​Historian Views and Research on Bhumihars

The following historians and researchers have offered their opinions on Bhumihars.

C.A. Bayly

British Historian C.A. Bayly in page no. 207 of his book, "Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire" Part 2, Volume 1, published by the "Cambridge University Press" United Kingdom, describes the Bhumihars.

preview of the book.

He writes, Bhumihar Brahmin - 'landholding' brahmin caste which had adopted the agrarian life style of the Rajput (q.v.); common in the Benares region.

Audrey Truschke

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Historian Audrey Truschke, who specializes in South Asian History, in her book Truschke, A. (2025). India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent. United States: Princeton University Press, terms the Bhumihars as Brahmins.

She writes in the page no. 320 of her book

In the early to mid-eighteenth century, new rulers emerged in Benares. Regionally, it became part of Awadh, whose Nawabs broke away from the Mughals in the 1720s. Locally, the Brahmin Bhumihar family seized control in the 1730s, becoming Benares zamindars.

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple writes about the Bhumihars in his book Dalrymple, W. (2004). The Age of Kali: Indian Travels & Encounters. India: Penguin Books Limited.

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He describes the Bhumihars as Brahmins who had converted to Buddhism during the reign of Emperor Ashoka and were denied readmittance into the Priestly class once Hindu revival happened. They were still high-caste but lost place from the top of the caste pyramid.

Bhumihar: Brahmins who had converted to Buddhism at the time of the Emperor Ashoka, around 300 BC, and who had then been denied readmittance to the priestly caste when Indian Buddhism was wiped out by an aggressive Hindu revival a thousand years later, Bhumihars were still high-caste, but they had never quite regained the top place in the caste pyramid they had lost 250 years before the Romans first arrived in Britain.

Jeremy Black

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Infantry. A Global History by Jeremy Black, Published in 2025, by Pen & Sword Military, first published in Great Britain. ISBN 978 1 39905 047 0

In page 55-56 he wtites.

Many Brahmins of north India took to agriculture and joined the army as infantry. They lost their status as Brahmins and became Bhumihars (below Brahmins but above Rajputs).