Anavil

Last updated
Anavil
Religions Hinduism
Languages Gujarati
CountryIndia
Populated states Gujarat
Region West India
Ethnicity Indian

Anavils are a community who despite not being numerically superior, are particularly dominant in the Surat and Bulsar districts of south Gujarat, India, where they have been significant land-owners and have an influential role in politics. [1] [2]

Contents

The Anavil claim themselves to be Kānyakubja Brahmins who migrated from Kannauj to Gujarat in the early medieval period [3] [4] and were never involved in priestly functions. According to Shah, most other Brahmins in the region do not consider the Anavils to be Brahmins because they are neither priests nor connected to Sanskritic learning. [5] They comprise two sub-groups, called the Desai and the Bhathela, though both use the surname Desai. [6] The former acted as tax farmers during the era of the Mughal Empire, and developed into one of the dominant land-owning groups in South Gujarat. [2] They eventually underwent a process of Sanskritisation that saw them conform more closely to the classical Brahmin practices, such as dowry marriage, while the Bhathela continued to follow the brideprice system for marriage. [1] The Desai are fewer in number but superior in traditional status. Among the Desais, the Pedivalas were the highest, and were respected as the local representatives for the Mughals. [7]

They did not practice female infanticide. [8]

Srinivas and van deer Veen state that the Pedivala Desais paid dowry to their bridegroom's family, even though the bridegroom's family was considered inferior in status to the Pedivalas. According to the mindset of the Pedivalas, the dowry was considered to be dakshina accompanying the bride in the kanyadan rite. [9]

The Anavils are associated with the expansion of agriculture in south Gujarat. As Mughal authority in the region weakened, the Anavils were able to expand their territory and control. Since the Mughal Empire wanted to expand the area of land under cultivation, they confirmed the Anavils' aristocratic statuses and employed them in local administration. The Anavils' power was further solidified during Maratha rule of the region. [10]

Formerly the Anavils accepted brides from Patidar families. [11]

Notable People

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khatri</span> Caste in South Asia

Khatri is a caste originating from the Malwa and Majha areas of Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Khatris claim they are warriors who took to trade. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantile professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving.

Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaekwad dynasty</span> Hindu Maratha dynasty (1721–1947)

Gaekwads, a Hindu Maratha dynasty of the former Maratha Confederacy and its subsequent (erstwhile) princely state of Baroda in western India from the early 18th century until 1947. The ruling prince was known as the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its capital, during the British Raj its relations with the British were managed by the Baroda Residency. It was one of the largest and wealthiest princely states existing alongside British India, with wealth coming from the lucrative cotton business as well as rice, wheat and sugar production.

The Muzaffarid dynasty, also called the Muzaffarids, and sometimes, the Ahmedabad dynasty, was an Indian royal family that ruled the Sultanate of Gujarat in western India from 1391 to 1583. The founder of the dynasty was Zafar Khan who was governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate. When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. His Grand son, Ahmed Shah I established the capital at Ahmedabad. The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572. The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patidar</span> Indian agriculturist caste

Patidar, formerly known as Kanbi, is an Indian land-owning and peasant caste and community native to Gujarat. The community comprises at multiple subcastes, most prominently the Levas and Kadvas. They form one of the dominant castes in Gujarat. The title of Patidar originally conferred to the land owning aristocratic class of Gujarati Kanbis; however, it was later applied en masse to the entirety of the Kanbi population who lay claim to a land owning identity, partly as a result of land reforms during the British Raj.

The Khedaval or Khedawal is a Gujarati Brahmin community. Their traditionally served as merchants, money-lenders, pleaders, and government servants. They practice hypergamy. Some are priests in the Raṇachoḍarāy temple in Ḍākor.

The history of Gujarat began with Stone Age settlements followed by Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlements like Indus Valley civilisation. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centers in the Nanda, Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires as well as during the Western Kshatrapas period. After the fall of the Gupta empire in the 6th century, Gujarat flourished as an independent Hindu-Buddhist state. The Maitraka dynasty, descended from a general of the Gupta empire, ruled the Kingdom of Valabhi the 6th to the 8th centuries, although they were ruled briefly by Harsha during the 7th century. The Arab rulers of Sindh sacked Vallabhi in 770, bringing the Kingdom of Valabhi to an end. In 775, the first Parsi (Zoroastrian) refugees arrived in Gujarat from Greater Iran.

Desai is an Indian administrative, princely or honorary title and surname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagar Brahmin</span> Gujarati Brahmin subcaste

Nagar Brahmin is a Brahmin subcaste from the Indian state of Gujarat.

Bania is a mercantile caste mainly from the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, with strong diasporic communities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and other northern states. Traditionally, the main occupations of the community are merchants, bankers, money-lenders, and owners of commercial enterprises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prabodhankar Thackeray</span> Indian activist

Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, was an Indian social reformer, writer and politician. He campaigned against superstitions, untouchability, child marriage and dowry. He was also a prolific author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathi people</span>

The Kathi people is a small group of clans found in the peninsular Kathiawar of Gujarat, western India. It was from the Kathis that the Maratha Empire and later the British Raj renamed the Saurashtra as Kathiawar as the Kathis were prominent there during the 17th-18th centuries. According to A. M. Shah, Kathis are a peasant caste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dhedh</span>

The Dhedh are a menial worker and weaving caste of India. Historically, other Hindu communities considered them to be an untouchable group, outside the Hindu caste system referred to as varna. This community observes the concept of untouchability in relationships with other low-status castes. The community are sometimes referred to as vankars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baria Koli</span> Koli clan of Gujarat

The Baria Koli, or Baraiya Koli, Bareeya Koli and Bariya Koli is a clan (Gotra) of the Koli caste found in the Indian State of Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. the Devgad Baria was their Stronghold or given their name to Baria State in Gujarat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. S. Ghurye</span> Founder of Indian sociology (1893–1983)

Govind Sadashiv Ghurye was a pioneering Indian academic who was a professor of sociology. In 1924, he became the second person to head the Department of Sociology at the University of Bombay. And, is widely regarded as the founder of Indian Sociology & Sociology in India.

The Vishwakarma community are a social group of India, sometimes described as a caste. They prefer the alternate name, Vishwabrahmin, and claim themselves to be Brahmin or of high-status in the caste hierarchy, although these claims are not generally accepted outside the community. The community comprises five subgroups—carpenters, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, goldsmiths and stonemasons— claim to be descendants of Vishvakarma, the builder and architect of heavenly realm, a Hindu deity.

Akshay Ramanlal Desai was an Indian sociologist, Marxist and a social activist. He was Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology in University of Bombay in 1967. He is particularly known for his work Social Background of Indian Nationalism in which he offered a Marxist analysis of the genesis of Indian nationalism making use of history, which set a path to build socialism in India.

Modern historians agree that Rajputs consisted of a mix of various different social groups and different varnas. Rajputisation explains the process by which such diverse communities coalesced into the Rajput community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audichya Brahmin</span> Brahmin community of Gujarat

Audichya Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin sub-caste mainly from the Indian state of Gujarat. They are the most numerous Brahmin community in Gujarat. A minority of them reside in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. C. Bhatt</span> Indian human rights lawyer

M. C. Bhatt is an Indian human rights lawyer and activist. He practiced at Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad from 1962 to 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 Goody, Jack (1990). The Oriental, the Ancient and the Primitive: Systems of Marriage and the Family in the Pre-Industrial Societies of Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 187. ISBN   978-0-52136-761-5.
  2. 1 2 Streefkerk, Hein (1985). Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat. Popular Prakashan. p. 131. ISBN   978-0-86132-067-7.
  3. Wink, André (1990). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th-13th centuries. E.J. Brill. ISBN   90-04-09249-8.
  4. R. C. Majumdar (1951). The History and Culture of the Indian People: The age of imperial Kanauj. G. Allen & Unwin. p. 15.
  5. Shah, A.M. (1982). "Division and hierarchy: an overview of caste in Gujarat". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 16: 9.
  6. Streefkerk, Hein (1985). Industrial Transition in Rural India: Artisans, Traders, and Tribals in South Gujarat. Popular Prakashan. p. 184. ISBN   978-0-86132-067-7.
  7. Breman, Jan (1974). Patronage and Exploitation: Changing Agrarian Relations in South Gujarat, India. University of California Press. p. 46.
  8. Shah, A. M.; Baviskar, Baburao Shravan; Ramaswamy, E. A.; Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar (1996). Social Structure and Change: Women in Indian society. SAGE Publications. p. 197.
  9. Srinivas, M. N. (1984). Some Reflections on Dowry. Oxford University Press. p. 12.
  10. Chaudhuri, Binay Bhushan (2008). ""Bonded Labour" as a Form of Labour Utilization in Agriculture and an Aspect of the Wider Question of Control over Land and Credit". Peasant History of Late Pre-Colonial and Colonial India. Center for Studies in Civilizations. p. 689.
  11. Tambs-Lyche, Harald (2018). Transaction and Hierarchy: Elements for the Theory of Caste. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-39396-6.
  12. Mehta, Shirin M. (1978). "The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928: A Note on Organizations". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 39 (2): 602.
  13. Martel, Gordon; Lavender, Wayne (16 June 1986). Studies in British Imperial History: Essays in Honour of A.P. Thornton. Springer. p. 204. ISBN   978-1349182442.

Further reading