manvar surname caste in gujarat manvar surname caste in gujarat

In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. The small endogamous units, on the other hand, did not practise either. In the second-order divisions of the Vanias the small endogamous units functioned more effectively and lasted longer: although the hypergamous tendency did exist particularly between the rural and the urban sections in a unit, it had restricted play. A new view of the whole, comprising the rural and the urban and the various orders of caste divisions, should be evolved. The Rajput hierarchy had many levels below the level of the royal families of the large and powerful kingdoms: lineages of owners of large and small fiefs variously called jagir, giras, thakarat,thikana, taluka, and wanted-, lineages of substantial landowners under various land tenures having special rights and privileges; and lineages of small landowners. It has been pointed out earlier that an emphasis on the principle of division existed in the caste system in urban centres in traditional India. : 11-15, 57-75). Whatever the internal organization of a second-order division, the relationship between most of the Brahman second-order divisions was marked by great emphasis on being different and separate than on being higher and lower. 91. Even if we assume, for a moment, that the basic nature of a structure or institution was the same, we need to know its urban form or variant. Further, during this lengthy process of slow amalgamation those who will marry in defiance of the barriers of sub-caste, will still be imbued with caste mentality (1932: 184). Indian textiles especially of Gujarat have been praised in several accounts by explorers and historians, from Megasthenes to Herodotus. <> Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. At one end there were castes in which the principle of hierarchy had free play and the role of the principle of division was limited. For example, if they belonged to two different second-order divisions, such as Shrimali and Modh, the punishment would be greater than if they belonged to two different ekdas within the Shrimali or the Modh division. All of this information supports the point emerging from the above analysis, that frequently there was relatively little concern for ritual status between the second-order divisions within a first- order division than there was between the first-order divisions. Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. Although the people of one tad would talk about their superiority over those of another tad in an ekda, and the people of one ekda over those of another in a higher-order division, particularly in large towns where two or more tads and ekdas would be found living together, there was no articulate ranking and hypergamy among them. In central Gujarat, for example, one and the same division, freely arranging marriages within it, was known by several names such as Baraiya, Dharala, Khant, Kotwal, Pagi, Patelia, Talapada, Thakarada, and Thakor. In 1931, the Rajputs of all strata in Gujarat had together a population of about 35,000 forming nearly 5 per cent of the total population of Gujarat. The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. Gujarat- A state in India. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. Frequently, each such unit had a patron deity, housed in a large shrine, with elaborate arrangements for its ownership. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. The prohibition of inter-division marriage was much more important than the rules of purity and pollution in the maintenance of boundaries between the lower-order divisions. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! Nevertheless, a breakdown of the population of Gujarat into major religious, caste and tribal groups according to the census of 1931 is presented in the following table to give a rough idea of the size of at least some castes. Further, the castes there are unable to take cognizance of each other in terms of hierarchy or of occupation, and it is in this situation that they can be said to exist by virtue of their differences (296) it is the systematic recognition of difference which is most apparent. The Kayatias main occupation was to perform a ritual on the eleventh day after death, during which they took away offerings made to ghosts: this was the main cause of their extremely low status among Brahmans. The Kayasthas and Brahma-Kshatriyas, the so- called writer castes, employed mainly in the bureaucracy, and the Vahivancha Barots, genealogists and mythographers, were almost exclusively urban castes. Let us now return to a consideration of the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the third or the fourth order. Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? Although the number of inter-ekda marriages has been increasing, even now the majority of marriages take place within an ekda. Created Date: Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. Such a description not only overlooks the diversity and complexity of caste divisions and the rural-urban Link- ages in them but also leads to placing them in the same category as Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and so on. There was considerable elaboration in urban areas of what Ghurye long ago called the community aspect of caste (1932: 179) and frequently, this led to juxtaposition rather than hierarchy between caste divisions of the same order. The Rajputs in Radhvanaj, the village I have studied in central Gujarat, had no great difficulty in establishing their claim to being Rajputs: they owned substantial amounts of land under a traditional Rajput tenure, dominated village politics and possessed certain other traditional Rajput symbols. It is noteworthy that many of their names were based on names of places (region, town, or village): for example, Shrimali and Mewada on the Shrimal and Mewar regions in Rajasthan, Modh on Modhera town in north Gujarat, and Khedawal on Kheda town in central Gujarat. Second, there used to be intense intra-ekda politics, and tads were formed as a result of some continuing conflict among ekda leaders and over the trial of violation of ekda rules. This bulk also was characterized by hierarchy, with the relatively advanced population living in the plains at one end and the backward population living along with the tribal population in the highlands at the other end. The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. Disclaimer 9. While almost all the social structures and institutions which existed in villagesreligion, caste, family, and so onalso existed in towns, we should not assume that their character was the same. Almost all the myths about the latter are enshrined in the puranas (for an analysis of a few of them, see Das 1968 and 1977). They married their daughters into higher Rajput lineages in the local area who in turn married their daughters into still higher nearly royal rajput lineages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. More of them were located in the plains, than in the bordering highlands. We shall return to this issue later. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . Limitations of the holistic view of caste, based as it is mainly on the study of the village, should be realized in the light of urban experience. They co-existed in the highlands with tribes such as the Bhils, so much so that today frequently many high caste Gujaratis confuse them with Bhils, as did the earlier ethnographers. Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. The Khedawals, numbering 15,000 to 20,000 in 1931 were basically priests but many of them were also landowners, government officials, and traders. In some other cases, mainly of urban artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, such as Kansaras (copper and bronze smiths), Salvis (silk weavers), Kharadis (skilled carpenters and wood carvers), Chudgars (bangle-makers) and Vahivanchas genealogists and mythographers), the small populations were so small and confined to so few towns that they had few subdivisions and the boundaries of their horizontal units were fairly easy to define. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. The division had an elaborate internal hierarchy, with wealthy and powerful landlords and tax-farmers at the top and small landholders, tenants and labourers at the bottom. The main thrust of Pococks paper is that greater emphasis on difference rather than on hierarchy is a feature of caste among overseas Indians and in modern urban India. These coastal towns were involved in trade among themselves, with other towns on the rest of the Indian sea coast, and with many foreign lands. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. On the other hand, there was an almost simultaneous spurt in village studies. That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. The associations activities in the field of marriage, such as reform to customs, rituals and ceremonies, and encouragement of inter-divisional marriages, are also seen by the members as a service to the nationas the castes method of creating a casteless modern society. This list may not reflect recent changes. Thus, finding any boundary between Rajputs and Kolis in the horizontal context was impossible, although there were sharp boundaries between the two in the narrow local context. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. Since Vankars were involved in production and business they were known as Nana Mahajans or small merchants. In particular, the implications of the co-existence of lower-order divisions within a higher- order division in the same town or city should be worked out. Hypergamy was accompanied by sanskritization of at least a section of the tribal population, their claim to the Kshatriya Varna and their economic and political symbiosis with the caste population. One of the reasons behind underplaying of the principle of division by Dumont as well as by others seems to be the neglect of the study of caste in urban areas (see Dumonts remarks in 1972: 150). Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . In a paper on Caste among Gujaratis in East Africa, Pocock (1957b) raised pointedly the issue of the relative importance of the principles of division (he called it difference) and hierarchy. Rajput hypergamy seems to have provided an important mechanism for integration of the lower caste and tribal population into the Hindu society over the entire length and breadth of northern, western, central and even eastern India. More common was an ekda or tad having its population residing either in a few neighbouring villages, or in a few neighbouring towns, or in both. Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. The institutions of both bride and bridegroom price (the latter also called dowry) were rampant in castes with continuous internal hierarchydowry mainly at the upper levels, bride price mainly at the lower levels, and both dowry and bride price among status-seeking middle level families. Here, usually, what mattered was the first-order division, as for example Brahman, Vania, Rajput, Kanbi, carpenter, barber, leather-worker, and so on. Castes pervaded by divisive tendencies had small populations confined to small areas separated from each other by considerable gaps. This stratum among the Kanbis coped with the problem mainly by practising remarriage of widows and divorced women. He does not give importance to this possibility probably because, as he goes on to state, what is sought here is a universal formula, a rule without exceptions (ibid.). There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. The castes of the three categoriesprimarily urban, primarily rural, and rural-cum-urbanformed an intricate network spread over the rural and urban communities in the region. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. Not only that, there were also third-order divisions (i.e., ekdas) in one or more second-order divisions, and finally one or more fourth-order divisions (i.e., tads) in one or more third-order divisions. The method is to remove first the barriers of the divisions of the lowest order and then gradually those of one higher order after another. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. manvar surname caste in gujarat. The Brahmans and Vanias seem to have had the largest number of divisions as mentioned earlier, about eighty in the former and about forty in the latter. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. Although it has been experiencing stresses and strains and has had ups and downs on account of the enormous diversity between the royal and the tribal ends, it has shown remarkable solidarity in recent years. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. The name, Talapada, meaning mdigenous, commonly used in the 19th century, is most clear, since it is clearly distinguished from the other division called Pardeshi, meaning foreign, who during the last one or two centuries immigrated here from the area around Patan in north Gujarat and were, therefore, also called Patan- wadias. These linkages played an important role in the traditional social structure as well as in the processes of change in modern India. 2 0 obj To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. Far too many studies of changes in caste in modern India start with a general model of caste in traditional India which is in fact a model of caste in traditional rural India. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. manvar surname caste in gujaratbest imperial trooper team swgoh piett. The Levas, Anavils and Khedawals provide examples of castes whose internal organization had a strong emphasis on the principle of hierarchy and a weak emphasis on that of division. While some hypergamous and hierarchical tendency, however weak, did exist between tads within an ekda and between ekdas within a second- order division, it was practically non-existent among the forty or so second-order divisions, such as Modh, Porwad, Shrimali, Khadayata and so on, among the Vanias. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. For example, just as there was a Shrimali division among Sonis (goldsmiths). For example, the Khadayata Brahmans worked as priests at important rituals among Khadayata Vanias. The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. They also continued to have marital relations with their own folk. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. This surname is most commonly held in India, where it is held by 2,496 people, or 1 in 307,318. The same problems would arise in the reverse direction if, as many scholars have done, the term caste cluster, caste complex or caste category is used for divisions of a higher order and the term caste or jati is used for divisions of a lower order. I would suggest that this feature of urban caste, along with the well known general tendency of urban culture to encourage innovation, provided the groundhowever diffuse that ground might have beenfor a favourable response to the anti-hierarchical ideas coming from the West. I know some ekdas, and tads composed of only 150 to 200 households. For example, the Patanwadia population was spread continuously from the Patan area to central Gujarat, and the Talapada population from central Gujarat to Pal. The two considered themselves different and separateof course, within the Kanbi foldwhere they happened to live together in the villages in the merger zone between north and central Gujarat and in towns. Pocock goes on to observe that diminution of emphasis upon hierarchy and increasing emphasis upon difference are features of caste in modern, particularly urban, India: there is a shift from the caste system to individual castes and this reflects the change that is taking place in India today (290). stream The two together formed a single complex of continental dimension. Most associations continue to retain their non-political character. As for the size of other castes, I shall make mainly relative statements. 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. Weaving and cloth trading communities of Western India particularly of Gujarat are called Vankar/Wankar/Vaniya. Jun 12, 2022 . One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. They wrote about the traditional Indian village, but not about the traditional Indian town. It reflects, on the one hand, the political aspirations of Kolis guided by the importance of their numerical strength in electoral politics and on the other hand, the Rajputs attempt to regain power after the loss of their princely states and estates. In central Gujarat, at least from about the middle of the 18th century, the population of the wealthy and powerful Patidar section of the Kanbis also lived in townsan extremely interesting development of rich villages into towns, which I will not describe here. Some of the other such divisions were Kathi, Dubla, Rabari, Bharwad, Mer (see Trivedi 1961), Vaghri, Machhi, Senwa, Vanzara, and Kharwa. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. The tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. The very low Brahmans such as Kayatias and Tapodhans were invited but made to eat separately from the rest of the Brahmans. endobj In the village strict prohibition of inter-division marriage as well as the rules of purity and pollution and other mechanisms, of which the students of Indian village communities are well aware since the 1950s, maintained the boundaries of these divisions. The co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of a lower order within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. Moreover, a single division belonging to any one of the orders may have more than one association, and an association may be uni-purpose or multi-purpose. Apparently this upper boundary of the division was sharp and clear, especially when we remember that many of these royal families practised polygyny and female infanticide until middle of the 19th century (see Plunkett 1973; Viswa Nath 1969, 1976). endobj The error is further compounded whenalthough this is less commonthe partial, rural model of traditional caste is compared with the present urban situation, and conclusions are drawn about overall change. Almost every village in this area included at least some Leva population, and in many villages they formed a large, if not the largest, proportion of the population. Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). In 1920 there were 2 Mehta families living in New Jersey. The point is that the Rajput hierarchy, with the princely families at the top, merged at the lower level imperceptibly into the vast sea of tribal and semi-tribal people like Bhils and Kolis. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. manvar surname caste in gujarat. Besides the myths, the members of a second-order division, belonging to all ekdas, shared certain customs and institutions, including worship of a tutelary deity. In any case, the population of any large caste was found in many kingdoms. And how flexibility was normal at the lowest level has just been shown. They then spread to towns in the homeland and among all castes. The earliest caste associations were formed in Bombay in the middle of the 19th century among migrants belonging to the primarily urban and upper castes from Gujarat, such as Vanias, Bhatias and Lohanas (see Dobbin 1972: 74-76, 121-30, 227f, 259-61). What may be called the census approach influenced a great deal of scholarly work. Most of them were, true to their name, rulers at various levels of the political hierarchy from the kingly level to the level of dominant caste in many villages. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. There was also another important correlation. There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. An important idea behind the activities of caste associations is: service to ones caste is service to the nation. To give just one example, one large street in Baroda, of immigrant Kanbis from the Ahmedabad area, named Ahmedabadi Pol, was divided into two small parallel streets.