Nodera Brahmin

The Nodera Brahmin also known as Nadora Brahmin are a Brahmin caste found in the state of Gujarat in India.

Origin

The word "Nodera" has its origin in a Gujarati phrase "Na Doraya" which means '(They) weren't distracted'. For this, the story is that, there was a marriage in a Brahmin community. 33 people had gathered for the ceremony. During this ceremony, a ritual wasn't performed correctly and Goddess was dishonoured by the group. The Goddess got furiated and gave a curse. While 24 persons ran away, the remaining 9 persons decided to stay and face the curse. The descendants of these 9 people are called Nodera Brahmins. The descendants of other 24 people being known as Chovisa (Chovis is the Gujarati word for 24).

Clans

The community consists of a number of clans or gotras and tada. The main gotras are the Vachchhas, Vashishta etc. Tada is mainly defined by the geography of descendants. Some of the tadas are RevaKantha (residents of the bank of river Reva popularly known as Narmada), Vadodara etc.

Marital rituals

Nodera Brahmins practice endogamy at the community level and exogamy at the gotra level. A typical ritual AbOUT the Nodera Brahmins during marriage was that the brides couldn't use red Kumkuma due to the aforementioned curse from the goddess. Instead they used ash from the fire. But during the 20th century, the gifted saint Shri Rang Avdhoot Maharaj relieved the community by making them free of the curse. Henceforth, they started using red colour in marriage.