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Around AD 1000, the
Badhshah of Afghanistan
attacked and conquered Punjab. The Hindus were forcefully converted to the
Islam religion. Our forefathers left Punjab to escape from the atrocities
of the Afghan king. The people who left Punjab were KANBI from Leava and
Karad villages of the Gujaranwala district (presently in Pakistan). Even
today there is a group of people of the KANBI caste in the villages of
Punjab. The people that came from the village Leava became known as the
Leava Kanbi and those from the village Karad became Karadva Kanbi, which
was shortened to Kadva Kanbi.
These
KANBI people left Punjab for
Marvad with what little belongings they could fit on their bullock carts.
It was the fame of Rajah Bog, widely known at time, which attracted our
forefathers to that region. At that time
Marvad was very densely populated and it was not possible
to acquire enough land. After staying for a short period in Marvad, they
left for Khambhat (Kheda District in Gujrat)
on hearing that there was uncultivated land available and this brought
them to Gujarat. At this time the Solankis were ruling Gujarat. The land
in the Taluka of Patlad which was uncultivated was granted to us by the
Solanki king. Land
equivalent to about one Gam (village) was granted to each family and the
Kanbi people settled on this land. The Kanbis being hard workers managed
to cultivate the land with great benefits. It was decided that a twelfth
portion of the crop would be given to the King in return for the land. But
the cost of collecting this twelfth part from each farmer was very high so
the king drew up an agreement and appointed a headman for each village.
The records of the kingdom and of the crops were kept on the
PAT (record or log book) and
the person who entered and kept these records was known as Patlikh.
Patlikh was shortened to Patal and then
became PATEL.
 As time went by, the kings
and the kingdoms changed and so did the portions of the crops given to the
kings. The main industry and income of the kingdoms was agriculture and
the kingdoms were sustained on the income from the farms. Then Khambhat
became the kingdom of the
Mauryavansi and the crops collected from the farmers were
different each year. It was high at times and low at the other times and
was dictated as per the need of the kingdom and hence this part of the
kingdom became known as Charotar
(from Chad climb up and Utar - climb down).
Around
A.D. 1400,
Mohammed Bagdo became the
next ruler of Gujarat and took a third of all crops and outlawed any
stealing. To improve farming, he chose the best farmer from each village
and handed those farmers the land. In return he asked the chosen farmers
to improve the farming, provide security for that village and make the
village prosperous and pay the kingdom on fixed cash base (bandhi avak).
This way the tradition of giving part of the crop to the kingdom was
abolished and a permanent propriety of the land was granted.
Whoever had the propriety of the land were
called PATEDAR which changed to KANBI PATIDAR and then became PATEL
PATIDAR. This way once again the Patel Patidar became the
owners of each village. From then on the Patel Patidar has maintained
themselves as Patidar, and cultivated land by hiring farm labor, and the
villages of Gujrat prospered once again.
 When the Kanbis first came
to Kheda from one of the first villages to be established in the Petlad
Taluka, were Saujitra, Naar Bhadran, Karamsad, Virsad, and Dharmaj. These
villages slowly became over populated and this brought shortage of houses
and agricultural land. In the beginning each family had about 5000 viga
land but when that land was passed on to the successive generations, the
share to each family became smaller and smaller which in turn made the
families poorer.
Between
A.D. 1820 and 1830 some of
the poor Leava and Kadva Patidar families decided to move towards South
Gujrat. They settled around Surat. The surrounding areas of Surat were
dense forests which the Leava Patidars cleared and cultivated the land.
Houses were built from the timber of the same jungles and then villages
were established.
 In the beginning there was
a link between the Patidars of the Kheda and that of the Surat but as
transportation was difficult, the link started to weaken. The main means
of transport at that time were bullock carts, horses and camels. It took
10 to 12 days to travel between Charotar and Surat. (The
railway first came to India in 1860 and the first rail
route was between Bombay and Thane.) Relatives from Surat and Charotar
visited each other but the contact gradually decreased over the
generations and in the end all links were cut off. Right from the
beginning, marriages between the Patidar of Surat and that of Charotar had
ceased as this could take over 20 to 25 days of travel.
Between 50 and 60
villages were established by the Patidars who came to
Surat, about 50 to 60 houses
in each village. They built big homes as there was plenty of land. The
Khacho (empty land at the back of the house) known as Vaado, in Surat,
were big and so each house had their own well for water. They also had
stables built with their houses for the cattle and had an Ukardo for the
cattle manure. They also kept a Khari (plain clear space) in the
"Vaado" for bringing in the crops.
All these facilities were incorporated in each house. Again, the Patidars
were hard workers and in a short time started to live comfortably and
happily.
There are
three different stories as
to how we became the Matiya Patidar,
but they all have one thing in common and that is the strong values and
believes that our forefathers refused to let go.
In one story, it is said
that around 1850, some Leava
Patidar started a pilgrimage to Kashi by bullock carts. On the way they
camped at various villages, and after few weeks they reached to a Village
called Pirana, near
Ahmadabad. In Pirana there was a devout man named
Imamshah, who heard of this group of pilgrims and
went to meet them. He invited them to dine with him that night. Imamshah
himself was a vegetarian and so he always offered vegetarian food to all
visitors who came to his village, be they Hindus or Muslims. They talked
till late in the night. Then Imamshah asked if he could give the darshan
of Kashi Visvanath here,
would the group go back. Some people from the group agreed though others
objected to this idea. The group that did not agree continued their
journey to Kashi. The others stayed with Imamshah, who taught them that
whoever has a pure and clean mind and heart does not have to go on any
pilgrimage and that whenever a devotee wishes to see his God, God will
himself come to him and give darshan. They accepted Imamshah as their Guru
and returned to their villages. The other group, after completing the
entire pilgrimage, returned about one year later. When they learned about
this dual religious practice, the Panchayat (group of 5 people, chosen by
the village people as judge), was furious at this and ruled that the
Hindus can only worship Hindu Gods and can not take Imamshah as their
guru. Whoever disobeyed this ruling would be Nyatbarh (outcast). Some of
Imamshah’s disciple saw this as a threat, so they went on a
Mat (revolt), and they
continued their dual religious practice and formed their own Panchayat.
Panchayat from both sides than ruled that from then on there would not be
any marriages between the two groups nor would there be any other social
relations with each other. From then onwards
the Patidars who had gone on the mat became known as Leava Matiya Patidar
and later became known as MATIYA PATIDAR. The Matiya
Patidars that broke away from the Leava Patidars were also joined by their
families and relatives and started their own separate society. Even today
there are some villages of Matiya Patidar, in which there are houses of
Leava Patidar.
There is another story
associated with how we became the Matiya Patidars. In which it’s said that
when British invaded India,
and started demanding tax on their crops, some the Patidars refused to pay
and went on a Mat. They became known as Matiya Patidars.
Another reason for
parting from the Leava Patidar was that many people were tired of
following the extreme traditions of the Leava Patidar Samaj. The parting
gave them an opportunity to change the
traditions to their own view of life. One of the
improvements was the abolishing of Dahaij
(dowry) system because the poorer Leava Patidars found it
extremely difficult to get their daughters married. At times, when they
could not come up with the dowry, the girls remained spinsters and had to
spend the rest of their life with their brothers and sisters-in-law (bhabhi).
Thus the dowry system was totally abolished and a ruling was passed which
said that nobody should give any dowry nor should anybody receive any.
The second improvement
was that any women who were widowed or divorced were allowed to remarry
and enjoy family life as this was considered their natural right. Many
other improvements were also made which are not listed here.
Today, most
Matiya Patidars are located
in the Navsari Taluka and
the Bardoli Taluka. There
are over one hundred families in Bombay
and few other families in other parts of India such as
Surat, Indore, Vadodara, Ahmadabad,
Bhavnagar, Hydrabad, Banglore, etc. Overseas the Matiya
Patidars are practically all over the world but the main settlements are
in New Zealand, England, United States of
America, Canada, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Fiji and
recently in Australia.
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