1.
Nagpur
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Nagpur is the winter capital and the third largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune and largest city of central India. It has one of the highest literacy rate of 91. 92% among all the urban agglomerations in India, Nagpur is the seat of the annual winter session of the Maharashtra state assembly, Vidhan Sabha. It is a commercial and political centre of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In addition, the city derives political importance from being the headquarters for the Hindu nationalist organisation RSS, Nagpur also known for Deekshabhoomi, the largest hollow stupa among all Buddhist stupas in the world. Here Dr. B. R. Ambedkar along with nearly 500,000 followers converted to Buddhism and this was one of the first mass religious conversions in the history of India. According to a survey by ABP News-Ipsos, Nagpur has been identified as the best city in India by topping the liveability, greenery, public transport, and health care indices. The city has been adjudged as the 20th cleanest city in India and it is famous for the Nagpur orange and is known as the Orange City for being a major trade centre of oranges cultivated in the region. The city was founded in 1703 by the Gonds King Bakht Buland Shah of Deogarh, the British East India Company took over Nagpur in the 19th century and made it the capital of the Central Provinces and Berar. After the first reorganisation of states, the city lost its status as the capital, following the informal Nagpur Pact between political leaders, it was made the second capital of Maharashtra. Also see, Nagpur state One of the names of Nagpur was Fanindrapura. It derives its origin from the Fana or hood of a cobra, in fact, Nagpurs first newspaper was named Fanindramani, which means a jewel that is believed to be suspended over a cobras hood. It is this jewel that lights up the darkness, hence the name of the newspaper, the river Nag flows through the city. B. R. Ambedkar claimed that both the city and the river are named after Nag people, the word pur means city in many Indian languages. During British rule, the name of the city was spelt, in the 18th century, this city was created by leader of Gond Dynasty named Bakht Buland Shah in the first half of the century. Human existence around present-day Nagpur can be traced back 3000 years to the 8th century BCE, mehir burial sites at Drugdhamna indicate that the megalithic culture existed around Nagpur and is still followed. The first reference to the name Nagpur is found in a 10th-century copper-plate inscription discovered at Devali in the neighbouring Wardha district. The inscription is a record of grant of a village situated in the visaya of Nagpura-Nandivardhana during the time of the Rastrakuta king Krsna III in the Saka year 862, towards the end of the 3rd century, King Vindhyasakti is known to have ruled the Nagpur region. In the 4th century, the Vakataka Dynasty ruled over the Nagpur region, the Vakataka king Prithvisena I moved his capital to Nagardhan,28 kilometres from Nagpur
2.
Central Provinces
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The Central Provinces was a province of British India. It comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India and it became the Central Provinces and Berar in 1936. The Central Provinces was formed in 1861 by the merger of the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, the district of Nimar which was administered by the Central India Agency was added in 1864. The Central Provinces was landlocked, occupying the mountain ranges, plateaus, the northernmost portion of the state extended onto the Bundelkhand upland, whose northward-flowing rivers are tributaries of the Yamuna and Ganges. The upper Narmada valley forms the center of the Mahakoshal region, jabalpur lay on the upper Narmada, and was an important railway junction. The Satpura Range divides the Narmada valley from the Deccan Plateau to the south, the Central Provinces included the northeastern portion of the Deccan, drained by tributaries of the Godavari River including the Wainganga, Wardha, and Indravati. A portion of Berar lay in the basin of the Tapti River. The portion of the Central Provinces on the Deccan Plateau formed the Vidarbha region, which includes Nagpur, the eastern portion of the state lay in the upper Mahanadi River basin, which forms fertile rice-growing region of Chhattisgarh. The Maikal Range separates the basins of the Narmada and the Mahanadi, the Chota Nagpur Plateau extended into the northeast corner of the province. General censuses were held in 1866,1872,1881,1891,1901,1911,1921, the population in 1866 was over 9 million, and in 1872 over 9.25 million. There were epidemics of smallpox and cholera in 1872,1878, by 1881 the population had risen to 11.5 million, and by 1891 to nearly 13 million. The population in 1901 was 11,873,029, a reduction of 800,000 from 1891, a portion of the decrease was from emigration to Assam and other provinces of India. The 1911 census counted a population of 16,033,310 for the Central Provinces and Berar. Droughts in 1917 and 1920 caused famine in several districts, and the Central Provinces were affected by plague in 1911,1912,1915,1917, and 1918. In the 1921 census, the population declined by 0. 3% from 1911 to 15,970,660. The 1931 census found a population of 17,990,937 for the Central Provinces and Berar -12,065,885 for the British districts,3,441,838 for Berar. The central Provinces contained two distinct regions, Mahakoshal, consisting mainly of Hindi-speaking districts, and Vidarbha, chiefly, but not exclusively. The linguistic regions could not be integrated as a unit
3.
Presidencies and provinces of British India
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Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India, in one form or other they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods. During 1612–1757, the East India Company set up factories in several locations, mostly in coastal India and its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Holland and France. By the mid-18th century, three Presidency towns, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta had grown in size, during the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called Presidencies. However, it increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereignty with the Crown. At the same time it gradually lost its mercantile privileges, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Companys remaining powers were transferred to the Crown. In the new British Raj, sovereignty extended to a few new regions, increasingly, however, unwieldy presidencies were broken up into Provinces. In 1608, the English East India Company established a settlement at Surat, and it was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1612 the company joined other already established European trading companies in Bengal. Company rule in Bengal, however, ended with the Government of India Act 1858 following the events of the Bengal Rebellion of 1857 and these rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population, in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area, in addition, there were Portuguese and French exclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of two nations, the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh. The term British India also applied to Burma for a time period, starting in 1824, a small part of Burma. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony, British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, which was a British Crown colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula, the original seat of government was at Allahabad, then at Agra from 1834 to 1868. Bombay Presidency, East India Companys headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687, the East India Company, which was incorporated on 31 December 1600, established trade relations with Indian rulers in Masulipatam on the east coast in 1611 and Surat on the west coast in 1612. The company rented a trading outpost in Madras in 1639, meanwhile, in eastern India, after obtaining permission from the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to trade with Bengal, the Company established its first factory at Hoogly in 1640. Almost a half-century later, after Emperor Aurengzeb forced the Company out of Hooghly, by the mid-18th century the three principal trading settlements, now called the Madras Presidency, the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency were each administered by a Governor. After Robert Clives victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in 1772, the Company also obtained the Nizāmat of Bengal and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal Presidency
4.
Central Provinces and Berar
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The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1936 to 1950. It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, the Central Provinces was formed in 1861 by the merger of the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories and Nagpur Province. As its name suggests, the province was situated in the center of the Indian peninsula and it comprised large portions of the broad belt of hill and plateau which interposes between the plains of the Ganges and the Deccan plateau. In 1835 the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories were included in the newly formed North-Western Provinces, in 1842, in consequence of an uprising, they were again placed under the jurisdiction of an agent to the governor-general. They were restored to the North-Western Province in 1853, in 1818, the Maratha Bhonsle Maharajas of Nagpur submitted to British sovereignty. In 1853, on the death of Raghoji III without heirs, the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories were joined with the Nagpur province to constitute the new Central Provinces in 1861. On 1 October 1903 Berar was placed under the administration of the commissioner of the Central Provinces, in 1935 the Government of India Act was passed by the British Parliament. This act provided for the election of an assembly, with an electorate made up of men with a minimum of financial resources, and excluding women. Supervisory powers over the enclaved and attached Princely States were reserved to the Governor, elections were held in 1937, and the Indian National Congress took a majority of the seats but declined to form the government. A minority provisional government was formed under E. Raghavendra Rao, the Congress reversed its decision and resolved to accept office in July 1937. Therefore, the Governor invited N. B, khare to form the government in August 1937. Khare resigned in 1938, and Ravi Shankar Shukla next became Premier, another round of elections were held in 1946, yielding another Congress majority, and Shukla again became Premier. India became independent on 15 August and the Central Provinces & Berar became a province of the Dominion of India, the princely states, which were under the Central Provinces before 1936, were merged into the province, and organized into new districts. When the Constitution of India went into effect in 1950, the Central Provinces & Berar was reorganized with territorial changes as the state of Madhya Pradesh, after Indian Independence in 1947, the Central Provinces and Berar became part of India as Madhya Pradesh. On 1 November 1956, Madhya Bharat, together with the states of Vindhya Pradesh, in 1956, under pressure from Marathi Irredentists, the Berar and Nagpur divisions were transferred to Bombay state. In 1960, the Bombay State was partitioned into Maharashtra & Gujarat, in 2000, the eastern portion of Madhya Pradesh was split off to become the new state of Chhattisgarh. The 1941 Census of India counted 16,813,584 persons in the province, the Central provinces and Berar was made up of 22 districts, grouped into five divisions, Jubbulpore Division, which included Jubbulpore, Saugor, Damoh, Seoni and Mandla districts. Nerbudda Division, which included Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad, Nimar, Betul, Nagpur Division, which included Nagpur, Bhandara, Chanda, Wardha and Balaghat districts
5.
British Indian
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The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, today, Indians comprise about 1.4 million people in the UK, making them the single largest visible ethnic minority population in the country. They make up the largest subgroup of British Asians, and are one of the largest Indian communities in the Indian diaspora, mainly due to the Indian-British relations. The British Indian community is the sixth largest in the Indian diaspora, behind the Indian communities in the United States, Saudi Arabia, British Indians are socioeconomically affluent and are primarily members of the middle class. A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2011 found British Indians have among the lowest poverty rates among all groups in Britain. Studies have shown that Indians are more likely to be employed in professional and managerial occupations, No one knows the earliest settlement of Indians in Great Britain for certain. If the Romani, often known by the exonym Gypsies, are regarded as South Asian, the Romanichal and Kale originated in what is now North India and Pakistan, and began migrating westward around 1000 C. E. mixing with Southwest Asians and continental Europeans over the centuries. Romani began arriving in numbers in Western Europe during the 16th century. People from India have settled in Great Britain since the East India Company recruited lascars to replace vacancies in their crews on East Indiamen whilst on voyages in India. Initially these were men from the Indo-Portuguese or Luso-Asian communities of the subcontinent, including men from Bombay, Goa, Cochin, Madras, later Muslim Bengalis and men from Ratnagiri were hired. Many were then refused passage back and had no alternative than to settle in London, there were also some ayahs, domestic servants and nannies of wealthy British families, who accompanied their employers back to Britain when their stay in South Asia came to an end. British soldiers would sometimes marry Indian women and send their mixed race children back to Britain. Indian wives of British soldiers would sometimes ask for passage home after being abandoned or widowed if they did accompany their children, in 1835, Bridget Peter a native of the Madras region lost her husband, a British soldier serving in His Majestys 1st Foot Regiment. She petitioned the Directors from Chelsea Hospital in a state of destitution and they paid to return her and her three children to India. The Navigation Act of 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships, in 1797,13 were buried in the parish of St Nicholas at Deptford. During the 19th century, the East India Company brought thousands of Indian lascars, scholars and workers to Britain largely to work on ships and it is estimated 8,000 Indians lived in Britain permanently prior to the 1950s. Due to the majority of early Asian immigrants being lascar seamen, naval cooks also came, many of them from the Sylhet Division of what is now Bangladesh. One of the most famous early Bengali immigrants to Britain was Sake Dean Mahomet, in 1810, he founded Londons first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House
6.
Physician
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Both the role of the physician and the meaning of the word itself vary around the world. Degrees and other qualifications vary widely, but there are common elements, such as medical ethics requiring that physicians show consideration, compassion. Around the world the term refers to a specialist in internal medicine or one of its many sub-specialties. This meaning of physician conveys a sense of expertise in treatment by drugs or medications and this term is at least nine hundred years old in English, physicians and surgeons were once members of separate professions, and traditionally were rivals. Henry VIII granted a charter to the London Royal College of Physicians in 1518 and it was not until 1540 that he granted the Company of Barber/Surgeons its separate charter. In the same year, the English monarch established the Regius Professorship of Physic at the University of Cambridge, newer universities would probably describe such an academic as a professor of internal medicine. Hence, in the 16th century, physic meant roughly what internal medicine does now, currently, a specialist physician in the United States may be described as an internist. Another term, hospitalist, was introduced in 1996, to describe US specialists in internal medicine who work largely or exclusively in hospitals, such hospitalists now make up about 19% of all US general internists, who are often called general physicians in Commonwealth countries. In such places, the more general English terms doctor or medical practitioner are prevalent, in Commonwealth countries, specialist pediatricians and geriatricians are also described as specialist physicians who have sub-specialized by age of patient rather than by organ system. Around the world, the term physician and surgeon is used to describe either a general practitioner or any medical practitioner irrespective of specialty. This usage still shows the meaning of physician and preserves the old difference between a physician, as a practitioner of physic, and a surgeon. The term may be used by state medical boards in the United States of America, in modern English, the term physician is used in two main ways, with relatively broad and narrow meanings respectively. This is the result of history and is often confusing and these meanings and variations are explained below. In the United States and Canada, the term physician describes all medical practitioners holding a professional medical degree, the American Medical Association, established in 1847, as well as the American Osteopathic Association, founded in 1897, both currently use the term physician to describe members. However, the American College of Physicians, established in 1915, does not, its title uses physician in its original sense. A physician trained in the United States has either a Doctor of Medicine degree, all boards of certification now require that physicians demonstrate, by examination, continuing mastery of the core knowledge and skills for a chosen specialty. Recertification varies by particular specialty between every seven and every ten years, graduates of osteopathic medical schools in the United States should not be confused with osteopaths, who are trained in the European and Commonwealth nations. Their training is similar to physical therapy and they are not licensed to prescribe medications or perform surgeries, also in the United States, the American Podiatric Medical Association defines podiatrists as physicians and surgeons that fall under the department of surgery in hospitals
7.
Activism
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society. One can also express activism through different forms of art, daily acts of protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism, research has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words activism and activist from 1920, Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. introduced the term judicial activism in a January 1946 Fortune magazine article titled The Supreme Court,1947, some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change, the cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically. Activism is not always an action by Activists, every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed, in 2014116 environmental activists were assassinated, in 2015185 activists were killed around this planet. Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes, specific platforms like MoveOn. org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999 used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference, throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social media platforms to generate interest. The power of Internet Activism came into a lens with the Arab Spring protests. They use different means to political persecution, such as Tor Browser. The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, Activism is often done full-time, as part of an organizations core business. Many organizations in the industry are either non profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods, the term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in activities as well. Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic, many groups, including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government, many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations, randy Shaw, The Activists Handbook, A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond
8.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
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The RSS is one of the principal organizations of the Sangh Parivar group. Founded on 27 September 1925, the organisation is the worlds largest voluntary missionary organization, the initial impetus was to provide character training through Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community to form a Hindu Rashtra. The organisation carries the ideal of upholding Indian culture and civilizational values and it drew initial inspiration from European right-wing groups during World War II. RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor in the city of Nagpur and he had been charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and was imprisoned for one year. Hedgewar was educated by his elder brother and he then decided to study medicine in Calcutta, West Bengal. He was sent there by B. S. Moonje in 1910 to pursue his medical studies, there he lived with Shyam Sundar Chakravarthy and learned the techniques of fighting from secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal. He is said to have joined Anushilan Samiti and he had contacts with revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil. Previously he was involved in type of revolutionary activities, a fact disclosed by writers such as viz. C. P. Bhishikar, M. S. Golwalkar, K. S. Sudarshan. After completing his studies and graduating, he returned to Nagpur, in his memoirs, the third chief of RSS, Balasahab Deoras narrates an incident when Hedgewar saved him and others from following the path of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. Later he left the organisations in the year 1925 and formed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The RSS first met in 1925 just after two months of Kakori train robbery in a ground of Nagpur with 5-6 persons on Vijaya Dashami. After the formation of the RSS, Hedgewar kept the organisation away from having any direct affiliation to any of the political organisations then fighting British rule, but Hedgewar and his team of volunteers, took part in the Indian National Congress, led movements against the British rule. Hedgewar was arrested in the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a term in prison. During World War II RSS leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who became the supreme leader of the RSS after Hedgewar, drew inspiration from Adolf Hitlers ideology of race purity. RSS leaders were supportive of the Jewish State of Israel, including Savarkar himself, Golwalkar admired Jews for maintaining their religion, culture and language. The RSS, which portrays itself as a movement, stayed away from the Indian independence movement. It also rejected Gandhis willingness to cooperate with the Muslims, after founding the organisation, K. B. Hedgewar started the tradition of keeping the RSS away from the Indian Independence movement. Any political activity that could be construed as being anti-British was carefully avoided, according to the RSS biographer C. P. Bhishikar, Hedgewar only talked about Hindu organisation avoiding any direct comment on the Government
9.
Marathi people
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Their language, Marathi, is part of the group of Indo-Aryan languages. The community came to prominence in 1674 when Maratha warriors under Shivaji Maharaj established the Maratha Empire, during ancient period around 230 BC Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty which ruled the region for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautami putra Satakarni, the Vakataka dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the 3rd century to the 5th century. The Rashtra kuta Dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the 8th to the 10th century, the Arab traveler Sulaiman called the ruler of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty as one of the 4 great kings of the world. From the early 11th century to the 12th century the Deccan Plateau was dominated by the Western Chalukya Empire, the Seuna dynasty, also known as the Yadav dynasty ruled Maharashtra from the 13th century to the 14th century. The Yadavas were defeated by the Khiljis in 1321, in the mid-17th century, Shivaji Maharaj founded the Maratha Empire by conquering the Desh and the Konkan region from the Adilshahi, and re-establish Hindavi Swaraj. The Marathas are credited to an extent for ending the Mughal rule in India. After Shivajis death, the Mughals, who had lost significant ground to the Marathas under Shivaji, the war against the Mughals was then led by the Sambhajis younger brother and successor Rajaram Chhatrapati. Upon Rajarams death in 1700, his widow Tarabai took command of Maratha forces, in 1707, upon the death of Aurangzeb, the War of 27 years between the much weakened Mughals and Marathas came to an end. The empire was expanded by many chieftains including Peshwa Bajirao Ballal I and his descendants, the Shindes, Gaekwad, Pawar, Bhonsale of Nagpur, the empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south, to Peshawar in the north, and Bengal in the east. Pune under the Peshwa became the seat with envoys, ambassadors. However, after the Third battle of Panipat in which the Marathas were defeated by Ahmed Shah Abdali, due to the efforts of Mahadji Shinde, it remained a confederacy until the British East India Company defeated Peshwa Bajirao II. Nevertheless, several Maratha states remained as vassals of the British until 1947 when they acceded to the Dominion of India, the Marathas also developed a potent Navy circa 1660s, which at its peak, dominated the territorial waters of the western coast of India from Mumbai to Savantwadi. It would engage in attacking the British, Portuguese, Dutch, the Maratha Navy dominated till around the 1730s, was in a state of decline by the 1770s, and ceased to exist by 1818. Areas that correspond to present day Maharashtra were under direct or indirect British rule, first under the East India company and then under British crown from 1858. Marathi people during this era resided in the Bombay presidency, Berar, Central provinces, Hyderabad state, significant Marathi population also resided in Maratha princely states far from Maharashtra such as Baroda, Gwalior, Indore, and Tanjore. British rule over more than a century saw changes that were seen in all spheres, social, economic. The majority of Marathi people are Hindus, minorities by religion include Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Jews
10.
Deshastha Brahmin
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Deshastha Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and northern area of the state of Karnataka. The word Deshastha derives from the Sanskrit deśa and stha, literally translating to residents of the country. The valleys of the Krishna and the Godavari rivers, and a part of Deccan plateau adjacent to the Sahyadri hills, are termed the Desha – the original home of the Deshastha Brahmins. Over the millennia, the community produced the eighth century Sanskrit scholar Bhavabhuti, the thirteenth century Varkari saint and philosopher Dnyaneshwar, All of the Peshwas during the time of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Sambhajis reign were Deshastha Brahmins. Brahmins constitute four percent of Maharashtras population, and 60 percent of them are Deshastha Brahmins, the Hindu caste system is first mentioned in the ancient Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and the Upanishads. Various sub-classifications of the system exist, many based on the geographical origin of the caste. Deshastha Brahmins fall under the Pancha Dravida Brahmin classification of the Brahmin community in India, other Brahmin sub-castes in the region are Karhade Brahmin, Devrukhe, Konkanastha and Goud Saraswat Brahmin, but these sub-castes only have a regional significance. Goud Saraswat Brahmins fall under the Pancha Gauda Brahmin classification, i. e. North Indian Brahmins, the Vedas are the worlds oldest texts that are still used in worship and they are the oldest literature of India. Four Vedas exist of which the Rig Veda is the oldest and they were handed down from one generation of Brahmins to the next verbally and memorised by each generation. They were written sometime around 400 BC. Other Vedas include the Yajur Veda, the Atharva Veda and the Sama Veda, two different versions of the Yajur Veda exist, the White and the black or. The Shukla Yajur Veda has a two different branches called the Kanva and the Madhyandin, Deshastha Brahmins are further classified in two major sub-sects, the Deshashatha Rigvedi and the Deshastha Yajurvedi, based on the Veda they follow. The Yajurvedis are further classified into two groups called the Madhyandins and the Kanavas, the Madhyandins follow the Madhyandin branch of the Shukla Yajur Veda. The word Madhyandin is a fusion of two words Madhya and din which mean middle and day respectively and they are so called because they perform Sandhya Vandana at noon. Almost without exception, the regional groups of the Madhyandin Brahmins are indistinguishable from the Kshatriya Marathas due to similar physical features. Kannav Brahmins were traditionally located in and around Nasik, and they call themselves Prathamshakhis or followers of the first branch of the White Yajurved, the Madhyandin Yajurvedis arrived in the Nashik district of Maharashtra from Gujarat about 500 years ago. The Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are treated as a separate and distinct caste from the Yajurvedi Madhyandina and Kannavas Brhamins by several authors, including Malhotra, Karve and Wilson. There is a significant Deshashta population in the state of Karnataka, and here and these are the Deshastha Madhwa Brahmins who follow the teachings of Madhvacharya and the Deshastha Smartha Brahmins who follow the teachings of Adi Shankaracharya
