Maheshwarism

Origin

The Maheshwari originate from Khandela, Sikar, Rajasthan in western India.They are also known as Baniya(a business community). They are categorized in two sub-groups: Mewari and Marwaris. Initially this community was relatively small but is now found throughout India and Africa.

Though there is no particular book available on Maheshwari samaj's origin, but most authentic work done on the origin of Maheshwaris is by late Shri Shivkarnji Darak of Mundwa. Given below are the findings of his research.

King Khadgal Sen of Khandela was blessed with a son, Sujankunwar, after a yagnya was performed. The rishis (priests) who did the yagnya warned the king that this son of his should not be allowed to go east. When Sujankunwar grew he inherited the kingdom. King Khadgal Sen retired. It was this time when the growth of Jainism was in full swing. Sujankunwar baptised himself in Jainism and started opposing yagnyas. Not heeding the advice of the priests he proceeded with his 72 Umraons eastward. Seeing the priests performing yagnya Sujankunwar asked his Umraons to disturb it. For this deed of theirs the priests made them all in statues. On hearing the news Khadgal Sen and his queens killed themselves. The wife of Sujankunwar Chandrawati, with the wives of all the Umraons went to the place where their husbands were made into statues. They pleaded with the priests to reconvert them to live form. The priests showed their inability to take back the curse. They, however, advised these women to pray with Lord Shiva and Parvatiji for bringing these statues back to life.

Lord Shiva and Parvatiji were impressed by the prayers and gave life to all the statues. They were asked to leave their Kshatriya tradition and convert to upper caste. The priests on whose curse the Umraons were made into statues were Parashar (Pareek), Dadhichi (Dahiya), Gautam (Gurjar Gaud), Khandik (Khandelwal), Sukumarg (Sukuwal) and Sarsur (Sarswat). The priests asked the Lord how their yagnyas would materialise and who will save them from the plunderers. The Lord asked them that each of the six priests should take 12 Umraons as their disciples and these Umraons will keep on giving you alms. The descendants of these 72 Vaishya families will always be with you to take care. From then these families were called Maheshwaris taking the name from Lord Mahesh or Lord Shiva. The families with their surnames (khaps) formed the primary Maheshwari list of surnames. Later there were subdivisions and from amongst these 72 surnames there were more sub-surnames (up-khaps). It was in this way that with the blessing of Lord Mahesh the formation of Maheshwaris was done on the ninth day of the Jaishtha month. Later five more families from the Kshatriyas joined the Maheshwari.

History

Raja Khandelsen was the ruler of Kahandelgram, Rajasthan, India. He was blessed with two beautiful queens, Rani Suryakuvar and Rani Indrakuvar. However, the king did not have any children, thus no one to carry his name or kingdom. He performed many pujas, yagnas and much charity to help the poor but to no avail. Finally, one day he shared his sorrow with his spiritual advisor, Maharishi Yagyavalk. Maharishi Yagyavalk told him that he was cursed from his previous life and this was the reason he was childless. Then the Maharishi explained to the king

"In your previous life, you earned your living through killing and selling of animals flesh. Once, you aimed your bow and arrow at a pregnant deer and killed her. As she died in pain, she placed a curse upon you saying, 'You shall be childless!' However, you felt guilty from this act, and went to Pushkar where you took bath in the pious pond, to wash off your sins. This religious act helped you become a king in this life. To recover from this past curse, there is one solution that I shall explain to you. Not too far from here in Bhashkar state, there is a Pipal tree, under which a Shivling is buried. You should get this Shivling out and make a beautiful temple for Lord Shiva, in which this Shivling must be embellished with respect and devotion."

The king did exactly as he was told, in addition he recited the "Om, Namah Sivaya" shloka for two years. With this pious and religious act, Lord Shiva became happy and the king was blessed with a son, whom he named Sujansen.

Once the Prince Sujansen was born, the spiritual advisor made his Kundali, to chart out his graha and nakhshatra. He shared the graha position findings with King Khandelsen and said "Your son will be handsome, masculine, and powerful; however due to an unforeseen incident he will suffer from sorrow for a short while, but that will eventually result in a happy ending."

Prince Sujansen was married to Princess Chadravati, a daughter of King Yudhaveer. After this marriage, the King Khandelsen handed over the kingdom to his son Sujansen and moved to the forest for his retirement. One day King Sujansen went into the forest to hunt with his 72 soldiers as part of his routine. As the king and his soldiers were hunting, they got lost and became hungry. Soon, they sensed an aroma, as if someone was cooking good food. They followed this aroma and reached a place where six rishis were performing yagna for Lord Shiva. Due to extreme hunger, the king and soldiers started eating prasad, drinking water from the nearby pond that was reserved for the yagna puja, and started washing their stained bows and arrows in it. This broke the rishis' concentration, and they cursed the king and his soldiers to turn into stone.

Back in the kingdom, the queen and 72 wives of soldiers were waiting for their husbands to return for months. Chandravati went to see Maharishi Jabali. The Rishi Jabali explained the situation in its entirety and suggested that she and all other 72 wives should go to the temple near the pond and worship Lord Shiva for their husbands' lives. At this time, in Kailashparvath, in the Himalayas Lord Shiva and his beautiful wife Parvati were residing. Lord Shiva told Parvati that he needs to visit Earth, some of his worshipers were performing yagna and he needs to go and show his satisfaction towards its successful completion. Parvati, loves her husband dearly, and did not like to part from him. This time Parvati insisted that she also go with Shiva to Earth. Lord Shiva said to Parvati, "Dear, you are very kind hearted, you will not be able to bear the pains of the people living on Earth. As always, you will ask me to take away all of their sorrows, so it is better you stay here till my return to Kailashparvath." Mata Parvati insisted and said, "No, I must go with you." After a while, Lord Shiva said, "As you wish!" They started their journey to Earth where the rishis were performing the yagna.

As Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati, reached the site, Parvati Mata saw the queen and all other wives were crying for their husbands' stone figures. Lord Shiva explained the situation to Mata Parvati. Mata immediately said to Lord Shiva "You must give these husbands another life, because when I can not live without you even for a fraction of a second, how can you expect me to leave this place while these wives are so sorrowful in life without their husbands?" Lord Shiva said "This is what I was afraid of when you decided to join me for this journey; in any case I must do so." At this point, Lord Shiva brought the king and soldiers back to life, and told king Sujansen "Because you have performed sinful activities, taking away lives of God's creatures, and have misused your power, you have suffered from this incident. From now on, since I am giving all of you a second life, you will be known after my name as"Mahesh-waris". You will also stop your role of Kshatriya and play a new role of Vaishya, Vaishya Dharam, which non-violent. Sujansen to compensate for your violent tendency, from now on you will make living through donations from your other seventy-two Vaishaya brothers and you will perform the task of documenting their family trees."

At once, all came to life as if they were awakening from a long sleep. However, they were hesitant to accept their wives, since they still belonged to the Kshatriya caste. At this point, Parvati Mata said, "All of you take four parikramas around me, whoever are wife and husband; their gathbandhan will be joined auto-magically." At this, everyone did so, and they re-joined as husbands and wives. Due to this, four feras (parikramas) are done outside, during the Maheshwari weddings, as a reminder of our origin.

Lord Shiva gave this blessing to the 72 new Vaishyas on the 9th day of Jyesth, Shukla Paksh in the year 9 of Yudhishthira Sanvat. On this day, newlywed brides and grooms are appointed to do Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati's puja so that they can also be blessed with children and live a happy and joyous life eternally.

While the soldiers were bathing in the pond, their bows and arrows were melted. After this the pond was named "Loh-Garl". Due this story, 72 Maheshwari khanp (last) names were created. After this, five Kshatriya last names were added to the original 72.

Khandela town is about 10 miles away from Phulera junction of Jaipur district. Loh-Garl area still has a water bath, which is 20–25 miles away from the Ringus junction, near the mountains. Birla, one of India's most prestigious families has established a sanatorium near the Didwana of Nagour district.