Posted on: 12 January 2014

Painting; Gouache, A South Indian Vaishnava Brahmin and his wife, Tanjore, ca. 1790

One of sixteen paintings of castes and occupations. The backgrounds are all plain with no clouds. The set appears to include drawings by two hands; one group with plain blue backgrounds, the other dull yellow; this one of a South Indian Vaishnava Brahmin and his wife, the man in white, the woman in a red and blue patterned sari; against a blue background.

Copyright: © V&A Images


 View Post on Facebook

Comments from Facebook

Fabio de Bittencourt, olha esse azul!

lindo, pra mim suave e unificador, une os elementos.

This does not seems to be a Vaishnava Brahmin. More likely a Madhwa Brahmin. The thiru naamam and the marks at the temples apapear to be of Madhwa sect. More over the a Vaishnava will have 12 marks (thiru naamam) on his body and not the kind of chakra like marks on this person in the painting. Hope some one can confirm this. :)

Raghunath Venkata Samudrala: You may be right. The description provided by the V&A might not be correct since these distinctions between the sects are subtle.

Madhvas are Vaishnavas though. They are the followers of Sri Madhvacharya.

They are mostly found in Karnataka.

If you visit the south of India today and check out some of the temple towns there, you will find Vaishnavas and Srivaishnavas (with different markings) that wear a very similar attire. The dress habits haven't changed in hundreds of years. And yes, as Sachin Aathreya points out above, Madhva brahmins are also Vaishnava, although perhaps not considered Srivaishnava.

never in history you find two or more number of brahmins agree on one point.and that is why get exploited from others

It looks like a Madhwa Brahmin couple but Mangal sutra is not clear