Anavils are a community who despite not being numerically superior, are particularly dominant in the

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

and

Bulsar district Valsad district is one of the 33 districts in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli district of the Dadra and Nagar Have ...

s of south

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, India, where they have been significant land-owners and have an influential role in politics. The Anavil claim themselves to be Kānyakubja Brahmins who migrated from Kannauj to Gujarat in the early medieval period and were never involved in priestly functions. According to Shah, most other Brahmins in the region do not consider the Anavils to be Brahmins because they are neither priests nor connected to Sanskritic learning. They comprise two sub-groups, called the Desai and the Bhathela, though both use the surname Desai. The former acted as

tax farmer Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contract ...

s during the era of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

, and developed into one of the dominant land-owning groups in

South Gujarat South Gujarat, also known as ''Dakshin Gujarat'' (''દક્ષિણ ગુજરાત''), is a region in the Indian state of Gujarat. The region has a wetter climate than other regions of Gujarat. The western part is almost coastal and is k ...

. They eventually underwent a process of

Sanskritisation Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek 'upward' mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper ...

that saw them conform more closely to the classical Brahmin practices, such as

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

marriage, while the Bhathela continued to follow the

brideprice Bride price, bride-dowry (Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowr ...

system for marriage. The Desai are fewer in number but superior in traditional status. Among the Desais, the Pedivalas were the highest, and were respected as the local representatives for the Mughals. They did not practice female infanticide. Srinivas and van deer Veen state that the Pedivala Desais paid dowry to their bridegroom's family, even though the bridegroom's family was considered inferior in status to the Pedivalas. According to the mindset of the Pedivalas, the dowry was considered to be '' dakshina'' accompanying the bride in the '' kanyadan'' rite. The Anavils are associated with the expansion of agriculture in south Gujarat. As Mughal authority in the region weakened, the Anavils were able to expand their territory and control. Since the Mughal Empire wanted to expand the area of land under cultivation, they confirmed the Anavils' aristocratic statuses and employed them in local administration. The Anavils' power was further solidified during

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

rule of the region. Formerly the Anavils accepted brides from Patidar families.

Notable People

* Morarji Desai, independence activist and Prime Minister of India

Notable People

References

Further reading