Doshi

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This article is about the Indian surname. For the Japanese village, see Doshi, Yamanashi.

Doshi is a fairly common surname in India. While the roots can be traced back a few hundred years, the origin of the name is still a matter of much dispute. There were two different stories- one is from the History Of Oswals basically from Rajastan.

1. As per “Oswal Jain Gyati Mahodya”(ancient book on history of Oswals)in the year 160 A.D at the city named Bhatia (old name of Jaisalmer)in Rajasthan , it was the kingdom of Bhati Rajputs. Its capital was Lodarva.(now a well known Jain Tirth) Heersingh Sonigara Rajput was the rular of this state. Thakur Heersingh had no son so he prayed the Kshetrapal (A loka devata-local god) to give him a son, in return he would spend 1,25,000 gold coins on his temple. When he got a son, he named him as Khetal on the name of Kshetrapal. After some time the Kshetrapal (A loka devata) wanted more and more chadhava; Heersingh could not collect so much of money so he was helpless. When Khetal was of 8 years then Kshetrapal became furious. He entered the body of Khetal and began to create nuisance and violence in whole of Jaisalmer. When Heersingh heard about the arrival of Jain Acharya Jindutt Suri, he prayed the Acharya to help him. Acharya poured some mantrit water on Khetal and charmed Navkar Mantra-Namokar Mantra There was peace in whole Jaisalmer. Heersingh adopted Jainism and converted into Oswals. His gotra was named Doshi for the fault he did, other Rajputs were named Sonigara according to their original cast. The one minister of Heersingh was Pithal so his family was named Pithalia. In Vikrama Samvata 222(165 A.D.) a big Mahajan community gathered in Khandela near Jaipur. At that time all Mahajans of Osiya were named as Oswal and all Gotra became part of Oswal.

2. Another one is a popular Gujarati story which Narsinh Mehta mentions the Hindu deity Krishna appearing as a doshi vanio. A doshi was somebody who carried a dosh, or a sack of grocery/clothes, to sell as he wandered. This is similar to another translation of doshi as a rough cloth seller.

3. A third possibility is a direct translation, taken literally from the Hindu word dosh (meaning in this case guilt), defines doshi as someone who has been found guilty of a crime. A historical anecdote uses this definition of the word to explain how people assumed the name. According to Kishor Doshi, former President of the Houston Jain Society, the research he has done on this topic indicates Doshi was a last name given by a sixteenth century king in Gujarat to all of his subjects who did not participate in a compulsory census. He pronounced them guilty, or in Gujarati, doshi theravya.

4. Finally, an old woman is also known as a Dosi in Gujarati. A family that had an elderly matriarch at the time when family surnames (as opposed to caste-based surnames) first started appearing in Gujarat might thus have been distinguished from other families with the same caste-based surname.

[edit] Notable Doshis

[edit] References

1.Oswal Jain Gyati Mahadaya