Helavi
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A backgrounder
Maratha Reservation: The Helvi community, originally from Belgaum, has a genealogical record dating back hundreds of years in the villages of southern Maharashtra.
Helavi Samaj History : To give reservation to the Maratha community in Marathwada, the work is going on to find the records of Nizam period of 50 to 100 years ago to give Kunbi certificate. Finding these records in villages is a challenging task for the people and the government. But these genealogical records of people in southern Maharashtra and the border areas appear to have been kept for the last 700 to 800 years or more, and that too by a handful of remaining Helvi communities.
Pink colored feta on head, white sadara on body, pink uparan on shoulders and genealogical record wrapped in it, speaking Marathi in Kannada Lakbi. If a picture like this is seen in South Maharashtra, it would be understood that he is a Helvi... He has genealogical records of fifteen generations of the village.
Genealogical records of villages in South Maharashtra
Helvi Samaj is originally from Belgaon (Belgaon Helavi News) district. Currently, this community is living in the area of Chikodi, Athani, Kagwad. But he has genealogical records of villages and villages in the entire districts of Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur and Belgaum.
They cover their feet and tell the genealogy
The traditional work of the Helvas is to tell the genealogy of the people of the village, tell the history of the clan and keep new records.
After contacting Bharma Helvi, a resident of Nandi in Nipani taluk, he gave more information. He said that the native man of Helvi community used to walk on Nandi Baila as he was lame. In later times Nandibaila was replaced by bullock cart. That is why Helvi people sit cross-legged while narrating genealogy.
Each Helwa has 10 to 15 villages in the same locality. He visits these villages every two to three years. Annaso Helvi of Athani says that usually after Diwali, Helvi comes out of the house with his blanket.
How do you describe genealogy?
While narrating his genealogy, Helvi tells who is the original man of his family and which is his native village. Tells information about your family god, gotra, land, wealth. Explain why and when the native migrated, how he reached the present village.
Bharma Helvi says that earlier Helvi genealogy records were recorded on this copper plate. Later, Tamrapat (Tamrapat) was closed and he started making notes on paper envelopes. When the paper in their note book sewn in a special way starts to wear out, all the notes are re-entered in a new book.
Records of all the Helavis of South Maharashtra, old copper plates are kept together at the Belgaon Helavi Registration Register Office in Belgaon. Records are kept with Helwa in the same manner as government records are kept, especially for the last 14-15 or more generations.
Maratha Kunbi Certificate : Significance of Helvas records for Kunbi certificates
In western Maharashtra, the Marathas used to rely on the genealogical records of the Helvas for establishing the Kunbi community or for some other purposes. When we realized the importance of Kunbi records, Helva's records became very useful while searching for Kunbi words in our genealogy. Later, the Maharashtra government refused to accept these records for caste certificates.
But in Belgaum and Karnataka these records are still considered official documents for government work. In rural areas, the testimony given by the Helvas is accepted.
In the changing times, it is said that the number of genealogists in the Helvi community has now remained a handful. The new generation is not inclined to do the traditional work of itinerant genealogy. So now the number of these Helvas is also decreasing. According to the information given by the Belgaum district administration, the number of Helva families who share the genealogy is now around 300. Therefore, this Helvi community, which records thousands of years of genealogical information, is expecting help from the government.
(Photos of Pranav Patil were used for this article as a courtesy to him, but they have been removed after his objection. Also, while collecting information for this article, discussions were held with Bharma Helvi of Nandi village in Belgaum district and Annappa Helvi of Athani)
