Brahmins Who Refused to Beg: BRIEF HISTORY OF BHUMIHARS, AYACHAK BRAHMINS OF EAST INDIA

Bhumihars are a prominent Ayachak brahmin community of East India. Ayachak brahmins gave up priestly duties and took up agriculture for subsistence and bore arms to protect the motherland. Ayachaks have coexisted alongside the traditional priestly Yachak class, within the Brahminical fold across India since time immemorial. Bhumihar brahmin community, though small, has a rich history of both valour and scholarship. Even as the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, were ravaging the north-western flanks of India, a Chanakya was plotting a quiet pushback. When the successors of King Ashoka, smitten by the non-violent ways of Buddhism, were dilly-dallying against the imminent threat of a Greek resurgence, a Pushyamitra Shunga rose to shake the warriors out of their stupor of non-violence and pushed back the Greeks beyond the borders of Bharat forever. When forced to use a rifle cartridge laden with beef starch, against their Hindu beliefs, a Mangal Pandey became the first one to rise in protest and soon a nation followed. The indomitable spirit of the community has inspired and dazzled with their scholarship as well. Ramdhari Singh Dinkars pen, drenched in the patriotic fervour of Veer Rasa, inspired many mutinies against the British. From the venerable Shri Babu, the first chief minister of Bihar in independent India, to Raj Narain, the giant killer who defeated Indira Gandhi, the community has shone in the field of politics and leadership. The community has not shied away from raising its voice against injustice and led reform movements like the abolition of Zamindari and the temple entry movement.