Trikarmi brahmins?

[Robert Zydenbos]

Madhav,

Today I put your query about Trikarmi brahmins before two
traditional colleagues at the Oriental Research Institute here in
Mysore: one a Maadhva, one an Advaitin. While your description of
what the Trikarmis are is a clear enough explanation of the term
(only adhyayana, yajana and daana are permitted to them, and not
the remaining other three, adhyaapana, yaajana and pratigraha, of
the full set of brahmin .sa.tkarmas), neither of these two colleagues
had ever come across the term "trikarmin braahma.na". In this
respect, the "trikarmi brahmin" of course resembles a k.satriya or
vai;sya, which must be the context in the text which you are
reading.

>         Among such Trikarmi brahmins, the text mentions the
> following names:
>         Koppalu (= Koppal in Karnataka?)
>         Caturvi.mzati
>         Sakalatrapuravaasin
>         Zi.syavarga

The word "koppalu" is a Kannada noun meaning "small village",
and it occurs as the final member in many placenames; but it
seems that at least here in Karnataka there is no group of
brahmins of that name. The three other names are also unknown
here.

The colleagues suspect that this concept of trikarmi brahmins is a
recent one, and it resembles the distinction between "vaidika" and
"laukika" brahmins, which is particularly current in northern
Karnataka (i.e., next to Maharashtra, where your text seems to be
from). This distinction too seems to be made only since recent
times. Vaidikas have the right to all the .sa.tkarmas, while laukikas
are limited to the same three as your trikarmis. However, this is a
strictly individual distinction: within one and the same family, one
member may be laukika, another vaidika. Similarly, the Gau.da
Saarasvata brahmins in Karnataka are not exclusively laukika or
vaidika (since they have their own guruma.thas: so not all of them
can be laukika, as the Maharashtrian belief suggests). But the
other Maadhvas in Karnataka consider the GSBs inferior (the
common reason given being that they eat fish and therefore are not
so brahminical as the others).

I hope all this makes sense and helps.

RZ