Naramdevs

Narmdiya Brahmins also transliterated Naramdev are desendents of the priests of somnath temple who forced to migrate from Gujrat to Madhyapradesh and sedenterized along the bank of Narmada river. There migration owes to the forays and desacration of somnath temple by cruel islamic invader Mahmud Ghazni. Its member regard themselves as Manasputra of river Narmada. Naramdevs are considered as Panchdravida Brahmin. They belongs to around 40 gotras and are follower of shukla Yajurveda, of Madhyandini, a sub-branch, under Vajsaneyi branch. Most of them are concentrated in three district of Madhya Pradesh ie Harda, Khandwa and Khargone.

Guru of Adi guru Shankaracharya Sri Govind gaudpad Acharya belogs to Naramdev. Govindacharya initiated Shankar on the bank of river Narmada in Omkareshwar

Gothras and Pravaras

Each Naramdev male (or unmarried female) is identified by his/her respective paternal family name. A married female adopts her husband's family name. Each family is affiliated to a Gothra and Pravara. The Gothra name demonstrates the family's traditional style of knowledge acquisition and expertise in ancient theories. Based on the fact that cross-breeding of excellent but different species yields better quality, marriage from a family belonging to the same Gothra was and is still banned for Naramdevs. Looking from another angle, Naramdevs believe that marriage from the same Gothra has a better chance of generating mentally retarded or physically handicapped children or at least children of less intellectual capacity. Each Gothra has several sub-classes known as Pravara.

Common gothra (and their pravara in brackets) among Naramdevs are Kashyap or kashiv(vatsaranya, Naidhruv, Kashyap), Koushik (Viswaamithra, devrat), Vaatsa ( Bhaargava,Purodhas ), Vats(Jaamadagnyam, Bhaargava, Chyavan, aurav, alpwan), Maunas(Bhargava, savev, Maunas), Shandilya(Aasit, deval), Chandrayan(Kuts, Kutseti), Atre(Gavishter, Purvtithya), Vashishtha(Mitra, Varun, Koandilya), Gargava(Shankaradevi, Brahaspati), Markendeya(Jamdagni, Bhargava, Chyavan, Aurv), Katyayni(Vishwamitra, Aaghmarshan), Bharadwaj(Aangiras, Brahaspati), Parashar(Shakti, vashishtha) etc.