The Origins of the Niyogi Warrior Brahmanas - Part One.
By Ved Aitharaju
From building and ruling over empires to protect the Telugu land from foreign hordes (Satavahanas) , to creating essential building blocks of grammar and script for Telugu (Tikkanna) to hoisting the Telugu
flag high even as far as Indonesia (Salankayanas), to ushering in economical (PV Narasimha Rao) , political (Prakasam Panthulu) social (Gurazada Apparao) and scientific enlightenment (Yellapragada Subba Rao) to designing the Indian flag (Pingali Venkayya) in the Telugu land.
The footprint of the warrior Niyogi Brahmins is evident in Telugu history. And the need to probe their origins therefore is essential.
The Tale of Origins of Niyogi Brahmins is also the origin of many warrior groups in the Telugu land like the Kammas, Velamas, and the larger stock of Kapus.
The book Medieval Andhra: A Socio-Historical Perspective says “The Niyogi Brahmins become so invincible that without them a ruler/king couldn’t rule, he held the need to take their help for administration." The commonly misunderstood theory of the origins of the
Niyogi Brahmins is proposed by Nori Narasimha Sastry in his writings on Rani Rudrama Devi where he proposes Aaruvela Niyogis (just one branch of Niyogi Brahmins out of the many) are 6000 appointed Brahmins, by Rani Rudrama Devi for administration.
The earliest prominent Niyogi Brahmin in our known history is Tikkanna Somyaji, a poet and a stalwart of ancient Telugu history. He is dated to have lived sometime in the early eleventh century during the golden reign of the Kakatiya dynasty.
This often misconceived theory often stems from the fact that oldest known Niyogi seems to have lived during the Kakatiyan era, thus giving further credence to the theory. But recorded history shows that a good century before Rani Rudrama Devi was even born.
Niyogi Brahmins were well known. Frykenberg in his work: The Administration of Guntur District says “Brahmans claim to have slowly displaced Arava and Jain Karnams. The strongest Brahman group was the Niyogi, A Gajapati minister "in the Condaveedoo Seema,"
was so abused by Arava Karnams that — in about the year 1144 — he established the legendary Aruvelu Hiyogilu ("6000 Niyogis") as Karnams in the Telinga country "for as long as the sun and the moon endure,"’
With this evidence, we can rationally conclude that Niyogis have known to exist as a formidable group much before the advent of Kakatiyas. In fact, Kakatiyas (who aren’t Brahmins themselves) did push Niyogi power against Buddhists,
but by then Niyogis were already known as a formidable group. From this evidence given above, we can ascertain that since the year 1144, Niyogis were an administrative and political caste of Brahmins. But their origins, if probed goes further earlier.
The Satavahanas, as asserted in their Nashik inscription describe themselves as Brahmins. With the Satakarni’s mother calling him as “ekbrahmana” and “chandabrahmana”, going on to describe him as the one who attacked the arrogance of the Kshatriyas.
Kota Venkatachalam’s book “Agnivanshapu Kshatriyas and Niyogi Brahmana Prabhavulu” connects the Satavahanas (and their feudatories and later on successors Salankayanas who ruled from Eluru to Indonesia were also Niyogi Brahmanas) to the Agnivansha Kings and the Agni Kunda story
that took place in Rajastan, the same origin story shared by Kapus, Kammas and even Rajputs in Northern India. Not just the Satavahanas, it is also worth mentioning that Pallavas regarded as feudatories and successors of the Satavahanas by KA Nilekanta Sastri themselves trace
their origin as that of Agnikundam Brahmins. According to historian Mahamopadyaya Haraprasada Sastry, “The Pallavas trace their ancestry from Aswathama, the son of Drona, the general of the kurus, some trace descent from the Sacrifical fire such as Paramaras….”
Not just Niyogi Brahmins, whose connections to Telugu warrior Brahmins Satavahanas, Salankayanas, and Pallavas all of whom claim a connection to the Agnikundam story and the agni worshipping warrior clans known as Agnivansha Kshatriyas
Brahmins are barred from taking arms, the only Brahmin group in the Telugu land to take up arms and fight and build empires were the Niyogis in the form of Satavahanas, Salakayanas, and Pallavas. But the story of Agnikunda story, a simply story of a rishi or set of Brahmanas
(the name of those who performed the yajna change in veersions but the place remains as Mount Abu in Rajasthan) performing a fire ritual for a new breed of warriors to fight against foreigners, resulting in warriors springing up from the fire sacrificial pit and eventually
resulting in the Brahmanas who performed the sacrifice to also pick up weapons and fight alongside the warriors that sprang up from the fire pit against foreign invaders. This story is also shared by two groups in the Telugu land.
According to the book Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics by Alf Hitebeitel
Balijas/Kapu clans have stated they have sprung up from fire pits, and served Pallavas down South as agnivansha warriors. Suggesting a clear power alliance between Warrior Brahmanas
and their armies of Agnivansha warrior Kshatriya fighters.
The Kammas, according to Edgar Thurston and FR Hemingway have a close connection to the Kapus and Velamas of the Telugu country, with multiple theories like the Palanadu Battle and regional migrations being cited as
one of the many factors for the eventual spilt between these castes. Certain Kamma elders when asked by FR Hemingway went on to say in recorded works, that their ancestors were Kshatriyas from Northern India, who were persecuted by a king of the family of Parkshit after one of
their own called the king a bastard in a feud. They eventually migrated to the Andhra country and married the Kapus and adopted their customs. . Nevertheless, the connection of this tale to Parkshit is interesting, as Rajputs who themselves claim their origins to be from the
Agnikunda story also state they were part of the family of Parkshit, but after a fallout got divided from the mainstream Kshatriya clans. The fallout part in the tale is continued in the case of the origins of Kammas too. Who may have been a later band of Agnikunda story
Agnikunda story related warrior groups who migrated to the Andhra country, a tad bit later than the agnikunda related Kapu warrior clan and married with them. Eventually splitting up later.
The myth of Agnikundam is repeated in multiple versions, be it the Rajput one, the Telugu one, or even an earlier version in the Mahabharata where after Brahmana Vashista’s cow is stolen by Kshatriyas, Vashista creates an army of neo Kshatriyas to counter them and walks into
battle with them. Convincing Viswamitra, a Kshatriya to become a Brahmin himself. To Rajput’s tale that after Parashurama’s annihilation of mainstream Kshatriya clans, a neo class of Kshatriyas consisting of Kshatriyas who had a fallout with anti Brahmin Kshatriyas
and sided with warrior Brahmanas. Another common feature of these Agnikunda related warrior clans like the Prathiharas( who were neo Kshatriyas and not Brahmins) even in recent times, is their extreme hatred for anything anti Brahminical.
From multiple myths we can assert that every agnikunda myth suggests rationalistically that warrior Brahmins having a power struggle with Kshatriyas who patronised Buddhism and foreign Greek and Hun invaders, created a neo class of Kshatriyas consisting of Kshatriyas with pro
Brahmin leanings and non-Kshatriyas and fought alongside with them and later on, a various groups related to this power dynamic migrated across India. The Niyogi Brahmanas, being the warrior group of Brahmins who later on went to establish empires in the Telugu land like the
Satavahanas, Salakayanas, Pallavas with the help of Kapu and Kamma warriors.
In later Telugu history, we see Kakatiyas (who used various titles like Nayaka and Reddi and had Kapu origins) promoting Niyogis against any anti- Hindu/anti Brahminical power. Frykenberg states “The last Kakatiya king of Warangal is reported to have crushed Jains in oil mills
and the Reddi kings of Kondavidu also dealt harshly with non-Hindu groups. Not until Vijayangara power extended across in the peninsula in the early 16th century did Niyogis reach their greatest power.”
But what were the historical reasons for Niyogi Brahmanas to pick up arms and fight against foreigners, and Buddhism and Kshatriyas who backed foreigners?
What was the reason for these various clans of Neo Kshatriyas to violently risk their lives and back the struggle of Niyogis against foreigners?
This and the later political, social and cultural history of the Niyogi Brahmins post the Satavahana age till the days of Independence will be covered in the next part of these series of articles on Niyogis. Also will be covered the various subsects of Niyogis and their history
References:
You can follow @VedAitharaju.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: