Vishwakarma Manu Maya is a Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 caste in India.

History

• Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins belong to suthar
  Suthar
  The Suthar or Sutar is a Hindu caste within the Vishwakarma community of India. They are also found in the province of Sindh in Pakistan . They are also known as Mistry in Saurashtra.-The Origin :...
  
   which is also known as Viswakarma Brahmans. Viswakarma created "Sathyaloka" for Brahma
  Brahma
  Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
  
  , "Vykuntha" for Vishnu, "swarna lanka" for Shiva, "Swarga" for Indra, "Alakapuri" for Kubera, "Dwaraka" for Krishna likewise so many creations. Viswakarma degraded Surya's rays and then made "sudarshana chakra" for Vishnu, "Thrishul" for shiva, "Vajrayudha" for Indra and "Axe" for Kalika.

They were also called as ‘Shivabrahman’. ‘Saiyadri Khanda’ of ‘Scanda Puran’ says that artist of ancient Goa is called as ‘Shaivagayatri Brahmans’. Those Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins who fled Goa during Portuguese time to prevent them being converted to Christianity & settled in Solapur district are still known as ‘Shiva Brahma Sutar’. Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins have their origin from Manu and Maya two of the sons of Lord Vishwakarma, the Divine Architect and craftsman in ancient India. In ancient India Panchal

Panchal

Panchal is an Indian title, in tune with the Hindu caste system, that represents some of the castes that are predominant in the Indian state of Gujarat that are either agriculturalists or blacksmiths.-Ethnicity:...

 were called as ‘Missionary of civilization, culture and religion’ since Panchal spread Vedic religion in other part of world.

Position in Goa

• Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins, popularly known as Chari is a community of artisans in the Indian state of Goa.

They are the traditional Hindu carpenter in Goa.The Chari is corrupt form of the word Acharya

Acharya

In Indian religions and society, an acharya is a guide or instructor in religious matters; founder, or leader of a sect; or a highly learned man or a title affixed to the names of learned men...

  which means the teacher of religion. Surname Acharya is still present in Chari in some part of south India. Those Chari who has left Goa long ago has a surname as Charya .So in short Chari derived from Acharya -Charya- Chari. Since Portuguese have ruled Goa for 450 years, the surname Chari is only present in Goa. They are also referred as ‘Sutar’ which has derived from Sanskrit word ‘Sutradhar’ which means the designer in Ancient India. Sometimes they are referred as ‘mest’ or ‘thavoi’
which means carpenter & stapathi respectively. Those who were good artist were called as ‘Fishal’. For some Chari Portuguese gave surname as Zo which means artist.

• Since Chari are traditional carpenters of Goa their main occupation is carpentry. They do smithery also. In fact, they are master in most of the technical work; so they are also referred as a borne engineers. Afonso de Albuquerque
  Afonso de Albuquerque
  Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
  
  , the first Portuguese governor general of Goa has referred in one of his letters that guns manufactured by the blacksmith (Chari) in Goa are better than those made in Germany. A century later the Viceroy D.Jeronymo dl Azevedo banned the manufacture of guns in village of Cuncoli or anywhere in Salcete under penalty of four years in the galleys and even hanging. In Goa they played an important role in history. There were also many temples in Goa. Portuguese destroyed more than thousands of temples, out of which some had marvelous beauty. Chari being an artist most of the temples were done by them. So in goan society they had much importance. They have been given rights in many of temples of Goa as sevekari. Without Chari many of rituals performed in temples cannot complete.

Vishwakarma means Sons of Lion

Religion

They worship Vishwakarma since they have descended from him.their main community deity is ‘Shree Ragunath (Ram)’ of Gimoney. This temple has history of more than 500 years. It was destroyed by Moghal aggression in 16 century but Chari reconstructed it. They have Shree Ram’s temples at Mayade and Vasco. Also the main goddess to whom every Vishwakarma people worships is Kalika. Her temple is situated at Merces known as Morambo in ancient times. She is called Kalamba which is corrupt form of Kalika Amba. It has history around 1,500 years old. It was a main deity of Lohamath, which was Chari’s Gurupith. During the Portuguese times it was destroyed by them . later in nineteenth century it was again set up by Swamy Ramchandra Puna Charya who had taken diksha from swamy of Lohamath Swamy Padmanabhachary, &with his guidance he reinstall the temple. Along with goddess Kalamba he set up Siddeshwar.

Lohamath guru Parampara

Lohamath was established on Shalivahan Shake 700 ( 778 AD) Khar naam Samvatsar Magha shudha 15 at Majale, near Goa Karnataka border.First pontiff of this math was Swamy Virupaksha after whom the linage was preceded by 67 Gurus.The last Pontiff Kanakacharya, was disciple of Swami Padmanabhachary. After him the Guru parampara of Lohamath stopped due to some reason. Though this math parampara stopped, but this math represented Chari or Konkani speaking Vishwakarmas for more than 1,000 years.
Guru Parampara of this math is

• 1)Virupaksha Swami(778AD)
• 2)Mangalanath Swami
• 3)Chandanath Swami
• 4)Jathanath Swami
• 5)Kasturinath Swami
• 6)Pathnath Swami
• 7)Kurmanath Swami
• 8)Dhananath Swami
• 9)Mandarnath Swami
• 10)Martandanath Swami
• 11)Champakinath Swami
• 12)Kaivalynath Swami
• 13)Maharmanath Swami
• 14)Mahagayanath Swami
• 15)Suryakshanath Swami
• 16)Nagarakshanath Swami
• 17)Sakaltirthanath Swami
• 18)Durvakshanath Swami
• 19)Jwalanath Swami
• 20)Gadadharnath Swami
• 21)Gangagitanath Swami
• 22)Mayanath Swami
• 23)Mahamayanath Swami
• 24)Nityanandanath Swami
• 25)Shantanath Swami
• 26)Vishwanath Swami
• 27)Kamananath Swami
• 28)Umanath Swami
• 29)Shreepalnath Swami
• 30)Chumbakanath Swami
• 31)Mahalakshminath Swami
• 32)Vidhyanath Swami
• 33)Kanaknath Swami
• 34)Antarikshanath Swami
• 35)Sidhanath Swami
• 36)Shardanath Swami
• 37)Anantanath Swami
• 38)Ullakanath Swami
• 39)Trailokyanath Swami
• 40)Bhimanath Swami
• 41)Naganath Swami
• 42)Mallikanath Swami
• 43)Prachandanath Swami
• 44)Anaghanath Swami
• 45)Anabhinath Swami
• 46)Nandininath Swami
• 47)Sundarnath Swami
• 48)Vishveshwarnath Swami
• 49)Damarnath Swami
• 50)Kalanath Swami
• 51)Abhayanath Swami
• 52)Vikarnath Swami
• 53)Mahavikarnath Swami
• 54)Sugalnath Swami
• 55)Mahatanunath Swami
• 56)Sharvarinath Swami
• 57)Viyomnath Swami
• 58Niyomanandanath Swami
• 59)Ramanath Swami
• 60)Anantanath Swami
• 61)Kanaknath Swami
• 62)Anantanath Swami
• 63)Kanaknath Swami
• 64)Padmanabh Swami
• 65)Virupaksha Swami
• 66)Padmanabha Swami
• 67)Kanakacharya Swami(1898AD)

(Names of Swamis were reachered & edited by Vivek Chari, mob no. 9158970181)

Families in Chari

Though the surname ‘Chari’ is used by every Chari, but still they can be differentiated based on their village where their Kuladevata has her temple. Some Chari families are as below.

Village	Kuladevata	Family
Mandre	Kuladevta Panchayatan,Bhagvati Sapteshwar Ravalnath	Mandrekar
Palli	Ravalnath Ravalghadi	Nasnodkar, Toraskar
Ajgaon	Vetoba	Ajgaonkar
Veling	Vetal	Velingkar
Parule,Vengurle	Vetoba, Ravalnath,Varati	Parulekar
Pinguli	BhavaniShankar	Shivolkar
Pedne	rampurush Panchayatan,Bhagvati,Ravalnath	Pednekar
Parse	rampurush Mahalakshami Bhagawati Ravalnath	Parsekar
Narve	Saptakoteshwar	Narvekar
Kurdi		Kurdikar
Madkai	Nav Durga	Madkaikar
Dhargal	rampurush mauli	Dhargalkar
Morji	Morjai	Morajkar
Mashel		Mashelkar
Satarde	Ravalnath	Satardekar
Korgao	Kashikalayan kulaswami, Kamleshwar	Korgaokar
Shiroda		Shirodkar
Poriem	Bhumika	Paryekar
Kudase	Sateri, Ravalnath	Kudaskar
Bori	Navadurga	Borkar
Mardhol,Phonda	Mahalasa Narayani	Vernekar
Bandevade	Nagesh	Bandodkar
Khandepar		Khandeparkar
Banda	Bandeshwar	Bandekar
Mulgao, Marshall	Laksmi Ravalanath	Charodi, Mesta, Achar
Quepem	Chandra Mouleshwar	Charodi, Mesta, Achar
Khandola	Shree Bhagwati Rampurush	Haldankar		Mashel	Shree Lakshmi Ravalnath, Devaki Krishn	Chodankar,Chari

Some surnames in Vishwakarma Manu Maya Brahmins

• Acharya
• Chari
• Charya
• Zo
• Mistri
• Sutar
• Panchal
• Achari
• Mest
• Thavi
• Gohil
• Charodi
• Mesta
• Achar

Notable Vishwakarma Individuals

• Swamy Virupaksha (First Swamy of Lohamath set up 778 AD, situated at Goa Karnataka border).
• Swamy Ramchandra Puna Charya Paryekar (Desciple of Lohamath Acharya who reinstall the temple of Kalamba at Merces).
• Late shree Pandit Prabhakar Chari Borkar (Tabala)
• Shree Somanathbuvo Chari (Vocalist)
• Shree Madhusudhan Chari (Vocalist)
• Shree Ravindra Prahabhakar Chari Borkar (sitar)
• Smt. Seema Shirodkar (harmonium)
• Shree Purnananda Chari (Konkani writer poet)
• Late Shree Vaman Zo Satardekar (artist famous for ivory carving)

Further reading

• Roberts, A.E. (1909). Visvakarma and his descendants. Calcutta: All-India Vishvakarma Brahman Mahasabha.
• Dr.Gnanananda, G. (Ed.) (1981). Sri Visvakarmayaya bhushanam (Kannada) original by K.P. Dixit (1878). KGF: Jnana Bhandara.Kashyapa Shilpa Shastram,Brahmeeya Chitra Karma Shastram.
• Sharma, A.S. (1989). Visvakarma Smaj ka sankshipt itihas (short history of Vishvakarma Society). New Delhi: Visvakarma Institute of Research and Education.
• Rathkaradhikaranam, Jaimini’sbook on Rathakara Brahmins- original Sanskrit text by His holy Sri Kanuparti Basavcharya Swami & English translation &pub. By Dr. Pedapaty Nageshwar Rao,Hydrabad A.P.
• Nagar khandam in Scanda puran
• Vishwabrahmakulotsaha i.e. History of Vishwabrahmins by Sri Balashastri Kshirsagar, Pune