The much maligned twice born.

Up north or down south the Brahmin who belongs to the priestly caste are applauded for their scholastic merits but derided for lacking in bravery ,courage and physical prowess ,the hall mark of a man.

In Bollywood films a caricature of the Brahmin as a Panditji covering himself in saffron shawl i.e printed all over with the sacred name Ram,Ram ,running comically for cover at the slightest sign of violence or disturbance wrought by villains ,is the standard depiction,which is repeated in every film.

Down south i.e in TamilNadu the Dravidian parties don't take umbrage under films to deride this community but vent their spleen on the streets itself and show their repugnance to this minority community by squeezing them out of premier educational institutions and govt jobs by following an astronomical 70 % reservations.

The general misconception that a Brahmin will turn tail at the first sight of blood or resistance will be dispelled on turning the pages of Indian history.

When Alexander the great , invaded India in 325 BC with his sights fixed on the rich empire of the mighty Nanda's on the banks of river Ganges,he encountered a village inhabited by Brahmins who fought fiercely and bravely for several weeks to the last man to keep the invader away thus delaying and frustrating his goal.

It was the courageous efforts of Adi Shankara a Brahmin scholar and sanyasi belonging to 8 th century AD to singlehandily combat the spread of religions that derided the Veda's ,by traversing this subcontinent on foot from Kanyakumari to Kailash that succeeded in reviving Hinduism to its former glory.It was his courage and determination that induced him to take on the proponents of other religions which had the might of the state behind them ,single handily ,that the common Indian population was freed to worship their numerous deities in whatever form they wished .

Ramanuja a Brahmin scholar a century later had the courage to climb on the temple tower and proclaim the sacred mantra Narayana a closely guarded secret of the upper castes,to all castes at the pain of excommunication by his own community .He shrugged off the threat that he was surrendering his place in Vaikundam by revealing the sacred mantra by replying that he was prepared to lose his place if 1000 others could secure it.

During the height of British rule in India when they boasted that the sun never set in theBritish empire confident of their hegemony over the entire world it was the bravery f a Brahmin youth Vanchinatha Aiyer of shooting dead a tyrannical British Governor Ashe in 1911 near Madurai Railway junction and then taking his own life in preference of it being taken by the English that set in motion an unquenchable thirst for freedom amongst the youth of India.