This is interesting excerpt on Kachchhi last names from Anmol Kachchh booklet given during Kojain Sammelan 2008.
Roots of 84 last names of Kachchhi Oswal can be found in 6 branches. Last Names are derived from the names of location, forefathers, occupied status and business. These 6 main branches are:
Chavada (4 sub branches) – Chheda, Dedhia, Nandu and Savla
Parmar (35 sub branches) – Buricha, Dharod, Gada, Gosar, Haria, Kenia, Lalan, Luthia, Maru, Mota, pasad, Rambhia, Vira, etc
Rathod (16 sub branches) – Ganger, Kakka, Lapsia, Lodaya, Poladia, Sangoi, etc
Chauhan (9 sub branches) – Bheda, Khimsia, Nisar, etc.
Bhatti (7 branches) – Gala, Gogri, Shethia, Soni, etc
Solanki (16 sub branches) – Satra, Vora, etc
Just curious as to what could be the basis of the above classification and is there any formal study done around this.
So what do these branches mean?
Seems like the bay area is Parmar centric
am curious to know the meaning or occupation/location etc. of forefathers for all these groups?
Most of these main branches are seen as last names in Kshatriya community. One of the definition of a kshatriya is “a member of the second highest of the four castes of traditional Indian society, responsible for upholding justice and social harmony, and including people in governing and military positions”. The other three castes are brahmins(preists), vaisya(merchants) & shudra(labourers).
I found an article that gives some idea about how jains and Kshatriya are related.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kshatriya
Based on this aricle looks like Parmar, Chauhan and Solanki belong to Agnivanshi Kshatriya caste.
I checked my other book on Kutch and it doesn’t mention anything about these grouping. As Ameeta mentioned, my thoughts were – these grouping could be initial last names during fore fathers. And over the period each branch grew with additional last names as division in occupation, beliefs, religion & cast grew.
On a related topic, I have Gada Family Tree dating back to 1200 AD I believe. It has my 50 forefathers listed on it. Even my name is listed on the tree :-). It states that we were Parmar Kshatriya before adopting Jain religion some 800 years ago.