Karhade Brahmin - Etymology and Origin

Etymology and Origin

• The name Karháda or Karáda, is the progressive evolution of the name Kshaharáta, the name of the founding dynasty of the Indo-Scythian (Saka) Western Satraps.Kshaharáta evolved into Khaharáda...Kaharáda...Karáda....and subsequently modern day Karháda.Satrap is the derivation of the Persian word Ksatrapavan which means a governor or viceroy. The Western Satraps were an Indo-Scythian (Saka) viceroyalty of the erstwhile Kushan empire, and belonged to the Gujjar or White Hun subsect of the lost Yuezhi tribes, which set out of the Tocharian homelands in Western China.
• The Western Satraps governed the region which roughly extended from the Chutus (and later Shilahara) borders in the south (near the modern town of Karad) to the northern frontiers with their fellow Mleccha tribesmen, the Kushans which included the fertile regions of modern day Malva near the town of Ujjain and from northern Konkan and parts of Saurashtra to their eastern frontiers with the powerful Satavahanas somewhere in modern day Marathwada.
• It was on their eastern and southern frontiers where the Western Satraps faced most of their military and cultural challenges, until their eventual defeat by the Satavahana Gautamiputra Satakarni.
• During the relentless battles with the Andhra Satavahanas some influential and level headed Kshaharata tried to secure peace by diplomacy through marriage. Kshaharata daughters were regularly given as wives to notable Satavahana gentry. Thus it can be reasonably believed that the modern Karhada race is a result of matrimonial alliances of the Western Satrap and the indigenous Satavahana.
• After the decline of the Satavahana, the Karhade clan continued to receive patronage of varying degrees from subsequent dynasties in the Deccan. The patronage from the Chalukya is particularly evident from the various copper-plate grants found in Konkan and Goa, which suggest that many Brahmins were settled in the southern Konkan area. At least in one of such grants - there is clear evidence of a peculiar custom of a settlement around the Vimaleshwar temple (Muth)near Rajapur, which was sustained by four fruit / vegetable orchads called Karhataks. This copper plate was found in the possession of a Karhada family still living in the same region. This is not the only copper-plate grant which has been found so far - there are several others found with similar Karhada / Padye families and most have been since well archived. This copper plate grant suggests that the peculiar gardens around the temples were characteristic of a group of Brahmins, thus bearing the Karhatak name.
• European theorists like Sir James Campbell and Reginald Edward Enthoven cite historical anecdotes which link the Karhadas to some of lost tribes of Gujjar or Gurjar or Khajjar or Qajar. This view was supported by the eminent historian, D. R. Bhandarkar, stating that certain members from foreign tribes such as the Ahir, Gurjar, Maga etc., were possibly the remnants of the rather short lived Western Satrap dynasty. Bhandarkar includes castes like the Bhojaka, Chitpavan, Havyaka, Karhade and Nagar Brahmins as of partly foreign origin.Medieval Deccan folklore cites some funny anecdotes, namely the Sahyādrikhaṇḍa hints at the resurrection of the tribe from the bones of a camel.
• Notwithstanding the immense inter-mixing of various tribes, the average Karhade is generally tall, with black wavy hair. The Karhade generally resembles the Havyaka, but is noticeably darker in complexion.
• Most modern Karhada shares the gotra with other Brahmins of the sub-continent. It is not known how the various Brahmin tribes with such diverse origins came upon to inherit the same paternal lineages. It can well be debated, if the Gotra system was philosophical / idealogical at its roots rather than the popular belief that it indicates the genealogical origins.
• Goan historian Balakrishna Kamat Satoskar,in his work Gomantak-prakruti ani sankruti maintains that Goan Padyes started claiming to be Karhades very late in the history,and originally belonged to non-Brahmin, nature worshipping priests native to Goa and Konkan,who did not follow Vedic religion,and later attained Brahmin-hood.