The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 1 (of 4)Crooke, William
History
The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 1 (of 4)
Crooke, William
Caste -- India -- History; Hindus -- India; Tribes -- India -- History
Agarwâla. [111]—Usually treated as a sub-caste of the great Banya
caste, a wealthy trading class in Upper India. There are various
explanations of the name. According to one account they take their
title from dealing in the aromatic wood of the agar (Sans. aguru), the
eagle wood tree (Aquilaria agallocha). There is, however, no evidence
that the sale of this article is, or ever was, a speciality of the
Agarwâlas. Another story is that there were a thousand families of
Agnihotri Brâhmans settled in Kashmîr, and that they were supplied with
agar wood for their sacrifices by a special tribe of Vaisyas. When
Alexander the Great invaded India he broke their sacred fire pits (Agni
kunda), and these Vaisyas were dispersed and settled in the
neighbourhood of Agra, whence they derived their name. A third legend
again refers the name to Agroha, an ancient town in the Hissâr district
of the Panjab, where a lâkh of families of Vaisyas were settled by King
Agra Sena. Round this Râja Agra Sena there is a whole cycle of legend.
His ancestor was Dhana Pâla, Râja of Pratâpnagar, which some identify
with the present State in Râjputâna, and some place vaguely in the
Dakkhin or Southern India. He had eight sons—Shiu, Nala, Anala, Nanda,
Kunda, Kumuda, Vallabha, Suka, and a daughter, Mukuta. At that time
there was a Râja Visâla, who had eight daughters—Padmâvati, Mâlati,
Kanti, Subhadra, Sra, Srua, Basundhara and Râja. They were married to
the eight sons of Dhana Pâla. Each of these, except Nala, who became an
ascetic, had a kingdom of his own. In the family of Shiu there reigned
in succession Vishnu Râja, Sudarsana, Dhurandhara, Samadi, Mohan Dâs
and Nema Nâtha, who populated Nepâl and called it after his own name.
His son Vrinda performed a great sacrifice at Brindâban, and named the
place after himself. His son was Râja Gurjara, who occupied Gujarât.
Râja Harihar succeeded him, and he had one hundred sons. One of these,
Rangji, became Râja, and the others, for their impiety, were degraded
into Sûdras. To him, in the fifth generation, succeeded Râja Agra Sena.
At that time, Râja Kumuda of Nâga Loka, or “Dragon land,” had a very
beautiful daughter named Mâdhavi, who was wooed by the God Indra; but
her father preferred to marry her to Râja Agra Sena. After his marriage
he performed notable sacrifices at Benares and Hardwâr, and then went
to Kolhâpur where he won the daughter of the Râja Mahidhara in the
swayamvara. Finally he settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi and made
Agra and Agroha his capitals. His dominions reached from the Himâlaya
to the Ganges and the Jumna, and as far as Mârwâr on the west. He had
eighteen queens, who bore him fifty-four sons and eighteen daughters.
In his latter days he determined to perform a great sacrifice with each
of his queens. Each of these sacrifices was in charge of a separate
Achârya or officiant priest, and the gotras which sprang from him are
named after these Achâryas. When he was performing the last sacrifice,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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