THE HISTORY OF AGRAWALS

Maharaja Agrasen has been one of the greatest men of our history, but not known to us, as he rightly deserves. Not many Agrawals know that they are descendents of Maharaja Agrasen. Not many people know that they are basically Agrawals. Not many people know about the Agrawal community. Agrawal community is one of the very few ancient civilizations, still prevalent, unlike the Harappan or Greek civilizations which gradually became extinct.

Due to loss of some of the major scripts written in our history, the exact dates are missing. But it is believed that Maharaja Agrasen lived parallel to the time of Mahabharata. He was born to Raja Vallabh, in the lands of Haryana. He was a very intelligent and brave man. He believed in just, equality, non- violence and brotherhood. Maharaja Agrasen ruled Agroha with all his love and wisdom. He was a religious man and a great worshipper of goddess Lakshmi. History believes that the goddess always smiled upon the state, which suffered from repeated attacks.

The descendents of Maharaja Agrasen are known as Agrawals. Many Agrawals worship goddess Lakshmi as ‘Kuldevi’.

Agroha:

-      Location: Agroha is situated in Haryana, around 22 kms from Hisar and 190 kms from New Delhi. Once a prosperous capital city, today it’s a common village, with the small population of 500 families. Deewaan Nanmool Agrawal (somewhere in 1770’s) rejuvenated the village into an attractive place by building a fort there, popularly known as Deewaan Nanmool Ka Kila. The remains of the old fort are spread around the village, reflecting the proud history but poor present.

-      History of Agroha: Agroha is the great place where Agrawal community arose from. It was the capital town of Maharaja Agrasen’s state, Agreya Ganrajya. The historical name of Agroha was Agrodak.  This name is mentioned in many of our ancient literature, including Mahabharata and Lakshmi Katha. It was a very prosperous and well run state. It was encircled by a high wall for safety. There was only one gate to the city. There were secret gates to be used in times of wars or other emergencies. There were many small lakes, temples and gardens, glorious and beautiful flora and fauna, magnificent and breathtaking sceneries. The population was around 3.5 lakhs. Maharaja Agrasen had made a virtuous policy that one brick and one rupee would be given by each family of the state to the new families that would come to there to settle down. Thus everybody was prosperous and well established. As luck would have it for any prosperous state, Agroha too was attacked several times by foreign as well as internal agents. Many a time the state was destroyed, but the hard work and ingenuity of natives of Agroha re-established the place every time. History mentions attacks made by Mohammad Gauri, The Great Alexander, Tomars, Chauhans, Raja Samarjeet, and many more. After Mohammad Gauri’s attack in 1194, Agroha couldn’t stand up again and the natives had to leave the place. Those who left, settled down in the areas of Hisar, Rohtak, Kanod, Delhi, Meerut, Saharanpur, Nangal, Sirsa, Panipat, currently in the states of Haryana, Punjab, western U.P., eastern Rajasthan and Delhi. Though not many investigations have been done at the sites, but the excavations have revealed old coins, weapons, vessels, toys, pieces of jewelry, artifacts, showing us the rich culture that prevailed there once upon a time.

Agrawals:

-      The Origin: the history of Agrawal community is a very ancient one. It dates back to the times of Mahabharata. Those from Agroha were known as Agrawals. Now Agrawals are spread all over the nation and in many parts of the world, famous for their trading abilities and many great virtues. The name Agrawal has its roots in the prefix Agra, from the name of Maharaja Agrasen.

-      Gotra: Maharaja Agrasen divided his state into 18 divisions for better management. For each division, he held one Yagya; each Yagya headed by a hermit. So there were 18 hermits. Maharaja Agrasen named each division on the name of these 18 hermits. Then these 18 divisions were organized with democratic system. The leaders chosen were like sons to the king. So these leaders have often been mistaken as the real 18 sons of Maharaja Agrasen. Family and group of each leader were termed as ‘Gotra’. Each Gotra got its name from the name of the respective hermit. A system was established that no marriage could take place in the same Gotra. There is a scientific explanation of this; marriages within the family damage the development of genes. When marriages happen outside same family, the genes develop best. (Law of mutation). Marriages in the same family can be allowed after 7^th generation in father’s side and after 5^th generation in mother’s side. The following chart depicts the names of the Gotras based on the names of the respective hermits.

	Rishi of the division	Leader of the division	Name of the Gotra
1	Rishi Garg	Pushpdev	Garg
2	Rishi Gobhil	Gendumal	Goyal
3	Rishi Kashyap	Karanchand	Kuchchal
4	Rishi Kaushik	Manipal	Kansal
5	Rishi Vashishtha	Vrindadev	Bindal
6	Rishi Dhaumya	Thavandev	Dharan
7	Rishi Shaandilya	Sindhupati	Singhal
8	Rishi Jaimini	Jaitrasangh	Jindal
9	Rishi Maitraya	Mantrapati	Mittal
10	Rishi Taandaya	Tambolkarn	Tingal
11	Rishi Taitireya	Tarachand	Tayal
12	Rishi Vatsa	Veerbhaan	Bansal
13	Rishi Dhanyaas	Vasudev	Bhandal
14	Rishi Naagendra	Naarsen	Naangal
15	Rishi Maandavya	Amritsen	Mangal
16	Rishi Aurva	Indramal	Airan
17	Rishi Mudgal	Madhavsen	Madhukul/ Dhigal
18	Rishi Gautam	Godhar	Goyan / Goyanor

Maharaja Agrasen belonged to Garg Gotra. Many Agrawals keep their surname following the name of the hermit of their Gotra.

-      Different names used for Agrawals:  some of the common names used to denote Agrawals are; Vaishya, Baniya, Gupta, Mahajan, Shah, Seth, Marwari. All of these are basically Agrawals, but their names changed over a period of time based on the kind of profession they were into or on the place they had settled down after leaving Agroha.

-      The 20 golden rules : there are 20 rules of Agrawals. Those who follow all 20 are known as Beesa Agrawals, those who follow almost 10 of them are known as Dasa Agrawals and those following less than that are known as Panja Agrawals. There are a lot of others stories too explaining the origin of Dasa, Beesa and Panja Agrawals, but so far, the division based on rules is the most accepted one amongst historians. The rules are:

1)    Following agriculture

2)    love for animals

3)    efforts for prosperity

4)    benevolence and worshipping goddess Lakshmi

5)    non-violence

6)    helping poor and disabled

7)    faith in religion and following proper rituals

8)    vegetarianism

9)    Indian dress up

10)  Discard of bad habits and addictions

11) financial help to those who are inferior

12) respect for knowledge

13) taking care of guests

14) following Hinduism

15)  marriage in Agrawal community only, except in same Gotra

16)  Expense less than income. Dividing income into 4 parts and using one part each for cows, business, household and savings.

17)  Simple living and truthfulness

18)  soft speaking and humbleness

19)  courage and strong will power

20) Following social rules

Every year on Sharad Purnima, a 2-days grand festival is organized in Agroha. All arrangements for stay and food are arranged by the Agroha Vikaas Trust. These services are not charged by the trust. It’s done to encourage Agrawals from all over the nation to visit their ancestral place.

Agrawals in the limelight

Some of the Agrawals who have achieved great heights in the past few years:

Name of the person	Field of excellence
Subhash Goyal	MD, Zee TV
Shubha Mudgal	Classical singer
Lakshmi Mittal	MD, Mittal Steels
Sunil Mittal	MD, Airtel
Naresh Goyal	MD, Jet airways
Goyal	MD, Indian airlines

Some names famous since ages:

Name of the person	Field of excellence
Maithili Sharan Gupta	Literature
Kaka Haathrasi (Prabhulal Garg)	Literature
Vishnu Prabhakar	Literature
Ashok Singhal	Politics
Shankar Samrat	Show Business(magic)
Ashok Garg	Sports
Shaadilal Bharat	Law
Uma Garg	Classical music
Parmeshwarilal Gupt	Numismatics
Kawarsen	Engineering
Aatmaraam Agrawal	Scientific research
Raamnarayan Agrawal	Space scientist
Jamnalaal Bajaj	Linguistics
Baalmukund Gupt	Literature
Vasudevsharan Agrawal	Literature

The list is too exhaustive to be mentioned here. There are many Agrawals who have received medals at national and international level in many fields. They are a source of inspiration for all of us to rise and shine, for ourselves, for our community, and for our country.