Porwad (also known as Porwal) are mainly

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

community that originated in southern

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

, India. Ancient inscriptions written in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

refer to the community as ''Pragvata''. They originated from a region east of ancient Shrimal. numerically they rank behind the

Oswal The Oswal (sometimes spelled Oshwal or Osval) are a Jain community with origins in the Marwar region of Rajasthan and Tharparkar district in Sindh. They claim to be of Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large ...

and Shrimal Jains from the same region. However, in antiquity, they appear to have been more numerous and among the wealthiest. Many Jain temples were built by the Porwals, including: * Ranakpur Jain temple of Dharna Shah, completed in 1441 CE * Luna Vasahi (1231 CE) of Vastupal and Tejpal at Mount Abu * The Adinath temple at

Shatrunjaya Shatrunjaya or Shetrunjaya ("place of victory against inner enemies") originally Pundarikgiri), are hills located by the city of Palitana, in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat, India. They are situated on the banks of the Shetrunji River at an elev ...

by Javad Shah in 961 AD, which was subsequently renovated several times. The Porwad community became divided into several regional communities including the Sorathia (in Saurashtra), the Kapol, the Jangad Porwad, and the Porwad found in the Nimad region of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. Some of the groups became a part of the Oswal or Navnat communities. Both Jain traditions, Svetambara and

Digambar ''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being '' Śvētāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic practice of neither possessing ...

, are represented among different sections of the Porwad community. The historian H. L. Jain has suggested that

Krisha ''Krisha'' is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults in his feature-length directorial debut, starring his real-life aunt Krisha Fairchild, and is the feature-length adaption of the 2014 short film ''Krisha'' also ...

, the patron of Muni Srichandra, a Digambara monk, belonged to the same Ninanvaya clan as Vimala who built the Vimala Vasahi temple at Abu.Muni Srichandra's Kahakosu, Prakrit Text Society, 1969, H.L. Jain editor Thus the one branch of the family followed Swetamabra tradition, while other followed Digambara tradition. This suggests the harmonious coexistence to the two Jain traditions in that region. In the 16th century, Pushti Marga was founded by Vallabha, a Brahmin scholar from Telangana, who proposed that in the modern age, it is too hard to follow the Jnana & Karma Margs. He proposed Pushti Marga (Raag, Bhog and Shringar used in the seva of Shri Krishna) as an alternative. A section of the Porwads has converted to Pushtimarga. Those who have converted to the Pushtimarg are known as Meshri (derived from Maheshwari)The Eighteenth-Century Social Order in Surat: A Reply and an Excursus on the Riots of 1788 and 1795, by Lakshmi Subramanian, Modern Asian Studies, 1991, p. 321-365 or Vania.

Gotras

There are many gotras in Porwal.

References

Indian Jains Indian Hindus {{Social groups of Maharashtra

Gotras

See also

References