The Chitpavan or Chitpawan, also known as Konkanastha Brahmins (कोकणस्थ ब्राह्मण), are a Smarta Brahmin community of Konkan, the coastal region of western Maharashtra in India.

Unheard of before 1700, the Chitpavan Brahmins of Maharashtra had come to dominate the fields of social reform, law, scholarship, government service and the arts by the nineteenth century. Their two names, Konkanasth and Chitpavan, suggest their origins. The first indicates the rocky, unyielding land in the Ratnagiri district of the Konkan, which they have traditionally farmed. All Konkanasths can trace their history as far as the Konkan. The name, Chitpavan, would seem to have come from the Konkan town of Chitpol. When you spot a Maharashtrian with blue or green eyes, ten to one he is a Chitpavan. And his fair colouring suggests a foreign origin. A history of the Bene Israelis, who settled in the Kolaba district of the Konkan, claims the Chitpavans as fellow Jews who became separated from their shipmates. Other accounts have guessed at a homeland anywhere from Iran to just north of Sholapur.

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Image :
Peshwa Madhavrao II with Nana Fadnavis and attendants, at Pune in 1792