Archive and Records

Author : Rtn. Gangaram Shamdas Purswani(P.H.F)

As Haridwar has traditionally been a site, for death rites and also Shraaddha, amongst Hindu families. since time immemorial, the families of Khudabadi Sonara community, when ever, visiting Haridwar during the course of their religious pilgrimage or for performing the religious rituals or for immersion of ashes and bones of their kin into the waters of holy River Ganga, as required by Hindu religious custom, they would always meet their family Pinda (Holy men of Haridwar), and register their purpose of visits, update the past & present events and the family’s genealogical family tree with details of all marriages, births and deaths from ones extended joint family, so that these reports and information can be recorded in to their Genealogical Registers. The record is grouped according to family and home towns.

In this ancient customs the detailed family Genealogies of Khudabadi Sonara families, for the past several generations are kept by professional Hindu Brahmin pandits, popularly known as Pindas, at the Hindu holy city of Hardwar in hand written registers (bahis). These hand written registers are passed down to the family pandits over generations by their ancestors, which are classified according to original districts and villages of ancestors of Khudabadi Sonara families. The specific designated Pandit families are in charge of specific designated district registers, even for cases where ancestral districts and villages that have been left behind in Pakistan after the partition of India with Khudabadi Sonara families having to migrate to India. And over the centuries, these Hindu Genealogical Registers in Haridwar have become an important genealogical source for many Hindu families. Whenever, there is split in the families of Pindas, they divide the record registers as their assets & wealth and re-allocate their devotees, accordingly. These registers are the Purans, Surities and Smirities of Khudabadi Sonara Community. The history told in these records has the information as to who were the key personalities lived in various point of time. These texts apart from providing the mere information also serve as the sources that inspire people about their heroes of the past. They narrate the good and evil of the past so that people could take forward the contours of positive growth and keep away from the errors. The author presenting book “Incredible History & Origin of Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar Community”, has been collecting and compiling the detailed information observations and facts stored in above mentioned registers with the Pindas of Haridwar for last many years. The author is eighty years old and had a golden opportunity to be with his fathers, uncles and the grandfather from whom he had first hand information, about the community, as from the year 1800 A.D. The author of this book, in his childhood, also had an opportunity that he had always accompanied with his grandfather Late Shri Bhojraj Purswani and his uncle Late Shri Tikamdas Bhojraj Purswani in attaining community and Panchayat Meetings, Functions, Seminars, Assemblies and social gatherings, wherein, there were always community topics for discussions. The author of this book has reconciliated these data and information, so collected with Historical Events of Sindh in particular and of lndia in general, before introducing the same, in the form of a historical book called “Incredible Origin and History of Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar Community”.