Pathare Prabhu community residing mostly in Mumbai and America are descendants one of the ancient most communities of the ruling families in India. According to Hindu dictates[1] a member of this family is to rule on subjects of India. In accordance to this dictate, a member of this community objected to the rule of Brahman Pesewa in the region of Maharashtra in eighteenth century. According to the same dictate a Brahman is to do his priestly and spiritual duties and not to hold sword of state. On that the ruler Pesewa was annoyed and he in return declared an injunction on all priests in the region that they shall not perform certain rituals for members of Pathare Prabhu community. That decree was challenged in the court of Shankarswami of Shrungeri Muth, which is the highest office for settlement of Hindu-Brahman disagreements. The Swami gave verdict in favour of Pathare Prabhu community[2]. The dispute remained as pesewa ignored the ruling and continued to rule, finally the Pathare Prabhu community helped the upcoming East India Company and with them the pesewa raj ended. Following is the summery of that ruling. This summery shows the lineage of families from the first ancestor onwards.
Brief legendary history edit
Lord Brahma had manasputra (sons born out of mind or adopted son) Kashyap, he had first son Surya. The solar lineage begins from that son of Kashyap. In that line seventh born son was Vaivaswat manu. In that line was born King Ram[3]. He had two sons Luv and Kush. They had progeny and a line of kingship was formed[4][5][6][7]. Names mentioned are as given here, Kush, Atithi, Naishadh, Nul, Naabh, Pundarik, Kshemdhanvaa, Devanik, Vaasy, Dal, Shil, Dhi, Ooyaam, Vajranath, Khandan, Vyushita, Vishasama, Hiranya, Naabhi, Kaushal, Soam, Brahmishta, Pushya, Sudarshana, Anirvana and Kshemaka[8]. Out of them Kshemaka the last son, had a king in his line and that king was called Ashwapati[9][10][11]. His kingdom was somewhere in the region today we call Nepal spreading to present day Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Ashwapati had twelve queens but no one could conceive a child. So he was without issue. According to the customs of those days a yadnya called "Putrakameshthi" was performed under the able guidance of rishi Bhrugu[12]. The Yadnya was successful and those 12 queens gave birth to 12 sons and one daughter. The daughter is famous for her penance to save her husband Satyavan. Her name was "(sati) Savitry". [13][14][15].
Twelve sons had following names, Anuj, Dewak, Pruthu, Vrutuparpaaa, Jay, Sushibhnu, Sovaam, Sumant, Kaudinya, Manduk, Kushik, Martanda[16]. These are the 12 heads of 12 surnames of the Pathare Prabhu families. Since, Ashwapati's lineage belonged to Sun worshippers; these 12 families are considered suryavanshi. [17][18] It should be noted that Suryavansh has nothing to do with the celestial Sun.
In India along with Suryavanshi kings Somavanshi kings were also ruling. There beginning is as follows.
Lord Brahma had manasputra (sons born out of mind or adopted son) Kashyap, he had son Atri and Atri had one son, Soma. The lunar lineage begins from that son of risi Atri. The most important amongst them was one called Kamapati also called Kampal or Kamapal. [19] [20] [21]He had hundred sons. Out of those hundred sons one was called Bhanu. His line is concerned for Pathare Prabhu link of lunar lineage[22]. The line is as follows,
Bhanu had only one son Nrupajit and after that each one descendant had also only one son, the line is, Tradhumadh, Indu, Dhrushtadyumna, Dharm, Kaam, Kaushik, Ranamandan, Sibhri, Baglaan, Vajra, Indumandan, Kampal, Salil, Dharmadhvaj. Dharmadhvaj had three sons and they are, Bhushan, Kanti and Pruthu[23][24][25].
Out of these kings up to Kampal (or kamapal or Kamapati) all kings are considered as Aryan kings and including Kampal following kings are considered as Nagvanshi kings [26]. This is because, there were intermarriages going on amongst these royalties and when the bloodline of Nagvansh exceeded that of the Aryans following kings are called Nagvanshi. Kampal had his kingdom somewhere around Assam, Bengal, and Tripura region. Other kings had spread in the region of Utpal (present day Orisa), Brahmadesh, and Cin[27]. We see that regions of influence of the two lines are very close to each other and this explains why they were intermarrying.
Pruthu in the Kampal line is important for pathare Prabhu community. He had fifteen queens and like Ashwapati he also did not have any issue. He also performed Putrakameshthi Yadjna under the presiding authority of rishi Vashishtha. He had 78 sons and eldest son of each wife is the head of each Somavanshi Pathare Prabhu families. There names are, Sham, Pruthu, brahma, Shripati, Paudarik, Vajradanshtra, Shripal, Shalmali, Parthiw, Vasuki, Surath, Gaj, Aandy, Sweth, Vansh[28][29]. Noted mythological figure Pururavas belongs to this lineage of Somvansh. It should be noted that Somvansh has nothing to do with the celestial Moon.
List of Solar lineage with names of first ancestor, Gotra and deity edit
The 12 Suryavanshi Surnames are enlisted here with other details which shows there Vedic links. Order of listing is, first in line, man is mentioned then Gotra, family deity, and last is surname. [30][31]
1) Anuj - Bhardwaj - Prabhavati - Rane
2) Devak - Putamaksh - Kalika - Pradhan
3) Pruthu - Vasitha - Chandika - Kothare
4) Wrutuparpa - Kashyap - Mahalakshmi - Navalkar
5) Jay - Harit - Yogeshwari - Patterao (this family is missing)
6) Sushibhnu - Vrundvishnu - Indrayani - Dhurandhar
7) Sovaam - Brahmajanardana - Kamaksha - Brhamandkar
8) Sumant - Saunalya - Ekwira - Desai, Zaoba
9) Kaundinya - Kaundinya - Ambika - Nayak
10) Manduk - Mandavya - Maaheshwari - Mankar
11) Kushik - Kaushik - Durga - Velkar,
12) Martanda - Vishwamitra - twarita - Vyavaharkar
List of Lunar lineage with names of first ancestor, Gotra and deity edit
The 16 Somvanshi Surnames are enlisted here with other details which shows there Vedic links. Order of listing is, first in line, first ancestor, Gotra, family deity, and last is surname[32][33].
1) Sham - Shri chyawanbhargawa - Ekwira - Ranjit
2) Pruthu - Gautam - Vajrayi - Gorakshkar
3) Brahma - Shandilya - Vadajai - Rao
4) Shripati - Devdatta - Jogai - Jaykar
5) Paundarik - Martanda - Tarai - Dharadhar
6) Vajradanshtra - Jamadagni - Jogeshwari - Talpade
7) Shripal - Nanabhya - Kanaka - Kirtikar, Aagaaskar
8) Shalmali - Mugdal - Ghantai - Ajinkya
9) Parthiw - Chanaksh - Chandika - Dhairyawan
10) Vasuki - Bhargaw - Vadjai - Senjit
11) Surath - Upamanu - Jatika - Vijaykar
12) Gaj - Mahendru - Vajrai - Trilokekar
13) Aandi - Paulasti - Jiteshwar - Prabhakar
14) Sweth - Gargya - Ekwira - Vajkar
15) Vansh - Vaishampayan - Harjai - Anandkar, Vaidya (Vaidya is extinct)
For all the 27 noted families Veda, shakhaa and sutra are common and they are Yajurved, Madhyanjani and Katyayani. Principal deity is Chandramaa (Moon) for somavanshi and Surya (Sun) for Suryavanshi. Deity for worshiping is Shri Madhaw for both. Kula-Guru is same for both Vashishtha[34][35]. It is because of these similarities that the families are considered as a single community even though they belong to two different kinfolks (vansh) (Soma and Surya).
Prabhu surnames are designations of royalties based on epithet of each families first man. Gotra is the name of the gurukul to which first man of the family went for education. The family deity is the principal deity of the gurukul. Deity of worship for the family is supposed to be Madhaw for both but present practice is to worship family deity (kul daivata) and not Madhaw (Lord Krishna). Pricipal deity (guiding deity of the vansh or clan) of Ashwpati is surya and of Kamapati is Chandra mentioned as principal vansh (clan) for their following generations respectively. Surnames have changed from "sen" and vardan suffix during Magadh period, to "kar" suffix for example Kirtisen or Kirtivardan became Kirtikar, Jaysen, Jayvardan - Jaykar and so on and so forth[36].
Names of kula-Guru are actually ancient surnames of the rishi families in which traditionally spiritual discipline continued; and that is why we find these names appearing at different periods. Often it is mistaken for name of an individual and that creates confusion. The most important amongst them was one called Pururavas. All measure personalities such as; Pururavas, Sati Sawitri, Nal, [37]are all direct ancestors of present day Pathare Prabhu community.
About Confusion in two distinct Communities edit
There is always confusion about two distinct communities one called Pathare Prabhu and the other called Somavanshi Pathare Kshatrya [38] and also Somavanshi Kshatrya Pathare[39] besides referred to as Panchkalashi & Choukalshi. Somavanshi Pathare Kshatrya is descendants of Satrapas who had settled in and around Rajasthan and Gujarat region[40][41]. They were employed in the army of Pathare Prabhu rulers and so they had come very close to the community of Pathare Prabhu community, sharing mutually some traditions.[42] This makes lesser-trained observers to feel that the two communities have common ancestry. Somavanshi Pathare Kshatrya men and women clearly show distinct handsome facial features of the Satrap clan while Pathare Prabhu men and women show facial features those are more similar to Bengali and Nepali people.
As for surnames, Somavanshi Pathare Kshatrya carry surnames indicating the posts they held in army. For example, Mhaatre, this is a very common surname and that means controllers of elephant army. Raavate, means horse-riding warriors (Musketeers). It is traditionally believed that Somavanshi Pathare Kshatryas came along with Bimba Dev[43][44] a Pathare Prabhu ruler in Konkan region and settled in and around Mumbai island. Many other surnames are indicative of the place where they first settled such as, Paralkar, Dadarkar, Soparkar etc. [45]
There is no clear evidence but it is strongly believed that because this community of Kshatryas was with Pathare Prabhus and since they are of Somavansh [46]collectively the community was identified as Kshatryas (soldiers) of Pathare Prabhus and so the name Somavanshi Pathare Kshatrya. There is one more view point that these people came to Konkan from Utkal, present day Orisa and settled[47][48]. Further research may give better understanding on this topic.
About Pratihara kings edit
Very often due to lack of understanding of descend of different kingly families’ linkages, we put Puranic (kingly families mentioned in the Indian mythology) kingly families on Pratihara heritage and visa versa. To avoid that given here is how these two classes of Kingships came into existence. This will help understand many confusing things about heritage linkages of different kingly families. We also see a third class of kings arising to power on the strength of their own prowess those kings are called, Shiledar (Musketeer) kings. Founder of Vijaynagar Empire and also founder of Maratha raj in the later period are examples in point[49]. Puranic kingly families are those who are mentioned in ancient literature of puranas. They have valid Gotra system with mention of Vedic schools and such other details (Veda, Vedic Shakhaa, Gotra, and Sutra) of which we have seen in the previous part of this article. Pathare Prabhu comes under this class. Other types of kings do not have these details and that clearly shows that they are not from ancient traditions of rulers however they do belong to soldier class. Most of the descendants of these other class of rulers are included in the scheduled class in present classification by our government. We see that Pratihara kings came to be in power at about 9th century A.D. and after that[50]. They were originally working for Rashtrakuta monarch as pratihara, meaning doorkeeper or attendant, at a sacrifice performed at Ujjain[51]. We do not see puranic kingly families in any prominence after that. One explanation is that many puranic kingly families were extinct due to no further progeny. In most of the cases after the death of the last king of that link the queens were appointed as head of the state[52]. These queens preferred to have her guards as her adviser rather than conventional royal advisers[53]. Nagabhata was appointed as adviser and protector of queen of Avanti,[54] after the death of her husband. Pratihara rule probably began from this appointment. This was to avoid any insurgency and take over of the power from her by other courtiers. These guards were very much loyal to those queens and so that practice continued all over India. After the death of queen these guards took over as rightful kings[55]. This process was helped by Brahmin priesthood. Brahmin priesthood was more comfortable with these sudra kings and had better control over the society with the help of these otherwise ignorant kings. They served as court advisers and gradually Brahmins replaced original kingly adviser in the due curse. During the rule of original kingly courtiers, Brahmins never had free hand in all the matters of the state. They were always questioned by the true royalties and Brahmins were subjected to answer them. When pratihara kings took over Brahmins became the authority everywhere! It is seen that during this period temple architecture flourished all over north India[56]. Many great temples were built and that was possible because Brahmins were the principal adviser to the sudra kings. They were called sudra kings because these guards (Pratihara means doorkeeper, attendant) were always from that class of people. Other opinion is that Pratihara of north India were of Gujjar origin but after acquiring authority they attached themselves to Laxman, brother of Ram of Ramayana, since, he was a doorkeeper for Ram to protect Sita[57]. They came from lowest cadre of soldiers. Brahmins invented funny procedures to convert these otherwise ignorant and ill-educated kings as full-fledged royalties. This rule of uneducated kings continued up to Maratha raj in Maharashtra. In H.P.Blavatsky’s chapter 6, Patara Prabhus, one such invented procedure is mentioned.[58]
During Pesewa rule in Maharashtra, Pesewa had condemned Pathare Prabhus as one of these Pratihara kings and ordered all Brahmins not to perform special religious ceremonies befitting puranic royalties (called kshatriya sanskar) at any of the Pathare Prabhu occasion on the pretext that this community is not pure royal blood; in the court of the sankar mut at shrungeri[59]. Given here are some of the details of the case proceeding which was instrumental for declaring the true details of Pathare Prabhu community. And so are authentically explained.
Chronicles at Shrungeri Muth in Karnataka and also at Karvir in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, contain original proceedings; in Kannada script and Sanskrit language[60]. This information is based on the findings produced before the Sankarswami of Shrungeri Muth at the time of that case. The case was won by Pathare Prabhu people and Pesewa were ordered to keep their hands off the Prabhus. A large number of Brahmans of Yajurvedi and Gujarati Samavedi had signed in the favor of Pathare Prabhu side. By the dictates of Sankarswami of the Muth the ban on Pathare Prabhu community was revoked[61].
In Maharashtra after fall of Satvahana kings, came all pratihara kings and their dynasties are Vakatak, Chalukya, Yadav, Rashtrakut, chola, Kadamba, Shilahar, Paramar (not in order of ruling period) and many more[62]. These kings encouraged building of temples and appeased Brahmins to keep them on their side as against true ruling class who was deposed. Also posts such as Deshpande (chief Judge) and Deshmukh (Governor) were created[63] where Brahmins were placed to keep the power safely in their hands. This is how the power was passed from the hands of true royalties to sudra chieftains. When studying kingships or royalties in India this classification of different ruling families (puranic, pratihara and Shiledar) helps understand many intricate things, those are recorded, properly. This is a subject by itself.
It is often found in many records prepared by some wrongly informed readers that Pathare Prabhus are rajput and they originally hail from Rajasthan. This is not possible since, it is already shown in the earlier part of this article that the origin of this community is attributed to Ashvapati and Kamapati (circa 700 BC) and the rajputs are people of Saka, Parthians and Kushan origin with some Hun blood who came in India at about 150 BC onwards[64].
Since, Ashwapati ruled region around Nepal and Kamapati around Kamarup (Assam), we have to understand that Pathare Prabhus hailed from that region and that Pathare Prabhus are not rajputs. However, during the course of history of this community of rulers they did move to Rajasthan and Gujarat as conquerors but that does not mean that the community originally hails from that region[65].
Other References edit
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat), 14th Chapter
- ^ Pattanprabhu Lekhamani by Shamrao Moroji Nayak (1862)
- ^ Ramayana
- ^ Shree Bhrugu Samhita
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Ganesh puraan
- ^ Sahyadrikhanda
- ^ Sahyadrikhand -Mahadev Ganesh talk-26th Chapter
- ^ Scundhapuraana
- ^ Ganesh puraan
- ^ Markandeya puraan
- ^ Scundhapuraana
- ^ Markandeya Puraan
- ^ Ganesh Puraan
- ^ Mahabharat
- ^ Shree Bhrugu Samhita
- ^ Darpan Granthi
- ^ Prawar manjari
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Scandhpuraan
- ^ Sahyadrikhand -Mahadev Ganesh talk-5th Chapter
- ^ Pattanprabhu Lekhamani by Shamrao Moroji Nayak (1862)
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Sahyadrikhanda
- ^ Scundhapuraana
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Mahabharat
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Scundhapuraana
- ^ Darpan Granthi
- ^ Prawar manjari
- ^ Darpan Granthi
- ^ Prawar manjari
- ^ Hari Vansh (Bhagwat)
- ^ Darpan granthi
- ^ Sahyadrikhand chapter 35
- ^ Markandeya puraan
- ^ Somvanshi Pathare Kshatriya
- ^ Somvanshi Kshatriya Pathare
- ^ Sahyadrikhanda
- ^ Kshatriya Vanshodgam maalaa
- ^ Nirmal Mahatmya pothi
- ^ Bimbakhyaan
- ^ Mahikavati Bakhar
- ^ Nirmal Mahatmya pothi
- ^ Bimbakhyaan
- ^ Nirmal Mahatmya pothi
- ^ Bimbakhyaan
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ Harsha-charita by Baana
- ^ Harsha-charita by Baana
- ^ Jaina Harivansha
- ^ Jaina Harivansha
- ^ Harsha-charita by Baana
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ An interesting description of pathare prabhu culture as experienced by Helena Blavatsky in the 18th century.
- ^ Pattanprabhu Lekhamani by Shamrao Moroji Nayak (1862)
- ^ Chronicled records at Shrungeri, Karnatak
- ^ Pattanprabhu Lekhamani by Shamrao Moroji Nayak (1862)
- ^ History of Shilahar Dynesty
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ The Advanced History of India
- ^ Pathare Prabhu
- Scundhapuraana
- Sahyadrikhanda
- Shree Bhrugu sumhita
- Pattanprabhu Lekhamani by Shamrao Moroji Nayak (1862).
- Mahikavati Bakhar
- Bimbakhyaan
- History of Shilahar Dynesty
- Nirmal Mahatmya pothi
- Markandeya Puran