Aradhya caste is surname of many people in southern India. Aradhya caste meaning is For the following note I am indebted to Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao. The Aradhyas are a sect of Brahmans found mainly in the four northern districts of the Madras Presidency, and to a smaller extent in the [51]Cuddapah and Kurnool districts. A few are also found in the Mysore State. They differ in almost every important respect from other Brahmans. Basava, the founder of the Lingayat religion, was born in a family of Brahmans, who, with others round about them, were apparently the first converts to his religion. According to Mr. C. P. Brown,22 they were in all probability his personal friends; he persuaded them to lay aside their name, and call themselves Aradhya or Reverend. They revere the four Aradhyas, visionary personages of the Lingayat creed, of whom very little is known. At all social and religious functions, birth, marriage, initiation and funerals, four vases of water are solemnly placed in their name, and then invoked to preside over them. Their names are Revanaradhya, Marularadhya, Ekoramaradhya, and Panditaradhya. In four ages, it is said, these four successively appeared as precursors of the divine Basava, and were, like Basava, Brahmans. A Purana, known as the Panditaradhya Charitra, is named after the last of these. Versions thereof are found both in Canarese and Telugu. A Sanskrit poem, called Siddhanta Sikhamani, represents Revanaradhya as a human manifestation of one of the ministers of Siva.
As might be expected, the members of this sect are staunch Saivites. They wear both the Brahminical sacred thread, and the linga suspended from another thread. They revere in particular Ganapathi. The lingam which they wear they usually call the prana lingam, or life lingam. The moment a child, male or female, is born, it is invested with the lingam; otherwise it is not considered to have pranam or life. The popular belief is that, if by some accident the lingam is lost, a man must either fast [52]until he recovers it, or not survive so dire a calamity. This is a fixed dogma with them. A man who loses his prana linga stands up to his neck in water, and repeats mantrams (sacred formulæ) for days together; and, on the last day, the lost lingam comes back to him miraculously, if he has been really orthodox in his life. If he does not succeed in recovering it, he must starve and die. The theory is that the lingam is the life of the man who wears it, and, when it is lost beyond recovery, he loses his own life. Incredible stories of miraculous recoveries of the lingam are told. In one case, it is said to have returned to its owner, making a loud noise in water; and in another it was found in a box under lock and key. In this connection, the following story is narrated by Colonel Wilks.23 Poornia, the present minister of Mysore, relates an incident of a Lingayat friend of his, who had unhappily lost his portable God, and came to take a last farewell. The Indians, like more enlightened nations, readily laugh at the absurdities of every sect but their own, and Poornia gave him better counsel. It is a part of the ceremonial preceding the sacrifice of the individual that the principal persons of the sect should assemble on the bank of some holy stream, and, placing in a basket the lingam images of the whole assembly, purify them in the sacred waters. The destined victim in conformity to the advice of his friend, suddenly seized the basket, and overturned its contents into the rapid Caveri. Now, my friends, said he, we are on equal terms; let us prepare to die together. The discussion terminated according to expectation. The whole party took an oath of inviolable secrecy, and each privately provided himself with a new image of the lingam.
Aradhya Brahman.
Aradhya Brahman.
[53]
Aradhyas, as has been indicated, differ from other Brahmans in general in some of their customs. Before they partake of food, they make an offering of it to the lingam which they are wearing. As they cannot eat without making this offering, they have the entire meal served up at the commencement thereof. They offer the whole to the lingam, and then begin to eat. They do not accept offerings distributed in temples as other Brahmans do, because they have already been offered to the God, and cannot therefore be offered again to the lingam. Unlike other Lingayats, Aradhyas believe in the Vedas, to which they give allegorical interpretations. They are fond of reading Sanskrit, and a few have been well-known Telugu poets. Thus, Palapuri Somanatha, who lived in the fourteenth century A.D, composed the Basava Purana and the Panditaradhya Charitra, and the brothers Piduparthi Somanatha and the Basavakavi, who lived in the sixteenth century, composed other religious works.
Aradhyas marry among themselves, and occasionally take girls in marriage from certain of the Niyogi sub-divisions of the Northern Circars. This would seem to show that they were themselves Niyogis, prior to their conversion. They do not intermarry with Aruvelu Niyogis. Unlike other Brahmans, they bury their dead in a sitting posture. They observe death pollution for ten days, and perform the ekodishta and other Brahminical ceremonies for their progenitors. They perform annually, not the Brahminical sradha, but the aradhana. In the latter, there is no apasavyam (wearing the sacred thread from right to left), and no use of gingelly seeds and dharba grass. Nor is there homam (raising the sacrificial fire), parvanam (offering of rice-balls), or oblation of water. Widows do not have their heads shaved.[54]
The title of the Aradhyas is always Aradhya.
Aradhya caste is one of the many castes subcastes of India.
India has thousands of castes and subcastes, they are in existence and practice since the Vedic times. They were created to solve the problem of division of labor. Aradhya caste name could indicate the type of work people belonging to the Aradhya caste do or did in earlier times. Many last names in India indicate the place the person originally belongs to. All castes sub castes are primarily divided into 4 categories:
1.Brahmins – The learned or priestly class
2.Khastriyas – The warrior class or those with governing functions
3.Vaishyas – The trader, agriculturalists or cattle rearers class
4.Shudra – The class that serves other three categories
Aradhya caste belongs to one of the above 4 categories. Indian caste system is the best system to solve the problem of division of labor. In earlier times there was no rigidity in caste system. Indian caste system is still the best solution for the problem of division of labor, the only change that is needed as per changed times is that rather than having a vertical hierarchical system with Brahmins on top and Shudras at bottom, it would be good to have a horizontal socialist system with Brahmins, Khastriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras all at same level.
The caste system of India is in ruins at present. It is also cause of bloody quarrels in certain parts of the rural India. People of backward castes have reservations in government jobs, this facility is widely misused in India. Many of the backward caste people have become rich and still use the facility for their benefit. Many in India believe reservation in jobs should be given on the basis of poverty rather than caste because there are many poors in upper castes as well.
Many criticize the Indian caste system because of bad material condition of lower castes but if they observe in an unbiased way they would find that there are many in upper castes with bad material conditions. The problem lies in power not in castes, power can corrupt anyone be it from upper caste or lower caste.
All cultures, all countries, all religions have caste system in one form or the other. Christians have different churches depending on the region or language or skin color of people. Muslims have a priestly class that tries to control everything. Arab Muslims before the oil boom were so much divided among tribes that if you drank water from a well of a different tribe you could be shot dead. Tribal divisions still exists among Muslims. You can also see the caste system in a different form in your corporate companies. I had seen different food and drinking facilities for people at different levels.
Aradhya caste is also known as Aradhya Gotra.
Caste situation is quiet different in urban India, people in urban areas especially youngsters don?t bother about castes. Inter caste, inter religious, inter lingual marriages are quiet common in urban India. Inter caste, inter religious and inter lingual marriages in rural areas attract severe criticism and many times people are expelled from community for not marrying as per religious and caste rules.