MAHARAJA AGRASEN

An icon of non-violence, messenger of peace. He was an embodiment of Sacrifice, Compassion, Non-violence, Peace, Prosperity and a True Socialist. BIRTH FATHER ORIGIN Last stages of Dwapar Yuga (about 5200 years ago) King Ballabh of Pratapnagar Suryavamshi (lineage from the Sun) Kashtriya

WIFE Princess Madhavi, Daughter of King Nagaraja. The marriage merged two different family cultures, because Prince Agrasen was a Suryavamshi and Princess Madhavi was a Nagavamshi. SURYAVAMSHI TO VAISHYA TRADITION Indra, the king of Devas was very angry on the marriage of Maharaja Agrasen as he himself had been smitten by the beauty of Princess Madhavi and wanted to marry her. To get revenge against Agarsen, Indra made sure that Pratapnagar did not receive any rainfall and famine struck the region. Agrasen then waged war against Indra and his army vanquished Indras forces and put them to flight. Finally, Narada negotiated peace between them. Agrasen became concerned with maintaining a long lasting peace to end the enmity. So he went to the city of Kashi and started penance to please Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva appeared in front of him and advised him to propitiate Shri Mahalakshmi. Goddess Mahalaxmi blessed Agrasen and suggested that he take up the Vaishya tradition of business for the sake of the prosperity of his people and give up his kshatriya tradition. With the blessings of Shri Mahalaxmi, King Agrasen along with Queen Madhavi, toured all of India only to find a place where a few tiger cubs and wolf cubs were playing together. They decided to found their new kingdom at that location and named their new kingdom AGROHA, which became famous and prosperous in no time.

18 GOTRAS Agrasen & Madhavi had 18 children. King Agrasen divided his kingdom among his 18 children and established 18 gotras after the GURUs of each of his children. These 18 gotras are like 18 chapters of the Bhagvadgita; although ther differ; they are still related to each other to form the whole. 17 and a HALF GOTRAS Maharaja Agrasen proceeded to conduct 18 mahayajnas for the prosperity of his kingdom. When he was in the process of performing his 18th yajna, he was filled with compassion for the animal (horse) to be sacrificed. Therefore, he put a brake to his 18th yajna announcing that no sacrifices will be made in his kingdom in the name of yajna. 18th Yajna wasny completed. The sage Garg blessed him with 17 and a half gotras. COMMUNITY OF AGROHA Agroha was a prosperous city and 100,000 traders lived in the city during its heydays. An insolvent community man as well as an immigrant wishing to settle in the city would be given a rupee and a brick by each inhabitant of the city. Thus, he would have a 100,000 bricks to build a house for himself and Rs. 100,000 to start a business. END OF AGROHA The neighboring kings were envious of Agroha because of its prosperity, thus they frequently attacked it. Because of these aggressions, Agroha faced numerous plights. In due course, the strength of Agroha was sapped. A huge fire engulfed the city causing the citizens to flee and disperse into various areas of India. Today, these people are known as AGGARWALS.

BISA, DASSA & PUNJ AGGARWAL According to a legend, the Agrawal community developed 20 rules of conduct. Those who followed all 20 rules were called Bisa Agrawals Those who followed only 10 rules were called Dasa Agrawals. Those who followed only 5 were called Punja Agrawals.