Jujhautiya Brahmin

The Jujhautiya Brahmin are an endogamous Brahmin community found the Chambal and Yamuna river valleys in the north, and the Narbada valley in the south. Chhatarpur District in Madhya Pradesh is the centra and cultural focus of this community. They are a sub-group of the Kanyakubja Brahmins. They are one of the more important communities in Bundelkhand.

According to the community's traditions, they acquired the name Jujhautiya, when a group of Kanyakubja Brahmins performed a yajna for Jujhar Singh, the Bundela Rajah. Other traditions point to the fact that Bundelkhand was known as Jujhauti, and Jujhautia simply means the Brahmins of Jujhauti in Sanskrit. In Uttar Pradesh, they are found mainly in the districts Hamirpur and Banda.

The practice endogamy and clan exogamy, like most Brahmin castes. Their clans are known as pata, are placed into two groupings, Teen Ghars, consisting of the Tiwari, Chanke and Pande, and the Tera Ghar consisting of the Rawat, Richhariya, Misra, Pathak, Patairiya, Bhandairiya, Vajpai, Chaube, Nayak, Arajariya, Sullera, Dikhsit and the Tiwari of Aijhi.

The Jujhautiya were at one time substantial landowners, and zamindars of the estates of Gawrihar, Paldes, Navagaon, Bhesaunda, and Chaubepur Pahra.