Most of the Padmashalis except Pattusalis of Srikakulam are non-vegetarians. Padmashalis either do business or get employed or do their traditional occupation-weaving and they dont do chapliance whereas brahmins do chapliance and other Veda-related jobs. Padmashali is a backward community while brahmins are socially advanced.
Brahmins themselves are not a homogenous group culturally throughout India. A good number of brahmins throughout the east coast from Orissa to Bengal and Assam are avid fish eaters. All brahmins are not engaged in chapliance. As for chapliance, with many reformers having meddled with the vedic Hinduism, in some areas that duty is given even to Dasaris (a scheduled caste dalit) in andhra Pradesh, especially in Vaishnavaite worship; and among shivite worshippers, there are Jangams who do the chapliance work for Lingayats (Veerashaivas) who do not believe in the suprimacy of the Brahmins, and the class of Veerashaivas was born by intermarriage between Brahmins and Dalits, infact between all castes, in order to bring out a casteless society and to annihilate Brahminical hegemony.
As per Vedic Hinduism, Brahmin has to achieve Brahminism by his deeds and therefore a Brahmin is to be "Twice born", that is to be born first by a biological birth and then a "second birth by spiritual attainment". Attainment of this "Brahminical" status was open to any one from any caste and class. Similarly, having achieved Brahminical status, one may face downgradation by a subsequent ill deed.
The cases of Vishwamithra and Valmiki are the proper examples. Vasishta the most revered sage in Hinduism was born to celestial prostitute and he married a Dalit woman "Arundhathi". All brahmins who claim Vasishta gothra carry half of the genes from a Dalit woman ancestor.
Any one who resorted to manual work and a profession related to manufacture and trade was treated as Vaishya or shoodra. Similarly Padmasalis fall in one of the two. Upper caste or Forward caste have nothing to do with the classification of the four Varnas of Hindu hiearchy. Kammas and Reddys are from the Forward or upper castes but they are "Shoodras" with in the definition of the Hindu varnas.
One aspect that differentiates Padmasalis from the "shoodra" classification is they alone wear the "Janiv or Yajnopaveetha" among all other non-brahminical castes with one exception of "Vishwakarmas". Except for the Brahmins, the other varnas are not very distinctly categorised in the Southern India. Thus Padmasalis fall between the brahmins and other Aryan castes, they follow a mix of Dravidian and Aryan rituals / food habits, suggesting Aryan origine and intermixture with the Dravidians. All Padmasalis claim Rishi gothras of 101 rishi "santhathi" who were taken on adoption by the sage Bhavana Rishi, who himself was taken on adoption by Rishi Markandeya. All Padmasalis originated from Satavahana empire and their mother tongue remains Telugu, except for a few migrants who had taken longer and numerous stages of migration such as the Shettigars of Dakshina Kannada. Most Padmashalis in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chatttisgadh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa speak Telugu as mother tongue. Devangas are reported to have branched off from Padmasalis due to a dispute between two groups on issues of worship of goddess Chaudeshwari, and ever since that dispute the two have become rivals, thus one of them do not reside where the other reside, and while most Padmasalis practice Vaishnavism, almost all Devangas are saivites.
Answered by Yash
at
11:39 PM on February 01, 2009
