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Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).Rajpurohit is a community of people living in western Rajasthan, India. They maintain traditions that are similar to both Brahmins and Rajputs. Rajpurohits are considered the oldest brahmins who were associated with the ruling class of a kingdom since ancient ages in India. As a tradition Rajpurohits were not only involved in heading the religious rites and duties but also provide selfless service to the state, they were considered to be guardians of the state. They were as much into mentoring royal house, educating princes, guiding king on the path of dharma, providing advise on the matters of welfare of the state, performing religious duties as they were into helping in maintaining the security of kingdom by being actively involved in battles. Guru Dronacharya and Kripacharya were the Rajpurohits of the ancient kingdom of Hastinapur who participated in the great war of Mahabharata on behalf of the state during fall of the Dvapara Yuga. Present day Rajpurohits also trace this spirit of martial hood from the great Brahmin warrior sage Parashurama. As an example, the Junagarh fort in Bikaner houses memorial of Jagram ji Rajpurohit who died fighting for the cause of the state. As a custom, every wedding in the royal family of Bikaner is incomplete without paying homage to him. Such cenotaphs and headstones of Rajpurohits can be found all over Marwar and Bikaner. Chanakya (c. 350-283 BCE) was an adviser, a prime minister and Rajpurohit to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 BCE), and architect of his rise to power. Along with the other surnames like Dixit, Goswami etc, Purohit/Rajpurohit is also used as a surname among the Brahmins.

References

http://rajpurohitindia.org/history.php http://skbdtirth.org/ http://rajpurohitworld.com/index.php Notes

Aside from being a community, Rajpurohit is synonymous with Rajguru as an ancient term for a type of Brahmin. Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund note that "There is much evidence in ancient texts that there were two ideal types of Brahmins in those days, the royal priest or advisor (rajpurohit, rajguru) and the sage (rishi) who lived in the forest and shared his wisdom only with those who asked for it." Its modern use in this sense has been described by Sumit Sarkar as a "self-conscious archaism".

Citations

Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004) . A History of India (Fourth ed.). Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 9780415329194. Retrieved 25 December 2012.
Sarkar, Sumit (2002). Beyond Nationalist Frames: Postmodernism, Hindutva, History. Indiana University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780253342034. Retrieved 25 December 2012.

References

Further reading