Chari (caste)

Vishwakarma Manu Maya is a Brahmin caste in India.

History

Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins belong to Suthar which is also known as Viswakarma Brahmans. Viswakarma created "Sathyaloka" for Brahma, "Vykuntha" for Vishnu, "swarna lanka" for Shiva, "Swarga" for Indra, "Alakapuri" for Kubera, "Dwaraka" for Krishna likewise so many creations. Viswakarma degraded Surya's rays and then made "sudarshana chakra" for Vishnu, "Thrishul" for shiva, "Vajrayudha" for Indra and "Axe" for Kalika.

They were also called as ‘Shivabrahman’. ‘Saiyadri Khanda’ of ‘Scanda Puran’ says that artist of ancient Goa is called as ‘Shaivagayatri Brahmans’.^[1] Those Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins who fled Goa during Portuguese time to prevent them being converted to Christianity & settled in Solapur district are still known as ‘Shiva Brahma Sutar’. Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins have their origin from Manu and Maya two of the sons of Lord Vishwakarma, the Divine Architect and craftsman in ancient India. In ancient India Panchal were called as ‘Missionary of Civilization, Culture and Religion’ since Panchal spread Vedic religion in other part of world.^[1]

Position in Goa

Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins, popularly known as Chari is a community of artisans in the Indian state of Goa.

They are the traditional Hindu carpenter in Goa.The Chari is corrupt form of the word Acharya which means the teacher of religion. Surname Acharya is still present in Chari in some part of south India. Those Chari who has left Goa long ago has a surname as Charya .So in short Chari derived from Acharya -Charya- Chari. Since Portuguese have ruled Goa for 450 years, the surname Chari is only present in Goa. They are also referred as ‘Sutar’ which has derived from Sanskrit word ‘Sutradhar’ which means the designer in Ancient India. Sometimes they are referred as ‘mest’ or ‘thavoi’^[a]^[2] which means carpenter & stapathi respectively. Those who were good artist were called as ‘Fishal’. For some Chari Portuguese gave surname as Zo which means artist.

Since Chari are traditional carpenters of Goa their main occupation is carpentry. They do smithery also. In fact, they are master in most of the technical work; so they are also referred as a borne engineers. Afonso de Albuquerque, the first Portuguese governor general of Goa has referred in one of his letters that guns manufactured by the blacksmith (Chari) in Goa are better than those made in Germany. A century later the Viceroy D.Jeronymo dl Azevedo banned the manufacture of guns in village of Cuncoli or anywhere in Salcete under penalty of four years in the galleys and even hanging.^[3] In Goa they played an important role in history. There were also many temples in Goa. Portuguese destroyed more than thousands of temples, out of which some had marvelous beauty. Chari being an artist most of the temples were done by them. So in goan society they had much importance. They have been given rights in many of temples of Goa as sevekari. Without Chari many of rituals performed in temples cannot complete.

Vishwakarma means Sons of Lion.

Religion

They worship Vishwakarma since they have descended from him. Their main community deity is ‘Shree Ragunath (Ram)’ of Gimoney. This temple has history of more than 500 years. It was destroyed by Moghul aggression in 16 century but Chari reconstructed it. They have Shree Ram’s temples at Mayade and Vasco. Also the main goddess to whom every Vishwakarma people worships is Kalika. Her temple is situated at Merces known as Morambo in ancient times. She is called Kalamba which is corrupt form of Kalika Amba. It has history around 1,500 years old^{[citation needed]}. It was a main deity of Lohamath, which was Chari’s Gurupeeth. During the Portuguese times it was destroyed by them (Portugal Rulers). Later in nineteenth century it was again set up (rebuilt) by Swamy Ramchandra Puna Charya who had taken diksha from swamy of Lohamath Swamy Padmanabhachary, & with his spiritual guidance & tutelage he reinstalled the temple goddess Kalamba along with another presiding deity idol was set up Siddeshwar.^{[citation needed]}

Lohamath Guru Parampara

Lohamath was established on Shalivahan Shake 700 (778 AD) Khar naam Samvatsar Magha shudha 15 at Majale, near Goa Karnataka border. First pontiff of this math was Swamy Virupaksha after whom the lineage was preceded by 67 Gurus. The last Pontiff Kanakacharya, was disciple of Swami Padmanabhachary. After him the Guru Parampara of Lohamath stopped due to some reason. Though this math parampara stopped, but this math represented Chari or Konkani speaking Vishwakarmas' for more than 1,000 years. Guru Parampara of this math is as listed below:

1)Virupaksha Swami(778AD)
2)Mangalanath Swami
3)Chandanath Swami
4)Jathanath Swami
5)Kasturinath Swami
6)Pathnath Swami
7)Kurmanath Swami
8)Dhananath Swami
9)Mandarnath Swami
10)Martandanath Swami
11)Champakinath Swami
12)Kaivalynath Swami
13)Maharmanath Swami
14)Mahagayanath Swami
15)Suryakshanath Swami
16)Nagarakshanath Swami
17)Sakaltirthanath Swami
18)Durvakshanath Swami
19)Jwalanath Swami
20)Gadadharnath Swami
21)Gangagitanath Swami
22)Mayanath Swami
23)Mahamayanath Swami
24)Nityanandanath Swami
25)Shantanath Swami
26)Vishwanath Swami
27)Kamananath Swami
28)Umanath Swami
29)Shreepalnath Swami
30)Chumbakanath Swami
31)Mahalakshminath Swami
32)Vidhyanath Swami
33)Kanaknath Swami
34)Antarikshanath Swami
35)Sidhanath Swami
36)Shardanath Swami
37)Anantanath Swami
38)Ullakanath Swami
39)Trailokyanath Swami
40)Bhimanath Swami
41)Naganath Swami
42)Mallikanath Swami
43)Prachandanath Swami
44)Anaghanath Swami
45)Anabhinath Swami
46)Nandininath Swami
47)Sundarnath Swami
48)Vishveshwarnath Swami
49)Damarnath Swami
50)Kalanath Swami
51)Abhayanath Swami
52)Vikarnath Swami
53)Mahavikarnath Swami
54)Sugalnath Swami
55)Mahatanunath Swami
56)Sharvarinath Swami
57)Viyomnath Swami
58Niyomanandanath Swami
59)Ramanath Swami
60)Anantanath Swami
61)Kanaknath Swami
62)Anantanath Swami
63)Kanaknath Swami
64)Padmanabh Swami
65)Virupaksha Swami
66)Padmanabha Swami
67)Kanakacharya Swami(1898AD)

Families in Chari

Though the surname ‘Chari’ is used by every Chari, but still they can be differentiated based on their village where their Kuladevata has her temple. Some Chari families are as below.

Village	Kuladevata	Family
Mandre	Kuladevta Panchayatan,Bhagvati Sapteshwar Ravalnath	Mandrekar
Palli	Ravalnath Ravalghadi	Nasnodkar, Toraskar
Ajgaon	Vetoba	Ajgaonkar
Veling	Vetal	Velingkar
Parule, Vengurle	Vetoba, Ravalnath, Varati	Parulekar
Pinguli	BhavaniShankar	Shivolkar
Pedne	Rampurush Panchayatan, Bhagvati, Ravalnath	Pednekar
Parse	Rampurush Mahalakshami, Bhagawati, Ravalnath	Parsekar
Narve	Saptakoteshwar	Narvekar
Kurdi		Kurdikar
Madkai	Nav Durga	Madkaikar
Dhargal	Rampurush mauli	Dhargalkar
Morji	Morjai	Morajkar
Mashel		Mashelkar
Satarde	Ravalnath	Satardekar
Korgao	Kashikalayan Kulaswami, Kamleshwar	Korgaokar
Shiroda		Shirodkar
Poriem	Bhumika	Paryekar
Kudase	Sateri, Ravalnath	Kudaskar
Bori	Navadurga	Borkar
Mardhol, Phonda	Mahalasa Narayani	Vernekar
Bandevade	Nagesh	Bandodkar
Khandepar		Khandeparkar
Banda	Bandeshwar	Bandekar
Mulgao, Marshall	Laksmi Ravalanath	Charodi, Mesta, Achar
Quepem	Chandra Mouleshwar	Charodi, Mesta, Achar
Khandola	Shree Bhagwati Rampurush	Haldankar	Mashel	Shree Lakshmi Ravalnath, Devaki Krishn	Chodankar, Chari

Some surnames in Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins

Acharya
Chari
Charya
Zo
Mistri
Sutar
Panchal
Achari
Mest
Thavi
Gohil
Charodi
Mesta
Achar

Notable Vishwakarma Individuals

Swamy Virupaksha (First Swamy of Lohamath set up 778 AD, situated at Goa Karnataka border).
Swamy Ramchandra Puna Charya Paryekar (Disciple of Lohamath Acharya who reinstalled the temple of Kalamba at Merces).
Late Shree Pandit Prabhakar Chari Borkar (Tabala)
Shree Somanathbuvo Chari (Vocalist)
Shree Madhusudhan Chari (Vocalist)
Shree Ravindra Prahabhakar Chari Borkar (Sitar)
Smt. Seema Shirodkar (Harmonium)
Shree Purnananda Chari (Konkani writer poet)
Late Shree Vaman Zo Satardekar (artist famous for ivory carving)

References

^ ^a ^b "Shilpakar" by V. V. Chari, an article on Souvenir published by Sri Ram Seva Sangha, Mayade (2009)
^ Sinai Dhume, Anant Ramkrishna (1986). The cultural history of Goa from 10000 B.C.-1352 A.D. Ramesh Anant S. Dhume, 1986. pp. 355 pages(see page 37).
^ "Shilpakar" by V. V. Chari,an article on Souvenir published by Sri Ram Seva Sangha, Mayade(2009)

^{^} Thavai come from the Sanskrit word Sthapati.Sthapati becomes Tha-vva-ee in prakrit and later Thavai in Apabramsha,Ie Konkani.

v t e Ethnic groups, social groups and tribes of Goa and the Konkan region
Maratha and associated groups	Maratha Gomantak Maratha Samaj Naik Maratha Samaj Kharvi
Saraswats	Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins Kudaldeshkar Gaud Brahmins Gaud Saraswat Brahmins Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins
Karhades	Karhade Padhye Bhatt Prabhu
Konkanasthas	Chitpavan Brahmins
Daivadnya	Daivadnya Shett
Vaishya	Vaishya Vani
Prabhus	Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu
Others	Bhandari Chamar Dhangar Gabit Gauda and Kunbi Gavli Koli Komarpant Madval Mahar (Mhar) Siddis of Karnataka
Roman Catholics	Bombay East Indians Goan Catholics Karwari Catholics Koli Christians Mangalorean Catholics
Islam	Goan Muslims Konkani Muslims Nawayath
Related articles	Caste system in Goa Goans Konkani people