A Kulavruttanta or a Kul-vrttant (;
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...
: Kula-vr̥ttānta; ), is a
genealogical
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
almanac
An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates ...
and
biographical dictionary
A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people o ...
, a format of genealogical
record keeping predominantly found in the Indian state of
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
.
History
Kulavruttantas are categorically published by
family name
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
, or
surname
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
,
and are usually in
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
. They usually document various aspects of that particular family's history, heraldry, the etymology of their name, ancestral land holdings, migration maps, and religious traditions. The genealogical charts are usually sectioned based on each ''gharana'', or branch, of the family; these are then followed by biographies of individuals within those gharanas; and followed finally by indices of births, deaths and marriages within the family.
Kulavruttantas have been historically attributed to the genealogical history of
Chitpavan
The Chitpavan Brahmin or the Kokanastha Brahmin is a Hindu Maharashtrian Brahmin community inhabiting Konkan, the coastal region of the state of Maharashtra. Initially working as messengers and spies in the late seventeenth century, the commu ...
brahmin
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
s.
The
Bhat family, during their rule of the
Maratha confederacy
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent Maratha states under the nominal leadership of the former.
...
, are usually credited for commissioning surveys and censuses of Chitpavan brahmin households, recorded on
paper or cloth scroll
A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Structure
A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...
s. These scrolls are generally used as the references of the historical and genealogical data for the compilation of these almanacs. Beginning with the publication of the Kulavruttanta of the
Apte family in 1915, throughout most of the 20th century, several other Chitpavan families have gone on to commission or publish their own versions. Historian and biographer
Sadashiv Ranade has notably authored several of these.
In the 21st century, Kulavruttants have also been adopted by several other communities as a means of documenting their genealogical data, most notably the
Maratha
The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...
community.
See also
*
List of biographical dictionaries
This is an incomplete list of Biographical dictionary, biographical dictionaries.
International
* ''A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers''
* ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890''
* Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Akyeamp ...
*
Hindu genealogy registers at Haridwar
Genealogy registers of families, maintained by Brahmin Pandits, known locally as ''Pandas'', who work as professional genealogists, at Haridwar in Uttarakhand, India, have been a subject of study for many years.
* ''
Almanach de Gotha
The ''Almanach de Gotha'' () is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published in 1763 by C. W. Ettinger in ...
''
* ''
Burke's Landed Gentry
''Burke's Landed Gentry'' (originally titled ''Burke's Commoners'') is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th cen ...
''
* ''
Debrett's
Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...
Peerage & Baronetage''
* ''
Social Register
The ''Social Register'' is a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes the members of American high society. First published in the 1880s by newspaper columnist Louis Keller, it was later acquired by Malcolm Forbes. Since 2014, ...
''
* ''
Carnet Mondain
The ''Carnet Mondain'' ( English: Social Notebook) of Belgium is a directory featuring high society (nobility and upper bourgeoisie), Belgian or foreign, established in Belgium, as well as members of Belgian families established abroad. It is eq ...
''
* ''
Libro d'Oro
The ''Libro d'Oro'' (''The Golden Book''), originally published between 1315 and 1797, is the formal directory of nobles in the Republic of Venice (including the Ionian Islands). It has been resurrected as the ''Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà It ...
''
References
External links
* at
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulavruttanta
Family history
Genealogy publications
Literature on heraldry
Book series
Books about social history
History books about India
History books about ethnic groups
Books about families