffrelot has also said that most of the modern Yadavs are cultivators, mainly engaged in tilling the land, and less than one third of the population are occupied in raising cattle or the milk business.[19]

M. S. A. Rao had earlier expressed the same opinion as Jaffrelot, and noted that the traditional association with cattle, together with the belief in descent from Yadu, defines the community.[15] According to David Mandelbaum, the association of the Yadav (and their constituent castes, Ahir and Gwala) with cattle has impacted on their commonly viewed ritual status (varna) as Shudra, although the community's members often claim the higher status of Kshatriya. The Shudra status is explained by the nomadic nature of herdsmen, which constrained the ability of other groups in the varna system to validate the adherence to practices of ritual purity; by their involvement in castration of the animals, which was considered to be a ritually polluting act; and because the sale of milk, as opposed to personal use thereof, was thought to represent economic gain from a sacrosanct product.[20]

According to Lucia Michelutti:

... Yadavs constantly trace their caste predispositions and skills to descent, and in doing so they affirm their distinctiveness as a caste. For them, caste is not just appellation but quality of blood (Yalman 1969: 87, in Gupta 2000: 82). This view is not recent. The Ahirs (today Yadavs) had a lineage view of caste (Fox 1971; Unnithan-Kumar 1997) that was based on a strong ideological model of descent. This descent-based kinship structure was also linked to a specific Kshatriya and their religious tradition centred on Krishna mythology and pastoral warrior hero-god cults.[21]