Paper short abstract:

This paper elucidates the process of the Gauḍa Sārasvata Brāhmaṇa caste formation in Goa and Konkan. My paper is based on Marathi language literature published by Hindu elites from Goa during the first half of the twentieth century.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will discuss my preliminary research on the process of the Gauḍa Sārasvata Brāhmaṇa (hereafter GSB) caste formation in the region of Konkan on the west coast of India during the first half of the twentieth century. I will explore the fluid process of GSB caste formation by elucidating how a foundational text, Koṃkaṇākhyāna, made it possible for the men of historically related land-owning, dominant castes to imagine themselves as one cohesive community and then to establish themselves as the GSB caste through the constitutive practice of ritualized co-dining. The GSB caste formation process was happening in the context of institution of the first republic in Portugal, which had opened new opportunities of self-assertion for local elites in Goa. This paper is primarily based on my reading of, Koṃkaṇākhyāna, and other literature published by leading members of local Hindu elites with the manifest intention of fabricating the GSB caste.