MEANING OF “VAHIVANCA”

The term “Vahivanca” derived from the “Vahi”. According to Bhagwatgomandal1
(Gujarati Lexicon) the term Vahi has lot of meaning but mainly
it is used as the book of account or book for the record of Genealogy.
This book is two to three feet long, and six to twelve inches broad and
folded in the middle. The man whose occupation was to maintain such
a book of Genealogy came to be known as a Vahivanca. Although it
is said that such records were preserved on palm leaves, there are no
evidences available as on date no vahivanca books are found written
in Sanskrit or Prakrit. The oldest one is dated Vikram Samvat 1776 (A.D.
1740). Some Barots have Vahi which is more than 500 years old but it
has not been found yet. It is written in Devanagari Script, and the language
is old Gujarati. One of the records takes us back to A.D. 1234 -
although the book in which the genealogy is found is of a later date.
It is the genealogy of Rathod Rajputs from Village- Radhvanaj, Taluka
-Matar, District –Kheda. The genealogy does not seem to be fictitious
because it can be corroborated by an epigraph. The epigraph was
found in the small shrine on the outskirts of the village. The epigraph
is also broken, but the following words can be read clearly: Sri Samvat
1290, Raja Jagdev. (Samvat 1290= A.D. 1234)2. There was also dispute
regarding the area which this practice is following. In 1957 Prof. A.M.
Shah has worked on this social practice, he mentioned that this practice
prevailing in Central Gujarat, North Gujarat and Saurashtra, and also
described this system as non- Sanskitise tradition and not prevailing
in higher castes of Gujarat3, but Prof. Balvant Jani expert in the subject
have different view he was in favor that this system all our the Gujarat
and majority community except some in Lohana anad Nagar community4.
He classified five communities in the Gujarat which engage with this
work.

1. Barot or bhat- the Barot is one of the eighteen bardic castes in
Gujarat mention in the Bombay gazetteer. During the monarchy,
Hindu raja and chieftain used to have a Barot in their court who
attended them to public occasions and ceremonies, he loudly
sounded the the Rajas praise and proclaimed his mainly high
surroundings title. They also used to cheer the troops with their
songs and to compose versus defaming the enemies, they also
composed the poem on love and death, there also worked as story
teller. Mainly the Bhat and Barot engaged with this activity. Majority
of cast have Barot or Bhat as there genealogical recorders.
Very few casts have other people for genealogical records rather
then Bhat and Charans. The other name of this community was
Bahmbhatt and Rao, According to Puranic source it emerged from
Partilom marriage between Brahmin and Kshatiriya. Barot mainly
keeps records all the community while Rao mainly kept records of
state poet. Within this community some were called as Ranimnaga
Barot who kept records of queen of Kshatiriya.

2. Raval - community divided in the two part one was Vahivancha
Raval while other was Dakiya Raval. This community only kept records
only of Charan. This community mainly Brahmin community.
According to mythological story, during time of rule of Lakha
Fulani in Kutch one of the Brahmin has change the girl in royal
marriage , that’s why he was outcasted, latter on one of the Charan
teach him the techniques of record. The descendants of this
Brahmin were became Ravals and kept records of Charan.

3. Charan - Charans mainly kept records of Ksatriyas, these records
mainly in the poetry form. Although both Barots and Charans follow
the same occupation but they follow two different traditions
in their poetry, Charans compose their poetry in dialect known as
Dingal, a poetic dialect of Western Rajsthan while Barot compose
in Braj Bhasa. Both of this community was called as Devi Putra.
They considered as sacred because both of this community practiced
Tragu (suicide) to protect Dharm(truth). There was a wider
spared belief that the shredding of blood of Bhat and Charan,
brought ruin on the person responsible for it.

4. Mir – There mainly Hindu Barot latter on became Muslim and kept
the genealogical records of Bharavd community. In Saurshtra they
also have Halai Khatic records. Mirs were also known for their poetry
and art of singing in Saurshtra5.

5. Thirthgor- Thirth Gor mainly living in the religious places like Vadnagar,
Drawka, Somnath and other religious places, they kept records
of those who visited pilgrim centre. One of shortcoming of
those records that they kept records only records of those of come
to pilgrims.