Rajesh Kochhar

Brahmin’s Brahminism can be innovative. There was a very celebrated Pt Umapati Dvivedi (1853-1911) based in Ayodhya. ( His own family name in fact was Mishra). Pt Umapati considered himself to be an incarnation of Rishi Vasishth, the same Vasishth who was King Dashrath’s purohit and who presided over the putreshti yagya. Umapati treated himself as Ram’s purohit and him as his yajamaan. Whenever Umapati came to the Kanak Bhavan in Ayodhya and went to the Ram temple, he removed phool mala from around his own neck and put it across Ram’s. In addition he gave him his blessings and wished for Ram’s long life. ( Ref: Upadhyaya, Baldev (1994) Kashi ki Panditya Parampara ( Varanasi: Vishvavidyalay Prakashan), pp. 379-380.)