Kudaldeshkar Gaud Brahmins were once natives of a region called 'gaud bengal' in Bengal. Earlier immigrants were called Adi Gaud saraswats / Kudaldeshkar. Tired of the constant peevishness of Muslim rulers and other Avedic activities in this region,this group of Brahmins crossedVindhyachal Parvat and descended into the Sahyadri Parvat in early 7th century BC until 12th BC, and settled in Dakshin Konkan created byParashuram. Legend has it that they were a group of 8,000 clansmen. These folks were hardworking and were interested in agriculture. The then ruling Chalukya king was impressed with them, and granted them portions of land, ranging from Devgad to Phonda. These came to be known as the 14 Agraharas or Bhumikas.Those families fled to northern Kudal desh in Ratnagiri district (Maharashtra) settled down in Lotli, Bardesh, Pedne, Rajapur, Balavali, Malwan, Vengurla etc. where they assimilated the local language and culture. Naturally, with this exodus to distant areas and settling there, these groups lost contacts among themselves which led to estrangement. In course of time, they came to be known by prefixing their new locality names. By the end of 11th century, at least 6 distinct groups came into being and were known by their new locality names prefixing. They are: Sasashtikars, Shenavis, Bardeshkars, Pednekars, Lotlikars and Kudaldeshkars. Gaud saraswats Brahmins who settled in kudal prefer to be called as kudaldeshkars rather than gsbs. Their dynasty was powerful and they ruled for nearly five hundred years independently.These terms, it seems, were used even after so many years in the Kudal region which gave birth to the new sub group known as Kudaldeshkar Gaud Brahmins. The leader of the community was Kalyan Prabhu, whose two sons Suryabhan & Chandrabhan are believed to have expanded the rule of the K D G Bs. This rule went without any problems till 1696, when the Bhosales of Sawantwadi attacked the Kudal region and killed the last ruler named Jogan Prabhu. His nephew Narayan Prabhu ran away to Malwan and the rule of the K D G Bs came to an end in 1697.These 14 Agraharas are as follows: Valavali, Dhamapur,Nerur , Paat, Parule, Mhapan, Khanoli, Ajgaon, Golvan, Kelus, Vetore, Dabholi, Tendoli and Tirvade. History says that these people have exceptional leadership skills, and hence the Kadamba king donated four more Agraharas to a learned priest from the community named Devsharma in 1020 AD. The names of these four Agraharas are as follows: Kochare, Masade, Chendvan and Malgaon. These 18 Agraharas came to be known as Kudal Desh, and hence its patrons were called asKudaldeshkars.
llow Shankaracharya's Advait school of philosophy, and have their own three centuries old Math in Dabholi village in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The first pontiff of the Shreemat Purnanand Swamiji was initiated into Sanyasa byVishwananda Swamiji. The present 20th pontiff of the Math is Pradyumnanand Swamiji.
They worship following deities as their Kuldevtas:
- Shree LakshmiNarayan
- Adinarayan
- Vetoba
- Ravalnath
- Mahadev
- Sateri
- Purushottam
- Bhadrakali
- Devi Mauli,Pat
- Sadyawarchi Mauli
- Taradevi
- Shri Devi Chamundeshvari,Andurle ( Patil lokanchi kuldevata)
- Shri Devi Sateri — Mhapan, Kudal, Vetora of Sindhudurga, Maharashtra.
- Shri Devi Bhagavati (Dhamapur, Sindhudurga)
They abide by all the Shodasha Samskaras and other Brahminical rituals, but are not so orthodox, and are highly educated, cultured, and flexible.
Kudaldeshkars are Brahman Warriors, also called "Brahmakshatriyas". This Brahman Warriors or 'Brahmakshatiyas' cult is unique and very rare within the Hindus. Many of them were Governors (rulers) of the Agraharas (Prabhu Walavalkar, Prabhu Tendolkar, Prabhu Khanolkar,...), administrators of the Agraharas (Desai, Thakur, Samant, Patil, Naik..), a few of them were priests andSanskrit scholars (Mahajan, Pandit,..) plus traders and farmers (Dhond,..). Today Kudaldeshkars are 100 percent educated and most of them are engaged in different white collar jobs and business.
The original language of Kudaldeshkars is Malwani dialect. The Malwani dialects of Konkani (also referred to as a creoles between Konkani and Marathi). Today Malwani is more significantly identified as the principal language of Kudaldeshkars and also of the natives of the Sindhudurg district. There is no special script or text characters for Malwani and it is generally written in Marathi. They also speak Marathi in Maharashtra, and Konkani in Goa, and Karnataka. Malwani is also called Kudali, originally known as Kudwali. Kudwal is the ancient name for Kudal.
Historians say that the period of migration of Kudalkars and the Daivajnas from the northern part of India occurred at the same, and they settled in Goa in the same period. For this reason, members of both the communities speak the same dialect of Konkani in Goa.
Since the community had its base in the Konkan area, food habits are naturally influenced by the sea coast. Naturally, fish was and is the primary ingredient. Various varieties of fish are merrily consumed. Since availability of fish is a seasonal story, even dry fish becomes necessary. Fish is either fired or made into a delicious curry. Almost all of them are deep-sea fish eaters and thus non-vegetarians, but Kudaldeshkars do not consider fish as a non-veg diet. Kudaldeshkars mostly prefer fried, cooked, hot and tasty dishes. Their cuisine is unique, more of humid tropical nature, dominated by fish, rice, spices, kokums, raw mangos, cashew nuts and coconuts. Still, the Malwani diets unique characteristics are well distinguished from Goan food. Kudaldeshkars are not to keen in fruits intake. But the Konkan region is one of the biggest for growing Bananas and Alphanso Mango.