Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 40

94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
JANUARY, 1911,
Anandapura or Vadnagar. It is in the Vadnagar prasasti of Kumarapala (1143-1174 A.D.) that the place is for the first time called Nagara, and also the caste name Nagara of these Brahmaņas mentioned: When Visnagar was founded and some of them settled there, the old place came to be called not simply Nagara, but Bada-Nagar, the old Nagar, which was Sanskritised into. Vșiddhanagara as well as Vaçanagara. I believe all their present sub-divisions except one, are the offshoots of the first swarm of the Nagar Brahmaņas, who were settled at Anandapura. The exception is that of the Prashnorås, who, it is worthy of note, call themselves Ahichchhatras or Ahichchhatrajzátfyas. This points to the conclusion that not only Nagars in Bombay Gujarâ, but even Gurjar Nagars of Balandshahr and Jat Nargres were so named after some place called Nagar, which was not far from Ahichchhatra. For, if this Nagar had not been in the lose neighbourhood of Abichchhatra, the Nagara and Prashộorâs would not have belonged to the same stock; and consequently the latter, when they emigrated from Abichchhatra and came into Gajarât, would not have been admitted into the Nagar caste. Now, there is such a place in the Sawålakh hills, called Nagar or Nagarkot, which was the old name of Kangda, the principal town of the district of the same name, Punjab. There is a temple of Devi here, which was one of the most ancient and famous shrines in northern India, and was largely resorted to by pilgrims from the plains. The riches of the temple attracted the attention of Muhammad of Gbazni, who in 1009 A.D. took the fort and plundered the temple. It is this Nagarkot, I conjecture, that was like Ahichchhatra, the cradle of a caste of Brahmaņas called Nagar or Nagar, who spread everywhere in India. Thus we have Nagar or Nagar Brahmanas, not only in the Bombay Gujarât, but in Mysore and also in Nepal. There are again sub-divisions named Nagar, Nagari or Nagarià among the Kashmiri, Kanojia and Maithil Brab maņas 6.
Looked at even from the orthodox point of view, the present Nagar Brahmaņa caste is a ourious combination of Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic elements. Two of their "Sarmans," riz. Sarman and Deva are, as laid down by the Smritis, name-suffixes of the Brahinaņas, one, viz., Varman is that of a Kshatriyas, two others, viz., Detti and Gupta are those of the Viégas, and one, cız., Dása of the Sudras. All these elements, it may, therefore, be argued, combined to form the Nagar caste. But the correct view appears to me to be to take all these “Sarmans" as the names of tribes or clans that were amalgamated into the Ni - caste, with more or less a Gurjara strain in it, as we have just seen. The following words are worth quoting in this connection from a letter from Mr. N. B. Divatia, B.A., Assistant Collector, Ratnagiri : "Nor can it be argued against your theory of clan-indicators that, after all, these suffixes are merely individual namo-suffixes like. lal, Sankar, Rám, rây, &c., in use amongst thy Garjarûtis at present (eg., Motilal, Amritlâl, Mohanlal, Premsankar, Bhavanisankar, Mahipêtrêm, Ruprâm, Mukundråy, Iśvarray, &c.), or rdu amongst the Marâhâs, and that, therefore, these “Sarmans" are no more clan-indicators than are these lah, Ram, &c. For, while these ldl, &c., pertain merely to individuals, each “Sarman” was the peculiar property of a vertain separate group of individuals, that group was wedded to that particular "Sarman" in the watter of naming their members.
“This principle has survived even the dropping of the Sarman' suffix, as is evidenced by the fact that the Nagars, although they have not these suffixes tacked on to their names now, are supposed to own particular hereditary Sarmans.' Thus, then, the invariable possession of a common Sarman' by a large number of families would naturally presuppose an underlying common basic idea, and that iqmust be the clan, as it fits in all-round.
Bombay Garetteer, Vol. IX., Pt. 1., p. 15, notes 1 and 2. * The antiqaities of Nagar-kot have been described by Cunningham in Archeol. Surv. of India, Vol. V., p. 155 ft. Nagar-kog is referred to and described by Yuan Chwang (Wattors' Yuan Chwang, vol. I, pp. 187-). Another name by which it was famous wm Bukarmanagara (Ep. Ind., Vol L., p. 100, and Vol. II., P. 483). Nagara us the name of a town, was known to the author of Kasid (nee his gloss on Pagini, IV., 2.95).
4 Wilson's Indian Caste, Vol. II., PP. 61, 96, 148 and 152.