Note 13 — A

Agarwâla.13—Usually treated as a sub-caste of the great Banya caste, a wealthy trading class in Upper India. There are various explanations of the name. According to one account they take their title from dealing in the aromatic wood of the agar (Sans. aguru), the eagle wood tree (Aquilaria agallocha). There is, however, no evidence that the sale of this article is, or ever was, a speciality of the Agarwâlas. Another story is that there were a thousand families of Agnihotri Brâhmans settled in Kashmîr, and that they were supplied with agar wood for their sacrifices by a special tribe of Vaisyas. When Alexander the Great invaded India he broke their sacred fire pits (Agni kunda), and these Vaisyas were dispersed and settled in the neighbourhood of Agra, whence they derived their name. A third legend again refers the name to Agroha, an ancient town in the Hissâr district of the Panjab, where a lâkh of families of Vaisyas were settled by King Agra Sena. Round this Râja Agra Sena there is a whole cycle of legend. His ancestor was Dhana Pâla, Râja of Pratâpnagar, which some identify with the present State in Râjputâna, and some place vaguely in the Dakkhin or Southern India. He had eight sons—Shiu, Nala, Anala, Nanda, Kunda, Kumuda, Vallabha, Suka, and a daughter, Mukuta. At that time there was a Râja Visâla, who had eight daughters—Padmâvati, Mâlati, Kanti, Subhadra, Sra, Srua, Basundhara and Râja. They were married to the eight sons of Dhana Pâla. Each of these, except Nala, who became an ascetic, had a kingdom of his own. In the family of Shiu there reigned in succession Vishnu Râja, Sudarsana, Dhurandhara, Samadi, Mohan Dâs and Nema Nâtha, who populated Nepâl and called it after his own name. His son Vrinda performed a great sacrifice at Brindâban, and named the place after himself. His son was Râja Gurjara, who occupied Gujarât. Râja Harihar succeeded him, and he had one hundred sons. One of these, Rangji, became Râja, and the others, for their impiety, were degraded into Sûdras. To him, in the fifth generation, succeeded Râja Agra Sena. At that time, Râja Kumuda of Nâga Loka, or “Dragon land,” had a very beautiful daughter named Mâdhavi, who was wooed by the God Indra; but her father preferred to marry her to Râja Agra Sena. After his marriage he performed notable sacrifices at Benares and Hardwâr, and then went to Kolhâpur where he won the daughter of the Râja Mahidhara in the swayamvara. Finally he settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi and made Agra and Agroha his capitals. His dominions reached from the Himâlaya to the Ganges and the Jumna, and as far as Mârwâr on the west. He had eighteen queens, who bore him fifty-four sons and eighteen daughters. In his latter days he determined to perform a great sacrifice with each of his queens. Each of these sacrifices was in charge of a separate Achârya or officiant priest, and the gotras which sprang from him are named after these Achâryas. When he was performing the last sacrifice, he was interrupted, and so there are seventeen full gotras and one half gotra. There are considerable differences in the enumeration of these gotras. One list, which seems authoritative, gives them as follows with the Veda, Sâkha and Sutra, to which they conform:—