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Jaina Community-A Social Survey
caste member.125 The general information about the important Jaina castes in the Deccan is given below. (i). Šetavāla or Saitavāla :
Setavālas are spread over a wide area, viz., Southern Districts of the former Central Provinces, Berar, Hyderabad State and Bombay Presidency. As they speak Marāthī, they are concentrated in the Marāthī speaking Districts of the above Provinces.,
Another name for Setavāla is Svahitavāla or Sahitavāla.126 It is said that the Svahitavālas are divided into two sub-castes, viz., (i) Svahitavāla and (ii) Śetavāla, based on the difference of occupation. The latter weave bodice cloth, and are cloth merchants, shop-keepers and money-lenders. The former are tailors.127 These distinctions are not observed now and all are termed as Śetavālas.
As regards their origin many accounts are told. According to one account the Setavālas are considered as the descendants of the Kshatriyas who came to the Deccan for the protection of the Jaina sages and places of pilgrimage from fiercer sort of people, whose leaders were called Bhairavas. The places where the sages resided and where religion was specially practised were called Kshetras or holy places. The people who had been entrusted with the sacred duty of protecting religion and religious places came to be called Kshetrapālas or protectors of holy places. The Prākrit form of the Sanskrit word Kshetrafāla is Chhettavāla from which the Marāthī word Šetavāla is derived 128 From this it appears that the Setavālas came from the North and settled in the Deccan. Mr. Russel also mentions that Saitavāla is one of the castes which came into the Central Provinces from Rajputanā.129 As regards Setavālas in the Bombay Province it is stated that they seem to have come from Marwar in search of work, though when they came is not known. They have many rustic customs and ways, but signs remain which support their claim to have a strain of Kshatriya blood.130 According to another account, the Setavālas appear to have been originally a body of hundred families excommunicated for some ulknown reason; and now forming a caste by themselves. They were formerly knowi Satavālas or the hundred families. 131 This seems to be wrong for obvious reasons. According to the third, the word Śetavāla is derived from a Marāthī word 'Seta' i.e., a farm, and Setavālas are those who subsist on farming.
