Encyclopedia
Gujarat
Gujarat is the westernmost state in India. It is home to the Gujarati speaking people of India. The state encompasses major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization such as Lothal and Dholavira. Gujarat played an important role in the economic history of India throughout the history of India...
. The surname is the second most common in India, following Singh
Singh
Singh is derived from the Sanskrit word Siṃha meaning "lion". It is a common title, middle name, or surname in North India, originally used in the 7th century by the Rajputs of the princely states of Rajputana...
. The Patel surname is found primarily in the Indian states of Gujarat
Gujarat
Gujarat is the westernmost state in India. It is home to the Gujarati speaking people of India. The state encompasses major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization such as Lothal and Dholavira. Gujarat played an important role in the economic history of India throughout the history of India...
, Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan...
, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh , [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 190 million people,...
, and Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of ancient republican nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Indian Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC, that led to a turning point in the Emperor's life when deeply saddened by the bloodshed...
. The BBC Radio 4 programme "Meet the Patels" (June 2009) asserted that there are around 410,000 to 670,000 Patels in the UK, where it is now the 24th most common surname. Patil
Patil
Patil is an Indian title. As a lastname, "Patil" is predominantly used by Marathas of Deccan . The native language of most Patil's is predominantly Marathi...
is the Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are 90 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi is the 4th most spoken language in India and the 15th most spoken language in the world...
version of this same name.
Ethnicity
The surname is popular and denotes a particular landowning status. The Patels historically belonged to various Patidar sub-castes. Two main groups of Patels in Gujarat make up the Patidar community including: 1. Leva Patel/Patidar 2. Kadava Patel/Patidar. The Kadava Patidar sub-caste is found mostly in districts of the Saurashtra region like Rajkot
Rajkot
Rajkot is the 4th largest city in the state of Gujarat, India. Rajkot is the 28th urban agglomeration in India, with a population more than 1.43 million as on 2008...
, Junagadh
Junagadh
Junagadh is a city and a municipal corporation, the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is located at the foot of the Girnar hills. Literally translated, Junagadh means "Old Fort"...
, Jamnagar
Jamnagar
Jamnagar is a city and a municipal corporation in Jamnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city was built up substantially by Maharaja Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji in the 1920s, when the district was known as Nawanagar. The district lies just to the south of the Gulf of Kutch...
and Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar is a city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was founded in 1723 AD by Bhavsinhji Gohil and was named after its founder and ruler. It was capital of Bhavnagar State which was the first princely state to merge with the democratic Indian Union in 1948.It is currently the administrative...
and also Mahesana. the Leuva Patidar sub-caste are mainly found in the Charotar Region (which are also known as Charotar Leuva Patidars) (Kheda
Kheda
Kheda is a town and a municipality in Kheda district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda, also known as Kaira, is 35 km from Ahmedabad. The National Highway no. 8 connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai passes through Kheda...
, Anand
Anand
Anand or Ananda is a Sanskrit word that means bliss, happiness, or joy. It is a widely used first and last name in the Indian subcontinent.*Ananda was one of the principal disciples of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama...
), Kanam (Vadodara
Vadodara
Vadodara , formerly Baroda , is the third most-populated city in the Indian state of Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Surat. It is one of four cities in the state with a population of over 1 million, the other being Rajkot and the two cities listed above, although it has a massive population of over 3...
, Bharuch
Bharuch
Bharuch, Gujarati ભરૂચ , is today is a large seaport city of more than a million inhabitants and a municipality in the Bharuch district, in the state of Gujarat, India...
, Panchmahal), South Gujarat and Saurashtra region. The book titled "Patel a Life" by Rajmohan Gandhi throws some light on the ancestors of Sardar Patel: "His mother Labda gave him birth in the house of her brother Doongerbhai Desai.. Labda's husband Jhaverbhai belonged not to Nadiad but to a village called Karamsad(twelve miles south of Nadiad and three miles west of the town of Anand), where he tilled a ten acre plot and owned a small house. He and Labda and all their relatives were Patidars. Centuries earlier their ancestors had migrated from the far north and taken possession of a sandy yet rich stretch of soil called the charotar... the Patidar ancestors - possibly linked to the formidable Huns who swept down into India from the northwest in the sixth century or to the Gujjars of Punjab or to both-cleared the Charotar woods, improved the sandy ground with dung manure and cart loads of black soil... they also soldiered for nearby chieftains... more tangibly, they obtained a clear title of the lands they had occupied, and were therefore called Patidars-holders of a land title - or Patels. The Patidars have alternated, in their customs, between eating meat and abstaining from it, between paying bride-price and demanding dowry from a bride's parents, between permitting widow-remarriage and banning it... while changing their customs, the Patidars retained their Hindu religion, ralling together against outsiders, male supremacy, silence before elders and an individual's subservience to the (extended) family but independence before the world. Bluntness in speech, an unconcern about dress and appearance, a sense of equality within the fold that turned the village into " a collectivity of Patidar brothers" and a sense of superiority towards non-Patidars, a self-image of tough independent men... naturally given to ruling over others" marked the Patidar character.
The Gujjars who migrated from North India to Gujrat started calling themselves as Patidar or Patel. In Rajasthan, Patel is a very common word used by Gujjars... in every village there is a title (Patel) given to some dominant family and this title of 'Patel" runs in the family and is transferred to the eldest son of the family. In areas around Bharatpur, Gujjars are popularly called as "Patel" by other communities. It is similar to Chaudhary
Chaudhary
Choudhry is a term in Indo-Aryan languages, literally meaning "holder of four". Traditionally, the term is used as a title indicating the ownership of ancestral land, but in contemporary usage it is often taken as a surname...
which was used to be in the NCR and Western Uttar-Pradesh as a title both by Gujjars and Jats but now a days in the entire Northern India "Chaudhary" is being used as surname by Jats.The Gujjars of North India also have two main devisions- (i) Laur Gujar and (ii) Khari Gujar that is very similar to 1. Leuva Patidar and 2. Kadava Patidar
Kadava Patidar
The Kadava Patidar are a sub-caste of the Patidar community in India. They are predominantly found in the Mehsana District in the Northern Gujarat, and overseas in East Africa and US states including California, Georgia, and Florida. There are several theories of the origins of the Kadava...
of Gujrat. During the Moghul era Patels were trusted heads of the villages. The British also relied on Patels to carry out administration in any particular village. Pate is derived from the word "Pattalikh" meaning certain portion of land "patta" (A unit of Land) and named after the head of the village "likh" meaning "named". Amin surname bearers are also known as Patels. Saurashtra kadva patel have specific surname like Vadalia, Bhensdadiya, Godhani, Manavadariya, Borsaniya, Vachhani, Kalaria, Makadiya, Chhatrala, Bhojani, Bhalani, Makhesana, Merja, Chaniyara, Aghera, Gondha, Bhimani, Dadhaniya, Kundariya, Sapovadia, Jasani, Bhut, Viroja, Garala, Savsani, Marvaniya etc. These are drawn on the basis of their migration from a village, e.g. Sapovadia brought from Sapovada village. Saurastra Leuva Patels in the Saurastra region district have specific surnames: Abhangi, Babaria, Busa, Khoyani, Pambhar, Limbasiya, Kanani, Kunjadiya, Dobaria, Keraliya, Radadia, Gajera, Sutaria, Sojitra and so on from their original village names (from the Kheda, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Saurastra regions). In South Gujarat, nearly 90% of the members of the Koli
KOLI
KOLI is a radio station serving Wichita Falls, Texas and Vicinity with a country music format. It operates on FM frequency 94.9 MHz and is under ownership of Cumulus Media.-External links:*...
and Kanbi Patidar sub-castes bear 'Patel' as their last name. The Patels outnumber all other Gujaratis in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
. The surname 'Patel' is also used by Kolis in other regions of Gujarat. Besides Kolis and Kanbis, Dhodia
Dhodia
The majority of the Dhodia tribes are located in the southern part of Gujarat, Surat and Valsad districts, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan of India. The Dhodia tribes speak the Dhodia language. It is a language which is a mixture of unique...
Patidars of South Gujarat also use Patel as their last name. The surname can also be found amongst Muslims, and Parsis. Patidars of Rajasthan (south and south-east rajasthan) and Madhya-Pradesh mainly use 'Patidar' itself as surname. The Patidars of these two states are also divided into two groups, Leuva and Kadava. It is also the surname of many of the Gujarati Muslim Vora Patel
Vora patel
Vohra Patel or Vora Patel is a community of Sunni Muslim belonging to the Patel family, originally from Gujarat, India, particularly from the Surat and Bharuch Districts....
communities.
It should be noted that other Gujaratis who migrated out of what is now the state of Gujarat during the British Raj
British Raj
The British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
to British East Africa
British East Africa
British East Africa was an area of East Africa controlled by Britain in the late 19th century, which became a protectorate covering roughly the area of present-day Kenya...
(Kenya
Kenya
The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and Uganda) would sometimes adopt the surname 'Patel' and this surname was then subsequently passed onto their descendants (who now mainly reside outside Kenya and Uganda). Also, during the British Raj, some 'Patels' who migrated to British East Africa and the Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day state of the Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unity of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
(South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
) adopted different surnames, usually the name of their village (e.g. 'Dandikar'), their trade (e.g. 'Contractor'), or even their grandfather's name and subsequently these surnames have been passed down to their descendants.
Origins
Most Patels follow the Hindu religion
Religion
A religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
and are unlikely to be a different religion.
Gujaratis bearing the last name Patel were from the Punjab region and are Suryavanshi branch Kshatriyas Patels are a sub-group of the Gurjar clan who are dispersed all over the Indian sub-continent. They were accepted in present day Gujarat by the Solanki
Solanki
The Solanki are Hindu Rajput clan who ruled parts of western and central India between the 10th and 13th centuries. Solankis are descended from 6th Centuary Badami Chalukya. The name Solanki comes from Chalukya the ancient Indian dynasty. During 543-566, Pulakesi I,established the kingdom at Vatapi...
kings.
The Solanki king gave uncultivated land in the Petlad
Petlad
Petlad is a Town and a municipality "Taluka" in Anand district in the Indian state of Gujarat.-Geography:Petlad is located at . It has an average elevation of 30 metres .-Demographics:...
Taluka. This land was divided into villages and for each village a head was appointed. His job was to keep all records. Each village gave a portion of the crop to the king, as a form of tax. The book in which this tax was recorded was called the pat, and the act of writing it down was known as likh; hence the head of the village was addressed as Pat-Likh and the people of the villages became known as Patlikhs. Over time, changes in the vernacular produced modern variations such as Patel, Patidar and Patil.
The Patels were further distinguished by the village they belonged to. Examples of this are the Leava Patels who originated from the village of Leava.
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