Suryadwij Brahmins

Name of community: Suryadwij Brahmins

Earlier known as Mag Dwij or simply Mag Brahmins. “Mag” is another name of Surya Narayana.

Gotra: Mihir

Gotra of all Suryadwij Brahmins is Mihir which is an ancient Sanskrit name for Surya Narayana. This is because we all are descendants of a single son of Surya Narayana and his wife Nikshubha Devi (another name for Chhaya Devi). The name of that son was Jarashabda Rishi. As he was a descendent of Vashishttha Muni, he was also called Vaashishtthya.

10 sons of Jarashabda Rishi were brought to India by Samb Maharaj (son of Shri Krishna and Jaambavati) and from those 10, our 10 अल्ल् or subgroups originated such as Soral, Lakhi, Binju, Kanchan Kaval, Dakshine, Lui, and others. They had settled in Multan and Mathura.

Pravar: Kaushik, Kushik, Kesh, Kaashya, Kaashyapeya

Pravar is the name of our some great Mantra drishta (seers) ancestors (those Rishis who ‘saw’ of Veda mantras with their inner vision). We have five such ancestors.

Sutra:  Kaatyaayan

Sutra is the code of conduct for Yagya (fire ritual) and गृहस्थाश्रम (Life as a householder) which our ancestors followed. This means that our ancestors followed the code of conduct given by Kaatyayan Rishi.

Ved Shakha: Maadhyandini Shakha (branch) of Shukla Yajurveda

Following the war of Mahabharata, a great drought or famine occurred in Bharat, which continued for 14 years. It became impossible for Brahmins to memorize all the Vedangas along with other Vedic Vaangmay.

During that time, Maharishi Baadrayan Vyas divided the vast Vedic Vaangmay into four Vedas with Samhita,  Brahman, Aryanyak, and Upanishad, along with their four Upavedas, 18 Puranas with their Upapuranas and Itihas.

Then he wrote the Vedanta Sutra and finally, the Srimad Bhagawatam. But in spite of this, Brahmins were still unable to memorize even a single Veda in its entirety. So he divided the four Vedas into several Shakhas or branches.

Each Shakha had a different manner of recitation and a somewhat different set of Mantra Samhita. There were 1131 such Shakhas. Out of these, 1131 shakhas or branches of Veda, our ancestors opted for the Maadhyandini Shakha of the Shukla Yajurveda.

Of these 1131 Shakhas, only 11 are present. We are lucky that our Veda Shakha is one of them.

Abhivaadaye Mantra: चतु: सागर पर्यंतं गो ब्राह्मणेभ्यो शुभं भवति।

 कौशिक,कुशिक,केश,काश्य,काश्यपेय पंचर्षेय प्रवरान्वितो, मिहिर गोत्रोत्पन्नो कात्यायन सूत्र‌: शुक्ल यजुर्वेदान्तर्गत माध्यन्दिनी शाखाध्यायी “प्रत्युष महर्षि” शर्मा,

अहं भो अभिवादये। – Brahma Parva of Bhavishya PuranaDuring ancient days whenever Brahmins met, they used to greet each other with the Abhivaadaye Mantra. The mantra given above is the same for all of us. You just have to put YOUR name in this mantra in place of “Pratyush Meherishi”.

————————————————————————————

Suryadwij Brahmins , known as Agnijatiya Mag-dvij in ancient days are now a small community belonging to Shakdwipi Brahmin caste. Brought to India nearly 5000 years ago by Samb maharaj, son of Jambavati and Krishna as priests of his Surya mandir at Mitra van (now Multan), it’s members once ruled the city of Multan and it’s environs.

The community flourished mainly in western India being priests of other suntemples gifted to them by Samb maharaj at Mathura, kalpi , surajkund near Delhi etc. Being at frontier province the community was first to face Direct foreign invasions right from the invasions of Alexander to brutal islamic onslaught.

Our ancestors have faced massacres, saw the destruction of their shrines, lost the city they once ruled but proudly held their spiritual beliefs and values. Several things, rituals, properties got lost with time and now we “the Vaashishthya Brahmins of Mihir gotra”, descendants of Nikshubha and Surya Narayan are once again all set to march forward towards the age old glorious times.