Post by kuldeepadhana on Sept 29, 2006 0:45:11 GMT -5
At this juncture it is very necessary and imperative to understand the pedigree of the hero of this biography PURUSHOTTAMNAMA, i.e., Shri P. K. Anna alias Purushottambhai Kalubhai Patil. At the same time it is also very necessary to understand the fact- how and when the Gurjar community for the welfare of which Shri P. K. Anna has so much worked has come to this place of Maharashtra and what is its original place. It is a must to trace the historical perspective of this community. It is very interesting to note how it has left one place for the other and how it has settled in khandesh and how it has established itself so comfortably at this place.
When studied minutely, it becomes clear that this community has come to Khandesh long back and it also becomes clear that the reason of its settling in Khandesh is due to the fertility of its land and its other riches. It automatically becomes necessary to observe the historical changes of this area Khandesh. Each area does not develop on its own. Its material development entirely depends on the surrounding rivers, hills and hillocks and the entire environment. At the same time, it very much depends on the communities residing in this area, their cultures, their interactions and their process of civilization.
During the British regime, this area Khandesh was of two districts - the Jalgaon district and the Dhulia district. The first was known as the East Khandesh and the second as the West Khandesh. Till 1906 both these districts were, in fact, one and known as Khandesh fully. The division took place afterwards. For the sake of convenience the Govt. i.e. the Maharashtra Govt. divided the district of Dhulia and created the third district as Nandurbar.
The village Mamache Mohide where the hero, Hon. P. K. Anna Patil of this biography PURUSHOTTAMNAMA, was born and the village Lonkheda where his father, Kalubhai Ramji Patil, resided both belong to the Shahada Tehsil then in Dhulia district. At present, both these villages along with Shahada tehsil have been transferred to the Nandurbar district. Shri P. K. Anna completed his primary education at Lonkheda in the Primary School of the Local School Board. After that he was admitted in the Municipal High School of Shahada. For further education he was sent to Nandurbar, in the other tehsil, which was supposed to be the famous center of education at that time. Naturally Nandurbar became his first work place in the beginning of his career. He went to Baroda for collegiate education and obtained the degree of B. Com. from the well-known Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad college of Baroda. He completed his degree of law from thingya. From the time of Shivaji Maharaj till today, thingya is well known as the center of learning and culture for the Maharashtrians. After his education, he practiced law for ten years at Nandurbar. He toured the entire Maharashtra during that time.
During that time he visited several places from Kolhapur to Bagalan, from Bombay to Nagpur. This tour included the Western Maharashtrian cities like Sangali, Ichalakaranji, Satara, Akaluj, Ahmednagar; Aurangabad, Nanded, Usmanabad, Parbhani from Marathwada; and from Vidarbha cities like Nagpur, Amaravati, Chandrapur and Bhandara. The entire tour was carefully undertaken and the observation was intensive as well as extensive. Places like thingya, Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta and Ahmedabad which were the modern industrial cities where the usual units of his regular visits.
With the advanced age, increased education and accumulated experiences, P. K. Anna, because of his original intelligence, curiosity and tendency to always learn new, visited several foreign countries to observe the industrial progress, commercial growth and technological advancement. These visits abroad included countries like America, Israel, Brazil, England, Germany, France, Japan and Thailand. His foreign tours helped him in many ways and whatever he could observe during such visits, he had successfully incorporated those observations in his cooperative industrial units, sugar factory, particle board, paper industries, distillery, spinning mills and starch manufacturing company.
The most important fact about the hero of this biography 'PURUSHOTTAMNAMA' is his tremendous contribution to the cooperative sector in the Shahada tehsil. He has never forgotten his place, people and clam. He has done maximum for the Gurjar community now settled on the banks of the river Tapi, the community which hardworking, honest but educationally backward and otherwise nomadic.
"A kite might be soaring high in the sky
But all her concentration is on her young ones!"
As the saying goes, P. K. Anna, though visited several countries and observed their industrial, technological progress, brought that technique in his cooperative industries situated in the vicinity of Shahada. Wherever he went, he came back to Shahada only. Whatever good he observed in the outside countries brought that observation for Shahada only. As a sparrow picks up every bit carefully and brings it for its young ones, P. K. Anna has done the same for his people. For the growth and progress of life and existence, P. K. Anna has endeavoured in his life, so far, for the community, for the masses for their comfortable and happy future. While working so honestly and sincerely for the common man, P. K. Anna has never stopped his study, has never given up his intellectual efforts and academic interests. He has so far lived with all the sanctity, transparency in personal life and tremendous tolerance in public life. He has always refrained himself from the cheap popularity, while doing so much for the common masses. The another person in Maharashtra who has also struggled - has given the "LADHAT" in the same manner is Padmashri Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil of Pravaranagar, who had hardly the primary education till the VI standard. The way P. K. Anna and Vithhalrao Vikhe have worked in the rural area for the welfare of the masses is closely identical.
Shri Purushottambhai Kalubhai Patil alias P. K. Anna is now counted as the social and political worker of constructive ideas, a well educated and cultured person from the Gurjar community in the country. He is at present President of the All India Gurjar Community. In different parts of the country Lewa, Lewa Patidar, Kanabi and Kadawa Gujar are the labels given to this community. In Maharashtra, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, we come across this community. In Gujrat, Kanabi or Patidar is the label given to this community
Some consider the etymology of the word Lewa as coming from "Luv", the son of Rama from the time of the Ramayana. The wandering poets, as described Bhat, go on narrating the historical pedigree of this Gurjar community all over the states such as Maharashtra, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Whatever such wandering poets have compiled in their records about the Gurjar community is the only historical information available today to us about the Gurjars. This record is the only source - Bakhar - to understand the ancestral information of the community. Such records are very important records to understand this community, its traditions and customs, its progress, its believes and blind believes, its various under currents.
This community has two sub-casts such as Lewagujar and Budgujar. In Maharashtra, this community has surnames like Patil, Chaudhari, Patel, Mahajan, etc. It would be worth noting here that the great person who made the independent India one integrated nation and who is rightly known as the Iron Man of India; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel belongs to this community. Rajesh Pilot and Ramchandra Vikal who have made the most important contribution to the field of agriculture in the independent India and who are the noted politicians belong to this community.
"What is the origin of this Gurjar community? Where does it originally belong?" are the important questions and let us try to solve them first.
In the ancient past on the border of Europe and Asia - which is known as Eurasia - lived a community, which was called as "Khargar". They might have migrated to India with the "Shweta Hunas". Perhaps they might have come to India in the 5th century B.C. via Kabul through the Khaibar pass via North West Province. The noted researcher of the Oriental culture Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar maintains that the Khargars are the Gurjars only. The well-known European historian of the Indian studies Prof. Smith also agrees with this view of Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar. Every one in India accepts Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar's studied views on the Indian history.
Bharatacharya Shri C. V. Vaidya, who is the noted researcher of the Mahabharata, states that the Gurjar community is originally closely related with the descendents of the Aryas. Shri Munshi and Shri Oza agree with this view of Shri Vaidya. This historical conclusion reiterates the statement of Dr. Bhandarkar.
The historian Goatz says that the people called as Rathis, Ranas, Thakurs from Brahmapur in the Chanda state might be originally of the Gurjar community. The second historian Ibetson maintains that the communities like Ahir, Jaat and Gurjar might have developed from the one and the same race.
Shri Dhanaji Jayram Joshi of Jalgaon has a record of the pedigree of the Lewa Gujar community. The caste names of the Gujars recorded in those anal have become later on the surnames in this community. The Lewa Gujars who have come to Maharashtra originally from Gujrat and settled in different places here are known today as the residents - gaokar - of that place. In Maharashtra we find in every community the surnames formed by adding the morpheme "kar" to the name of the village where the community resides. For example . . . Madgul + kar = Madgulkar, Niphad + kar = Niphadkar, Velan + kar = Velankar, etc.
In the same way, the Muchhaldevas came from Muchhaldev and settled at the village Nalave. The Punashas came from the village Punasha to Khandesh and settled at Surasamala in Nemad.
We come across several names in the Gurjar community like Chhaloga, Botha, Thapkari, Chachnya, Dugaya, Vatsavya, Saurashya, Sakharya, Patalya, Samatsalya, Piladarya, Chalotrya, Ajawya, Bharadya Lewa, Vatogadarya, Salotrya, Chalotra, Rajaveray, Gahedar, Bhatanya, Surajvansha, Kanhava, Kasaba, Chaudharya, Laterya, Bhamorya, Samalya, Unhalya, Ratadya, Khatarya, Tokarya, Shemosarya, Malgaya, Thepadya, Bavedya, Patvarya, Mokati, Lambdadhya, Aavya, Kardava, Malavya. In Gujrat we find several villages today also having such names. Several of the names in the above have the ending as "rya". It needs further research to ascertain whether this "rya" in the Gurjari language is identical with the Marathi suffix "kar".
As this ancestral record of the Gurjar community is the only available record today, the Marathi book "Lewapuran" is the only written work available on this Gurjar community. This book was printed in 1918 in the press Induprakash at Bombay and it has 236 pages. Shri Vithhal Keshav Kanhave, Utrankar Maharaj has translated it in to Marathi with the prior permission of the Dunkeshwar Merchants' Union of Dakor. This "Lewapuran" has been further modified by adding to it the information about the Gurjar community as its last part. The Vaidik Pandit Govind Parshuram Shastri Raverkar has rectified the original "Lewapuran" and has made it up-to-date.
There are four sections in this "Lewapuran". As per the information available in this work, the Lewa Gurjar Community seems to be originally belonging to Gujrat state. It might have migrated to the East Khandesh and Nemad before thousands of years from Gujrat.
We come across the following lines in the book "Shrigovindmaharaj" compiled by Totarammaharaj in 1860:
"Brahmins have become modest
The Somavansha bhatas have praised them,
Blessings have been given,
All have been glorified by that!"
From the phrase "Somavansha wakhanile", it can be easily inferred that the Lewa Gurjars might be the descendents of the "Chandravanshis". According to the Mahabharata, even Kauravas and Pandavas reciding in the valley of the Ganga and Yamuna i.e. Brahmavarta are also the "Chandravanshiyas".
As far as the standard reference works are concerned, the 'Puranas' are treated as the reference books of secondary importance. Most of the 'Puranas' are full of religious rituals and imaginary Hindu sanskaras. As such, this "Lewapuran" should also be taken with maximum care as the reference book to understand the origin of the Gurjar community, especially to write and understand the biography of Shri P. K. Anna. As this "Lewapuran" mentions, the Gurjar community has the gotras like Parashar, Prag, Bharadwaj, Gautam, Vasishtha, Mandavya, Harita, Aatreya, Kashyapa, etc.
When studied minutely, it becomes clear that this community has come to Khandesh long back and it also becomes clear that the reason of its settling in Khandesh is due to the fertility of its land and its other riches. It automatically becomes necessary to observe the historical changes of this area Khandesh. Each area does not develop on its own. Its material development entirely depends on the surrounding rivers, hills and hillocks and the entire environment. At the same time, it very much depends on the communities residing in this area, their cultures, their interactions and their process of civilization.
During the British regime, this area Khandesh was of two districts - the Jalgaon district and the Dhulia district. The first was known as the East Khandesh and the second as the West Khandesh. Till 1906 both these districts were, in fact, one and known as Khandesh fully. The division took place afterwards. For the sake of convenience the Govt. i.e. the Maharashtra Govt. divided the district of Dhulia and created the third district as Nandurbar.
The village Mamache Mohide where the hero, Hon. P. K. Anna Patil of this biography PURUSHOTTAMNAMA, was born and the village Lonkheda where his father, Kalubhai Ramji Patil, resided both belong to the Shahada Tehsil then in Dhulia district. At present, both these villages along with Shahada tehsil have been transferred to the Nandurbar district. Shri P. K. Anna completed his primary education at Lonkheda in the Primary School of the Local School Board. After that he was admitted in the Municipal High School of Shahada. For further education he was sent to Nandurbar, in the other tehsil, which was supposed to be the famous center of education at that time. Naturally Nandurbar became his first work place in the beginning of his career. He went to Baroda for collegiate education and obtained the degree of B. Com. from the well-known Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad college of Baroda. He completed his degree of law from thingya. From the time of Shivaji Maharaj till today, thingya is well known as the center of learning and culture for the Maharashtrians. After his education, he practiced law for ten years at Nandurbar. He toured the entire Maharashtra during that time.
During that time he visited several places from Kolhapur to Bagalan, from Bombay to Nagpur. This tour included the Western Maharashtrian cities like Sangali, Ichalakaranji, Satara, Akaluj, Ahmednagar; Aurangabad, Nanded, Usmanabad, Parbhani from Marathwada; and from Vidarbha cities like Nagpur, Amaravati, Chandrapur and Bhandara. The entire tour was carefully undertaken and the observation was intensive as well as extensive. Places like thingya, Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta and Ahmedabad which were the modern industrial cities where the usual units of his regular visits.
With the advanced age, increased education and accumulated experiences, P. K. Anna, because of his original intelligence, curiosity and tendency to always learn new, visited several foreign countries to observe the industrial progress, commercial growth and technological advancement. These visits abroad included countries like America, Israel, Brazil, England, Germany, France, Japan and Thailand. His foreign tours helped him in many ways and whatever he could observe during such visits, he had successfully incorporated those observations in his cooperative industrial units, sugar factory, particle board, paper industries, distillery, spinning mills and starch manufacturing company.
The most important fact about the hero of this biography 'PURUSHOTTAMNAMA' is his tremendous contribution to the cooperative sector in the Shahada tehsil. He has never forgotten his place, people and clam. He has done maximum for the Gurjar community now settled on the banks of the river Tapi, the community which hardworking, honest but educationally backward and otherwise nomadic.
"A kite might be soaring high in the sky
But all her concentration is on her young ones!"
As the saying goes, P. K. Anna, though visited several countries and observed their industrial, technological progress, brought that technique in his cooperative industries situated in the vicinity of Shahada. Wherever he went, he came back to Shahada only. Whatever good he observed in the outside countries brought that observation for Shahada only. As a sparrow picks up every bit carefully and brings it for its young ones, P. K. Anna has done the same for his people. For the growth and progress of life and existence, P. K. Anna has endeavoured in his life, so far, for the community, for the masses for their comfortable and happy future. While working so honestly and sincerely for the common man, P. K. Anna has never stopped his study, has never given up his intellectual efforts and academic interests. He has so far lived with all the sanctity, transparency in personal life and tremendous tolerance in public life. He has always refrained himself from the cheap popularity, while doing so much for the common masses. The another person in Maharashtra who has also struggled - has given the "LADHAT" in the same manner is Padmashri Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil of Pravaranagar, who had hardly the primary education till the VI standard. The way P. K. Anna and Vithhalrao Vikhe have worked in the rural area for the welfare of the masses is closely identical.
Shri Purushottambhai Kalubhai Patil alias P. K. Anna is now counted as the social and political worker of constructive ideas, a well educated and cultured person from the Gurjar community in the country. He is at present President of the All India Gurjar Community. In different parts of the country Lewa, Lewa Patidar, Kanabi and Kadawa Gujar are the labels given to this community. In Maharashtra, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, we come across this community. In Gujrat, Kanabi or Patidar is the label given to this community
Some consider the etymology of the word Lewa as coming from "Luv", the son of Rama from the time of the Ramayana. The wandering poets, as described Bhat, go on narrating the historical pedigree of this Gurjar community all over the states such as Maharashtra, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Whatever such wandering poets have compiled in their records about the Gurjar community is the only historical information available today to us about the Gurjars. This record is the only source - Bakhar - to understand the ancestral information of the community. Such records are very important records to understand this community, its traditions and customs, its progress, its believes and blind believes, its various under currents.
This community has two sub-casts such as Lewagujar and Budgujar. In Maharashtra, this community has surnames like Patil, Chaudhari, Patel, Mahajan, etc. It would be worth noting here that the great person who made the independent India one integrated nation and who is rightly known as the Iron Man of India; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel belongs to this community. Rajesh Pilot and Ramchandra Vikal who have made the most important contribution to the field of agriculture in the independent India and who are the noted politicians belong to this community.
"What is the origin of this Gurjar community? Where does it originally belong?" are the important questions and let us try to solve them first.
In the ancient past on the border of Europe and Asia - which is known as Eurasia - lived a community, which was called as "Khargar". They might have migrated to India with the "Shweta Hunas". Perhaps they might have come to India in the 5th century B.C. via Kabul through the Khaibar pass via North West Province. The noted researcher of the Oriental culture Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar maintains that the Khargars are the Gurjars only. The well-known European historian of the Indian studies Prof. Smith also agrees with this view of Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar. Every one in India accepts Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar's studied views on the Indian history.
Bharatacharya Shri C. V. Vaidya, who is the noted researcher of the Mahabharata, states that the Gurjar community is originally closely related with the descendents of the Aryas. Shri Munshi and Shri Oza agree with this view of Shri Vaidya. This historical conclusion reiterates the statement of Dr. Bhandarkar.
The historian Goatz says that the people called as Rathis, Ranas, Thakurs from Brahmapur in the Chanda state might be originally of the Gurjar community. The second historian Ibetson maintains that the communities like Ahir, Jaat and Gurjar might have developed from the one and the same race.
Shri Dhanaji Jayram Joshi of Jalgaon has a record of the pedigree of the Lewa Gujar community. The caste names of the Gujars recorded in those anal have become later on the surnames in this community. The Lewa Gujars who have come to Maharashtra originally from Gujrat and settled in different places here are known today as the residents - gaokar - of that place. In Maharashtra we find in every community the surnames formed by adding the morpheme "kar" to the name of the village where the community resides. For example . . . Madgul + kar = Madgulkar, Niphad + kar = Niphadkar, Velan + kar = Velankar, etc.
In the same way, the Muchhaldevas came from Muchhaldev and settled at the village Nalave. The Punashas came from the village Punasha to Khandesh and settled at Surasamala in Nemad.
We come across several names in the Gurjar community like Chhaloga, Botha, Thapkari, Chachnya, Dugaya, Vatsavya, Saurashya, Sakharya, Patalya, Samatsalya, Piladarya, Chalotrya, Ajawya, Bharadya Lewa, Vatogadarya, Salotrya, Chalotra, Rajaveray, Gahedar, Bhatanya, Surajvansha, Kanhava, Kasaba, Chaudharya, Laterya, Bhamorya, Samalya, Unhalya, Ratadya, Khatarya, Tokarya, Shemosarya, Malgaya, Thepadya, Bavedya, Patvarya, Mokati, Lambdadhya, Aavya, Kardava, Malavya. In Gujrat we find several villages today also having such names. Several of the names in the above have the ending as "rya". It needs further research to ascertain whether this "rya" in the Gurjari language is identical with the Marathi suffix "kar".
As this ancestral record of the Gurjar community is the only available record today, the Marathi book "Lewapuran" is the only written work available on this Gurjar community. This book was printed in 1918 in the press Induprakash at Bombay and it has 236 pages. Shri Vithhal Keshav Kanhave, Utrankar Maharaj has translated it in to Marathi with the prior permission of the Dunkeshwar Merchants' Union of Dakor. This "Lewapuran" has been further modified by adding to it the information about the Gurjar community as its last part. The Vaidik Pandit Govind Parshuram Shastri Raverkar has rectified the original "Lewapuran" and has made it up-to-date.
There are four sections in this "Lewapuran". As per the information available in this work, the Lewa Gurjar Community seems to be originally belonging to Gujrat state. It might have migrated to the East Khandesh and Nemad before thousands of years from Gujrat.
We come across the following lines in the book "Shrigovindmaharaj" compiled by Totarammaharaj in 1860:
"Brahmins have become modest
The Somavansha bhatas have praised them,
Blessings have been given,
All have been glorified by that!"
From the phrase "Somavansha wakhanile", it can be easily inferred that the Lewa Gurjars might be the descendents of the "Chandravanshis". According to the Mahabharata, even Kauravas and Pandavas reciding in the valley of the Ganga and Yamuna i.e. Brahmavarta are also the "Chandravanshiyas".
As far as the standard reference works are concerned, the 'Puranas' are treated as the reference books of secondary importance. Most of the 'Puranas' are full of religious rituals and imaginary Hindu sanskaras. As such, this "Lewapuran" should also be taken with maximum care as the reference book to understand the origin of the Gurjar community, especially to write and understand the biography of Shri P. K. Anna. As this "Lewapuran" mentions, the Gurjar community has the gotras like Parashar, Prag, Bharadwaj, Gautam, Vasishtha, Mandavya, Harita, Aatreya, Kashyapa, etc.
