Marwadi-Agarwal: Deccan
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[edit] Marwadi-Agarwal
This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS BY SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and Middle Temple, London. One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. BOMBAY THE TlMES PRESS 1920 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
[edit] (Titles : — Set and Lai.)
The Agarwals take their name from Raja Agarsen, who is sup- posed to have been a descendant of Raja Dhanpal, the original ances- tor of the sub-caste. According to a legendary account, Kumud, king of the Nagas (serpents), gave his beautiful daughter Madhavi in marriage to Raja Agarsen in preference to Indra who was one of her suitors. The Raja performed seventeen sacrifices, each being attended with the birth of a son to him. Before the eighteenth sacrifice was completed, the Raja was so filled with disgust at the ani- mal slaughter it involved that he stopped it when half -finished. The seventeen sons became tlie founders of the 1 7 gotras, while the son born in virtue of the 18th sacrifice represented the half gotra Govin.
The names of the eighteen sections are as follows : —
(1) Gargya (10) Air an
(2) Govil (11) Tairan
(3) Cawal (12) Thingal
(4) Batsil (13) Tittal
(5) Kasil (14) Mitral
(6) Singhal. . (15) Tundal
(7) Mangal . (16) Tayal
(8) Bhaddal . (17) Gobhil
(9) Tingal (18) Covin.
The snake is regarded as the maternal uncle by the members of these sections and is held in great honour, being neither killed nor molested.
The Agarwalas are divided into two classes. (1) Bisa Agarwala and (2) Dasa Agarwala, the latter being the illegitimate offspring of an Agarwala by a Sudra woman. These two classes will neither interdine nor intermarry.
[edit] Marriage
Both infant and adult marriages are in vogue. Polygamy is theoVetically permitted but is rarely practised. Divorce is unknown. Widows are not allowed to marry again. A woman taken in adultery is expelled from the caste. The marriage cere- mony does not differ from that of the Mesris except that the bride is not carried round the bridegroom at the Torana but both make all the 7 pheras (circumambulations) round the sacrificial fire.
[edit] Religion
In matters of religion the Agarwalas are either Hindus of the Vaishnava sect, or Jains of the Digamber sect. As among the Mesris, intermarriages between the members of these two sects are freely allowed. Their special goddess is Laxmi, worship- ped in the Divali festival. Chunnayati (Marwari) Brahmins serve them as priests.
The Agarwalas are an enterprising people and have spread all over the country. They are bankers, shop-keepers, money-lenders. The social status of the Agarwalas is as high as that of the Mesris and other mercantile classes of Marwar.
