Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentrated in the states of Telangana  , Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh  Historian Pran Nath Chopra and journalist Pritish Nandy say, "Most of the well-known saints from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were Deshastha Brahmins". The mother tongue of Deshastha Brahmins is either Marathi, Kannada or Telugu.

Over the millennia, the Deshastha community has produced Mathematicians such as Bhāskara II, Sanskrit scholars such as Bhavabhuti; Bhakti saints such as Dnyaneshwar, Sripadaraja, Eknath, Purandara Dasa, Samarth Ramdas and Vijaya Dasa; Logicians such as Jayatirtha and Vyasatirtha.

The traditional occupation of Deshastha Brahmins is priesthood and the Kulkarni Vatan (village accountants). They also pursued secular professions such as writers, accountants, moneylenders and also practised agriculture. In historic times a large number of Deshasthas held many prominent positions such as Peshwa, Diwan, Deshpande (district accountants), Deshmukh, Patil, Gadkari, and Desai. Authors Vora and Glushkova state that "Deshastha Brahmins have occupied a core place in Maharashtrian politics, society and culture from almost the beginning of the Maharashtra's recorded history. Occupying high offices in the state and even other offices at various levels of administration, they were recipients of state honours and more importantly, land grants of various types."

Etymology
The word Deshastha derives from the Sanskrit deśa (inland, country) and stha (resident), literally translating to "residents of the country". The valleys of the Krishna and the Godavari rivers, and a part of Deccan plateau adjacent to the Western Ghats, are collectively termed the Desha – the original home of the Deshastha Brahmins.

In Tamil Nadu, Deshastha Brahmins are also referred as Rayar Brahmins. The word Rayar means king in South India.

Classification

Deshastha Brahmins fall under the Pancha Dravida Brahmin classification of the Brahmin community in India. Along with the Karhade and Konkanastha Brahmins, the Marathi-speaking Deshastha Brahmins are referred to as Maharashtrian Brahmins, which denotes those Brahmin subcastes of the Deccan Plateau which have a regional significance in Maharashtra, while the Kannada-speaking Deshastha Brahmins from the Deccan Plateau region of Karnataka are referred to as Karnataka Brahmins or Carnatic Brahmins.

Based on Veda
Deshastha Brahmins are further classified in two major sub-sects, the Deshastha Rigvedi and the Deshastha Yajurvedi, who earlier used to inter-dine but not inter-marry but now intermarriages between the two sub-groups is common. These sub-sects are based on the Veda they follow.

Rigveda
The Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins (DRB) are followers of Rigveda and follow Rigvedic rituals. Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are followers of Ashvalayana sutra and Shakala Shakha of Rigveda. Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are the most ancient sub-caste among Deshasthas and are found throughout the Deccan. According to Iravati Karve, Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are found in western and central Deccan along the banks of the Godavari and the Krishna rivers and are spread deep into Karnataka. Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are endogomous group which include families from difference linguistic regions. Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins include some families that speak Marathi and some speak Kannada, majority of marriages happen within the families of same language but the marriages between Marathi and Kannada speaking families do happen often. Marriage alliance between Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins, Telugu Brahmins and Karnataka Brahmins also takes place quite frequently.

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins are treated as a separate and distinct caste from the Deshastha Yajurvedi Madhyandina and Deshastha Kannavas Brahmins by several authors, including Malhotra and Iravati Karve.

Yajurveda
The Deshastha Yajurvedi Brahmins are followers of Yajurveda and follow Yajurvedic rituals. They are further classified into two groups called the Madhyandins and the Kanavas. The Madhyandinas follow the Madhyandina Shakha of the Shukla Yajurveda. The word Madhyandina is a fusion of two words Madhya and dina which mean middle and day respectively. Ghurye says Madhyandhina is the name of the person, a pupil of Yajnavalkya, the founder of Shukla-Yajurveda and followers of Madhyandhina are known by this name. The other meanings of the name are they are so-called because they perform Sandhya Vandana at noon or it also means these Brahmins are supposed to attain Brahmin-hood only after mid-day. Ghurye says apparently the name 'Madhyandhina' was misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted by the southern Brahmins. Some Yajurvedi Deshasthas follow the 'Apastamba' subdivision of Krishna Yajurveda. Recently, the Yajurvedi Madhyandin and Yajurvedi Kannava Brahmins have been colloquially being referred to as Deshastha Yajurvedi Madhyandin and Deshastha Yajurvedi Kannava, although not all have traditionally lived or belonged to the Desh. Like Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins, Deshastha Yajurvedi Brahmins of Shukla Yajurvedi section are also spread throughout Deccan.

Based on Vedanta
The Deshastha Rigvedi's and Deshastha Yajurvedi's started following the Vedantas propounded by Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya. They have produced a number of acharyas who has presided over various mathas. These seats of learning spread the teachings of the vedas, smritis, puranas and especially Advaita and Dvaita philosophies all over India, because of this they have Smarthas as well as Madhvas among them. Intermarriages between Deshastha Smarthas and Deshastha Madhwas is very common and normal among Deshasthas of Maharashtra. These sub-sects are based on the Vedanta they follow.

Dvaita Vedanta

Deshastha Madhva Brahmins, also referred as Deshastha Madhvas (or simply Madhvas) are Deshastha Brahmins who follow Dvaita Vedanta of Madhvacharya. Deshastha Madhva Brahmins are followers of ten Madhva Mathas. Out of the ten mathas, Uttaradi Math is the largest and most of Deshastha Madhvas are followers of this matha. The other two prominent mathas whome Deshastha Madhvas follow are Raghavendra Math and Vyasaraja Math. These three mathas are combinedly known as "Mathatraya" in Madhva Sampradaya. In South India Deshastha Madhvas have traditionally been bilingual in Marathi and Kannada, Telugu or Tamil.

Advaita Vedanta

Deshasthas following Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara have two divisions among them. They are Vaishnav Advaitins and Smarta Advaitins. The Smarta Advaitins are also known as Deshastha Smarta Brahmins or Deshastha Smartas

Demographics

The valleys of the Krishna and Godavari rivers, and the plateaus of the Western Ghats (Sahyadri hills), are collectively called the Desha – the original home of the Deshastha Brahmins.

Brahmins constitute 8-10% of the total population of Maharashtra. Almost 60 percent (three-fifth) of the Maharashtrian Brahmins are Deshastha Brahmins. In North Karnataka, especially in the districts of Vijayapura, Dharwad and Belagavi Deshasthas were about 2.5% of the total population in the 1960s. Earlier this region was known as "Bombay-Karnataka region". The Illustrated Weekly of India says, The exact percentage of population belonging to Deshastha community is very difficult to find out since they are spread throughout the Deccan.

The Deshastha Brahmins are equally distributed all through the state of Maharashtra, ranging from villages to urban areas. In Karnataka, the Deshastha Brahmins are mostly concentrated in the districts of Bijapur, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Belagavi, Bidar, Raichur, Bellary, Uttara Kannada, and Shivamogga.

Deshasthas also settled outside Maharashtra and Karnataka, such as in the cities of Indore in Madhya Pradesh and those of Chennai and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, which were a part of or were influenced by the Maratha Empire. The Deshastha Brahmins of Vadodara in Gujarat are immigrants who came from the Deccan for state service. In Andhra Pradesh, the Deshastha Brahmins have settled in various parts, particularly in the cities of Anantapur, Kurnool, Tirupati, Cuddapah, Hyderabad (which is now part of Telangana). In Coastal Andhra, Deshastha Brahmins settled in Nellore district, Krishna district and Guntur district. In Telangana, Deshastha Brahmins are distributed throughout all the districts of the state. The Deshastha families who migrated to Telugu states completely adapted themselves to the Telugu ways, especially in food.

The military settlers (of Thanjavur) included Brahmins of different sub-castes and by reason of their isolation from their distant home, the sub-divisions which separated these castes in their mother-country were forgotten, and they were all welded together under the common name of Deshasthas. Today's Marathi speaking population in Tanjore are descendants of these Marathi speaking people. The isolation from their homeland has almost made them culturally and linguistically alien to Brahmins in Maharashtra. The early British rulers considered Deshastha from the south to be a distinct community and heavily recruited them in administrative service in the present-day areas of Northern Karnataka after the fall of Peshwa rule in these areas in preference to Deshastha and other Brahmins from Desh.

Migration patterns
According to PILC Journal of Dravidic Studies, Maratha people who migrated towards the South India were originally from Pune and Bijapur. They took the land route and passed through Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur. Another set of migrants migrated from Bijapur through North Karnataka, the districts of Cuddupah, Kurnool, Chittoor and North Arcot.

History

 The word Deshastha comes from the Sanskrit words Desha and Stha, which mean inland or country and resident respectively. Fused together, the two words literally mean "residents of the country". Deshastha are the Maharashtrian and North Karnataka Brahmin community with the longest known history, making them the original and the oldest Hindu Brahmin sub-caste from Maharashtra and North Karnataka. The Deshastha community may be as old as the Vedas, as vedic literature describes people strongly resembling them. This puts Deshastha presence on the Desh between 1100 and 1700 BC. As the original Brahmins of Maharashtra, the Deshasthas have been held in the greatest esteem in Maharashtra and they have considered themselves superior to other Brahmins.

Marathi Brahmins started migrating to the Hindu holy city of Benares in the medieval period. They dominated the intellectual life of the city and established an important presence at the Mughal and other north Indian courts.
During the Deccan sultanates era and early Maratha rule, the Deshasthas were closely integrated into the texture of rural society of Maharashtra region, as village record keepers (Kulkarnis) and astrologers (Joshis). As such they featured far more prominently in the eyes of the rural communities than any other Brahmin groups in the region. Before the rise of the Peshwas from the Bhat family, the Maratha bureaucracy was almost entirely recruited from the Deshastha community along with the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu community; but Balaji Vishwanath's accession to power shattered their monopoly over the bureaucracy, even though they retained influence as Kulkarnis and Deshmukhs on rural Maharashtra.
Many Deshastha Brahmins moved to present day Andhra Pradesh for lack of opportunities in Chitpavan dominated Peshwa era.This group became part of the elite in this region, specifically around Guntur. By the 19th century, Deshasthas had held a position of such strength throughout South India that their position can only be compared with that of the Kayasthas and Khatris of North India.
At the time of Indian independence in 1947, urban dwelling and professional Marathi Hindu people, mostly belonged to communities such as the Chitpavans and the CKPs. However, researcher Donald Kurtz concludes that although Deshasthas and other brahmin groups of the region were initially largely rural, they were mostly urbanised by the end of the 20th century.

One of the traditional occupations of the Deshasthas was that of priesthood at the Hindu temples or officiating at socio-religious ceremonies. Records show that most of the religious and literary leaders since the 13th century have been Deshasthas. Author Pran Nath Chopra and journalist Pritish Nandy say, "Most of the well-known saints from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were Deshastha Brahmins". In addition to being village priests, most of the village accountants or Kulkarnis belonged to the Deshastha caste.  Priests at the famous Vitthal temple in Pandharpur are Deshastha, as are the priests in many of Pune's temples. Other traditional occupations included village revenue officials, academicians, astrologer, administrators and practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine. Deshasthas who study the vedas are called Vaidika, astrologers are called "Joshi" and practitioners of medical science are called Vaidyas, and reciters of the puranas are called Puraniks. In historic times Deshasthas also engaged in manufacturing and trading of salt and cereals in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Hence they also adopted the surnames related to them.

Philosophy and literature
Deshasthas have contributed to the fields of Sanskrit, Marathi literature and Kannada literature, mathematics, and philosophy.

The Deshastha community in the Karnataka region produced the fourteenth century Dvaita philosopher saint Jayatirtha, the fifteenth and sixteenth century stalwarts of Haridasa movement and philosophers of Dvaita order, Vyasatirtha, who was also the "Rajaguru" of Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara Empire and his disciples Purandara Dasa and Vijayendra Tirtha, the seventeenth century philosopher-saint Raghavendra Tirtha. In fact, according to Sharma, all the pontiffs of Uttaradi Matha (a Dvaita monastery) beginning from Raghunatha Tirtha, Raghuvarya Tirtha, Raghuttama Tirtha to Satyapramoda Tirtha, without a single exception, belonged to the community.

Deshasthas produced prominent literary figures in Maharashtra between the 13th and the 19th centuries. The great Sanskrit scholar Bhavabhuti was a Deshastha Brahmin who lived around 700 AD in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. His works of high Sanskrit poetry and plays are only equalled by those of Kalidasa. Two of his best known plays are Mahāvīracarita and Mālatī Mādhava. Mahaviracarita is a work on the early life of the Hindu god Rama, whereas Malati Madhava is a love story between Malati and her lover Madhava, which has a happy ending after several twists and turns.

Mukund Raj was another poet from the community who lived in the 13th century and is said to be the first poet who composed in Marathi. He is known for the Viveka-Siddhi and Parammrita which are metaphysical, pantheistic works connected with orthodox Vedantism. Other well known Deshastha literary scholars of the 17th century were Mukteshwar and Shridhar Swami Nazarekar. Mukteshwar was the grandson of Eknath and is the most distinguished poet in the ovi meter. He is most known for translating the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Marathi but only a part of the Mahabharata translation is available and the entire Ramayana translation is lost. Shridhar came from near Pandharpur and his works are said to have superseded the Sanskrit epics to a certain extent. Other major literary contributors of the 17th and the 18th century were Vaman Pandit, Mahipati, Amritaraya, Anant Phandi and Ramjoshi.

The Deshastha community has produced several saints and philosophers. Most important of these were Dnyaneshwar, Jayatirtha, Sripadaraja, Vyasatirtha, Eknath, Purandara Dasa, Samarth Ramdas and Vijaya Dasa. The most revered logician and philosopher, Jayatirtha was universally acclaimed for his magnum opus work "Nyaya Sudha", which is the commentary on the Anu Vyakhyana of Madhvacharya. The most revered of all Bhakti saints, Dnyaneshwar was universally acclaimed for his commentary on the Bhagvad Gita. It is called Dnyaneshwari and is written in the Prakrit language. He lived in the 13th century. Eknath was yet another Bhakti saint who published an extensive poem called the Eknathi Bhagwat in the 16th century. Other works of Eknath include the Bhavartha Ramayana, the Rukmini Swayamwara and the Swatma Sukha. The 17th century saw the Dasbodh of the saint Samarth Ramdas, who was also the spiritual adviser to Shivaji.

Military and administration

Seuna dynasty and Vijayanagara  eras
Hemadpant who was the prime minister from 1259 to 1274 C.E. in the regimes of Kings Mahādeva (1259–1271) and Ramachandra (1271–1309) of Seuna Yādav Dynasty of Devagiri, which ruled in the western and southern part of India was a Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin.<ref>{{cite book|title=Kāḷācyā paḍadyāāḍa, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_wvAAAAMAAJ|page=373|publisher=Marāṭhī Sāhitya Parishada|year=1992|quote=देवगिरी येथे रामचंद्रराव राजा राज्य करीत असता दमरदारीच्या कामावर हेमाद्री ऊर्फ हेमाडपंत' हा देशस्थ ऋग्वेदी ब्राह्मण काम करीत होता.}}</ref>

Deshastha Brahmins also held prominent roles in the political, military and administrative hierarchy of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Deccan sultanate and Mughal Era
According to Robert Eric Frykenberg, the very origin of the Bahamani power appears to have been linked with support from local deccani leadership. Frykenberg also quotes that, The reason to Mahmud Gawan greatness as an administrator was due to his sagacious employment of groups of Maratha Brahmans known as Deshasthas.

According to Robert Eric Frykenberg, the breakup of Bahamani authority following the senseless execution of the able Diwan in 1481 led to increasing dependence upon the services of the Deshasthas by the Sultanates of Bijapur, Golkonda, and Ahmednagar.

Deshastha Madhva Brahmins held high positions during the rule of Qutb shahis of Golkonda. The posts held by them include Deshmukh, Deshpande, Majumdar, Mannavar (Head of Police) etc. in the districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Maratha Empire and Nizam State
Most of Shivaji's principal Brahmin officers were Deshasthas, including all of his Peshwas. Other significant Deshasthas of the period were warriors such as Moropant Trimbak Pingle, Ramchandra Pant Amatya, Annaji Datto Sachiv, Abaji Sondev, Pralhad Niraji, Raghunath Narayan Hanmante and Melgiri Pandit. At one point in the history of the Maratha Empire, seven out of eight Ashta Pradhan (Council of Eight Ministers) came from the community. In 1713, Balaji Vishwanath Bhat, a Kokanastha Brahmin was appointed as the sixth Peshwa and the seat of Peshwa remained in Konkanastha hands until the fall of the Maratha Empire. To obtain the loyalty of the locally powerful Deshastha Brahmins, the Konkanastha Peshwas established a system of patronage for Brahmin scholars. The most prominent Deshastha Brahmin families during the Peshwa rule were The Pant Pratinidhis, The Vinchurkars, The Purandares, The Gandekars (Pant Sachiv family) and The Bavadekars.

During the Peshwa era, The lack of administrative positions forced Deshastha and other literate groups to find opportunities elsewhere in India such as the Guntur area in present-day Andhra Pradesh.

Prominence of Deshastha in 18th century Pune

Historian Govind Sakharam Sardesai lists 163 prominent families that held high ranks and played significant roles in politics, military and finance in 18th century Pune, the cultural capital of Maharashtra. Of these 163 families, a majority(80) were Deshastha, 46 were Chitpawan, 15 were CKP, and Karhade Brahmin and Saraswat accounted for 11 families each.

 East India Company and British era
Kingdom of Mysore

This Deshastha Brahmin migrant who served under Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan as the most trustworthy aide could successfully win over the confidence of the English in 1799. Diwan Purnaiah was a typical example of an elite adept in the art of accommodation and survival by changing loyalties in a most astonishing and successful manner. But the most important plus point in him that attracted the English was perhaps his technical abilities as a successful administrator, which the English could use to their advantage in later years'. Although, many Deshastha Brahmins were employed in the service of Hyder and Tippu, a greater penetration of them into the service was witnessed during the Dewanship of Purnaiah and during the succeeding years. One Rama Rao was appointed Foujdar of Nagar in 1799 by Purnaiya. Sowar Bakshi Rama Rao, Bargir Bakshi Balaji Rao, Babu Rao, Krishna Rao and Bhim Rao of Annigere were some of the notables among this class. When Purnaiah was Prime Minister of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan
Krishna Rao served as Commander-in-Chief of Mysore Kingdom. During this time the revenue and finance departments were monopolized almost by them. With their mathematical mind, accuracy and memory they were ideally suited for these posts. Purnaiah governed the Mysore Kingdom as the first Dewan under Krishnaraja Wadiyar III and later Sovar Bakshi Rama Rao, Bargir Bakshi Balaji Rao, Babu Rao continued as the Dewans after him. Diwan Purnaiah was also the founder of Yelandur estate. Diwan Purnaiah's direct descendant P. N. Krishnamurti, who was the fifth jagirdar of Yelandur estate also served as the Diwan of Mysore from (1901 – 1906). Later many prominent Deshastha Brahmins such as Kollam Venkata Rao, V. P. Madhava Rao, T. Ananda Rao (son of Rajah T. Madhava Rao) and N. Madhava Rao governed the Mysore Kingdom as Dewans.

Madras Presidency
In 17th century Deshastha Madhva Brahmins started migrating to Andhra Pradesh and held high level administrative positions during the ascendancy of Qutub Shahis of Golconda. In Guntur district between 1788 and 1848, two out of five Zamindars i.e., Chilkalurpet Zamindari and Sattanapalli Zamindari were ruled by Deshastha Madhva Brahmins, whose title was "Deshmukh", but Frykenberg also tells us that in the earlier phase the Deshasthas had to contend for power with the zamindars many of whom were not Brahmins at all but Kammas, Velama and Rajus. This structure of competition was evidently not created ex nihilo by British rule, but existed before Maratha period and earlier. According to Eric Frykenberg, By mid-nineteenth century all the vital positions in the subordinate civil and revenue establishments in the Guntur district were monopolized by certain Deshastha Brahmin families. According to Asian Economic Review, The tendency of the Deshastha Brahmins to consolidate the power by appointing their own relations was not only confined to Guntur, but this habit extended throughout South India. By the 19th century, Deshasthas had held a position of strength throughout South India. According to Eric Frykenberg, "Deshastha Madhva Brahmins—a vestige of former regimes— who possessed the requisite clerical skills and knowledge of the revenue system and a capacity for concealing this knowledge through the use of this complicated book-keeping system and the Modi script who conspired to subvert the orders of the and to absorb a sizeable amount of land revenues". According to Frykenberg, This was the reason why most of the Sheristadars, Naib Sheristadars and Tehsildars in Madras Presidency are exclusively selected from Deshastha Brahmin community, who are fluent in writing Modi script. According to Frykenberg, Deshasthas also are noted for their English skills during British colonial rule. At the beginning of the British colonial rule, the most powerful Brahmin bureaucrats in the South India were Deshastha Brahmins, who were migrants from Maharashtra and North Karnataka.  During the later years of the colonial rule Deshasthas increasingly lost out to the Tamil Brahmins due to the latter community's enthusiasm towards English education.

Society and culture

Language
Even though the majority of Deshasthas speak Marathi, one of the major languages of the Indo-Aryan language family, a significant minority  speak Kannada, one of the major languages of the Dravidian languages family. The major dialects of Marathi are called Standard Marathi and Warhadi Marathi. Standard Marathi is the official language of the State of Maharashtra. The language of Pune's Deshastha Brahmins has been considered to be the standard Marathi language and the pronunciation of the Deshastha Rigvedi is given prominence. There are a few other sub-dialects like Ahirani, Dangi, Samavedi, Khandeshi and Puneri Marathi. There are no inherently nasalised vowels in standard Marathi whereas the Chitpavani dialect of Marathi, spoken in Pune does have nasalised vowels. Deshastha Brahmins who are spread throughout South India have either Marathi or Kannada as their mother tongue and speak in local languages with other people.

Diet
As with most Pancha-Dravida Brahmin communities, Deshastha Brahmins are also vegetarians. Deshastha use black spice mix or kala, literally black, masala, in cooking. Traditionally, each family had their own recipe for the spice mix. However, this tradition is dying out as modern households buy pre-packaged mixed spice directly from supermarkets. A popular dish in Deshastha cuisine is  the  varan made from tuvar dal. Metkut, a powdered mixture of several dals and a few spices is also a part of traditional Deshastha cuisine.Puran poli for festivals and on the first day of the two-day marriage is another Marathi Brahmin special dish.

Dressing style

Most middle aged and young women in urban Maharashtra dress in western outfits such as skirts and trousers or shalwar kameez with the traditionally nauvari or nine-yard sari, disappearing from the markets due to a lack of demand. Older women wear the five-yard sari. Traditionally, Brahmin women in Maharashtra, unlike those of other castes, did not cover their head with the end of their saree. In urban areas, the five-yard sari is worn by younger women for special occasions such as marriages and religious ceremonies. Maharashtrian brides prefer the very Maharashtrian saree – the Paithani – for their wedding day.

In early to mid 20th century, Deshastha men used to wear a black cap to cover their head, with a turban or a pagadi being popular before that. For religious ceremonies males wore a coloured silk dhoti called a sovale. In modern times, dhotis are only worn by older men in rural areas. In urban areas, just like women, a range of styles are preferred. For example, the Deshastha Shiv Sena politician Manohar Joshi and former Chief Minister of Maharashtra prefers white fine khadi kurtas, while younger men prefer modern western clothes such as jeans.

In the past, caste or social disputes used to be resolved by joint meetings of all Brahmin sub-caste men in the area.

Religious customs

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins still recite the Rig Veda at religious ceremonies, prayers and other occasions. These ceremonies include birth, wedding, initiation ceremonies, as well as death rituals. Other ceremonies for different occasions in Hindu life include Vastushanti which is performed before a family formally establishes residence in a new house, Satyanarayana Puja, originating in Bengal in the 19th century, is a ceremony performed before commencing any new endeavour or for no particular reason. Invoking the name of the family's gotra and the Kula Daivat are important aspects of these ceremonies. Like most other Hindu communities, Deshasthas have a shrine called a devaghar in their house with idols, symbols, and pictures of various deities. Ritual reading of religious texts called pothi is also popular.

In traditional families, any food is first offered to the preferred deity as naivedya, before being consumed by family members and guests. Meals or snacks are not taken before this religious offering. In contemporary Deshasthas families, the naivedya is offered only on days of special religious significance.

Deshasthas, like all other Hindu Brahmins, trace their paternal ancestors to one of the seven or eight sages, the saptarshi. They classify themselves into eight gotras, named after the ancestor rishi. Intra-marriage within gotras (Sagotra Vivaha) is considered as incest.

Deshastha Smartas applies Tripundra with Vibhuti (cow-dung ashes) or Chandana (Sandalwood paste). They smear it in three traverse streaks on their forehead and after the Puja is over they replace it by a sandalwood spot. Whereas Deshastha Madhvas applies Urdhva Pundra with Gopichandana (Sandal paste). They smear gopichandana on their forehead in two perpendicular lines, running from the nose to the root of the hair, with a central line of charcoal divided in the middle by a circular turmeric patch at the centre. During the initiation, a Deshastha Madhva men is marked on the shoulders and on the chest with Shankha (conch), Chakra (disc) and other emblems of Vishnu, while for women, the seals are stamped only on their arms, the 'chakra' is stamped on the right arm, the shanka is stamped on the left arm. The stamp used for marking these seals being of red hot iron and is known as "Tapta Mudra Dharana". Tapta means 'heated' and mudra means 'seals'. Madhvas also stamp five mudras with gopichandana paste daily on various parts of the body. Vaishnava Advaitins who follow Varkari Sampradaya also apply Gopichandana Urdhva Pundra on their forehead.

Every Deshastha family has their own family patron deity or the Kuladaivat. This deity is common to a lineage or a clan of several families who are connected to each other through a common ancestor. The Khandoba of Jejuri is an example of a Kuladaivat of some Maharashtrian Deshastha families; he is a common Kuladaivat to several castes ranging from Brahmins to Dalits. The practice of worshiping local or territorial deities as Kuladaivats began in the period of the Yadava dynasty. Other family deities of the Deshasthas of Maharashtra and Karnataka are Bhavani of Tuljapur, Mahalaxmi of Kolhapur, Mahalaxmi of Amravati, Renuka of Mahur, Saptashringi on Saptashringa hill at Vani in Nasik district, Banashankari of Badami, Lakshmi Chandrala Parameshwari of Sannati, Renuka Yellamma  of Savadatti. Venkateswara of Tirupathi, Narasimha and Vithoba (Vittala) of Pandharpur are popular forms of Vishnu who are worshipped as kuladevatha among Deshasthas.

Ceremonies and rituals
Traditionally the Deshastha followed the sixteen bodily Sanskara from birth to death.
Upon birth, a child is initiated into the family ritually according to the Rig Veda for the Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins. The naming ceremony of the child may happen many weeks or even months later, and it is called the barsa. In many Hindu communities around India, the naming is almost often done by consulting the child's horoscope, in which are suggested various names depending on the child's Lunar sign (called Rashi). However, in Deshastha families, the name that the child inevitably uses in secular functioning is the one decided by his parents. If a name is chosen on the basis of the horoscope, then that is kept a secret to ward off casting of a spell on the child during his or her life.  During the naming ceremony, the child's paternal aunt has the honour of naming the infant. When the child is 11 months old, he or she gets their first hair-cut. This is an important ritual as well and is called Jawal.

When a male child reaches his eighth birthday he undergoes the initiation thread ceremony variously known as Munja (in reference to the munja grass that is of official ritual specification), Vratabandha, or Upanayanam. From that day on, he becomes an official member of his caste, and is called a dwija which translates to "twice-born" in English, in the sense that while the first birth was due to his biological parents, the second one is due to the initiating priest and Savitri. Traditionally, boys are sent to gurukula to learn Vedas and scriptures. Boys are expected to practice extreme discipline during this period known as brahmacharya. Boys are expected to lead a celibate life, live off alms, consume selected vegetarian saatvic food and observe considerable austerity in behaviour and deeds.  Though such practices are not followed in modern times by a majority of Deshasthas, all Deshasthas boys undergo the sacred thread ceremony. Many still continue to get initiated around eight years of age. Those who skip this get initiated just before marriage. Twice-born Deshasthas perform annual ceremonies to replace their sacred threads on Narali Purnima or the full moon day of the month of Shravan, according to the Hindu calendar. The threads are called Jaanave in Marathi and Janavaara in Kannada.

The Deshasthas are historically an endogamous and monogamous community for whom marriages take place by negotiation. The Mangalsutra is the symbol of marriage for the woman. Studies show that most Indians' traditional views on caste, religion and family background have remained unchanged when it came to marriage, that is, people marry within their own castes, and matrimonial advertisements in newspapers are still classified by caste and sub-caste. Deshastha Yajurvedi do not allow cross cousin marriage, while the Deshastha Rigvedi sub-group, allow cross cousin marriage, just like many other Marathi castes. In South Maharashtra, Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmins even allow uncle-niece marriage.

While arranging a marriage, gana, gotra, pravara, devak are all kept in mind. Horoscopes are matched. The marriage ceremony is described as follows: "The groom, along with the bride's party goes to the bride's house. A ritual named Akshat is performed in which people around the groom and bride throw haldi (turmeric) and sindur (vermilion) coloured rice grains on the couple. After the Kanyadan ceremony, there is an exchange of garlands between the bride and the groom. Then, the groom ties the Mangalsutra around the neck of the bride. This is followed by granthibandhan in which the end of the bride's sari is tied to the end of the groom's dhoti, and a feast is arranged at the groom's place."

A Deshasthas marriage ceremony includes many elements of a traditional Marathi Hindu wedding ceremony. It consists of seemant poojan on the wedding eve. The dharmic wedding includes the antarpat ceremony followed by the vedic ceremony which involves the bridegroom and the bride walking around the sacred fire seven times to complete the marriage. Modern urban wedding ceremonies conclude with an evening reception. A Deshastha woman becomes part of her husband's family after marriage and adopts the gotra as well as the traditions of her husband's family.

After weddings and also after thread ceremonies, Deshastha families arrange a traditional religious singing performance by a Gondhal group.

Deshastha Brahmins dispose their dead by cremation. The dead person's son carries the corpse to the cremation ground atop a bier. The eldest son lights the fire to the funeral pyre at the head for males and at the feet for females. The ashes are gathered in an earthen pitcher and scattered in a river on the third day after the death. This is a 13-day ritual with the pinda being offered to the dead soul on the 11th and a Śrāddha ceremony followed by a funeral feast on the 13th. Cremation is performed according to vedic rites, usually within a day of the individual's death. Like all other Hindus, the preference is for the ashes to be immersed in the Ganges river or Godavari River. Śrāddha becomes an annual ritual in which all forefathers of the family who have passed on are remembered. These rituals are expected to be performed only by male descendants, preferably the eldest son of the deceased.

Festivals

Deshasthas follow the Saka calendar. They follow several of the festivals of other Hindu Marathi people. These include Gudi Padwa, Rama Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Narali Pournima, Mangala Gaur, Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Kojagiri Purnima, Diwali, Khandoba Festival (Champa Shashthi), Makar Sankranti, Maha Shivaratri and Holi.

Of these, Ganesh Chaturthi is the most popular in the state of Maharashtra, however, Diwali, the most popular festival of Hindus throughout India, is equally popular in Maharashtra. Deshasthas celebrate the Ganesha festival as a domestic family affair. Depending on a family's tradition, a clay image or shadu is worshiped for one and a half, three and a half, seven or full 10 days, before ceremoniously being placed in a river or the sea. This tradition of private celebration runs parallel to the public celebration introduced in 1894 by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Modak is a popular food item during the festival. Ganeshotsav also incorporates other festivals, namely Hartalika and the Gauri festival, the former is observed with a fast by women whilst the latter by the installation of idols of Gauris.

The religious amongst the Deshasthas fast on the days prescribed for fasting according to Hindu calendar.
Typical days for fasting are Ekadashi, Chaturthi, Maha Shivaratri and Janmashtami. Hartalika is a day of fasting for women. Some people fast during the week in honour of a particular god, for example, Monday for Shiva or Saturday for Hanuman and the planet Saturn, Shani.

Gudi Padwa is observed on the first of the day of the lunar month of Chaitra of the Hindu calendar. A victory pole or Gudi is erected outside homes on the day. The leaves of Neem or and shrikhand are a part of the cuisine of the day. Like many other Hindu communities, Deshasthas celebrate Rama Navami and Hanuman Jayanti, the birthdays of Rama and Hanuman, respectively, in the month of Chaitra. A snack eaten by new mothers called Sunthawada or Dinkawada is the prasad or the religious food on Rama Navami. They observe Narali-pournima festival on the same day as the much widely known north Indian festival of Raksha Bandhan. Deshastha men change their sacred thread on this day.

An important festival for the new brides is Mangala Gaur. It is celebrated on any Tuesday of Shravana and involves the worship of lingam, a gathering of womenfolk and narrating limericks or Ukhane using their husbands' first name. The women may also play traditional games such as Jhimma, and Fugadi, or more contemporary activities such as Bhendya till the wee hours of the next morning.

Krishna Janmashtami, the birthday of Krishna on which day Gopalkala, a recipe made with curds, pickle, popped millet (jondhale in Marathi) and chili peppers is the special dish. Sharad Purnima also called as Kojagiri Purnima, the full moon night in the month of Ashvin, is celebrated in the honour of Lakshmi or Parvati. A milk preparation is the special food of the evening. The first born of the family is honoured on this day.

In Deshastha families Ganeshotsav is more commonly known as Gauri-Ganpati because it also incorporates the Gauri Festival.In some families Gauri is also known as Lakshmi puja. It is celebrated for three days; on the first day, Lakshmi's arrival is observed. The ladies in the family will bring statues of Lakshmi from the door to the place where they will be worshiped. The Kokanstha Brahmins, instead of statues, use special stones as symbols of Gauri. The statues are settled at a certain location (very near the Devaghar), adorned with clothes and ornaments. On the second day, the family members get together and prepare a meal consisting of puran poli. This day is the puja day of Mahalakshmi and the meal is offered to Mahalakshmi and her blessings sought. On the third day, Mahalakshmi goes to her husband's home. Before the departure, ladies in the family will invite the neighbourhood ladies for exchange of haldi-kumkum. It is customary for the whole family to get together during the three days of Mahalakshmi puja. Most families consider Mahalakshmi as their daughter who is living with her husband's family all the year; but visits her parents' (maher) during the three days. See also Birbhum District Official Website.

Navaratri, a nine-day festival starts on the first day of the month of Ashvin and culminates on the tenth day or Vijayadashami. This is the one of three auspicious days of the year. People exchange leaves of the Apti tree as symbol of gold. During Navaratri women and girls hold Bhondla referred as bhulabai in Vidarbh region, a singing party in honour of the Goddess.

Like all Hindu Marathi people and to a varying degree with other Hindu Indians, Diwali is celebrated over five days by the Deshastha Brahmins. Deshastha Brahmins celebrate this by waking up early in the morning and having an Abhyangasnan. People light their houses with lamps and candles, and burst fire crackers over the course of the festival. Special sweets and savouries like Anarse, Karanjya, Chakli, Chiwda and Ladu are prepared for the festival. Colourful Rangoli drawings are made in front of the house.

Deshastha Brahmins observe the Khandoba Festival or Champa Shashthi in the month of Mārgashirsh. This is a six-day festival, from the first to sixth lunar day of the bright fortnight. Deshastha households perform Ghatasthapana of Khandoba during this festival. The sixth day of the festival is called Champa Sashthi. For Deshastha, the Chaturmas period ends on Champa Sashthi. As it is customary in many families not to consume onions, garlic and eggplant (Brinjal / Aubergine) during the Chaturmas, the consumption of these food items resumes with ritual preparation of Vangyache Bharit (Baingan Bharta) and rodga, small round flat breads prepared from jwari (white millet).

Makar Sankranti falls on 14 January when the Sun enters Capricorn. Deshastha Brahmins exchange Tilgul or sweets made of jaggery and sesame seeds along with the customary salutation Tilgul Ghya aani God Bola, which means Accept the Tilgul and be friendly. Gulpoli, a special type of chapati stuffed with jaggery is the dish of the day.

Maha Shivaratri is celebrated in the month of Magha to honour Shiva. A chutney made from curd fruit (Kawath in Marathi) is part of the cuisine of the day.

Holi falls on the full moon day in Phalguna, the last month. Deshasthas celebrate this festival by lighting a bonfire and offering Puran Poli to the fire. Unlike North Indians, Deshastha Brahmins celebrate colour throwing five days after Holi on Rangapanchami.

Social and political issues
The Deshasthas of Maharashtra and Karnataka practised priesthood as their hereditary occupation, who traditionally offer socio-religious services to the other communities. The secular among them who had agricultural land practised agriculture. However, the absentee landlords among Deshasthas lost their lands when the newly independent India enshrined in its constitution, agrarian or land reform. Between 1949 and 1959, the state governments started enacting legislation in accordance with the constitution implementing this agrarian reform or Kula Kayada in Marathi. The legislation led to the abolition of various absentee tenures like inams and jagirs. This implementation of land reform had mixed results in different States. On official inquiry, it was revealed that not all absentee tenures were abolished in the State of Maharashtra as of 1985. Other social and political issues include anti-Brahminism and the treatment of Dalits.

Inter-caste issues

During British rule in the 19th century, social reformers such as Jotiba Phule launched campaigned against Brahmin domination of society and in government employment.The campaign was continued in the early 20th century by the maharaja of Kolhapur, Shahu. In the 1920s the non-Brahmin political party under Keshavrao Jedhe led the campaign against Brahmins in Pune and rural areas of western Maharashtra. This period saw Brahmins losing their landholding and their migration to urban centers
Maharashtrian Brahmins were the primary targets during the anti-Brahmin riots in Maharashtra in 1948, following Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. The rioters burnt homes and properties owned by Brahmins. The violent riots exposed the social tensions between the Marathas and the Brahmins.

In recent history, on 5 January 2004, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune was vandalised by 150 members of the Sambhaji Brigade, an organisation promoting the cause of the Marathas. The organisation was protesting against a derogatory remark made by the American author James Laine, on Shivaji's Parentage in his book, Shivaji: A Hindu King in an Islamic Kingdom. BORI was targeted because Srikant Bahulkar, a scholar at BORI, was acknowledged in Laine's book. The incident highlighted the traditionally uncomfortable Brahmin-Maratha relationship. Recently, the same organisation demanded the removal of Dadoji Konddeo from the Statue of Child Shivaji ploughing Pune's Land at Lal Mahal, Pune. They also threatened that if their demands were not met, they would demolish that part of statue themselves.

Until recent times, like other high castes of Maharashtra and India, Deshastha also followed the practice of segregation from other castes considered lower in the social hierarchy. Until a few decades ago, a large number of Hindu temples, presumably with a Deshastha priest, barred entry to the so-called "untouchables" (Dalit). An example of this was the case of the 14th century saint Chokhamela of the Varkari movement, who belonged to the Mahar caste. He was time and again denied entry to the Vitthal temple in Pandharpur, however, his mausoleum was built in front of the gate of the temple. In the early 20th century, the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, while attempting to visit the temple, was stopped at the burial site of Chokhamela and denied entry beyond that point for being a Mahar. Deshastha caste-fellow Dnyaneshwar and his entire family were stripped of their caste and excommunicated by the Deshasthas because of his father's return from sanyasa to family life. The family was harassed and humiliated to an extent that Dnyaneshwar's parents committed suicide. Other saints like Tukaram (Kunbi caste) were discriminated against by the Brahmins.

The Maharashtra Government has taken away the hereditary rights of priesthood to the Pandharpur temple from the Badve and Utpat Deshastha families, and handed them over to a governmental committee. The families have been fighting complex legal battles to win back the rights. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an organisation founded by K. B. Hedgewar advocates Dalits being head priests at Hindu temples.

Deshastha-Konkanastha relations
Prior to the rise of the Konkanastha Peshwas, the Konkanastha Brahmins were considered inferior in a society where the Deshasthas held socio-economic, ritual and Brahminical superiority. After the appointment of Balaji Vishwanath Bhat as Peshwa, Konkanastha migrants began arriving en masse from the Konkan to Pune, where the Peshwa offered some important offices to the Konkanastha caste. The Konkanastha kin were rewarded with tax relief and grants of land. Historians point out nepotism and corruption during this time.

The Konkanasthas were waging a social war on Deshasthas during the period of the Peshwas. By the late 18th century, Konkanasthas had established complete political and economic dominance in the region. As a consequence, many members of the literate classes, including Deshastha and Karhade Brahmins, left their ancestral region of Western Maharashtra and migrated to other areas of the Maratha empire such as around the east Godavari basin in the present-day states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. For example, many Deshasthas, Saraswats and CKPs moved to newly formed Maratha states ruled by the Scindias, Gaikwads and others that were at the periphery of the Peshwa's kingdom.
After the Maratha empire under the command of Chimaji Appa, the brother of Peshwa Bajirao I (1700-1740), captured Vasai from the  Portuguese in 1739, local chitpavan brahmins contested the claim of the local Shukla yajurvedi brahmins, who had lived under Portuguese rule for nearly two hundred years, of being brahmins . The full Brahmin status of the Vasai Yajurvedis was affirmed by an assembly of learned Brahmins in 1746. However, the case came up again in 1808 in the waning years of Peshwai.
Richard Maxwell Eaton states that this rise of the Konkanastha is a classic example of social rank rising with political fortune. Since then, despite being the traditional religious and social elites of Maharashtra, the Deshastha Brahmins failed to feature as prominently as the Konkanastha. The Deshasthas looked down upon the Konkanasthas as newcomers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They refused to socialise and intermingle with them, not considering them to be Brahmins. A Konkanstha who was invited to a Deshastha household was considered to be a privileged individual, and even the Peshwas were refused permission to perform religious rites at the Deshastha ghats'' on the Godavari at Nasik. The Konkanasthas on their part,  pursued for greater intellectual ability and better political acumen. During the British colonial period of 19th and early 20th century, Deshasthas dominated professions such as government administration,  music, legal and engineering fields, whereas Konkanasthas dominated fields like politics, medicine, social reform, journalism, mathematics and education. The relations have since improved by the larger scale mixing of both communities on social, financial and educational fields, as well as with intermarriages.

Community organisations
The Deshastha Rigvedi sub-caste have community organisations in many major cities such as Mumbai, Dombivali, Belgaum, Nasik, Satara etc. Most of these organisations are affiliated to Central organisation of the community called Akhil Deshastha Rugvedi Brahman Madhyavarty Mandal (A. D. R. B. M.) which is located in Mumbai. The activities of ADRBM includes offering scholarships to needy students, financial aid to members, exchange of information, and Matrimonial services. The Deshastha community organisations are also affiliated to their respective local All Brahmin Umbrella Organizations.
Similar to the Rigvedi community, there are organisations and trusts dedicated to the welfare of the Yajurvedi sub-caste.

Notable people

See also

 Thanjavur Maharashtrian
 Forward Castes
 Marathi people in Uttar Pradesh

References
Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Further reading

External links
 Sacred texts: Hinduism
 Government of Maharashtra Official Website

Brahmin communities of Maharashtra
Brahmin communities of Karnataka
Marathi people
Kannada people

Deshastha Brahmin


Repo! The Genetic Opera is a 2008 American gothic rock opera directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Based on the 2002 opera of the same name, written and composed by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, the film stars Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre and Zdunich.

Repo! premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in July 2008, followed by a limited release on November 7, 2008, on seven screens in Pasadena, Chicago, Mobile, Charlotte, Kansas City, Toronto and Ottawa.

Plot

By the year 2056, an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet and wiped out 99% of the human population. The megacorporation GeneCo provides organs on a payment plan. Clients who miss payments are hunted down by Repo Men, skilled assassins who "repossess" the organs ("Genetic Repo Man"). The CEO of GeneCo, Rotti Largo, discovers he is terminally ill. Rotti's children Luigi, Pavi, and Amber bicker over who will inherit GeneCo ("Mark It Up"), but Rotti believes none of them are worthy heirs and instead plans to give his fortune to 17-year-old Shilo Wallace, the daughter of his late ex-fiancée Marni ("Things You See In A Graveyard").

Shilo has inherited a rare blood disease from Marni that requires her to stay indoors, though she longs to see the outside world ("Infected"). Shilo's overprotective father Nathan believes he accidentally killed Marni with a treatment he created for her illness – in truth, a jealous Rotti secretly poisoned Marni's medicine and blackmailed Nathan, promising not to arrest him if he agreed to become GeneCo's head Repo Man, though he has convinced Shilo he is a doctor ("Legal Assassin"). One night, Shilo secretly visits Marni's tomb and runs into the omniscient GraveRobber, who is digging up bodies to secrete Zydrate, a euphoric and addictive pain-killer that he sells on the street to keep up with his GeneCo payments ("21st Century Cure").

Rotti lures Shilo to GeneCo's fair with the promise of a cure for her disease. There, she meets Blind Mag, an opera singer and GeneCo's celebrity spokesperson. Born blind, Mag has been given surgically enhanced eyes by GeneCo at the cost of indefinite employment, though she is soon resigning. GraveRobber helps Shilo escape the fairgrounds, encountering several of his customers including the surgery-addicted Amber ("Zydrate Anatomy"). Shilo learns that Mag's eyes are set for repossession and that Amber will replace her as GeneCo's spokeswoman. After GeneCops arrive, Shilo quickly returns to her room before Nathan notices her missing.

Rotti hires Nathan to repossess Mag's eyes, but Nathan refuses, citing that Mag was Marni's best friend ("Night Surgeon"). An infuriated Rotti vows to have Nathan taken out. Mag visits Shilo and reveals she is her godmother, and that Nathan had told her Shilo died with Marni. She cautions Shilo to not make the same mistakes she did ("Chase the Morning"). Nathan arrives and forces Mag out after she scolds him for lying and incarcerating Shilo ("Everyone's a Composer"). Meanwhile, Rotti writes his will, ready to make Shilo his sole beneficiary ("Gold").

Rotti invites Shilo to the Opera ("At the Opera Tonight"). Nathan heads to the opera to find her, pursued by GeneCops, whom he quickly dispatches. Amber makes her stage debut, but her performance is ruined when her transplanted face falls off. Mag completes her final performance, but deviates from the song's grand finale, denouncing the Largo family and gouging out her eyes in an act of defiance ("Chromaggia"). Rotti cuts the cords suspending Mag, impaling her on a fence, but assures the panicking audience that Mag's death was staged as part of the show.

Shilo is approached by a Repo Man  and attacks him with a shovel, revealing that he is Nathan. She angrily confronts Nathan for lying to her about his profession ("Let the Monster Rise"). Onstage, Rotti reveals that Nathan has been poisoning Shilo's "medicine" in an attempt to keep her safe from the outside world after being unable to cope with the loss of Marni. As his disease rapidly worsens, Rotti offers Shilo GeneCo if she kills her father. When she refuses, Rotti uses the last of his strength to fatally shoot Nathan, and dies after disowning his children. After a tearful farewell to her father ("I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much"), Shilo leaves, deciding that her father's actions do not dictate her future ("Genetic Emancipation").

Shilo flees, leaving GeneCo with no legal heir. Amber inherits the company instead and auctions her fallen face to charity, which Pavi wins after Luigi kills the top three bidders.

Cast

Joan Jett makes a cameo appearance playing guitar during the song "Seventeen". Dean Armstrong, later seen in Saw 3D, appears as the victim during "Thankless Job". Co-writer Darren Smith appears during "We Started This Op'ra Shit" as the GeneCo band leader. Frequent Bousman collaborator J. LaRose appears during "Zydrate Support Network" as a GeneCo spokesman.

Music

The film's soundtrack was produced by Yoshiki from X Japan.

A 7-track demo CD dubbed the "Pre-Surgery Sampler", was released on July 24, 2008. A 22-track soundtrack was released on September 30. Songs do not appear in the same sequence on the CD as they do in the film. On February 20, 2009, an extended edition of the soundtrack was released online. The "Deluxe Edition" contains 38 tracks; and the song, "Zydrate Anatomy", was re-cut and used in its film version for this edition. Melora Creager of Rasputina plays cello on the soundtrack.

The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released September 30, 2008 and only available through Amazon and iTunes. A deluxe version of the soundtrack was released on February 17, 2009. All tracks from the previous release remain on the deluxe edition in the same order, with new tracks placed in between some tracks, including score pieces. The only track that appears on both albums that differs is "Zydrate Anatomy", where it is slightly longer on the deluxe edition.

In the film, the following songs are performed:

 "Genetic Repo Man" - GraveRobber
 "Things You See in a Graveyard" - Rotti
 "21st Century Cure" - GraveRobber, Shilo
 "Shilo Wakes" - Nathan, Shilo
 "Infected" - Shilo
 "Legal Assassin" - Nathan, Ghostly chorus
 "Lungs and Livers" - GeneCo Chorus
 "Mark It Up" - Genterns, Amber, Luigi, Pavi
 "Tao of Mag" - Mag
 "Things You See in a Graveyard" (reprise) - Rotti
 "Limo Ride" - Rotti and Shilo
 "Thankless Job" - Nathan
 "Tao of Mag" (reprise) - Mag
 "No Organs? No Problemo!" - GeneCo chorus
 "Largo's Little Helpers" - Child chorus
 "Genterns" - Genterns, Pavi
 "Luigi, Pavi, Amber Harass Mag" - Luigi, Mag, Amber, Pavi, Rotti
 "Seeing You Stirs Memories" - Rotti
 "Seeing You Stirs Memories (Reprise)" - Rotti, Mag
 "My, What Big Scissors You Have" - Shilo
 "Inopportune Telephone Call" - Nathan, Shilo
 "GraveRobber and Shilo Escape" - GraveRobber, Shilo
 "Zydrate Support Network" - Rotti, Reporter
 "Zydrate Anatomy" - GraveRobber, Shilo, Amber, Zydrate addicts
 "Disposal Crew" - Disposal crew
 "Who Ordered Pizza?" - Luigi, Pavi, Nathan, Rotti, Amber
 "Night Surgeon" - Nathan, Rotti, Henchgirls, Luigi, Pavi, Genterns
 "Chase the Morning" - Mag, Shilo, Marni
 "Everyone's a Composer" - Mag, Nathan, Shilo
 "Come Back!" - Nathan and Shilo
 "What Chance Has a 17 Year Old Girl" - Nathan, Shilo
 "Seventeen" - Shilo
 "Happiness Is Not a Warm Scalpel" - Amber, Rotti
 "Gold" - Rotti
 "Nathan Discovers Rotti's Plan" - Nathan, Shilo
 "Tonight We Are Betrayed" - Nathan
 "At the Opera Tonight" - Shilo, Mag, Nathan, Amber, GraveRobber, Rotti, Luigi, Pavi
 "Bloodbath!" - GraveRobber
 "We Started This Op'ra Shit!" - Bandleader, Luigi, Pavi, Rotti, GeneCo chorus
 "Interrogation Room Challenge" - Rotti
 "Blame Not My Cheeks" - Amber, GeneCo chorus
 "Chromaggia" - Mag
 "Pièce De Résistance" - Rotti
 "Let the Monster Rise" - Nathan, Shilo
 "Sawman's Lament" - Rotti, Luigi, Pavi, Shilo, Nathan
 "The Man Who Made You Sick" - Rotti, Shilo, Nathan
 "Cut the Ties" - Rotti, Luigi, Shilo, Pavi
 "Shilo Turns Against Rotti" - Shilo, Rotti, Nathan
 "I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much" - Shilo, Nathan
 "Genetic Emancipation" - Shilo
 "Epitaph" - GraveRobber, Zydrate addicts
 "Repo Man" - Ogre (end credits)
 "VUK-R" - Violet UK (end credits)
 "Needle Through a Bug" - Shilo, Graverobber (end credits)
 "Bravi" - Mag, Pavi, Luigi, Rotti, Amber (end credits)
 "Aching Hour" - Sarah Brightman (end credits)

Score tracks
Includes songs only heard as instrumentals and not parts of any deleted songs: (* = instrumental)
 "Depraved Heart Murder at Sanitarium Square"* (First song heard in the film)
 "The Prognosis"* (Heard right after "Crucifixus")
 "Nathan's Story"* (Heard right after "Infected")
 "Rotti's Story"* (Heard right after "Tao of Mag")
 "A Ventriloquist's Mess"* (Heard right after "Thankless Job")
 "Blind Mag's Story"* (Heard right after "Seeing Your Stirs Memories")
 "Before the Escape"* (Heard right after "Inopportune Telephone Call")
 "Worthy Heirs?"* (Heard right after "Zydrate Support Network")
 "A Dump Truck Home"* (Heard right after "Disposal Crew")
 "The Visitor"* (Heard right after "Night Surgeon")
 "Pre-Happiness"* (Heard right after "Seventeen")
 "Not Your Parents' Opera"* (Heard right after "Bloodbath!")
 "Mag's Fall"* (Heard right after "Chromaggia")
 "A Ten Second Opera"* (Heard right after "Let the Monster Rise")

Production

Development
In 1996, Darren Smith had a friend who was going through bankruptcy and whose possessions were going into foreclosure. Inspired by this, Smith came up with the idea of a future where not only one's property, but also one's body parts, could be repossessed. Smith and Terrance Zdunich collaborated ideas and plot lines to create the first version of Repo!, titled The Necromerchant's Debt, which told the story of a Graverobber in debt to a Repo Organ Man. It premiered at the John Raitt theater in 2002. After being such a success, Smith and Zdunich expanded on the universe to create all of the storylines that became Repo! The Genetic Opera later in 2002. Many changes were made, gradually, to the characters and music throughout various incarnations through 2005. For example, Rotti, in the earliest performances, was not father to Luigi, Pavi and Amber. Instead, he was a younger brother to Luigi and Pavi, while Amber was Luigi's daughter. Lyrics were adjusted to new arcs and some songs were dropped altogether, such as "But This Is Opera!", cut out in an effort to change the direction of Mag's character.

After years of being performed as a stage play, Repo! was adapted into a ten-minute short film directed and financed by Darren Lynn Bousman to pitch the idea to film studios. The film starred Shawnee Smith as Amber Sweet (then named "Heather Sweet"), Michael Rooker as the Repo Man, Kristen Fairlie as Shilo, Zdunich as GraveRobber and J. Larose as Pavi.

Filming
Once picked up by Lionsgate, principal photography began in September 2007 in Canada. The film was scheduled to be released on April 25, 2008, but was pushed back to November 7. X Japan leader Yoshiki produced the soundtrack, along with composing one extra track for the film.

Release

Theatrical release
The film received a limited release in the United States and Canada on November 7, 2008. It had a further limited Canadian release, playing in Toronto from November 21–27, 2008. It was released in the Czech Republic on November 20, this was followed by a theatrical release in Spain on January 2, 2009. In December 2008, several more US theatrical screenings were announced running between January 13–24, 2009 in several cities The Repo! Road Tour made its 4th and final leg in Europe from March 7–12, 2009.

After initial theatrical release and DVD sales, fan support has caused Repo! The Genetic Opera to be played in select theaters for the duration of 2009 and well into 2014, some with "shadow casts" in which a group of actors and performers re-enact the film in front of the big screen while the film is playing on stage, much like the followers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was re-released in a special screening at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Home media
The film was released January 20, 2009 on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States. In Canada, the DVD was released on January 20, 2009, and the Blu-ray was released February 10, 2009. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2009. It was released in Ireland on March 6, 2009. The DVD was released in Germany on April 14. The US DVD release contains two audio commentaries (one by Bousman and actors Vega, Moseley and Ogre; the other by Bousman, creators Smith and Zdunich, and music producer Joseph Bishara), two featurettes and the theatrical trailer. The Blu-ray contains all DVD features including a select-scene audio commentary by Bousman and Hilton, two additional featurettes, a video sing-along with bouncing heart, four deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer.

Reception

Critical response

Kyle Smith of The New York Post concluded, "There probably aren't enough futuristic Goth rock musicals, but Repo! The Genetic Opera is weak on a couple of things a musical needs: music and lyrics." Nathan Lee for The New York Times declared the film "feels destined to please a campy coterie of fans and no one else" and criticized the music, saying, "A few catchy melodies, some clever lyrics or even a sense that the score wasn't just one long, unmodulated track might have energized this singularly inert tale..." Tasha Robinson  for The A.V. Club said, "One of the main issues with Repo! The Genetic Opera is that nearly every aspect of it goes on too long. The songs are generally overextended, which is a particular problem given that most of them are also atonal and dull, either chanted or seemingly assembled from a series of clunky, ill-fitting, barely rhyming lines." And ultimately "...I spent the vast majority of the film either bored or squirming with discomfort over the cheap gore, the arrhythmic songs, and the phenomenally bombastic performances..."

Box office
Repo! grossed $53,684 in its opening weekend, a $6,711 average per theater. The film's full eleven-theater release earned $146,750 in the United States, and an additional $41,376 internationally, for a total of $188,126 worldwide.

Accolades
Hilton's performance won her the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress at the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards. The songs "Chase the Morning", "Chromaggia" and "Zydrate Anatomy" were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, although none were nominated.

References

External links

2000s American films
2000s musical films
2000s English-language films
2008 horror films
2008 films
2008 science fiction films
American dystopian films
American musical films
American post-apocalyptic films
American satirical films
American science fiction horror films
American splatter films
Biopunk films
Circus films
Fiction set in 2056
Films about organ transplantation
Films based on musicals
Films directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Films set in 2056
Films shot in Toronto
Golden Raspberry Award winning films
Goth subculture
Gothic horror films
Lionsgate films
Rock operas
Science fiction musical films
Sung-through musical films

Repo! The Genetic Opera


The Swedish Code of Statutes (, Swedish law collection; SFS) contains the chronological session laws of the Riksdag, regulations of the Government, and ordinances, collectively called .

SFS numbers
Every document has an SFS number, including legislation amending already existing law. The number contained in the citation consists of a four digit year, a colon and then an incrementing number by year. For instance, the Instrument of Government is SFS 1974:152, with each amendment having its own SFS number. The amendments are usually referred to as (year:number) in the main law text.

Consolidation
SFS is not a law code because it does not systematize laws into a single, coherent body like the United States Code or US Code of Federal Regulations. Though  are reprinted, they are not regularly updated in the SFS like the Swiss Systematic Compilation of Federal Legislation (SR/RS). SFS is a chronological publication of laws and regulations, more like the United States Statutes at Large and Federal Register. Consolidated versions of  can be found through a combination of official online sources, legal databases, handbooks, and certain official publications.

 is an annually privately-published Swedish law book. It contains a selection of laws and other statutes in the SFS that are deemed to be of general interest. By tradition, the responsible publisher is usually a retired justice of the Supreme Court who has also been the chairman of the Supreme Court. Up until the 2010 edition, it was Torkel Gregow who had the assignment. From and including the 2011 edition, Johan Munck is the law book publisher. The book is published by the information publisher Norstedts Juridik. In its current form,  has been published since 1861.

History
The publication of SFS started in 1825. Before that,  were collected in print under the concept of  (Annual Print).

See also
 Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (PoIT)

References

External links
 SFS from the Regeringskansliet
 Government Office's legal databases (including consolidated versions and a statutes register) from the Regeringskansliet
 SFS in book format from the Regeringskansliet

Law of Sweden
Government gazettes

Swedish Code of Statutes


Willoughby v. Stever, 504 F.2d 271 (D. C. Cir. 1974) was an American legal decision in a case brought by evangelist William Willoughby against the National Science Foundation director H. Guyford Stever and the Board of Regents of the University of Colorado for using taxpayer money to fund textbooks developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) because they included evolution instruction.  Willoughby claimed the pro-evolution curriculum was by extension also promoting secular humanism as the "official religion of the United States," and thus violated the Establishment clause of the US Constitution. Willoughby accused scientists of "intellectual snobbery", and opposed tax revenues going to support education offensive to his religious views.  He argued that creationist education should be given the same tax payer funding as evolution education.

The lawsuit was dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on the grounds that the textbooks disseminated science, not religion. The Court also held that the Constitution's First Amendment prohibited states from demanding textbook teachings align with the religious beliefs of any particular group or individual.

The District Court ruling was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit on October 23, 1974.  The United States Supreme Court later refused to hear the case.

Related cases

References

Textbook controversies
United States creationism and evolution case law
1974 in United States case law
1973 in religion
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit cases
National Science Foundation
University of Colorado
Education controversies in the United States
Religious controversies in the United States

Willoughby v. Stever


John Elbert Wilkie (1860 – December 13, 1934) was an American journalist and Chief of the United States Secret Service from 1898 to 1911.

Journalist

At age 19, Wilkie joined the staff of the Chicago Times as a reporter.  His father, Frank B. Wilkie, was an editorial writer at the newspaper; the two traveled to Europe and served. Upon returning to the United States, Wilkie joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune, where he initially served as financial editor and later city editor.  While at the Tribune, Wilkie hired satirist Finley Peter Dunne.

On August 8, 1890, while working for the Tribune, Wilkie wrote a pseudonymous article that first described the Indian Rope Trick.  Featured on the front page of the paper's second section, it was soon picked up by newspapers throughout the United States and United Kingdom, and it was translated into nearly every European language.  Soon a number of people claimed to remember having seen the trick as far back as the 1850s.  Four months later, the Tribune printed a retraction noting the story had been "written for the purpose of presenting a theory in an entertaining form."  However, the notice of the hoax garnered little attention, and the myth of the Indian Rope Trick persisted for years.  When The People's Friend, a British weekly magazine, contacted the Tribune in order to contact individuals mentioned in the story, Wilkie wrote a personal note: "I am led to believe that the little story attracted more attention than I dreamed it could, and that many accepted it as perfectly true. I am sorry that anyone should have been deluded."

By 1893, Wilkie had moved to London to work on behalf of an American railroad and steamship office.  He returned to the United States in 1897 to go into private business.  Sometime in these years he began working with the United States Secret Service, though those who knew him personally were not aware of the fact until he became Chief of the bureau.

Secret Service
In early 1898, Wilke was appointed Chief of the United States Secret Service, succeeding William P. Hazen. Wilkie's task as Chief was to oversee the protection of important national officials, paramount of which was President William McKinley, foreign dignitaries visiting the United States, as well as combating the counterfeiting of currency. Hazen's tenure had ended in disarray: in 1894, the Secret Service had taken on the responsibility of protecting the President, invoking the ire of the Anti-Federalist lobby; meanwhile a major counterfeiting operation had forced the government to withdraw an entire currency issue. Hazen had been demoted and Wilkie selected to lead the office against the growing counterfeit problem.

The decision to appoint Wilkie was made by Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, who wanted to experiment with placing a newspaper man at the head of the bureau.

Wilkie directed counter-intelligence efforts during the Spanish–American War.

President Theodore Roosevelt's active lifestyle initially put him at odds with the Secret Service; Wilkie eventually convinced the new President that the annoyance was in the interest of the country, his welfare, and the good of those assigned to protect him following the assassination of his predecessor William McKinley.

Later career

Wilkie also served as assistant to the president of the Chicago Surface Lines and vice president of the Chicago Railway company.

In fiction

Wilkie is featured prominently in the 2014 novel The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy, where he is portrayed as a loyal but combative subordinate to President William Howard Taft. (There is also a major twist in the story about his real identity.) Many elements of the U.S. Secret Service from the era, such as their weapons and commission books, are featured, as are several U.S. Secret Service agents. An online-only chapter of the book also depicts Wilkie at work in his office at the Treasury Building, which is described in detail.

He is also a character in S.M. Stirling's Tales of the Black Chamber trilogy, an alternate history of World War II in which he remains chief of the Secret Service under a third Theodore Roosevelt administration.

References

John Elbert Wilkie obituary. Time magazine
Norman Ansley. The United States Secret Service. An Administrative History. The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, Vol. 47, No. 1 (May - Jun., 1956), pp. 93–109
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (2002). Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence. Connecticut: Yale University Press
Wilkie, John. The Secret Service in the War. The American-Spanish War: A History by the War Leaders. Connecticut: Chas. C. Haskell & Son, 1899
WILKIE, FORMER HEAD OF SECRET SERVICE, IS DEAD. Surface Lines Official in Recent Years. Chicago Tribune Dec 14, 1934

External links

1860 births
1934 deaths
American male journalists
United States Secret Service agents
Directors of the United States Secret Service
Chicago Tribune people
People from Elgin, Illinois

John Wilkie


Victorian Farm is a British historical documentary TV series in six parts, first shown on BBC Two in January 2009, and followed by three Christmas-themed parts in December of the same year. The series, the second in the BBC historic farm series, recreates everyday life on a farm in Shropshire in the 1880s, using authentic replica equipment and clothing, original recipes and reconstructed building techniques. It was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television and filmed at a preserved Victorian era living museum farm, Acton Scott Historic Working Farm, Shropshire. The farming team was historian Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn.

Much use was made of period sources such as The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle-man, Field-worker, and Dairy-maid by Dr Henry Stephens, first published in London in 1844.

The series was one of BBC Two's biggest hits of 2009, with audiences of up to 3.8 million per episode. It was highly praised by reviewers.

A corollary miniseries, Victorian Farm Christmas, comprised three episodes aired at Christmastime in 2009.

An associated book by Langlands, Ginn and Goodman, also titled Victorian Farm, was published in 2009. The book reached number one on the Sunday Times best seller list in February 2009.

The series is a sequel to Tales from the Green Valley, shown on BBC Two in 2005. The BBC commissioned two follow-ups with the same production team and cast: Victorian Farm Christmas, which aired in December 2009, and Edwardian Farm, aired from November 2010. In September 2012 the same cast returned with the third instalment of the BBC Farm series: Wartime Farm. The fourth installment came in 2013, Tudor Monastery Farm. Various Christmas specials were also broadcast.

Episodes

Episode 1
This was first broadcast on Thursday 8 January 2009 at 9 pm.  The would-be farmers move into a disused cottage.  This requires much renovation: replacing the coal-burning range, cleaning the chimney and refuelling from a narrowboat on a nearby canal; cleaning the bedroom by removing dead birds, disinfecting against bedbugs with turpentine and salt, restoring the lime plaster and redecorating.

In accordance with custom, they assist in the threshing of the previous year's crop of wheat, using a steam-powered thresher.  A field is ploughed, harrowed and sown with the next year's crop using horse-drawn implements of the era.  Apples are picked, milled and pressed to make cider while other fruits and berries are preserved as a spicy chutney.

A flock of Shropshire ewes is acquired and the first meal is cooked and eaten: a leg of boiled mutton.

Episode 2
As winter draws on, animal fodder and shelter is provided.  Mangelwurzels are stored in a clamp and then chipped with period machinery to feed the cows.  A pigsty is built upon a foundation of bottles to provide insulation and three young Tamworth pigs and a pregnant Gloucestershire Old Spot sow are housed there upon completion. A ram is added to the sheep flock and marked with a raddle to ensure that he impregnates all the ewes, so that they will lamb in the spring.  A shire horse, named Clumper, is also added to the livestock and training in his use as a draught animal is performed.

Domestically, the weekly laundry is done in a Victorian style.  Stain removal is first performed, for example, using milk to remove an ink stain.  Then the clothes are hand-paddled, mangled and ironed over a period of several days.

Christmas is celebrated with a church service; the Victorian novelty of a Christmas tree; a plum pudding and a roast turkey; and presents are exchanged such as some hand-made braces.

Episode 3
New Year arrives and the farm needs emergency repairs, with the help of the woodsman, the blacksmith and the basket maker.  Ruth has a go at some traditional potions and remedies. When the wheat crop comes under attack, it is time for some pest control, Victorian style, as Alex and Peter join a pheasant hunt. Alex goes out catching rabbits with a team of Victorian poachers. And with spring around the corner, the first baby animals are ready to be born.

Episode 4
It is spring and there are lambs and pigs to be delivered, which means Alex and Peter need to master animal midwifery. A prized ewe is in danger and a lame horse may jeopardise vital work on the farm.  The team witness the birth of many chicks and ducklings, along with 8 (originally 9) piglets from the pig Princess.

The team turns to Victorian science in a bid to save their struggling crops. If they succeed, they will have something to celebrate at the May Day fair. If they fail, all their hard work will have been in vain.

Episode 5
In this episode, the team embarks on a trip by steam train, Ruth begins a tough task in the dairy, Alex tries his hand at beekeeping, the sheep get sheared using the latest time-saving technology, and the lengthening summer days allow Alex and Peter to try out the new Victorian sport of cricket. It is also time for the hay harvest, weather permitting.

Ruth makes cheddar cheese in the dairy with her daughter, Catherine Goodman, using milk from the cow Forget Me Not and rennet from a neighbour's male calf. The sheep shearing is a life saver because it turns out that the sheep have severe fly strike. It is Alex's birthday and Ruth makes him a cake and a picnic, while Peter buys him a book about setting up an apiary. The boys make a predator-proof cover for the landlord's raspberry patch.

Episode 6
It is the end of their year on the farm. They sell off the pigs and sheep they successfully bred and raised.  Ruth learns straw plaiting and makes a hat and cooks a Victorian style curry. Everything is now focused on the wheat harvest. Peter and Alex get the dray and a reaping and binding machine repaired and brew beer for the harvest. The harvest is completed just before the rain comes, with Ruth harvesting the last of the corn. Once the wheat is dried and stored they ring the church bells, enjoy a harvest festival and reflect upon their time on the farm. They hand over the key to their landlord and depart the farm.

Related programmes
A three-part follow-up series, Victorian Farm Christmas, was produced in 2009, in which Goodman, Langlands and Ginn return to the Acton Scott Estate after a year away to recreate preparations for a Victorian Christmas. The series was filmed in August and September 2009 and was broadcast on BBC Two beginning on 11 December 2009.  Other historians feature, such as Ivan Day and Professor Ronald Hutton. The windmill featured in the first programme was Wilton Windmill, Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire.

Because of the popularity of Victorian Farm, Lion Television went on to produce a daytime series, Ben Fogle's Escape in Time (a format devised by Victorian Farm producer David Upshal) in which families were given the opportunity to live at Acton Scott for a week, learning and competing in historical skills. The series was filmed back-to-back with Victorian Farm Christmas in September 2009 and shown in July 2010. Langlands, Ginn and Goodman did not appear, though the latter's daughter, Eve Goodman, did feature.

Victorian Pharmacy was a four-part series in a similar style to Victorian Farm, also made by Lion and shown on BBC Two in 2010. Filmed almost exclusively at Blists Hill Victorian Town, it revolved around a recreation of a Victorian chemist's shop and included Ruth Goodman among its presenters, with Victorian Farm narrator Stephen Noonan providing the voiceover.

DVD
The DVD of Victorian Farm is distributed by Acorn Media UK.

References

External links

Victorian Farm Christmas
Acton Scott Historic Working Farm
Ruth Goodman website
Alex Langlands website

2009 British television series debuts
2009 British television series endings
Reenactment of the late modern period
Historical reality television series
Television series by All3Media
English-language television shows
Television shows set in Shropshire
BBC historic farm series
BBC television documentaries about history during the 18th and 19th centuries
Television shows about agriculture

Victorian Farm


Wang Min (; born November 1956) is a Chinese politician from eastern China's Shandong province. He served as the Communist Party Secretary of Jinan, the top political position in the provincial capital, between 2011 and 2014.

In December 2014 Wang was placed under investigation by the Communist Party's anti-corruption agency. Wang was the first provincial-ministerial official from Shandong province to be investigated in the province since the nationwide anti-graft campaign began in 2012.  Wang was an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Biography
Wang was born and raised in Jiyang County, Shandong. In June 1974, during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent down to the countryside, to spend time performing manual labour in Dongchangfu District of the city of Liaocheng. He then successively served in minor leadership roles on his production brigade and then became deputy party chief of the town of Zhulaozhuang.

He attended Shandong Normal University from 1978 to 1982, graduating with a bachelor's Degree in law.

Beginning in 1982, he served in several posts in Communist Party's Shandong provincial research office, eventually rising to become deputy director, then director of the office. There he performed routine policy research for the party in its economics department and "comprehensive department." In December 1991, he was transferred to Jinan, capital of Shandong province, and worked at the General Office of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee. By June 1998, Wang had become the deputy Secretary-General of the provincial party committee, and one of the top secretaries working under then Shandong party chief Zhang Gaoli.

Wang then successively served as head of the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Committee, Deputy Secretary-General, and was promoted to the provincial Party Standing Committee in January 2005. He became the provincial party committee's Secretary-General in October 2006. This position, essentially analogous to chief of staff to the party secretary, was in charge of implementing party policy in the province as well as overseeing administrative affairs. It was one of the highest ranking positions in the province.

As he had a background in propaganda, Wang was named a producer and "chief supervisor" of a 2008 TV series, Journey to the Northeast (, and was one of the lyricists for the award-winning program when he was head of the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Committee.

In December 2011, Wang became the Communist Party Secretary of Jinan, the top political post in the provincial capital, while retaining his seat on the province's top governing body. In early 2014, as the anti-corruption campaign was just beginning to sweep through China, Wang warned other officials to "remain clean" and that if they make mistakes, "no one can save them."

On December 18, 2014, state media reported that he was being investigated by the CCP's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for "serious violations of laws and regulations". The party investigation concluded that Wang had abused his power to secure promotions to subordinates and further the business interests of his family and his associates, and took "massive bribes." Wang was the first major official from Shandong province implicated in the anti-corruption campaign that began in 2013. Wang was expelled from Communist Party on February 17, 2015, and his case moved to judicial authorities for prosecution. Wang Min was sentenced to 12 years on September 30, 2016.

References

1956 births
Politicians from Jinan
Living people
Political office-holders in Shandong
Shandong Normal University alumni
Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shandong
People's Republic of China politicians from Shandong
Expelled members of the Chinese Communist Party
Alternate members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
Chinese politicians convicted of corruption

Wang Min (politician, born 1956)


Iris Turner Kelso (December 10, 1926 – November 2, 2003) was a Mississippi-born journalist who worked for three newspapers in  New Orleans, Louisiana, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Background

Iris Turner was born in  Philadelphia in Neshoba County in central Mississippi, a community which received national attention in the summer of 1964 because of the murder there of three young civil rights workers. Her mother, Lois Molpus Turner, died when Iris was only four, and she was reared by her father, Homer Brown Turner, her grandparents, and other extended family. She graduated from Philadelphia High School,  the then Ward-Belmont Junior College in Nashville, Tennessee, and Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she majored in English.

She returned to Mississippi in 1948 to work on the staff of the Hattiesburg American in Hattiesburg in southern Mississippi. Though she covered small-town news in Hattiesburg, her interest lay in politics. Her family had long been active in reform Democratic politics; indeed Homer Turner had been a colonel on the staff of Governor Hugh L. White of Mississippi, who served from 1936 to 1940 and again from 1952 to 1956.

Journalist in New Orleans
Encouraged by her editor in Hattiesburg, she moved to New Orleans in 1951 to work for the former New Orleans States-Item newspaper, an afternoon daily. She was not the first woman journalist in visible positions in New Orleans, for at least two others had preceded her in such work. Walter G. Cowan (c. 1911–2010), her boss at The States-Item, described her as a "natural reporter. It was obvious to me right off that she had the ability to talk to people and retain their confidence, even though she had to ask embarrassing questions. It's the kind of thing that rattles new reporters, but she always kept her composure."

After three years, The States-Item assigned Kelso in 1954 to the City Hall beat while deLesseps Story Morrison was the long-term mayor. She began contributing to the weekly magazine Figaro, part of the reconfigured States-Item, a combination of two afternoon newspapers. In 1959, she was sent to Baton Rouge to cover the Louisiana State Legislature, then an all-Democratic body of 144 members in both houses. Her most sensational story was the confinement and release of Governor Earl Kemp Long from a mental institution, a matter which drew national attention. She recalled having once interviewed Long in his long-handles underwear.

In 1960, Iris Turner wed Robert N. Kelso, a States-Item copy editor, who died of a lengthy illness in 1972. The couple had no children.

Kelso covered the civil rights movement and desegregation of New Orleans public schools when those activities were mostly unpopular by white voters. She attended the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which nominated the Johnson-Humphrey ticket and is remembered for the fight over the Mississippi state delegation between party regulars and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

From 1965 to 1967, she worked for a federal War on Poverty program called Total Community Action. She was assigned to a Head Start operation to establish a medical and dental program for underprivileged children. She won a George Foster Peabody Award for an investigative series "City in Crisis", a study of municipal finances. While still writing for Figaro, she began broadcasting a weekly political commentary program, Saturday Politics, on the New Orleans NBC station WDSU-TV, where she was employed from 1967 to 1978. She attended the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City, which confirmed the successful Carter-Mondale ticket. At Figaro, Kelso wrote a series of stories on her own family, including a focus on her first cousin, Turner Catledge, a former managing editor of The New York Times.

She did not join The Times-Picayune, her last employer, until 1979. She continued with Figaro, by then a separate magazine, in which she  revealed the story of the feuding sons of the late political boss Leander Perez and the breakup of their political empire and oil lands in nearby Plaquemines Parish. She covered David Duke, the former figure in the Ku Klux Klan who served briefly in the state legislature and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and for governor. Other Kelso topics included female politicians, the environment, abortion, teenage pregnancy, and the nationally known Neshoba County Fair in her native Neshoba County, where Ronald W. Reagan in 1980 launched his general election campaign. She listed Eleanor Roosevelt as her single most interesting interviewee and Edwin Edwards as the most interesting of the six governors that she covered, but she determined that her readers especially enjoyed her columns on her own family.

Legacy
Upon Kelso's death in 2003, Clancy Dubos, a New Orleans columnist in his Internet publication Gambit, called Kelso "the last of the Steel Magnolias." In reference to Kelso's journalistic integrity, Dubos recalled his own father saying that a Kelso column was the "last word on politics" in their household. Dubos recalled that Kelso had taken time for him to interview her for his graduate thesis, but years later she could hardly recall having done the favor for Dubos.

In 1997, Kelso was inducted into the Louisiana Center for Women and Government Hall of Fame located at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. In 1999, Kelso, along with two other New Orleans figures, political scientist and commentator Ed Renwick and former Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris, was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. Kelso's papers were deposited posthumously at the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.

External links
 A photograph of Iris Kelso is available on-line courtesy of the Historic New Orleans Collection.

References

1926 births
2003 deaths
Journalists from Louisiana
American columnists
American television reporters and correspondents
People from Philadelphia, Mississippi
Ward–Belmont College alumni
Randolph–Macon College alumni
Louisiana Democrats
Peabody Award winners
Journalists from Mississippi
20th-century American journalists

Iris Kelso


Andrzej Stanisław Julian Dunajewski (in German literature known as Andreas Dunajewski) (August 3, 1908, Wola Justowska - August 1944 ) was a Polish zoologist and ornithologist.

Life and career
Born in Wola Justowska to Stanisław Dunajewski and Zofia from Madeyski, Andreas went to school in Vienna where his father worked before moving to Poland, graduated from the Junior High School and went on to study in  Kraków at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University. His master's thesis work was conducted under the guidance of Prof. Henryk Hoyer and was on lymphatic vessels. One of his findings was the suggestion that the caudal heart of fish pumped lymph, a theory that is no longer considered valid. He worked in the national zoological museum as an assistant to Janusz Domaniewski from 1933 to 1939 and worked briefly in Berlin with Prof. Erwin Stresemann. He received a doctorate from the University of Warsaw but joined the resistance during the war and fought in the Warsaw Uprising and died, possibly in a chemical attack, along with his wife and daughter in the Old Town.

His work was mainly on bird taxonomy and on bird research in Wołyń and Czarnohora, and near Włoszczowa.

 Dunajewski, A. (1948). New races of the Brown Owl, Hedge-Sparrow and a new species of Attila; also a new genus of Cotingidae. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, 68:130-132. (Posthumously published where the genus Akletos is established)

 Dunajewski, A. (1936) Materialien zur Verbreitung des Fishreihers (Ardea cinerea cinerea Linn.) in Polen. Acta Ornithologica Musei Zoologici Polonici 1(15):1-38.
 Dunajewski, A. (1936) Materialien zum Vorkomen des Schwarzstorches (Ciconia nigra Linn.) in Polen. Acta Ornithologica Musei Zoologici Polonici 2(1):1-25.
 Dunajewski, A. (1934) Die einheimischen Formen der Familie Turdidae. Acta Ornithologica Musei Zoologici Polonici 1(9):275-298.
 Dunajewski, A. (1931) Verzeichnis der im Quellengebeit der Flusse Nida und Pilica (Kreis Wloszczowa) beohachteten Vogel. Fragmenta Faunistica Musei Zoologici Polonici 1(14):372-386.
 Dunajewski, A. (1930) Die Lymphgefüsse im Rumpfe des Aales (Anguilla Anguilla L.).  Bull. int Acad. pol. Sci. Lett. Ser.  B. II. pp. 467–478.

See also
List of Jagiellonian University people

References

External links
 Polish database

Jagiellonian University alumni
Polish ornithologists
20th-century Polish zoologists
1908 births
1944 deaths
Warsaw Uprising insurgents
Polish civilians killed in World War II
Scientists from Kraków

Andrzej Dunajewski


A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibrations at certain frequencies, known as resonances. The frequency and strength of the resonances of the body of a musical instrument have a significant impact on the tone quality it produces. The air inside the chamber has its own resonances, and these interact with the resonances of the body, altering the resonances of the instrument as a whole. The sound box typically adds resonances at lower frequencies, enhancing the lower-frequency response of the instrument.

The distinctive sound of an instrument with a sound box owes a lot to the alteration made to the tone. A sound box is found in most string instruments. The most notable exceptions are some electrically amplified instruments like the solid body electric guitar or the electric violin, and the piano which uses only a sound board instead. Drumhead lutes such as the banjo or erhu have at least one open end of the sound box covered with animal skin (or a skin-like acrylic material). Open back banjos are normally used for clawhammer and frailing, while those used for bluegrass have the back covered with a resonator.

In some arrangements, loudspeakers are also mounted on a sound box to enhance their output, particularly bass speakers. One notable example of this arrangement is called the bass reflex enclosure. However, in these cases the box resonance is carefully tuned so as to make the sound more equal across frequencies, rather than to impart a particular character to the reinforced sound.

 Acoustic guitar
 Basic physics of the violin
 Filter (signal processing)
 Frequency response
 Resonance chamber

References

String instrument construction

Sound box