From my own facebook post in 2010-11. The details given here are told to me by someone or I have read somewhere. Readers, kindly draw my attention if a fact is wrong, giving your proof. I intend to translate this in gujarati or to put some authenticate history afterwards.
Castes and sub castes in Nagars
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I am Nagar by birth, that is my caste. Mainly Brahmins who refused to thrive on daxina given by others and so, for whom yajman vrutti ie. performing rituals like on marriage, death for money is prohibited, are nagars..
Nagars have definite visible characteristics-
Fair skin, pointed nose, big shapy eyes, mostly beautiful ladies, high I.Q., administrative skills, clarity of pronunciations, proficiency in language etc.
Added, please forgive, proudiness, unnecessary superiority complex which killed Ravana saying “Eko aham dwitiyo na asti... ,” tact in hiding vital truths for own benefit, looking down upon someone till he is needed etc. are some characteristics also.
But Nagars are unique in appearance and in behaviour. Recently Morari bapu said Nagar is a vichardhara but as a caste they are strong.
Nagars are said to have originated as per one saying, this way. Greek soldiers of Sikandar stayed here after his death. They married Indian Brahmin ladies around kashmir and their offsprings are Nagars.
Another saying is, like parsis entering from Sanjan, some tribes entered from around Diu and some from land via ghats over kashmir. They wanted to maintain their Aryan culture at any cost against Muslim invasions.
Many settled around Anartpur or Vruddhi (growth) nagar, Vadnagar of today, home of PM Narendra Modi.
Hatkesh ie. gold plated shiva was their prime god.
It is a legend that Akbar invaded vadnagar when Tana, Riri, two girls singing malhar for tansen refused to surrender and to go to delhi. Invasion was so strong some say sava maound (30 kg) weight of janoi was assigned to fire and they escaped further to other parts of gujrat.
So we have six main sub castes in nagars.. vadnagra, visnagra, sathodra (from Baroda side), prashnora, chitroda from near chittod, udaipur and krishnora.
Last two have now been in the dark. Not much is known about them.
Prasnoras are great teachers, enter the root of a thing for research. They are good astrologers and mostly from around Bhavnagar. Edu.tycoon Raja Pathak, singer Falguni Pathak, Dr.Kamlesh Avasthi are Prashnora.
Sathodra are having brahmin like surnames like Pandya, Dave and they have all characteristics seen in vadnagara nagars . Be it beautiful appearance, intelligence or any such thing. They are from around Baroda.
Surat has a history of nagars in the 1500s also. Perhaps they were vadnagra. Poet Narmad and Gopichand Divan who inhabited the Gopipura area and the ghat on Tapi, famous humourist Jyotindra Dave are nagars from surat.
Visnagra gave many great legal and industrial brains. They are from North Gujarat side, beyond gandhinagar and from around Mehsana.
Vadnagras from saurashtra are the only subcaste having typical surnames like Hathi, Ghoda Mankad, Mankodi, Machhar and a great variety of surnames. Within the subcaste, further areawise subcastes ie. from Junagadh, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Jamnagar exist for them. Each area has distinct surnames. Ghoda are from Junagadh, Hathi from Rajkot Jamnagar, some from kutch. Avasia from junagadh, Vora from kutch as well from Junagadh.
Parents of Girls first prefer from their own areawise subcaste and then from other sect.
Do not know the reason for such variety in surnames for saurashtra vadnagara caste only.
Ahmedabadi nagars had muslim like surnames so that working with badshahs was cordial. Gharekhan, Badshah and Saiyadh are examples. They were good in Persian and in Sanskrit, English languages right from 1450, when Ahmedabad was established.
We salute a nagar Himatram Bhachech who built Ellisbridge which carried vehicles for over 170 years. The bridge is still intact unlike the golden bridge of Bharuch.
We can not forget Avinash Vyas for many meaningful and pleasant filmi songs. He was a vadnagara nagar from Ahmedabad.
Nagars adopted teaching or govt. job as their first preference. Kadchhi ie. cooking and barchhi ie. Worriers are their traits but very few have adopted the profession of war, Barchhi. Those who have, have proved themselves.
I do not understand why Dholakia has nothing to do with Dholka near Ahmedabad. They are from Rajkot or kutch. Someone said dholku. ધોળકું It means a house so they were ancient architects. Someone said dholak ઢોલક. ie. music. It seems true. Most Dholakias are good at music. Remember ankh no afini fame Dilip Dholakia? Mankad were actually mankars, maintainers of protocol. Buch or Munshis did cash, accounting work. Buchko means a briefcase in farsi perhaps. Ghoda were veterinary surgeons. Some attribute this surname to ghodadar nr. Junagadh. Both legends seem true.
For other nagar sects such a variety is not found.
A judge was chief guest at KSV nagar mandal some 20 yrs back, around the year 2000. He said Gokhle and Parle are migrated nagars to Maharashtra, Gokhle are original prashnora!!
About south India, I have not read anything about why, if true, we nagars migrated and converted there. But some say they exist as a south indian caste knowing they are from Gujarat. But some Bengalis who are nagars are said to have migrated to eastern India instead of coming to Gujarat from north of kashmir.
Another legend is that the Nagars are said to have descended from Persia or Afghanistan,Turki side.
A legend is there, soldiers of Sikandar stayed here after Sikandar died here. They married brahmins of kashmir side and progeny was nagars. They again migrated to Gujarat in the 1400s to save themselves from muslims.
Another important thing told to me about ‘Nagar’ surname in North India. It depicts only their caste but original surname is something different, forgotten. It is said that Nagars of saurashtra were mainly teachers, a well paid and reputed job then. Some Rajasthani kings in Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaipur etc. employed them in teaching jobs. But who will give a girl to a nagar working boy settled in interior Rajasthan? So those teachers’ children married or got married among themselves. Their children married with those already migrated like them. Children spoke and studied hindi only but maintained nagri traditions. Khokhra area in Ahmadabad is populated by such Rajasthanis with surname Nagar.
On kankaria lake there is a samadhi of Dadu Dayal, a nagar sant of the 1600s. Many talks about him are similar to Narsinh exactly around that time.
My son once met a lady in train whose dad practiced near khandwa, in Madhya pradesh interiors as a doctor, who has amassed wealth and has a haveli. Has a temple in ownership. People call him Pandit so their new surname is Pandit but originally they are Junagadi nagars. Her Dad gave Eng. medium education to her where girls around her just study in village primary schools and leave studies!
Lady Vidyagauri Nilkanth was perhaps the first graduate nagar lady in the early 1800s.
Naagars do not consider girls inferior. Even in most remote areas.
One Mr. Bharat Nagar, a customer in Bank I worked, told me why ચોળાફળી (cholafali) has always word nagar attached as some such Rajasthani lady invented it in place of sakkarpara some 100 years ago. they were migrants back to Gujarat from Rajasthan and kept nagar surname. They sold it in Amdavad and made popular as નાગર ચોળાફળી. Nagar cholafali.
So may be Greece or Turkey father and kashmiri brahmin mom, we nagars are in different parts of our country maintaining high value social traditions and a unique culture.
A good publication 'નાગર નવલું નજરાણું ' (Nagar navlu nahranu) was published from Baroda around 2001. It had authenticate looking nagar history.
Castes and Subcastes in nagars to continue as barriers for each other sect for how long? For nagars staying in the USA or Australia, there a white will not understand what a Vadnagra nagar from Jamnagar is.
Keeping Nagar tradition and culture alive; for which our ancestors travelled thousands of miles is very important for us.
Yes Jay Adyashakti, our navratri arti song was penned in meditation by Shivanand Swami, a Surti nagar.
-Sunil Anjaria
