Mukherjee (Bengali: মুখার্জি), also Mukerjee, Mookerjea, Mookerjee, Mukerji, Mukherji, Mukhujje or Mookherjee, is a Bengali HinduKulin Brahmin surname originating from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent.[1] The traditional Bengali version is Mukhopaddhae, which is sometimes written Mukhopadhyay.
All Mukherjees belong to the Bharadvaja gotra or the clan of the rishiBharadvaja. The Mukherjees belong to the Kulin Brahmin class and are also classified as Rarhi Brahmin group of Bengali Brahmin caste.[1] The origins of most of the Brahmins in Southern Bengal can be traced back to the Gangetic plains of Northern India, from the ancient city of Kanyakubja (Kannauj). It is believed that in the 11th century CE, the ruler of Bengal, Adisara, summoned five Brahmins from Kanyakubja, who were known for their superior rank to the region. These Vedic Brahmins were supposed to have nine gunas (favoured attributes), among which was insistence on same rank marriages.[2] Though the first wave of Brahmin migration to Bengal started during the Maurya period and the JainAcharyaBhadrabahu – regarded to be the preceptor of Chandragupta Maurya – is said to have been born in Brahmin family of Pundravardhana (or Puṇḍra), the medium to large scale migrations of Brahmins from other parts of India to Bengal, especially from the ancient Kanyakubja region, happened during the last part of the Buddhist Pala Empire and early part of Hindu Sena dynasty.[3][4] This region is known as Radha or Rarh Bhoomi, leading to these clans of Brahmins being categorised as Radhi or Rarhi Brahmins.
For several decades from the 1970s to the 1990s, the West Bengal Higher Secondary board mandatorily changed all spelling variants (Mukherjee, Mukerjee, Mookerjea, Mookerji etc.) to Mukhopadhyay (as was done with Bannerjee, Ganguly, etc.)
This page lists people with the surnameMukherjee. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.