The king of the country sent for him one day and asked him to cause the water in a tank to burn. The Brāhman saw no way of doing this, and returned homewards uneasy in his mind. On the way he met a distiller who asked him to explain what troubled him. When the Brāhman told his story the distiller promised to cause the water to burn on condition that the Brāhman gave him his daughter in marriage. T
his the Brahman agreed to do, and the distiller, after surreptitiously pouring large quantities of liquor into the tank, set fire to it in the presence of the king. In accordance with the agreement he married the daughter of the Brahman and the pair became the ancestors of the Sundi caste. In confirmation of the story it is alleged that up to the present day the women of the caste maintain the recollection of their Brāhman ancestors by refusing to eat fowls or the remains of their husbands’ meals. Nor will they take food from the hands of any other caste.And also ladies of this caste are not eating Chicken,Mutton and eggs. In modern day, many are leading “distillers of alcohol” and hold big business houses. Now they are also growing in number in the software industry, service industry and can be found serving the government as well. Originally they are from Orissa . Districts such as Angul,Berhampur,Bhubaneshwar,Denkanal, Ganjam,jajpur,Koraput and Rayagada are most common place to find a sundhi family . Some are well educated , well established and some are in very high society family. Many modern day Sundhi are major alcohol distillers, while others are involved in the software and service industries as well as in government roles. This caste is also found in the northeast districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh where they are also known as Sondi and as Baniya or Sudi in the rest of India. They also live in some parts of West Bengal and other parts of the country. In Bengal, there are more than six lakhs of Sundhi resident in western Bengal and Bihār as well as in Orissa. The caste is divided into the Upper Sundhi (Dakshini Sundhi) and the Lower Sundhi (also known as Gajabhatia Sundhior Kira Sundhi).this sundhi caste is often mistaken with kamma caste in andhra pradesh.kammas re different from sundhis.this notion exists as the both castes have a common title’chowdary’. Most of the Sundhis are well educated, particularly those from Andhra Pradesh and Orissa they form one of the wealthy sects of the upper coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, mostly found in the Srikakulam District (Ichapuram to Srikakulam). Some immigrants are seen in other places including Hyderabad where there are about 200 families distributed across many sectors of activity.
