The Bhaṁḍārī Militia
It is difficult to define the bhaṁḍārī identity very clearly; they seem to have adopted different occupations at different times at different places; and seem to have been bracketed in narrow categories based on those occupations – different categories at different times at different places. What makes the discovery of their authentic identity even more difficult is the clouds created around it by political exigencies over the last half a century. For that reason any post-Independence information can only make our task difficult. We will have to take our search to 15th and 16th century. Perhaps some early Portuguese documents could be of help; those that record the gāṁvakārī system for instance.
But we will need to go even beyond that point of time to answer the question : Who are bhaṁḍārī ? We need to fit the community in our basic ethnic triad of brāmhaṇa, kshatriya and vaḍukar – the three jana based on their geographical origin; and the multiplicity of jana that emerged from the encounters between these. It may be difficult; but definitely it is not impossible. The vast treasure of resources on the pre-history of the Deccan is yet unexplored; only the tip of it has been studied. The excavations by Sankalia, Ansari and Dhavalikar in Inamgaon is just the beginning. We have seen how our roots are more than obvious in these chalcolithic settlements. [Driven By The Drought, 05 Feb 17] Another promising line of investigation is the study of the deities and temples, and the traditions that envelop them. These hold within them a rich source of information about the people associated with them. The studies by Sontheimer and Shulman have inspired many historians now to follow that route. [Sontheimer, 1989 : Pastoral Deities In Western India; Shulman, 1980 : Tamil Temple Myths] We have already seen how useful this approach has been for us to unravel the kshatriya identity in the Deccan. [The Dhangar Dynasties Of Deccan, 13 Aug 17; The Yādavarāyā, 27 Aug 17; To The Ramparts Of Pratāpagaḍa, 03 Sep 17]
