Parwar
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Parwar is a major Jain community from the Bundelkhand region, which is largely in Madhya Pradesh, but also includes Lalitpur region of Uttar Pradesh. They exclusively follow the Digambar Jain tradition.
A number of Jain scholars have belonged to this community, including Taran Swami, the founder of Taran Panth and the Bhattarakas of Chanderi. Osho was born in the Samaiya section of this community.
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[edit] History
A number of inscriptions mentiong the community have been found in the region adjacent to the Betwa river [1]. In the older inscriptions they are called Paurapatta or Puravada. The oldest inscriptions include those found at Pachrari (Vikram Samvat 1122), Ahar (VS 1209, 1210), Chanderi (VS 1252,13450, Sironj (VS 1299, 1316), Narwar (VS 1319). A long inscription at Devgarh of VS 1493 mentions Lakshaman Singhai and his large family, who installed an idol of Lord Shantinath under the supervision of Bhattaraka Devendrakirti of Balatkara Gana. It is probably the first mention of the Singhai (or Sanghapati) title in the region.
Some authors have proposed a historic connection between the Parwar and the Porwad communities.
[edit] Organization
The Parwars are divided into 12 gotras, each gotra is further divided into 12 shakhas (mura)s. Traditionally 4 of the shakas of the grandparents of the boy, and four of the shakhas of the grandparents of the girl were required to be distinct for a marriage to take place. Thus the Parwars were sometimes termed ashta-shaha.
There were once several social divisions among the Parwars, which are no longer significant.
Some Parwars follow Taran Panth and are called Samaiya, because Taran Swami based his teachings on Samayasara of Acharya Kundakunda.
[edit] Also see
[edit] References
- ^ Siddhantacharya Phulachandra Shastri, Parwar Jain Samaj ka Itihas, 1990, Jabalpur
